Blending it Out

Cigar Factory, Nicragua

Through the magic of Blog-Time-Travel, the lucky reader is able to be in two or more places at the same time.  Any Bozos reading this post may experience a slight dizziness as their reality collides with the blog time-warp. It will be okay. Place a brown paper bag over your head, then place your head between your knees. You won't feel any better, but it is bound to improve the days of those around you.

Cigars! It's all back to the cigars! And Rum! And debauchery! Whew, okay, here we go.

Some of cigar tobacco ends up in the slow lane. That's the leaf we like. The tobacco leaves pictured above have been dried in the drying barns, cured in pillions for up to fourteen months, and are now being finished in pillions at the factory. This tobacco may be two years old by the time it is rolled into a cigar. The goal of all this aging and curing is to bring out the sugars and oils in the tobacco. It is a long, slow process.

Re-wetting the leaf for slow aging.

Over the course of several days, both backward and forward in time, we dove back into the world of cigars that makes up Esteli, Nicaragua. At one factory, we smoked single leaves of tobacco, each taken from a separate priming on the plant. The differences in flavor and aroma were very discernible. This is how cigar blenders choose tobaccos for a cigar. Depending on the soil, the sunlight, the elevation, and even the priming on an individual plant, the tobacco leaves develop distinct flavors and aromas. These unique characteristics, when properly blended, form the basis of a great cigar.

We toured one of the largest tobacco brokers in Esteli. These folks buy, cure, age, and sell tobacco. If you are a small cigar manufacturer in Esteli, chances are you get you tobacco from a broker. There are more than fifty cigar rolling factories in Esteli. Some of the finest cigars made in this town are rolled in factories that are too small to have their own tobacco curing rooms.

It all comes down to the leaf.

Smoking a freshie right off the table.

When the leaf is finally ready for production, it winds up on the rolling floor. The rolling process is usually done by a pair of people, the Bunchero and the Rollera. And, yes, the bunchers are usually men and the rollers are usually women. The Bunchero bunches carefully proportioned tobacco into his hand. The bunch then goes into a Liebermann machine atop a binder leaf. This is visible in the photo above. The flap of the Liebermann goes over and back, rolling the binder around the bunch. A dab of vegetable gum keeps the binder from unwrapping. The completed bunches go into a compression mold (top right and left background above) where they remain for at least an hour.

The Rollero is the person that puts the finishing touches on the stick. Popping the bunches out of the forms, the roller applies the wrapper, the specially treated tobacco leaf that will be visible to the consumer. The wrapper is often the dominant flavor component of a cigar as well as the final "skin" of the stick. The roller, as if by magic, rolls out a leaf, cuts it to size, flicks her hands, and presto-chango, the wrapper is on. A few more magic twirls and she cuts small circles of tobaccos for caps. The caps are applied to the end of the cigar, the stick is trimmed, and  the completed cigar is stacked on the front of the table, ready for the roving Quality Control folks.

Cigars are aged yet again after rolling. This allowed the last of the ammonia to off-gas. Ammonia is the natural by-product of the fermentation process, the process that releases the oils and sugars that give the tobacco its complex flavors. Once the cigars are judged to be ready, they are banded, boxed, and readied for shipping. Almost every step of this process is done by the human hand, including applying the decorative cigar band.

Well before any production begins, there is another crucial step in crafting a cigar. This is the highly-subjective and arcane art of blending a cigar. At this point, some folks may scoff. "It's just a cigar." That is the same as saying "It's just wine." We wish these Philistines a lovely journey to a place far, far away from ourselves.  

Tobacco from Esteli is know for it's strength and peppery spice. Esteli Ligero, the leaves cut from topmost priming on the plant, are prized for adding strength to a cigar. Jalapa leaf, grown in a valley to the north of Esteli, is know for imparting sweetness to a cigar. In addition to flavor, cigars must be blended for combustibility. Too much Ligero and a cigar won't burn properly. Seco leaves, the lowest priming, are less flavorful, but add combustion. So it goes, balancing flavor, strength, and proper construction. The master blenders, the folks that can put together a great cigar, these are the rock stars of Esteli. It takes a long time and a lot of work to become a master blender. Now we were going to take a crack at it.

One of the great events of our Bozo Cigar Tour is the chance to blend our own sticks. Master blenders don't often reveal their secrets, but I ain't no master. As my worksheet says, I was going for Spice, Earth, and Sweet. The Bozos and Bozettes fine-tuned their blends under the expert tutelage of our guide, Colin Ganley, and Sergio Plasencia of the Plasencia Factory. This was the second rodeo for most of us. Once the blending was down on paper, one of the senior rollers crafted the stick on the spot, a freshie that had to be smoked within twenty-four hours.

The "Marco Dos" cigar comes to life.

The wrapper goes on and, Ta-Da!   It Lives!!

The good folks at Placensia are willing to produce bundles of our cigars for a smallish fee. Most of the Bozos and Bozettes ordered at least one bundle. I certainly did. The drawback is that these are fresh cigars. They will need to age another six months to achieve a really smokable state. Thus is is an excercise in delayed gratification. I was, however, able to smoke my freshie. A fresh stick always strikes me as pungent, with the flavors more distinctly noticeable, rather than blended and harmonious. Think of a new wine. Smoking a freshie is still a good indication of what the final product will taste like. I was very happy with the results. I look forward to August of this year, when I can sample the final product.

The cigar days done, our time in Esteli was drawing to a close. But we were not quite finished, not dead yet. There was time for walkabout, for a last dinner, and one last bout with the Nicarguan Rum. Songs were sung, cigars were smoked, and spoils divided.  Zee Germans had departed Esteli, but we made up for their absence with some of the rock-stars of the cigar world. The party went far later than a feeble old man such as myself could handle. 

A cautionary sign at Hotel Los Arcos

Tomorrow would be the long bus ride to Managua, the rigors of the Augusto Sandino Aeropuerto, and the Bozo departure. In the meantime, I burrowed deep into my bed at the Los Arcos. Earplugs warded off the noise of the late-night revelry and I slept the sleep of the dead.