38 TOBACCO BUSINESS | JULY / AUGUST | 22 Bronze. I’m sure he already had the history, but I gave it to him anyway. He was super down to earth, somebody that I was very easily able to associate with. He wasn’t a suit-and-tie guy. He was a young guy just like me, so I was really able to connect with him in that sense. We essentially had the same background. We didn’t come from a family with a history of tobacco, didn’t come from a lot of money. It was all done through blood, sweat and tears, and just trying to build something out of the passion that we had for it.” Herrera gave Drew some cigars, and the two men went their separate ways. Years went by, and Herrera continued to develop cigar brands for both El Titan de Bronze and other companies. Drew continued to followHerrera and eventually approached him to join Drew Estate to help expand the company’s traditional cigar offerings. Herrera joined Drew Estate in 2010 and was tasked with introducing a Cuban influence, the same that he’d learned and had worked on at El Titan de Bronze, to Drew Estate’s portfolio. The first cigar Herrera worked on was the Herrera Esteli Habano, a cigar he rolled using traditional Cuban methods. It earned Drew Estate the No. 8 position on Cigar Aficionado magazine’sTop25Cigarsof theYear in2013. This recognition was a first for Drew Estate. Another of Herrera’s blends, theNorteño Robusto Grande, would also rank high with Cigar Aficionado, being named the No. 7 cigar on the magazine’s top 25 cigars of 2016. It was after this win that Herrera was asked to take on the position of master blender at Drew Estate and when he began working with other brands that the company was producing in addition to those that fell under what he calls the “Herrera umbrella.” Today, Herrera’s job responsibilities are allencompassing. In addition to developing new brands, his big focus and concern is maintaining existing brands and trying out new tobaccos and cigar samples. Being consistent andmaking sure DrewEstate’s products are the same each year is very important to not just Drew Estate but also to Herrera, who views this as his most important responsibility as the company’s master blender. “It’s not solely about creating new cigars; it’s maintaining all the existing cigars that’s the most important and the hardest part of my job and of the company,” he reveals. The quest to maintain consistency among the company’s cigars each year is by far the most challenging part of his job, Herrera goes on to say. Hearing that a cigar he’s helped create has had an impact on a customer’s life is the most fulfilling part of Herrera’s job. There have been several instances where he’s encountered a customer at an event where he’s heard firsthand how a cigar has had a positive impact on them. Just as he’d learned from his days at El Titan de Bronze, Herrera realized that there was no better teacher than firsthand experience. There were big differences between El Titan de Bronze and Drew Estate, such as the supply of tobacco he had to work with and the number of brands he was responsible for. One thing that remained the same, however, was the need to put himself in the middle of the action—on the factory floor. When he joined DrewEstate, Herrera began spending more time in Nicaragua and at Drew Estate’s La Fabrica Gran factory. Just as he did at El Titan de Bronze, he made himself part of the floor, working among the factory’s rollers and team as an equal rather than overseeing them. Although his height made him stand out, he quickly started to feel at home at the factory, where he was just another worker helping to make a great cigar product. The Herrera Esteli blend was created in 2010 during Herrera’s first visit to Drew Estate’s factory in Nicaragua. During that trip, Herrera created three blends before he was officially hired, one of which was used for the Herrera Esteli line that made its debut in 2013.
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