Farewell to an Era: Mombacho Cigars/Favilli Cigars Announces Retirement after Nearly Two Decades
In an unexpected email, Cameron Heap and Jared Michaeli announced that Mombacho Cigars/Favilli Cigars is no longer. After almost 20 years, they made the decision to call it quits. This happened after a few tough years with lots of changes within the company such as the departure of Claudio Sgroi, the hiring of Indiana Ortez, Jessi Flores and others. Recently the rights of the brand went to Jared Ingrisano, who moved production to another facility. And now it’s the end of the brand.
The email said:
To our wonderful & distinguished clientele, friends, family, partners, & supporters:
In 2006, when Mombacho was founded by backpackers enamoured by Nicaragua’s beauty, one could not have imagined that while on the top of Volcano Mombacho with cigar in hand, an adventure of nearly two decades would turn into such a lifetime experience. You have traversed that experience with us by supporting our brands and ideas through three locations in Granada, Nicaragua, and every time you selected one of our products to spend your time with.
In 2014, when we purchased the Favilli Mansion, we firmly knew our goal was to grow and compete on the global stage as a luxury producer of fine, handcrafted cigars. The Favilli Mansion was where we could bring this vision to life and allow worldwide travellers and consumers to experience Nicaragua’s beauty by way of one of her finest treasure, the cigar.
In 2021, we best understood that what you supported and what we had worked toward was overdue in terms of being presented in a way that would gain appreciation and awareness on the global stage for our production, for Granada, and for Nicaragua. We remodelled the international landmark, the Favilli Mansion, and opened to the world one of Central America’s most luxurious experiential sites which included four-floors of cocktail bars,
cigars, event space, and sheer elegance in the gilded Favilli Mansion.
In this 2023, we have announced our retirement from the cigar industry and luxury hospitality space. We understand this may come as a surprise to our clientele and the cigar industry in general, but as a conglomerate of cigar and hospitality professionals, we have collectively decided to seek life’s next stage of endeavours and adventures We therefore send a deep and gracious thanks to all of you clientele, friends, and family who have shared this vision and time with us. We cannot say goodbye, as we may again cross paths in this small, small world, but we do bid you a farewell for this moment. Please know that a piece of our hearts are deeply rooted in what was Mombacho and Favilli and that everyone to have been involved holds tightly to the memories and experiences we all shared on this journey. On behalf of Granada, the entire founding team, factory employees, hospitality employees, investors, partners, and friends of Mombacho and Favilli, we extend to you a profound thanks and cherish every one of you.
Sincerely, from the Operating Partners
Cameron Heaps
Founder of Mombacho Cigars S.A
Jared Michaeli
President & Co-founder of Favilli
