HOW TO ROLL A CIGAR
If you ever get to visit a cigar factory, you're in for a treat. In fact, you'll probably leave thinking it's a minor miracle that cigars don't cost $20 apiece. This is an extensive process, including the growing, harvesting, and curing, to the leaf selection, rolling, and quality control, to the packing, box-making, banding and on and on. From time to time, we host "rolling events" at our retail store, and this gives a small glimpse into the art of the rolling itself. Each rolling event typically features a master roller from some of the top factories in Central America and the Caribbean. The process is fascinating. Roberto, the master roller of Victor Sinclair, gave us a blow by blow when he was here at a recent event.
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| 1. Roberto is reaching for the filler tobacco. Filler tobacco is found at the center of the cigar. Generally, the filler is responsible for determining the strength of a cigar. |
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| 2. Roberto is now separating the filler leaves so that he may bunch them together to create his blend of filler. |
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| 3. Wrapper leaves are kept in a damp cloth on Roberto's lap; he will periodically spray them with a mist bottle to keep them pliable. |
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| 4. After sufficient filler is separated, Roberto proceeds to fold each individual filler leaf back onto itself, and then bunches the leaves together. |
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| 5. The filler is now placed inside of a binder leaf. A binder leaf is the intermediate leaf used to hold the bunch of filler tobaccos together. These vary considerably from one manufacturer to the next. |
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| 6. It is important to ensure there are no tears or rips while forming the cigar. This could cause poor or inconsistent burn. Therefore, while forming the cigar, Roberto is careful to review the leaf quality. |
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| 7. The cutter is used to cut any remaining loose leaf around the foot of the cigar. |
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