Inside Story

Life for a cigar starts on the "vega" or plantation when seeds of the tobacco plant "Nicotiana tabacum" are sown on level fields and covered with straw or cloth to aid in their germination and to shade them from the sun.

In about 35-45 days the seedlings are ready to be transplanted.

It takes 35-45 days more for the plants to reach maturity.

The tobacco farmer, or veguero as he is known, will inspect his plants hundreds of times during this time, deflowering (desbotonar) and removing side shoots and guarding against pests and disease.

The leaves that make up the delicate wrapper come from the corojo plant.

These plants are grown under a muslin covering or tapado, shielding the plant from the sun and preventing the leaves from becoming too dense for their intended purpose.

The criollo plant provides a variety of leaves for use in the filler and in the binder of the cigar.

The criollo plant is exposed to full sun allowing development of a variety of different leaf types.

Leaves are picked in six phases:

1. Libre de pie (at the base),

2. Uno y medio (one-and-a-half),

3. Centro ligero (light centre),

4. Centro fino (thin centre),

5. Centro gordo (thick centre)

6. Corona (top).

All leaves except libre de pie can be used as wrappers.

Corona leaves are usually also too oily to be used as wrappers and are reserved as filler leaves.

Leaves from the criollo plant are graded as

volado, seco, ligero and medio tiempo.

Leaves from the shaded corojo plants are classified as

ligero (light), seco (dry), viso (glossy), amarillo (yellow), medio tiempo (half texture) and quebrado (broken).