Joya de Nicaragua

Joya de Nicaragua calls itself the first factory in the country to roll premium cigars by hand. According to the house, Nicaragua Cigar Co. was founded on 29 February 1968 in Estelí by J.F. Bermejo and Simón Camacho, two planters, after a pilot project for Havana-type tobacco (1965) that had named Estelí and Condega as the best lands. Somoza was therefore not the founder: the house writes that he learned from Nixon that Joya was the official cigar of the White House and that Bermejo then sold him, under political pressure, a share of the company (1971-1974). The trade press tells a harsher version: Somoza took control from the original owners, moved production to a larger factory, then sold the brand to Oppenheimer & Co. before fleeing in 1979.

The new factory was destroyed in the popular uprising of September 1978. After the fall of the Somoza dynasty on 19 July 1979, the workers rebuilt it and resumed production in temporary premises, going four months without pay, says the house. The trade press adds that the company was nationalised in the 1980s, with the workers taking over its management without managing to sell the cigars well.

In 1994, Tabacos Puros de Nicaragua S.A., owned by Dr Alejandro Martínez Cuenca, acquired Nicaragua Cigar Co.; the company took the name Joya de Nicaragua in 2009. Antaño 1970, a nostalgic blend from 2001, relaunched the brand; Cabinetta Serie and Antaño Dark Corojo followed between 2009 and 2011 (according to the house). Two anniversary editions then followed: Cuatro Cinco, for the 45th anniversary, 4,500 cigars in 2013 (Cigar Coop, 15 October 2013), and Cinco Décadas, for the 50th anniversary, in 2018.

In the United States, Drew Estate distributed Joya from 2008 to the end of 2025; since 1 January 2026, Joya handles its own distribution, and a partnership with Quesada Cigars, announced in December 2025, is due to bring the two families together in a joint structure.

Joya also rolls, without owning it, the Bentley brand, that of Bentley Tobacco, a company of the Schuster family which Cigar Coop traces back to 1878, as a pipe maker. The White has a Connecticut Shade wrapper, the Green an Ecuadorian rosado wrapper, both over a Nicaraguan binder and filler. Bentley Tobacco made its first PCA in 2025, with an American division launched at the end of 2024.

Range Depth

• Antaño 1970

  Wrapper Nicaragua · Strength Full

  A nostalgic blend devised by Alejandro Martínez Cuenca and launched in 2001, which the house classes among full-bodied cigars. It is the line that relaunched the brand.

  Gran Consul · Churchill · Robusto · Torpedo · Corona Gorda

• Cabinetta

  Wrapper Ecuador + Nicaraguan criollo · Strength Mild

  Launched as Cabinetta Serie between 2009 and 2011, renamed Joya Cabinetta in 2016. Two-tone wrapper: Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade and Nicaraguan criollo towards the head, over a Nicaraguan binder and filler. Cigar Coop describes it as light, with no aggressive strength.

  Robusto · Toro · Torpedo

🥃 Pairings

• Flor de Caña 12 years

  Rum

  A Nicaraguan rum for a Nicaraguan cigar: a pairing from the same country.

• Nicaraguan coffee (Matagalpa)

  Coffee

  A Nicaraguan mountain coffee with a fruity roundness, well suited to a full-bodied cigar.

👤 Associated figures

• The White House

  According to the house, Joya de Nicaragua was the official cigar of the White House: Somoza is said to have learned this from Nixon, between 1971 and 1974. The trade press dates this designation to 1971. No personal preference of any president is attested.

✨ Notable limited editions

• Joya de Nicaragua Cuatro Cinco (45 ans, 2013)
• Joya de Nicaragua Cinco Décadas (50 ans, 2018)
• Joya de Nicaragua Antaño CT Gran Cónsul (2025)