| While smoking has become seriously politically and | | | | Cuban cigar production is quite complex with a great |
| medically incorrect among many people across the | | | | deal of concentration on perfection. Up to 20 |
| developed world there is still a strong interest in how | | | | different kinds of tobacco leaves are used to form |
| some tobacco products such as cigars came into | | | | the wrappers for the cigars. Keeping the right level of |
| being. Of all cigar products there is one that stands | | | | humidity is also essential to maintain the quality of the |
| out - the Cuban cigar. | | | | tobacco and the cigar overall. It is up to the cigar |
| For hundreds of years now Cuba has been renowned | | | | maker to get the wrapping of the cigar just right |
| for the quality of its cigars. In fact they are the most | | | | including the trimming and smoothness of the |
| famous and perhaps only truly consistently successful | | | | wrapper. |
| export industry that Cuba has retained since the | | | | Special attention needs to be paid to shaping the end |
| onset of Communism when the Batista regime was | | | | of the cigar exactly to fit the mouth of the cigar |
| overthrown by the Fidel Castro led revolution in 1959. | | | | smoker. The cigar also must be of an exact length. A |
| However the Castro regime quickly nationalised the | | | | specially designed guillotine is used to cut the cigar to |
| Cuban tobacco industry. | | | | the desired length. |
| According to historians, the commercialisation of the | | | | The next part of the process is the tying of the |
| Cuban tobacco industry dates back to the 18th | | | | ribbon around the cigar after which the cigars must |
| century when tobacco production became a major | | | | be placed in a special fumigating chamber for |
| industry. While the tobacco plant originated in South | | | | immunization to protect smokers against the risk of |
| America its beginning does not appear to have been | | | | plagues infecting the tobacco. |
| accurately recorded. | | | | The final step is a further quality control process that |
| Initially the use of tobacco was very much for | | | | must be perfect. Any inconsistency in meeting the |
| so-called medicinal purposes - something that seems | | | | required length and shape, thickness and texture of |
| hard to believe today. This was due to the Cuban | | | | the cigars will see the cigar maker's batch of cigars |
| natives' belief in tobacco being a miraculous cure. | | | | rejected. |
| There are many different brands of Cuban cigar | | | | As the cigar makers' are paid on a piece-work basis |
| including: | | | | such failures cannot be allowed. This in turn assists in |
| Bolivar cigars, Cohiba cigars and El Rey Del Mondo | | | | producing a consistently high standard of cigar. |
| cigars | | | | |