Whats it take to create a Cigar?
RaschNuts
Posts: 882
So i was thinking about this over the weekend. What is the prcoess of creating a cigar? From having an idea that i want to make something that should taste like X. To having it on the shelves? Also how long does this process usually take?
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"Long ashes my friends."
lemme see what i can do...
i did my best to keep this to the "readers digest" version.
tobacco seeds are tiny. almost microscopic. an entire fields worth can fit in a common table spoon. these seed are planted in individual cups in trays with about 150 to a tray. they are then placed in a nursery which is protected and shaded from the direct sun and weather. Germination takes approximately 38 to 45 days or till the plant is about 6 or so inches.
here is a picture of a nursery in the DPG (my father) fields:
they are then planted in a field to grow
day one:
day 15:
day 60:
by day 90 the tobacco may be ready to cut depending on the season.
harvesting goes in primings. in the first priming (week one of harvest) the bottom set of leaves are harvested. the following week will get two more, and so on for the next month or so until all the leaves are harvested.
we are now about 120-140 days deep in to this (from seed).
these harvested leaves are then taken to the tobacco barns to begin curing. all this does is turn the leaves from green to brown. the barns are big and wooden and have doors and windows to help control the humidity
the curing process takes about 50-60 days. (220 days deep)
now the fermentation begins. to ferment most cigar tobacco the leaves are first sorted by priming and quality all of this is done by hand:
once they are sorted, they are bundled together and stacked into piles called "pilones" (sp?) where they are covered and can build up heat, release ammonia and generally ferment. here is a picture of one being stacked:
and one of a fermentation room with many of these covered stacks just fermenting. :
the amonia smell is almost overwhelming in there.
these pilones will get re-stacked every so many days depending on how high they want the temperature to get in them.
after fermentation (up to 6 months (just over a year from seed at this point)) the leaves are sorted again for quality and the veins are taken out. again, this is done by hand. the wrapper quality tobacco gets sorted into binder and wrapper and the filler tobacco gets sorted into usable for long-filler and usable for short filler.
considering the blend has already been decided (a process that could take months to years on its own) , the tobacco then goes to the rolling rooms.
rollers tend to work in teams of two. the first person bunches and binds the cigar and places them into molds. the molds are placed into a press and left there for a little under an hour.
the molds look like this:
the cigars are then taken out of the mold are are then given to the second person in the team who applies the wrapper and cap.
in the picture below the person out of the shot is bunching and placing the cigar in the mold (seen on the very bottom). the woman in the pic is applying the wrapper.
here is a picture of the buncher and the press for the molds:
now that the cigar is bunched, wrapped and capped, it is time to put it to rest in the aging room for a nice long rest (6 months, a year, maybe more):
now that the cigars are ready to be shipped, they need to be banded and boxed:
the tobacco that was planted 1.5 to 2 years ago is the tobacco that is being shipped out as a cigar that is ready to smoke today.
this doesnt take into account the any special blends that require more age, fermentation, post roll age, etc...
most estimate that from seed to your humidor, the tobacco in the cigar has seen about 200 different sets of hands.
i hope that answers that for you.
UPDATED
well... i guess the guy at the front door with a shotgun could stop me....