Our J.C. Newman PENSA cigar factory in Estelí, Nicaragua is a beautiful, large, sprawling complex on a hill along the western edge of town. As the second largest cigar factory Nicaragua, we roll 100,000 cigars by hand there each day. J.C. Newman PENSA is large, clean, and efficient. I love visiting our factory and working alongside our wonderful and dedicated team.
My grandfather, Stanford J. Newman, taught me that “the good leaves take care of themselves.” What he meant was that it is very important to check on the quality of our tobacco and cigars to make sure that there are no “bad leaves.”
When I arrive at J.C. Newman PENSA, I think of my grandfather’s words and head to two places first: our tobacco warehouse and cigar inspection room. Because you cannot make quality cigars without quality tobacco, I am obsessed with checking on our tobacco inventory. I want to see the bales aging in our warehouse, and I want to know if our supervisor, Danilo Romero, has any concerns.
After seeing our premium cigar tobaccos, I then visit our inspection room. I want to see the cigars that our quality control inspectors are examining – not only the ones that have passed inspection, but also the cigars that have failed inspection. I talk with our inspectors about what they are looking for and any trends they are seeing. Spending time here is very important to me because I want to make sure that our very high quality control standards have not wavered.
As a handcrafted, natural product, we all know that cigars are not always perfect. Many of our competitors sell their cigar rejects in bundles. Those bundled cigars have failed inspection. Quorum is very different. Our Quorum cigar bundles only contain cigars that have passed our rigorous, four-step quality control process. Even a small cosmetic flaw that is barely noticeable will cause a Quorum to be rejected. While many of our competitors’ bundles are rejects, we want our Quorum cigars to be perfect.
The reason why Quorum is the top-selling cigar from Nicaragua is simple: its high quality and low price make it the best value of any cigar on the market.
Quorum’s Four-Step Quality Control Process
My great-grandfather preached that every cigar had to be perfect – no matter what its price. If a customer is paying for a cigar, he believed,
it needed to be flawless. We apply this mantra to Quorum by employing a rigorous, four-step, quality control process at J.C. Newman PENSA:
- First, we check Quorum bunches in a Drawmaster, which measures the draw using a magnehelic gauge. Any bunch that is exceeds 50% resistance is rejected.
- Second, an immediate supervisor in our rolling room physically inspects every Quroum cigar before he allows it to leave the cigar maker’s table.
- Next, Quorum cigars move to our inspection room where our dozen trained inspectors closely examine each cigar, one by one, again.
- Lastly, after completing the aging process, a final quality control inspector in our packing department inspects every Quorum again and sorts them by color to ensure a uniform presentation in each bundle.
At any point during this process, if an inspector discovers anything from a small tear in the wrapper, to a cap that is slightly off center, to a soft foot, the cigar is immediately rejected. Period. Throughout J.C. Newman PENSA, we track all cigars using barcodes and scanners, enabling us to hold the rollers, bunchers, and supervisors accountable for every deficient cigar. When you sell a Quorum cigar, we want you to have complete confidence that the cigar will be perfect – every time.
Why Show Off Our Quorum Rejects?
The featured image in this post shows 4 Quorum cigars, all of which failed inspection. The best way to sell a product is to talk about all of the things that make it wonderful and attractive. I want you and your customers to buy more Quorum cigars. So why I am showing you our Quorum rejects?
The reason is simple: because you will never see these bad cigars in your store. Our rigorous, four-step quality control process prevents them from reaching shelves. I am telling about our rejects because I want you to have full confidence in Quorum. As a 124-year old, four-generation family business, my family and I personally stand behind all of our products. We are obsessed with the quality of our Quorum cigars so that you and your customers never have to worry about them.
Handcrafted Accessories
All of our Diamond Crown and Craftsman’s Bench humidors and cigar accessories are also handmade as well. Each one is constructed individually, one at a time, by hand, with the same care and dedication as a premium, handmade cigar.