From Seed to Smoke
From seed to smoke
The art of cigar making in Colombia has been around for many generations. With some Cuban traditions reminiscent combined with endemic traditions the Colombian cigar has been perfected through time.
It all starts from selecting seeds from plants with only the best qualities.
Once the high quality seeds are chosen it’s time to find the best environment for the future plants to grow in. Santander, Colombia is known for having the perfect conditions needed to grow the highest grade tobacco because of its super rich and unique sandy clay soils and consistent humidity and temperature.
With such a suitable place to grow the plants begin to suck up all the soils rich nutrients starting the first part of the process from seed to smoke.
After just the right amount of time and care the leaves are ready to be picked. Only the best looking leaves are hand chosen.
Once the leaves are picked they are then sorted and hung to dry.
Now that the leaves have been dried out it’s time to ferment and age them.
Once aged we are now ready to devein the leaves and can begin to sort out the leaves once again and start the fine art of hand rolling cigars.
Different types of tobacco are now bunched up to create the filler.
The filler then gets wrapped with another leaf called the binder and gets put into a wooden cigar mold. In the cigar mold it gets put into a press and it is here were the cigar takes its shape.
After spending some time in the press it’s time to put the wrapper on. It’s here where only the highest skilled artisans are used. Since the cigar is made completely by hand it takes a lot of care to get this part right. This is probably the most interesting part to watch as the artisan uses the blade to cut up the tobacco into the different parts that make up the almost finished cigar.
With the cigar now covered in its wrapper it heads towards the cutter. This ensures that for each specified size the cigars have equal length. Once cut the cigars go into bundles for further aging. The time the cigars age all depends on the blend and preferences of the blender. Some cigars are boxed or bundled up and ready to ship after they are rolled while others can be aged for up to years before being boxed and ready for sale. When the cigars are ready to be packaged they are then further inspected for any imperfections that may have slipped passed the first inspection.
Light em’ up and enjoy!