16 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



THE MAKING OF AN HAVANA CIGAR 



HOW THE LEAF IS HANDLED THE GREAT SKILL OF THE TABAQUEROS- 



HANDWORK ONLY EMPLOYED 



The story ot' the making of Havana 

 cigars is crowded with curious and inter- 

 esting information. Yet not one in a 

 thousand of the men who smoke, or think 

 they are smoking, a "pure Havana," really 

 knows anything about it. 



From an interesting article in the A'eiv 

 York Su)i, the following details, showing 

 the extraordinary care and skill exercised 

 in the making of the world-famous Havana 

 product, are taken. 



"The plants are cut in dry weather and 

 hung up in the sun or in ventilated sheds. 

 When this has gone on long enough, a 

 moist, showery day is selected and the to- 

 bacco is stacked up in a pile to sweat and 

 ferment. It is watched carefully, the 

 separate leaves being examined and with- 

 drawn when in just the right condition. 



"Next the tobacco is sorted and baled. 

 But even yet its quality is not definite!} 

 determined. It isn't even known which 

 leaves are wrappers and which fillers. 



"The bales are stored in the vaults of the 

 factory which has bought them, and months, 

 sometimes even years, may pass while they 

 slowly cure. The bales are wrapped in 

 palm leaves and are protected from light, 

 from dust and from any extremes of tem- 

 perature. 



"When at last the leaf is pronounced 

 ripe, the bundles are taken out, separated, 

 snrayed with clean water and spread on 

 racks to dry in the dark. The wrappers 

 go to the selector or blender : filler leaves 

 are packed in barrels, so that the air can 

 circulate through them, and remain there 

 a few weeks or even a year, until all the 

 leaves become of an average richness. They 

 are carefully inspected every day. 



"After the blender has performed his 

 most important and delicate task of select- 

 ing the leaves which are to make up each 

 vitola, or shape, the tabaquero, or actual 

 maker, begins his work. No machinery is 

 used in a Havana cigar factory. But the 

 skill of these experienced tabaqueros, some 

 of whom have been making a single brand 

 for twenty or thirty years, is so extraordi- 

 nary that the finished cigars conform abso- 

 lutely to the gauge for that vitola. 



"The tabaquero first takes thirty or more 

 filler leaves from a pile at his right hand 

 and lays them one by one in a bundle in 

 his left hand. Each leaf is laid in a cer- 

 tain way, with a certain side up and the 

 veins running in a certain direction. Yet 

 the result seems to be a loose handful of 

 leaves carelessly put together. He gives 



it a roll and a twist on a maple block be- 

 fore him and then chooses a wrapper from 

 a small-covered pile at his left hand. 



" 'Spreading this leaf out carefully,' says 

 one visitor to a Havana factory, 'the rough 

 handful of filler is laid on. Caressingly 

 and with infinite attention the whole is 

 rapidly rolled into the finished cigar. Here 

 the yielding wrapper is coaxed, there 

 modelled, so that it may not only lie smooth 

 in spite of possibly rough handling, but 

 also so that its edge will form a true, al- 

 most imperceptible spiral from end to end. 



" 'When the tip is reached, something is 

 done which distinguishes a fine Havana 

 cigar from any other. Cigars made in a 

 mould or with a binder as well as a wrap- 

 per or of scrap tobacco or even by a care- 

 less Cuban workman are pretty apt to have 

 a hard little plug of tobacco at their tips 

 obstructing the draught. A skilled Cuban 

 workman, when his creation is apparently 

 complete, cunningly splits the wrapper at 

 the tip. lays it back and clips oflf this com- 

 pact little plug. The tip is then covered 

 again and modelled to a fine point. The 

 smoker may now merely puncture the tip 

 and it will draw perfectly. 



" 'The cigar that is built up by the 

 skilled tabaquero contains no dust or small 

 scraps of leaf. Every bit of tobacco left 

 over is swept into a pocket below the table 

 to be sent to the cigarette factories. The 

 next cigar is made of entirely fresh ma- 

 terial. 



" 'In the rolling of eight cigars enough 

 expensive material is discarded to make a 

 ninth. But the ninth is never made, not 

 even for the cheapest markets. Only one 

 kind of seconds is known in the great Ha- 

 vana factories. These are the cigars re- 

 jected by the packers, and they are con- 

 sumed by employees, never leaving the 

 premises.' 



"In a perfectly made cigar the leaves 

 Iiave been laid so that the ash clings in 

 a peculiar way, characteristic of the l)est 

 product. The ash, by the way, of a fine 

 Havana cigar is about one-fourth the 

 weight of the cigar, showing how greedily 

 the growing plant has absorbed the mineral 

 elements of the soil. 



"In regard to the drawing qualities ex- 

 perts declare that the blunt tipped shape, 

 known as the marble end, with its straight 

 sides, gives a much more even draught than 

 the shape with exaggerated curves. They 

 say that it is inevitable that the leaves 

 which are loosely rolled in the thick centre 



