I recieved this in a monthly news email and thought some of you might enjoy reading it.
*** FEATURE STORY ***
Cigar Tobacco Leaves - Part 1
Before you put that cigar in your mouth, do you know what you're
smoking? A cigar is more than just a bunch of tobaccos leaves rolled
into a rod, although the first "cohibas" were probably about as crude.
Today the art of making good premium cigars comes from knowing how to
blend the leaves in such way as to achieve the desired appearance,
strength, flavor and aroma. Moreover, the quality of the crop, the
vintage, curing process and experimentation with different combinations
of leaves are equally important, which is why it takes years to create
a good cigar.
When you read cigar blend descriptions and see words like "ligero,"
"seco" and "corojo," they're meaningless unless you know what these
leaves are and how they affect the blend and taste of a cigar. Let's
start with the tobacco plant, itself. It consists of three parts: the
top or "corona" (Spanish for "crown"), the middle and the bottom and
each plays a specific role in the making of cigars. The leaves are grown
two ways for two specific purposes. The first is "shade-grown," used
primarily for growing wrapper leaf. The second is sun-grown, used for
growing the filler tobaccos, which is what we'll cover in this issue:
Sun-grown filler leaves are classified by strength using the names,
"volado," "seco," "ligero," and "medio tiempo." (Some of these same
names are used for wrapper leaves, but refer to the color of the leaf.)
It's important to know the difference, especially when selecting a cigar
in the strength you prefer.
Ligero, the darkest and strongest in flavor comes from the top of the
plant where it gets the most sunlight. Ligero is matured for at least
two years before being used in the cigar and is always placed in the
middle of the cigar because it burns slowly. It's also because of its
slow burning qualities that the ash on a good premium will burn in a
conical shape.
Seco leaves come from the middle of the plant making them much lighter
in color and flavor. These leaves are usually matured for about 18 months
and are used to make mild cigars or to modulate the strength of the richer
ligero leaf.
Volado leaves are found at the bottom of the plant. Maturation time is
generally about nine months and because volado leaves have little or no
flavor, they are used mainly for their good burning qualities and adding
bulk to the cigar.
So, for example, a full-bodied cigar like a Hoyo De Monterrey will be
blended with more ligero, whereas a mild cigar like a Macanudo, will have
a higher proportion of seco and volado. Most blends, for example, like
Hamiltons House, use a combination of ligero and seco to "balance" the
flavor and strength of the cigar. Suffice it to say, the combination of
the leaves and how the leaves are selected, cured and aged are the key
to a cigar's overall strength, body and flavor.
