 Nobody
can deny that Cuba has the supremacy of the tobacco
industry. The famous Cigars, celebrated worldwide for
its aroma and flavor, presence and quality, are coveted
everywhere.
The History is very well-known: John F. Kennedy, former
President of the United States, before signing the embargo
against Cuba in 1963, ordered his assistant to buy all
the cigars of Washington. He was an inveterate smoker.
Nobody knows if Kennedy himself deceived the rigors
of the blockade, acquiring Cigars in another market.
But the truth is that all the obstinate.
American smokers have to constantly avoid the laws
that harass the small neighboring country if they want
to enjoy the exceptional aroma of Cuban cigars.
Since the tobacco was discovered by those who arrived
from the Old Continent, Cuba was called the tobacco
paradise, a myth that has stayed in time.
The essence of the difference between the Cuban tobacco
and the ones cultivated in other regions of the planet
is in fact the plant that is cultivated in lands that
exist only in this country. The worldwide known Cuban
Cigars are the best in their class because in them converge
three ideal conditions for its existence: the land,
the climate and the knowledge and abilities accumulated
by the producers during centuries.
In the beginnings, the tobacco had some mystery. It
was also used as medicine, food, for rites, as religious
offering or as gift. Many people say it has miraculous
powers.
The Discovery
Christopher Columbus wrote about tobacco in his diary.
The residents from the primitive Cuba gave him some
mallets of leaves that he didn’t know how to identify
at that moment. Later on, he compared and verified them
with other Indo American places: it was the tobacco,
cultivated in the Caribbean and Latin America.
However, Cuba tobacco had a mystery. The magic of the
Cigars begins in the plantations.
There is a long process that embraces the tobacco making
that will end in the factories. The tobacconist is some
sort of a goblin a person with a special talent, provided
of secrets that he transmits to his family and generations.
It is like a gift to communicate with the land and the
seeds. Not everybody can be a tobacconist. It is necessary
to have a master, talent, love and intuition.
The Cultivation
It consists of several stages: The preparation of the
land, in which the ground is broken up several times
until achieving slight and candid soils. They should
be near a water source, since humidity is very important.
 Another
stage is the seed care, because the seed is one of the
things that should be best preserved for the cultivation.
It is also essential the cleaning of the land and the
transplant to eliminate the weeds and to impede the
devastation of the leaves.
The plantation must be taken care seriously, administering
the proper amount of water, and protecting it from the
excessive sun, the rain and the grass.
The harvest is the most important process. It requires
a titanic effort and an extreme care. A violation in
this step is paid expensive: never will have good tobacco.
Little will be a twister able to do to convert the leaves
in an aromatic and competitive product. There are secrets:
the mature leaves, from down to up.
Two types of plants
In Cuba are cultivated the Corojo and the Creole. From
the Corojo is extracted the gut and the cape. From the
Creole is used the layer. The two varieties receive
different treatments in the cultivation.
Cure to the air
The cut tobacco leaves are taken to the tobacco houses,
its first laboratory after its cultivation in the plantations.
But this process, at least in Cuba, is carried out in
a natural way. It requires extreme surveillance so that
the leaves are not damaged. It is necessary to take
care of temperature, humidity and light. It is the final
cure of the tobacco. Then the first fermentation takes
place. The cure and dehydrated leaves are gathered in
the mallets and they are transported to the fermentation
house. They are piled up in big bundles of half meter
high. They remain there during 30 days
.
The removal of veins and
stems and classification
The removal of veins and steams is a singular process.
It requires a classification for classes and grades.
The classification corresponds to three features: color,
texture and leaf type. Then, the second purpose to purify
the tobacco and to subject it to a chemical process
that strengths even more its flavor and aroma, and eliminates
the impurities accumulated in the previous phases.
The gut leaves should rest for some days. They are placed
in shelves or parrilleras. Then the tripe is packed
in jute sacks, and the layers in some cubic packages
called tercios, where they are aged during two years.
Once property classified, they receive the necessary
preservation and the periodic fumigation.
The cultivation and cure processes have concluded. The
leaves are ready to be received in their new palace:
the tobacco factory, to pass to the hands of the new
magicians: the cigar markets.
The production
Now the next artists intervene: the cigar marker, the
despalillador (the one who removes the veins and steams)
and the tier. They are the ones that guarantee the flavor,
the scent, the mark, the elegance and the art of packing
the cigars. In their hands is where the Cuban tobacco
becomes the best cigars of the world.
The twisting of the tobacco is the most important stage.
The art of tobacco making is decisive in this process.
The job is reserved for the best tobacconists, because
a great deal of talent is required. There are lots of
things to take into account such as the size, the gross
and the appearance. Each branch has its exact measure
and the tobaccos should pass by a space because each
cigar band has its own measure.
The cigars are classified in five colors: light, red,
light red, mature red and mature. Without its rings,
the tobacco doesn’t have commercial and public
value, although it smells and taste as the best in the
world. You can choose the mark, the cigar band, the
name, the series, the year, the legend. You will be
able to smoke it at your favorite hours, because it
will always be a splendid cigar, inimitable, the best
tobaccos of the world.
All the cigars
1. Cohiba
2. Montecristo
3. Partagás
4. Romeo y Julieta
5. Hoyo de Monterrey
6. Vegas Robaina
7. Quintero y Hno.
8. Bolívar
9. Cuaba
10. El Rey del Mundo
11. Flor de Rafael González Márquez
12. Fonseca
13. H. Upmann
14. La Flor del Cano
15. La Gloria Cubana
16. Por Larrañaga
17. Punch
18. Quai d´Orsay
19. Ramón Allanes
20. Saint Luis Rey
21. Sancho Panza
22. Trinidad
23. San Cristóbal de La Habana
24. José L. Piedra
25. Belinda
26. Diplomáticos
27. Juan López
28. Status de Luxe
29. Troya
30. Gisper
31. Vegueros
32. Cabañas
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