Cigar Manufacturing
Cigar
Manufacturing The making of a premium hand-rolled cigar
is a complicated process. In some factories, a leaf may
be touched by human hands up to 40 times before the
cigar is completed.
Growing the Tobacco Cigar tobacco reaches the factory
after a series of six-week periods; six weeks to
germinate seeds before transplanting to a field; six
weeks to grow the tobacco plant to maturity; six weeks
for a complete harvest, followed by a series of periods
of fermentation. In the fermentation stage, workers pile
slightly moistened tobacco in huge bales or stacks;
temperatures inside the bales reach as high as 140° as
the cigar "sweats" during the early stages of the
fermentation. Some tobacco may be "turned" up to three
of four times and remoistened before fermentation
finally ceases. The process releases ammonia from the
tobacco and releases overall nicotine content.
Workers then wrap the fermented tobacco in bales,
usually surrounded by burlap, to age. Standard aging
time is 18 months to two years, although some
manufacturers keep inventories of tobacco as old as 10
years. Before workers turn over the tobacco to the
rollers, they "case" it, or slightly dampen it again, to
make it supple.
Making the Cigar A cigar blend is created by a master
blender, someone who combines tobaccos of varying tastes
and strengths to create a particular taste in a
balanced, harmonious smoke. Depending on its ring gauge,
a cigar will contain a blend of between two and four
different tobaccos. Each type of tobacco leaf is placed
in different boxes at the roller's desk, and the roller
is given the formula for the cigar he or she is making.
The roller takes the leaves and presses them together in
his hand; he then places the leaves on a binder leaf, a
flat, somewhat elastic leaf of tobacco. He rolls them
together into a "bunch," cuts them to the appropriate
length and then places them in the bottom half of a
wooden mold. After he puts the upper half of the mold in
place, he puts the entire box into a screw press. The
press operator will usually break down the press once,
turn the bunch inside the mold and then rebox and press
the bunch again, for a total pressing time of about an
hour.
Once the worker has pressed the cigar, he returns the
wooden molds to the rolling tables. The roller removes
the bunch and wraps it with the wrapper leaf, a supple,
very elastic and visually beautiful leaf that has been
cut in half. Keeping constant pressure on the bunch and
the wrapper, the cigar maker rolls the leaf around the
bunch and applies a bit of vegetable glue to bond the
wrapper leaf together at the head so the cigar won't
unravel.
Supervisors inspect each cigar by hand. They feel it for
weight and for any hard spots, which could indicate a
plug, or soft spots, which can cause an uneven burn.
They reject defective cigars. Then, in most factories,
workers weigh the cigars in bunches of 50. Good cigar
makers will have less than 1 gram of variation between
50-cigar bunches. Bunches with significant weight
variations may be returned to the roller.
Aging the Cigar The next stop for cigars is the aging
room. Most factories age their cigars for at least 21
days, and some leave them in the aging room for anywhere
from 90 to 180 days. This allows the different cigar
tobaccos to "marry" and create a more balanced smoke.
After aging, the cigars are selected for each box,
checked for fine gradations in wrapper leaf color, and
finally, they are packed in boxes for shipping. |
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