Step-by-step instruction. How to make a cigar

You've probably heard that the best cigars are those that Dominican virgins roll on their thighs. Like it or not, we went to find out at a small private cigar factory in the southeast of the Dominican Republic.

Cigars, rum and Dominican are inseparable from each other like Siamese twins. There are probably more cigar factories and small private enterprises in the Dominican Republic than there are dairies in Russia. In every even the smallest village there is a cigar shop and more than one. It produces cigars and famous brands such as Davidoff, Romeo & Julieta, Arturo Fuente and dozens of less popular brands, and small private manufactories. Many travel agencies arrange excursions to large enterprises and factory shops, where you can see the whole process of spinning cigars. And, I must say, this is an interesting sight.

2. We went to see how cigars are rolled at a private manufactory, where only 7 people work. Despite the fact that the company is quite small, its cigars are quite popular in the Bavaro resort area, where many shops offer manufactory products.
This is the workplace of a torsidora, that is the name of a master who makes cigars. As you can see from the first photo, this is a guy, not a virgin, and he rolls cigars not on his hip, but on a special table with a metal plate polished with tobacco leaves

3. It probably shouldn't be said that cigars are made from tobacco leaf.
The cigar has a composite structure consisting of three components: a filler of tobacco leaves (tripa), which takes up most of the volume of the cigar, a binding sheet (capote), which gives the cigar its shape, and a cover sheet (capa), which wraps the cigar on the outside.
The filler often contains three types of leaves: ligero (the top leaf of the tobacco bush, which receives the most sunlight and gives strength to the future cigar), seco (small light leaves responsible for aroma) and volado (the lower leaves of the plant that ensure the burning of the cigar) . It is believed that it is high-quality filler that determines the nobility of a cigar, so manufacturers often keep the ingredients of cigar blends a secret.

4. Each type of cigar has its own filling composition. Torsidor collects the required number of leaves in a bundle and proceeds to roll the cigar.

5. Filler leaves are wrapped with a binder sheet.
The binder sheet is needed in order to give the cigar the desired shape, fastening together the sheets of its filler. Strength and resilience are important for the binder sheet, and aroma is a secondary characteristic that manufacturers pay attention to only in the most expensive varieties of cigars. Cheap machine-rolled cigars may not have a binder sheet at all. Such cigars are called cigarillos.

6. Cigar blanks may vary slightly in length and density, but that's okay.

7. After the blanks are ready, they are placed in a special wooden mold with recesses, consisting of two parts. Having connected both parts, the form is placed under the press for half an hour.

8. Then comes the stage of the final wrapping of the cigar and trimming

9. Cover sheets give the cigar a finished look, so they should look neat, uniform, and have little to no veining.
The sheet is immediately cut to the desired size, and then the master wraps the cigar obliquely into it.

10. Finished cigars wrapped in wrapper.

11. Everything superfluous is cut off from the cigar ...

12. ... and a hat is glued on. The freedom of smoke circulation when smoking a future cigar and its aesthetic appearance depend on the correct implementation of all these actions. The process is carried out completely by hand, without any special devices, therefore it requires a lot of experience of the twister.

13. Cigars have different shapes. They are usually divided into two main groups: straight (parejos) - these are cigars of an even cylindrical shape, rounded from the side of the head, and figured (figurado), which includes such forms of cigars as pyramid, perfecto, belicoso, torpedo, culebra and others. For the smoker, the difference between the two (besides appearance) lies in the more pronounced taste changes during smoking in figured cigars. There is no single world classification of cigar formats, so different manufacturers under the same name may have cigars of different shapes, and cigars of the same profile may be named differently.

14. Cigars of the most common, straight shape (parejos) are usually classified according to the ratio of its length and diameter. The diameter of a cigar, in addition to the size in millimeters, is usually measured in special units equal to 1/64 of an inch. The diameter given in such units is called cepo (gauge). Generally, larger diameter cigars have a stronger flavor and burn slowly and evenly.

15. One master makes up to 200 cigars per day.

16. At the final stage, the cigars are sent to a special room - a humidor, where they gain their taste and aroma.

17. After the cigars have cooled in the humidor, they are packaged and sent for sale.

18. As I said above, cigars come in a variety of shapes. But they also come in different sizes. Even with a stick of smoked sausage...

20. Smoking cigars is different from smoking cigarettes. Unlike cigarette smoking, cigar smoke does not need to be drawn into the lungs. It is enough to rinse the smoke in your mouth and release it after two to three seconds. The optimal time between puffs is considered to be from 30 to 90 seconds.
An extinguished cigar can be lit again, but no more than two or three times, and only until it has cooled down (otherwise, the taste and aroma will change dramatically to an unpleasant one).
It is strongly not recommended to deliberately extinguish a cigar - it must be put down so that it goes out by itself (in the circle of cigar lovers, intentionally extinguishing a cigar is considered as disrespectful to the master who released it and is a sign of bad taste).

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After harvesting tobacco, the leaves that have turned yellow by 80 - 90% are dried. To do this, they are strung on a string, placed at a height of at least 1 meter above the ground. The leaves are spaced apart so that a finger fits between them.
The whole process of languishing (drying) tobacco leaves takes about a month. For manufacturing, raw materials with a drying period of one to two months are suitable.

It will take about a week to roll the cigars.

Necessary materials:

Tobacco leaves are brown in color without a central vein.
Tobacco mixture for filling. You can use small tobacco for this.
Knife.
Twist clips (plain paper sheets can be used).
Straight surface.

Important! The better the raw material, the better the cigar will be.

Ready-made elite cigars are presented in the popular Amigo online store. You can order products directly on the website. Delivery is carried out by a transport company convenient for the client.

Rolling steps:

The stuffing is going to the bundle. The leaves should protrude beyond the borders of the palm. The normal size of the product is 15 - 18 centimeters.
Thick tobacco leaves are placed in the center, they are wrapped with thin ones. The result is a layered structure and uniform lines.
Individually determine the density of tobacco stuffing and the number of leaves. If air pockets are left inside, the cigar will quickly burn out. The dense structure does not smoke well.
The binder sheet is smoothed, placed on a flat surface.
The prepared tobacco bundle is placed on the end of the binder leaf with a 45-degree turn and twisted. As a rule, one sheet for a bunch is enough.
If an even cylinder is obtained, tobacco binding is completed.
With a knife, cut off the remains of the leaf, which creates the "mouthpiece".
After cutting off the remains, determine where the cigar head will be located. She becomes more "tapered" end. In order not to tear the binding leaflet, its tips are glued together with egg or cigar glue.
The product is sealed in a cover sheet. This is also done at an angle of 45 degrees. At the end of the head, the remains of the integumentary leaf are glued together, the excess is cut off.

Worth knowing! Cigar glue is sold in professional stores.

Smoking rules:

Before smoking, the end is cut with a special cutter at a distance of about three mm from the edge.
They only smoke with matches. There may be an odor from the lighter.
Smoke evenly. The fire is maintained at an angle of 90 degrees at the tip, the cigar is smoothly turned.
The smoke is only held in the mouth and exhaled after 3 to 5 seconds. So you can enjoy the aroma. Do not inhale smoke into lungs.
The intervals between puffs are 60 - 90 seconds.
An extinguished product that has not yet cooled down can be re-smoked.
You can re-manipulate with smoking no more than three times, then the taste of the product will deteriorate.
Cigars don't go out. They are left in the ashtray until complete self-extinguishing.
To throw off the ashes, lightly touch the cigar to the ashtray.
They smoke only up to one third. This part contains the maximum amount of aromatic oils. The maximum flavor is revealed here.

Those who are not ready to try their hand at rolling will be able to purchase ready-made, professionally rolled Cohiba cigars presented in the Amigo online store. Every customer who recommends the online store to their friends will be given a 15% discount on their purchase.

It's hard to roll a cigar the first time around. Beginning smokers choose the wrong sheets, they acquire the wrong raw materials for binding and covering. Very thick products practically do not smolder, and thin products burn out quickly.

Perhaps the main difficulty in the production of cigars is to achieve the stability of the flavor bouquet and aroma of a certain brand from year to year, from harvest to harvest! You might think that making a cigar is a simple matter - you have grown tobacco, collected it, dried it, rolled it, and you're done! But it was not there. The cigar production technology is about 200 small steps from the tobacco grain to the consumer! And the taste and aroma of the final product depends on the strict observance of the technology at every step. One little mistake and the cigar is ruined!

In every cigar industry, perhaps the most important person is the tobacco breeder. Experimentation, crossbreeding tobacco and creating new varieties can be compared to the creation of perfumes. Sometimes it can take 15-20 years to grow a new variety!

To begin with, to grow tobacco, seeds are sown in small pots in special nurseries. A little later, when it grows up, the plant is transplanted to a plantation with the necessary soil data! Here, under special sheds, and sometimes under direct sunlight, tobacco grows until it's time to harvest. While the tobacco is growing, it is carefully and constantly trimmed, this is necessary to direct the energy of growth to the roots! And many other processes - watering, fertilizing, pest control - require constant attention and care! Usually about 1000 people work on the plantations.

It is worth noting that 100% natural tobacco is always used in the production of the best brands of cigars - various chemical additives and pesticides are strictly prohibited!

When harvesting, the leaves are sorted - juicy, thick leaves will go into the filling of the cigar, and thin ones will organize the cover layer! After collection, the sheets are sent to dry. In drying houses, the leaves are strung on a thin fishing line using multi-tiered structures. At the end of the process, the leaf should be completely free of chlorophyll, turn completely brown, but at the same time - soft, elastic, and not crumbly in the hands. To do this, the necessary conditions of temperature and humidity must be maintained!

Then comes one of the most difficult stages in production - the leaves are sent to the warehouse for fermentation. The specialist determines the quality of the harvest, the compliance of tobacco leaf indicators with standards, past harvests! Based on these data, the temperature, duration and humidity of fermentation are determined.

This process, just, is the main one in order to preserve the taste of cigars of a certain brand from year to year. And to achieve the desired bouquet is sometimes very difficult. After all, the taste of tobacco depends, among other things, on weather conditions - in rainy and dry years, the same variety will show different flavors! At the stage of sheet processing, the professionalism of the master is manifested, which must equalize these indicators in order to preserve the same aroma of cigars. Specialists strive to ensure that tobacco loses all unnecessary flavor elements, but does not get rid of its aromatic bouquet.

After the sheets are ready - dried and processed, they are sent to the factory, where the cigars are rolled. Here again, the professional work of bag makers and tasters is needed, who, in order to get the right bouquet, sometimes need to mix sheets of different varieties of tobacco, different processing!

But now the sheets are ready for twisting. The master who rolls cigars is called a torcedor. His job is to select the appropriate sheets from each group and roll the cigar properly - not too loose, not too tight, no clamps, but tight enough. It is especially difficult, but very important - to maintain the correct diameter of the cigar, regardless of the size of the sheet!

It is important to correctly place the leaves of the filling, which form the basis of a harmonious bouquet. The filling is wrapped with a binding sheet, and then with a cover sheet. This is done carefully and carefully so that when cutting the cigar, the original shape is preserved.

After rolling, the cigar is placed under the press in a special form so that the leaves are compacted. She must spend some time there, but even after that it is still too early to say: "The cigar is ready!"

The next step is a very important step - quality control. Each cigar is checked for cover damage, length and diameter, weighed, tasted! The cigars that have passed the control are placed in wooden boxes, in which they leave for “aging”.

During aging (usually at least 21 days), the moisture content of the cover and the filling is compared, the tobaccos are rubbed against each other, and excess oils are removed.

Before the cigars are put into packages, they are classified by color. Professionals with great experience and a very sharp eye sort cigars in such a way that when opening a box of cigars, the end consumer receives real aesthetic satisfaction from the extraordinary beauty of the product!

Cigarette manufacturing technologies undergo changes every year. Manufacturers are introducing technology that automates the manufacturing process and increases the volume of products. The principles of creating cigars have not changed even after centuries.

How to make a cigar is easy to understand. It is enough to collect tobacco sheets, take tobacco and twist the product. However, everything is easy only in theory: many do not suspect that they are smoking a complex and multifaceted product. In practice, when making cigars, a lot of questions arise.

Raw material preparation

In cigarette factories, only pre-prepared material is used for the production of cigars. This is the tobacco that will go into the filling and piping and the wrapper that forms the shape of the product.

The tobacco composition of cigars at home for the filling has been prepared for years. The mixture goes through 2-3 cycles of fermentation. This gives characteristic tastes and aromas that distinguish cigars by variety and type. That's why they smoke cigars for a long time.

The pre-preparation process is meticulous and lengthy and is carried out exclusively by hand. Bossy leaves are taken from the bales and examined. Excess moisture, dust, debris and any other components are removed from the raw materials. The tobacco is then aged in oak barrels, which can take 2-3 years.

The wrapper is subjected to one round of fermentation.

Important: the central core is not removed from the sheet, so as not to “break” the whole canvas. The final processing is wetting, removal of the vein and sorting by characteristics.

Interestingly, only women work at branded tobacco factories with cover sheets. This is due to the fact that the sheet must have an even shape, design texture and be elastic. Rough male hands can not cope with such a task.

Classification of tobacco leaves

The composition of a cigar is formed by three types of tobacco sheets:

Fortaleza 1. The first type is a low-strength leaf. It is a natural material with perfect combustibility, which requires minimal pre-treatment. Such products are smoked quickly and easily.
Fortaleza 2. This variety has a medium strength. The difference from the first type is a bright aroma. Such options provide better flavor and smoke them longer.
Fortaleza 3. The third type practically does not burn, but this is what forms the construction of the cigar, provides a bright aroma and character of tobacco. This is the most delicious part with an expressive aroma.

The first three sheets are intended solely for the formation of the filling of the cigar, the internal component. To shape and bind the rest, a sheet called capote is used. It is this sheet that completes the cigar, gives it its final shape and holds the rest of the components together.

The cover sheet is called "sarah". This is the next, fifth, and final element of the appearance of the product. This material does not give any practical properties to the product. The difference is that these are designer “clothes” that have an exclusively aesthetic function.

What is a twisting shop and how to organize a workplace?

When making a homemade cigar, not only the quality of tobacco is important, but also a well-prepared workplace. In factories, this is the so-called twisting shop.

The workplace consists of a wooden board, which is made like a kind of desk or workbench, employees work while sitting. The main tool is a flat knife with a semi-circular end, a small round-type knife, and a guillotine for quick and convenient cutting of sheets and ready-made cigars.

Nearby is a special pattern and a vessel with vegetable glue. The substance is prepared in advance and involves a long cooking process. The cigars use exclusively natural binding mixtures, which, thanks to multi-level processing, ensure the fixation of the sheets in the form and give an additional taste.

In factories, twisters (or rather, twisters) are divided into categories. Masters know what cigars are and read real books about cigars before going to work. Large and thick products are trusted only by professionals with many years of experience. Moreover, beginners have to spend years as apprentices: they teach twisting both in factories and in special technical institutions.

The twisting procedure is divided into stages:

A do-it-yourself cigar will turn out stronger if two or three sheets of a bundle are taken. To do this, the sheets are placed on the board, the main thing is that the lower part with veins is inside the future cigar.
Next, the leaves are folded for filling in cigars. Materials are folded into an accordion or a pile.
The task of the master is to make sure that strong leaves are at the end of the cigar, and weak ones are at the beginning, which is lit. Due to this, in the process of smoking, the fortress increases.
The next stage is folding the filling into a bundle and placing it in an approximate shape. After that, the structure is cut off and placed in a special wooden press. There, a roll of tobacco lies from 30-60 minutes. This forms a clear construction and contours of the cigar.
While the product is being prepared, the master cuts the cover. The cover sheet is cut with a knife along the edges.
After that, a compressed bundle of tobacco is carefully wrapped in the cover sheet. Professionals make sure that the tension throughout the cigarette is uniform, which guarantees the integrity of the product when smoking.
At the same stage, the head of the product is cut out, which wraps around the lower end. The hat is made from the remains of the cover sheet.
The final procedure for creating a cigar with your own hands is cutting on a guillotine and sealing the holes. If everything is done correctly and the guillotine is well sharpened, the cigar will be cut exactly. Then it remains only to place the made cigars in branded packaging, make holes, patterns and other decorations.

What are the difficulties?

An experienced craftsman at the factory knows how cigars are made and makes between 60 and 150 pieces a day. But a professional has a well-prepared workplace and, most importantly, raw materials at hand.

It is easy to find the appropriate inventory in a specialized type of Internet market, where, among other things, you can learn how Cuban cigars are made. The situation is different with tobacco leaves. It is not so easy to find what cigars are made of in free sale. Cuba is not a problem: here raw materials grow literally on every corner.

If you can’t twist the first time, you can use the machine method. This method is used to make most cigarillos, including budget cigars. On a special manual machine, the product is rolled up in just a few minutes, like a self-rolling machine.

Many people smoke and try to make cigars out of paper instead of leaves. This is mistake. In fact, it turns out a giant cigarette, which is simply not safe to smoke.

It is difficult to find paper for a large cigarette, and it is forbidden to use newspaper or paper from notebooks and notepads. The composition of the materials contains carcinogens and toxins that are hazardous to health and make the tobacco composition unnatural.

The process of making a homemade cigar is fascinating and interesting and in many respects involves certain author's tricks. However, the search and preparation of raw materials makes this procedure long and unprofitable. Branded products are dried for a long time, aged in special conditions and therefore become exclusive with a unique taste.

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To make cigarillos with our own hands, we will need whole-leaf tobacco and chopped. You will also need a roller rolling machine. We also need gum. Gum is the hardened juice on fruit trees from which we will make glue for our cigarillos.

How to make gum glue

I will stop in more detail about how to make glue. We peel the gum from the trunks of trees and put it in a jar. Fill with hot water and wait for it to dissolve (this can take up to 2-3 days). Do not pour a lot of water so that our glue does not turn out to be liquid. After the gum is completely dissolved, we need to dilute it with pure alcohol. This is necessary so that over time the mold does not go in one word so that it does not turn sour. As a result, we should get a viscous slightly viscous liquid.

Let's start making cigarillos with our own hands

If you are familiar with a roller rolling machine, then you know that paper is inserted into it. So this very paper will serve as a template for our future cigarillo wrapper. It is better, of course, to take the material denser and make a template out of it strictly adhering to the dimensions of the paper.

After you cut the required number of blanks, place them in a thick book for a day. This is necessary in order for our leaf blades to become perfectly even. When you take blanks from a book, do not immediately turn cigarillos from them, because. they will dry out and break. First we need to moisturize them. To do this, we take a container or a container and put our leaves there, and next to the leaves an apple slice and close the lid. In a day or even earlier, we get an even elastic sheet blank for our cigarillos.

Well, then everything is the same as with ordinary paper for cigarette rolls. We put tobacco in the machine, if you twist it with a filter, then we put it first. We form tobacco by scrolling the rollers and carefully insert our tobacco leaf in place of the paper. We scroll the rollers of the machine and smear the edge of our leaf with gum. Do not immediately pull out the cigarette, let it stay in the machine for 5-10 seconds so that the glue grabs.