A box of cigars to the untrained eye can look as if all of the Cuban Cigars are in uniform. Not only do their bands all match, but their shape and format look almost identical too. A naive cigar novice would think that every cigar in their box, let us say it is a box of Montecristo Cuban Cigars, all look the same and will taste the same too. Cigar aficionados will know that this is simply not the case.
The tobacco agriculture relies heavily on weather conditions, soil environments and the way they are cultivated, just as the farming of fruit and vegetables do. Therefore, when there is a rough winter or a not so sunny summer, it will have an affect on the harvest.
The cultivation of tobacco leaves in the Cigar industry diverges into two paths. One process cultivates the leaves for the filler and binders within the cigars and the other process is the farming of leaves for wrapping said cigars.
The filler and binder leaves are grown in open spaces, where the Cuban climate provides optimal conditions, where the leaves will bathe in the strongest sunshine (around 23ºc) and the prime humidity levels will help the tobacco leaves thrive and grow (65%). The filler leaves, as insinuated by the name, provides the majority of the cigar which will contain a blend of various leaves from any part of the plant. This is what determines the unique and complex flavours found in such brands as Romeo y Julieta Cigars and the Upmann Cigars.
The wrapper leaves on the other hand, are grown in shade covered plantations known as tapados fields. Here, they are covered with a muslin cloth to ensure that they are protected from the direct sunlight, which prevents them from becoming too oily or thick. The finer and larger leaves cultivated in this way have glossy, soft and vein-less properties, seen on 'high-end' cigars such as the Regional Edition Cigars and Limited Edition Cigars.
The following cigars are constructed using the highest grade quality of tobacco filler and wrapper leaves. You can find them here:
We will be updating our EGM Cuban Cigars Blog on topics similar to this, so make sure to keep checking back here to find out more information about Cuban cigars. See our previous blog post on How Tobacco Is Grown in Cuba.