 |
An Interview with Tropical Tobacco's Pedro Martín
Gordon Mott
From the Print Edition:
Orlando Hernandez, Mar/Apr 99
(continued from page 1)
Martín: In the beginning I laughed about it. Because I didn't know what the hell to do. Nobody told me what to say about the cigars. I'd say, 'I like it, I don't like it, too strong, too mild, it's a little bitter.' You know, giving your impression about the cigar you are smoking. But at first, you're not used to doing that. Later on, I also was the tobacco buyer. One of the reasons they hired me was to find a replacement for Cuban tobacco because they had been using a lot of Cuban tobacco before the embargo. They were blending Cuban tobacco with Puerto Rican tobacco. At that time there was a lot of Puerto Rican available. That was the main blend. Later on we started buying tobacco from the Dominican Republic, from Central America, from Brazil, from Columbia, from different places all over the world. That was the place where I learned how to really create a cigar blend. When I started, I didn't know how to do it, because you have to educate your palate. By my last year there, my tasting skills were so good they didn't want the panel to make any recommendations without me. So, I really learned how to blend cigars right here in the United States. Can you imagine that? I knew a lot about tobacco in Cuba, of course. That's the main thing. If you know tobacco, you know how to cure tobacco and how to make a simple blend. But I really learned how to create a blend here.
CA: When and where did you start working in tobacco in Cuba? Where were you born?
Martín: My father, Antonio Martín, and my uncle, Matias Martín, were in the cigar business. That was the family business. I went to school in the morning and worked in the factory in the afternoon. It was 1936; I was 15 years old. But I used to work in the field when I was 7 or 8 years old.
CA: Doing what?
Martín: Cleaning the plants, pulling off the [bottom leaves]. Keeping out the weeds.
CA: Where were your family's fields?
Martín: In Manicaragua. That was in the south of Villa Clara province, about 18 miles from Santa Clara. Our factory was in Cienfuegos, about 25 miles from Manicaragua, where I was born.
CA: And your family grew cigar tobacco?
Martín: Yes, cigar tobacco.
CA: Did your family also manufacture cigars in Cuba?
< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 >
You must be logged in to post a comment.
RSS