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Tip of the Week
Q: What are the typical steps tobaccos must go through before reaching the factory to be rolled?
A:
There are a few.
Cigar tobacco reaches the factory after a series of 60 day periods: 60 days to germinate seeds before transplanting to a field; 60 days to grow the tobacco plant to maturity; 60 days for a complete harvest, which ends with around one month of drying in a tobacco-curing barn followed by a series of fermentation. In the fermentation stage, workers pile slightly moistened tobacco in huge bulks or stacks; temperatures inside the bulks may reach as high as 140 degrees as the cigar "sweats" during the early stages of the fermentation. When the temperature reaches the highest point that the tobacco expert deems proper, workers deconstruct the bulks to lower the temperature, a process called turning. Some tobacco may be turned up to three or four times and remoistened before fermentation finally ceases. The process releases ammonia from the tobacco and other impurities.
Workers then wrap the fermented tobacco in bales, usually surrounded by burlap, to age. Aging time depends on the type of tobacco, and can run from a few months to many years. Before workers turn over the tobacco to the rollers, they "case" it, or slightly dampen it again, to make it supple.
Check out tobacco's journey from Seed to the Shelf, from the October 2004 edition of Cigar Aficionado.
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