Premium handmade cigars are made of 100% unadulterated tobacco. No cigar leaf is chemically treated or artificially flavoured.
I take issue with people equate cigar smoking to cigarette smoking. Yes, you smoke cigars, and yes natural tobacco contains nicotine … but cigars are not filled with manufactured chemicals or additives. This becomes most evident when you explore the production process of cigars.
Cigarette manufacturing is a fast-paced, highly automated process with little (if any) human touch, whereas only human labour and 100% unadulterated tobacco can produce premium cigars.
This article offers a quick view into the production process of those premium sticks in your humidor…
(1) Seed & Cultivation
Cigar tobacco … as you might have guessed … starts with tobacco seed. The seed is grown in a greenhouse until it’s a few inches high and then transplanted to the tobacco field until harvest. Once harvested, all leaves are removed by hand and hung in a curing barn.
(2) Fermentation
Once the tobacco is fully cured — a natural process that results in the oxidation of the tobacco leaf and the changing of colour from green to brown— the leaves are brought to a facility where the tobacco is stacked to ferment.
Fermentation makes the tobacco taste and smell better. It reduces the bitterness of the tobacco and allows for those nutty and natural notes to come through while smoking.
Once fermentation is complete, the tobacco is laid out by hand to dry. When completely dry, the tobacco is packed up and placed in storage where it will remain for up to a few years.
When the tobacco leaves are finally removed from storage, the leaves are unpacked, rehydrated, and then categorized for quality and colour.
(3) Rolling
The illustrious cigar rolling process then begins… The Torcedors — a highly skilled and purposefully trained cigar roller — will bring the cigar to life. At their respective rolling tables the Torcedor will gather leaves for the binder, filler, and wrapper, and create each cigar according to the requirements of the particular cigar maker’s blend.
The creation of the blend and the proportions of specific tobaccos used is crucial to bring the desired flavours and cigar smoking experience to life.
(4) Sorting
The last step in the cigar production process is sorting. Finished cigars are sorted for colour and consistency and then sent to be boxed. They are then shipped out and eventually bought by the passionate cigar consumers like yourself.
Some say that 200 pairs of hands touch your cigar before it makes it to your humidor.
A Human Touch
A interesting fact about cigar making is that approximately 200 pairs of hands touch your cigar before it makes it to your humidor. Every time you light up a cigar, keep this in mind. I find it connects you with the human aspect of cigar production.
Now, this is just a 30 thousand foot view of the cigar production process. There are steps which I did not include, such as quality-control, or the de-stemming of the central vein of the tobacco leaf before rolling; however, the point I want to make is that a cigar is natural product (unlike cigarettes).
Thank you for reading.
CIGARRO | Thoughts from the humidor…
