CUBAN CIGARS: A TRADITION UNCHANGED

Posted March 10, 2015

The manufacturing of a cigar in Cuba has remained unaltered since it became an integral part of Cuban identity, and as the country’s greatest export, there seems little reason to change this.

Cultivating the tobacco plant is still done by traditional means, as seen in the laid-back valley of Vinales, located in Cuba’s most western province. Nestled in the Sierra los Organanos Mountains, it’s the ox that steadily pulls the plough through the rich brown tobacco fields, mimicking the laid-back way of life for those living in the valley. Because such methods have ‘survived largely unchanged on this plain for several centuries’ (UNESCO) the Vinales valley has been registered as a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1999.

Once the tobacco crop has been harvested leaf by leaf, the tobacco plants are hung up on washing lines by farmers to dry and cure under the warm Cuban sun. The leaves are then divided up by farmers according to what shape of cigar the leaves best suit- there are over 60 standard cigar shapes.

After the leaves have been sorted, they’re then ready to be rolled into cigars by the ‘torcedores’. Amongst the most skilled rollers in the world, the methods of rolling for the torcedores have remained the same; as well as the factories in which they work.

At the factory, torcedores sit in silence at archaic wooden benches that line the floor. There’s a distinct lack of air conditioning, not out of choice but rather a necessity that prevents tobacco leaves from dying out and becoming unpliable.

But it’s the ‘lectore’ in the factory who perhaps represents one of the most charming traditions. The job of the reader or lectore in the factory is to sit behind a microphone and read out aloud a novel or the daily newspaper, helping the time pass for the focused torecedores. A tradition that dates back to the 1860s, the lectore ensures that content is always varied and read smoothly- helping the rollers get into a steady rhythm and ensuring they meet that quota.

A timeless method of production, unhampered by the modern era- perhaps it’s these celebrated traits that continue to draw people towards the world’s number one cigar.