Puro Sabor Festival 2025: Day 2

With festival goers having travelled from different parts of the globe, the Puro Sabor Festival wisely ushers everyone out early on in the festival for a day spent on Lake Nicaragua to tour the islets (Nicaragua has in excess of 350 of them) and induce relaxation and good camaraderie among attendees prior to the commencement of any farm or factory tour. 

Today is idyllic weather – light cloud covering yet more than ample sunshine – to cruise the lake and arrive ashore on one of the islets for a lively lunch complete with cigars, Nicaraguan cuisine, drinks (mainly Flor de Caña rum and Toña Nicaraguan pilsener) and of course, Nicaraguan culture, which is showcased via music, traditional costumes, and dancing.  

Stepping off the boat, I’m greeted with a handful of cigars which include a Villager 1888 and a Karen Berger K-Fire, a medium-bodied cigar that is cloaked in a Mexican San Andres wrapper. It ultimately compliments my Carajillo (coffee with a splash of Flor de Caña 18 Year Old rum) post-lunch. 

Cigar maker Karen Berger (adorned in a straw cowboy hat, large sunglasses and a full denim one piece outfit) welcomes everyone and invites the crowd to fire up their K-Fire, which is a chewy smoke that exhibits a nice white ash, coffee notes, and an undeniably spicy character from the Mexican San Andres wrapper. 

After a day on the lake, it’s time for a quick return to the hotel to slip into the pool and then clean up for the evening event which is held in the open air on the grounds of Grenada’s oldest church, established in the 1500s by the Spanish colonizers. 

Welcome cigars for the event include a CAO Fasa Noche with its oily, U.S. Broadleaf oscuro wrapper as well as a Don Pepin Garcia E.R.H. (El Rey de los Habanos), which I light up before snapping a picture with Joya de Nicaragua’s Juan Martinez and his father, Dr. Alejandro Cuenca, who lifted Joya de Nicaragua from post-Sandinista ruin to become one of Nicaragua’s most cherished brand. 

After dinner, cigars, and an evening of good conversation set to the backdrop of one of Grenada’s oldest standing buildings, it’s time to retire for the night, for tomorrow we to head north to Estelì.