For many people, cigars represent tradition, luxury, and success. Cigar making is steeped in craftsmanship, from cultivating and selecting the right varieties of tobacco plants to curing, fermenting, and aging their leaves to achieve a refined flavor. Whether smoking cigars is a new or favorite pastime, knowing a bit about how they are made can enrich your experience.
1- Cigars Are a Tropical Delight
The best cigars are born in the tropics. Cuba, Nicaragua, Honduras, Ecuador, and the Dominican Republic have balmy weather and rich soils that are ideal for producing tobacco with desirable characteristics. Each location’s distinctive qualities influence the flavor profile of the tobacco varieties, like Criollo, Corojo, Connecticut Broadleaf, and Habano, that grow there. These tobaccos must be at their peak to create cigars of the highest quality, so workers hand-harvest leaves at specific times during the growing cycle.
2- Curing Defines Character
After harvesting tobacco leaves, producers dry and cure them to bring out their natural flavor. As the leaves dry and begin to decompose, they may become sweeter or spicier and change color from green to yellow to brown. Workers often hang tobacco leaves in well-ventilated barns to dry and air-cure them, but fire curing and sun curing are also common. Fire curing uses hardwood smoke to give the tobacco a creosote aroma, while sun curing involves exposing aromatic tobaccos to sunlight until they lose color, darken, and wither.
3- Fermentation Is Key to Flavor
After curing, fermentation is key to developing the tobacco’s taste and aroma. After workers dampen the leaves and stack them in piles, heat builds up and begins the fermenting process, which may continue for a few weeks or several months. The length of the fermentation period affects the final flavor of the tobacco, so different varieties of tobacco may ferment for different periods of time. Most cigar tobaccos need to reach fermentation levels of around 80-95% before they can be prepared for rolling.
4- Tobacco Mellows with Time
Once fermentation is complete, producers age tobacco leaves in bales before making them into cigars. Most leaves age one to three years, but some premium tobaccos may age for five to seven years. Aging helps distribute moisture evenly throughout the bales and mellow the flavor of the tobacco leaves. After aging, workers sort the leaves according to their size, color, flavor, and purpose.”Wrapper” leaves form the cigar’s outer layer, “binder” leaves hold the cigar together, and “filler” leaves make up the cigar’s inner core.
5- The Best Cigars Are Hand-Crafted
Artisans must carefully prepare their tobacco leaves to ensure the cigars they create will burn evenly. Skilled “torcedores” spend years perfecting their ability to select, arrange, and roll the leaves by hand. To create the cigar, the artisan will roll filler leaves inside a binder leaf before enclosing them in a smooth and aesthetically pleasing wrapper leaf. After rolling, the cigars are cut and aged again, checked for quality, labeled, and packaged in wooden boxes so cigar lovers everywhere can enjoy them.
Making cigars requires knowledge, skill, and artisanal finesse. Appreciating the craftsmanship and culture inherent in cigar making can be a source of pleasure every time you have a smoke.
Leave a Reply