The making of Cigar

Cigars are either handmade or machine made. In handmade cigar all work like leaves picking, sorting and bundling of cigar is done entirely by hand. In machine made cigar all or most of the work is done by machines.

Premium cigar

The premium cigar or super-premium cigar is handmade in all stages of making. It consists of the filler, the binder and the wrapper.

Parts of cigar

The filler is inner most material of a cigar. When you have 'long filler' you mean the filler is made from full leaves. Long fill cigars need great care in picking, storing and aging. When leaves are being rolled in as filler very expert hands can only do it so as to ensure that the cigar burns smooth and even while smoking. A 'short filler' is clipping of leaves leftover from the 'long filler' cigar production.

The binder is made from several layers of leaves which holds the filler in circular shape. After these two parts are ready, the wrapper is applied to complete the cigar.

Cigar Anatomy

• Cap/head/flag
• Body
• Tuck or foot

Storage

Cigars should be stored at 70 degrees and 70 % humidity. All good cigars stored in these conditions improve with aging for 20 years or more.

Clipping of cigar

The Cap or Head portion of cigar is cut before smoking. About 75 % area of head is cut. Care should be taken not to cut beyond cap area. If you cut beyond Cap then the cigar starts to unravel.

Ashes

A long and firm ash is sign of a well rolled cigar. A good cigar will burn in an ashtray for about 3 to 5 minutes.

to be continued ...