bgz wrote:In his defense, he didn't say it was anything nefarious. Glycerin is perfectly safe, and I could see legit reasons for doing it for their "special sauce" so to speak. I wouldn't hold it against them if it was true.
I know what you mean about some guys at cigar shops, I've been told plenty of things that made my eyebrow raise (some dude was ragging on Illusione one time when I found an infested box of them). He said they don't flash freeze and won't give dealers their money back for infested boxes. I find it hard to believe they wouldn't get their infested boxes replaced though. I didn't find this guy credible however.
DE doesn't do any different than any other manufacturer really, at least with their non-infused cigars. Prior to rolling, the tobacco is over hydrated to make it pliable. In their case, it's done by hanging it in a room with humidifiers and misters. Someone comes in and rotates the hands of tobacco around a few times and then it goes off to be separated out and sorted for the rollers. Other companies have different ways of doing it, but it's all about the same. Nothing but water gets used here.
After rolling, sometimes the cigars are wiped down with a towel moistened with a solution, or misted from a hand bottle. Sometimes they mix stuff in there, no body really talks about what it is though, just saying it's largely water and all natural. They're just wiping it to make it look pretty. Most manufacturers do this. I suppose they might have a few drops of glycerin in there but it's kind of sweet and burns kind of poorly, so the concentration would have to be very low.