How a cigar is made, from seed to box: the main stages
Growing, harvesting, drying, fermentation, stripping, ageing, hand rolling and sorting: the main stages in making a cigar.
From seed to crop
Everything starts with a tobacco seed. Wrapper tobacco can be grown in the shade, under a light veil: this is tapado, a term the Habanos glossary associates with growing under muslin. In the shade the light is diffused and the resulting leaf is finer and more elastic; in full sun it is generally rougher and stronger. Variety, soil and climate also affect the character of the leaf, but practices vary from country to country and from house to house.
The harvest
Harvesting means picking the tobacco leaves, whose position on the plant influences flavour. According to the Habanos glossary, the lower leaves (volado) are light and help combustion, the middle leaves (seco) have a medium flavour, and the upper leaves (ligero) are rich and stronger. Harvesting methods, leaf by leaf or whole plant, vary with the type of tobacco and are not detailed here.
Drying and fermentation
After harvest, the leaves are dried under cover, in the casa de tabaco for Cuban tobacco: heat and shade reduce water and sugars, which takes 25 to 45 days depending on the climate and the drying barns. A slow fermentation follows, at controlled temperature and humidity. According to the Habanos glossary, wrappers ferment at the escogida, while the filler and binder leaves, partly stripped, undergo a second fermentation at the despalillo.
Stripping, sorting and ageing
Stripping, or despalillo, means removing all or part of the central vein; in the workshop the term also refers to the complete removal of the midrib from wrappers. The mature leaves are sorted by appearance and quality, then assigned to the filler, the binder or the wrapper. During ageing they are baled, inspected, unbaled, inspected again and kept moist. The length of this ageing varies and is not specified here.
Hand rolling
A cigar is made of three elements: the filler (tripa), the binder (capote) and the wrapper. The filler, the heart of the cigar, combines volado, seco and ligero leaves: volado aids combustion, seco provides aroma, ligero provides strength. The capote holds the filler together, while the wrapper forms the outer, visible layer. The torcedor rolls the cigar by hand, keeping the tobacco moist, and uses a chaveta for this, a crescent-shaped knife.
Band, colour sorting and boxing
The finished cigar receives a band, a printed paper strip. Cuban cigars may carry several, including a limited-edition band showing the year of production. The Habanos glossary also describes the escogida as the stage where finished cigars are sorted by wrapper colour and shade before boxing, with escogedores working in pairs to match the wrappers within a single box or batch. Shades range from light to very dark.