Today we’d like to introduce you to Claudio Sgroi.
Claudio, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’m Italian, born and raised in Palermo and left Italy in 1996 when I was 20 years old, I lived two years in France, two years in Turkey in these countries I was doing small jobs and after Turkey, I landed in Dominican Republic where I was an Italian teacher, interpreter and translator. In DR I was called to translate a conference about cigars ( I speak fluently Italian-English-Spanish-
I lived near Venice for three and a half years. I left the Company in 2009 and moved to Miami where I got married and started as consultant in the cigar industry for three years, my last project was managing the blending and cigar quality control for a new company called Mombacho. Mombacho after three months of contract offered me to jump on board as a partner and not anymore as a consultant. In 2012, I moved to Nicaragua to work in the production and due to the success we moved to a 100 years old colonial mansion in the city of Granada that we converted into our factory called Casa Favilli. Having a background in Political Science always amaze me to see myself today being partner, president and master blender of a cigars company, nothing to do with my background.
In 2016, my wife and myself moved back to Miami where we’re raising our son Luca that today is two and a half year old. I spend 65% of my time traveling between USA, Nicaragua, where I still supervise all blending and quality control and all countries where we distribute our cigars, being the ambassador of the brand, I fly on average 70.000 miles a year and visiting 12 different countries for my job.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Not at all! A lot of sacrifices, financial struggling and more than that to find in a space in an industry that is closed in certain cliche and geographical areas. I remember when I was working in DR, 25 years old, by myself and traveling the country for my job if something happened to me my Mom didn’t know if I was in Dominican Republic or Santo Domingo, she never realized that St Domingo is the Capital of DR. And Of course I started working in an industry where local old families, generation after generation are known for tobacco and cigars. An Italian???? No ways……many said in the beginning.
Please tell us about Mombacho Cigars.
My Company is Mombacho Cigars S.A. and we are a cigar manufacture. We produce all our cigars totally by hand using old and traditional technics. I’m partner in the company and president, I’m the master blender as well, this means that I’m the person in charge to blend the different tobaccos to make a cigar that will satisfy the aficionados, it is a very complex work that I compare to a winemaker or a maître de chai (champagne maker). I’m extremely proud of the fact that the factory where we roll our cigars is a 100 years old colonial mansion called casa favilli. The owner of the mansion was Mario Favilli, the most prominent architect of the last century in Nicaragua. The building is classified in town as Historical Monument and it is just a magical place full of history, a perfect fit for cigars by hand that production first started 250 years ago. I’m not the guy you’ll see a picture of riding a horse with a Panama hat in a cigar plantation! I’m not from that culture or tradition, I’m more for innovation and new style of perception of cigars, no cliches, no selfish, a new generation of master blender.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Of course, my mom cooking! I remember that I was always in the kitchen with her and while she was cooking, I remember to light and burn raw spaghetti in the stove……
Contact Info:
- Website: www.mombachocigars.com
- Email: claudio@mombachocigars.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mombachocigars/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mombachocigars/?ref=bookmarks
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/mombachocigars?lang=en
- Other: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g580113-d1957178-Reviews-Mombacho_Cigars-Granada_Granada_Department.html
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