How many different types of tobacco are there?
There are literally hundreds of strains of tobacco plants. They are grown on almost every continent, although only a handful are suitable for premium cigar production. Most of these are Cuban seed varieties that have been cultivated in other countries. The leaves from most Cuban seed varieties often reach 14-18 inches in length.
How many different tobaccos are used in a premium cigar?
Typically, 4-6 types are blended together. The wrapper and binder are the first 2. The rest are fillers.
What does Ligero, Seco, and Volado mean?
These are the classifications of leaf types that a single plant, regardless of its variety, will yield. Every tobacco plant for cigar applications has these three leaf types. Each is from a different part of the plant. Every cigar should have some combination of these leaves to burn correctly. The "ligero" leaves (pronounced lee-hair-oh) are taken from the top third of the plant. These offer the strength to the cigar's flavor. The leaves from the middle third of the plant are called "seco" (pronounced say-ko). These have a mild flavor, and contribute to overall aroma. Finally, at the bottom third of the plant, are the "volado" leaves. These have little flavor, but are a necessary part of the blend due to their excellent burning characteristics. Ligero and seco leaves do not burn very well and need the help of the volado leaf to keep the cigar lit and burning smoothly. When a manufacturer is creating a blend, they will take some combination of these classifications, from various strains of plants, to produce the flavor they prefer.
Corojo (pronounced: kawr-oh-ho) is the name given to a specific variety of tobacco plant that was originally developed in the Vuelta Abajo Valley in Cuba. It is named after the plantation that first grew it, called El Corojo Vega. The leaf's thin, oily texture, along with its small thin veins, make it the pinnacle for a wrapper leaf on the highest rated of the Cuban brands. This farm had a unique combination of mineral content in the soil, irrigation, drainage, and exposure that allowed the plant to thrive. The plant is very temperamental and delicate, and only survived when planted in the valley of its origin. Most attempts to relocate the seeds to other tobacco growing regions in both Cuba and other Caribbean nations are met with crop failure. Within the last decade or so, there have been only two growers, both in a valley in Bonao, Dominican Republic, who have been able to harvest successful crops of the Corojo variety. The characteristics of this valley duplicate those of the original Cuban plantation. The wrappers cultivated from this plant are often designated as "rosado" shade, which is a very rare, reddish tint.
Colorado is a color of wrapper that is in the medium brown color spectrum. The most common variation is "Colorado Maduro", which is typically grown in Indonesia, and is sometimes termed "Sumatra". Another area that grows this shade of wrapper is Cameroon.
Maduro, directly translated from Spanish, means "mature" or "ripe". On a cigar, it applies to the wrapper leaf that is medium or dark brown. The two most common styles of maduro are Colorado (medium brown), and Oscuro (dark brown, almost black). There are several methods used to achieve these shades, depending on the hybrid of plant. Some are fermented for longer periods of time, while others are merely left on the plant unpicked until the very end of the plant's annual growing cycle. Most maduro shaded wrappers are grown in Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, and Cameroon.
What does "shade grown" or "sungrown" mean?
These are terms applied to the growing style of wrapper leaves. Shade grown means that tapadas, which are large white fabric sheets, similar to cheesecloth, are suspended 6-10 feet above the entire crop to shield the leaves from direct exposure to sunlight. The opposite of this is to allow the leaves to grow without any protection, directly in the sunlight. The implementation of either procedure will yield completely different wrappers, as the exposure to the sun will affect the amount of sugars and oils the plant produces, the thickness of the veins in the leaf, and ultimately, its color. A common shade grown wrapper color is of a "Claro" color. This has a pale "coffee with cream" color. Many companies will often alternatively refer to this shade as "natural". A common sun grown wrapper color is "Maduro", which has a hue of dark or black coffee.
Are leaves really grown in Connecticut?
Absolutely. The Connecticut River Valley region, located in the northeast corner of the state, and extending into lower Massachusetts, grows much of the "Claro" wrappers that we see on cigars. The last few years have proven that Ecuador and the Dominican Republic can produce a similarly colored wrapper leaf. This has been a salvation to the industry, as this diversification minimizes the impact of the "blue mold" blight that has ruined entire Connecticut crops in past years. Another type of Connecticut wrapper is the Broadleaf variety. This will have a darker, maduro shade to it.
Why are wrapper leaves so special?
The wrapper is a very delicate leaf, and is only one layer thick around the cigar. It contributes a large percentage to the overall flavor of the cigar. Wrapper leaves can be grown in many places on the globe, and each variety contributes its own characteristics towards the cigar's flavor. A wrapper leaf is evaluated on the thinness of its veins, its oily sheen, its even coloring, and most importantly, its unblemished appearance. In order to achieve and maintain these desired characteristics, the leaves are often carefully and skillfully handled several hundred times from picking, curing, stripping, aging, and rolling. Binder leaves are often wrapper leaves that have been rejected due to some sort of cosmetic imperfection.
How many wrapper colors are there?
There are about a dozen or so, all variations of these basic ones, listed from lightest to darkest:
Candela (which is still green), Double Claro, Claro (often refered to as Natural), Colorado, Colorado Maduro, Colorado Rosado, Maduro, and Oscuro.
Curing tobacco is a sensitive process that depends on techniques and traditions that are hundreds of years old. Following the harvest, tobacco is removed from the fields and placed in large bulk piles within a curing shed. This shed will have several barn doors in the front and rear, and many doorways running along the sides. There are also vents on the upper portions of the structure. The purpose of all these openings is to control the interior temperature and humidity. By opening or closing the apertures, workers are able to counterbalance the effect of wind and sun exposure on the structure. Each bulk is about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle. Inside these piles, heat is created as a by-product of the chemical reactions taking place. The core temperature is monitored daily and the piles are rotated inside out frequently to prevent the raw tobacco from cooking. This part of the fermentation is referred to as "sweating". These bulks may be turned many times during the following months until this stage is complete. It is during this sweating process that the tobacco releases ammonia and other undesirables elements. The tobacco is then put into rectangular bails, each about 150 pounds, and stored for a minimum of one year. Many producers will store it for much longer periods of 3-5 years. After this curing and aging period, the tobacco is judged suitable and shipped to the fabrica for rolling.
How do you know where the cigar is from, if it is made from tobaccos of different countries?
A cigar's country of origin is classified by where it was rolled, regardless of where the wrapper, binder, or filler is from. Typically, the filler tobacco is usually grown in the same country as where the cigar is made. This is not an absolute rule, as cigars rolled in the US, (typically, Miami or Tampa regions) must import all of their filler. Another exception is Honduran and Nicaraguan cigars, as their native grown fillers are often too harsh to be used exclusively, and are typically blended with Dominican filler in order to produce an acceptable smoke.
