Once the cigars are aged in the marrying room, they are inspected and sorted by color. This is quite the task as there are roughly 60 different shades of brown. It’s a really big deal for not only the cigar maker, but also the cigar smoker, to open a box and see all...
There are 3 basic ways to make a cigar. Of course, there are variations here and there on each type and what is acceptable under each classification and also what each factory refers to them as. However, we’d be here for a few more weeks if we were to break them all...
After the leaves are properly re-hydrated through casing, the leaves that will be used for as a binder or wrapper go through a process to remove the central vein in each leaf. The left and right sides are kept separate, especially for wrapper leaves. There is a...
Our tobacco leaves have now completed the fermentation process and each leaf is separated, sorted, inspected, and graded. For instance, wrapper leaves are separated by color (i.e. Claro, Colorado, Maduro, Oscuro). Each type is packed together in bales made from bark...
Alright, our plants are still happily growing in their 45 day window in the tobacco fields. What could possibly go wrong? Well, actually quite a few things. However, we’re just going to take about the three most common: Blue Mold, Black Shank, Mosaic Virus and Lacioderma. Don’t those sound like a fun time?
Blue Mold is best described as the “AIDS” of the tobacco industry. Even under the watchful eye of the farmers, it can appear overnight. It scars the tobacco leaf beyond use and destroys the plant. It is a microscopic airborne spore that will start on the underside of the leaf. As long as the weather stays clear and dry, Blue Mold is not a problem. But lots of rain, colder days, and minimal sun equal the perfect storm for this issue and it can spread like a prairie wildfire.
Black Shank is fairly self-descriptive. It attacks the stem of the plant turning it black and destroying it completely. Mosaic Virus is when the leaves have a blue mottled appearance. Surprisingly, the way to fight both of these issues is to have the farmers wash their hands in milk before handling the seeds for replanting in the fields.
And then there is the most common nemesis, bugs. Let’s talk about Lacioderma, also known as the tobacco beetle. These fun guests lay their eggs in the tobacco leaves and about 3 weeks later emerges a worm that gorges itself on the tobacco leave before metamorphosing into a beetle the size of a pinhead and flying on to its next chapter in life.
Some years it is a wonder we have a tobacco industry at all with all that can go wrong in such a short amount of time.
Next week we will start talking about the many steps the tobacco leaves go through before becoming that amazing cigar currently in your hand.