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From seed to shelf, from filler to binder to wrapper, these are the 10 things every cigar aficionado needs to know when cutting, lighting and smoking his favorite cigar.- Reference www.cigaraficionado.com The comforting world of premium cigars can sometimes seem bogged down by endless choices, confusing messages and opinions posing as fact. It can be a complicated, confusing hobby, even for a longtime smoker. To help navigate the maze, we’ve assembled a list of facts and information that aim to give insight and perspective to every level of cigar aficionado, whether novice or inveterate.  This list is by no means a Ten Commandments of cigar smoking. It’s more of a basic treatise that addresses pertinent issues and highlights some of the aspects that make the premium cigar industry unique. We’ve also included a few useful tips that will serve to enhance the smoking experience and elevate the enjoyment of this beloved pastime. A field of sun-grown tobacco flourishes in a valley in the Dominican Republic. The crops grow from natural fertilizer. 1.Cigars Are a Natural and Artisanal Product  Buzzwords like “natural” and “artisanal” are overused and abused in today’s parlance, but premium, handmade cigars have truly earned the right to flaunt these credentials. They are made of one thing and one thing only—tobacco. Pure, unadulterated tobacco. Not a single leaf is chemically treated or artificially altered for taste. Everything from flavor to color is achieved through natural means—and that’s part of the cigar’s inherent beauty.  In fact, few consumable products are so natural. Perceptible flavors, whether sweet or spicy, are naturally occurring. The various alluring shades of brown are achieved through an organic process free of dyes or ripening accelerants. There are no preservatives to increase shelf life and no sweeteners, artificial or natural. Such additives and chemicals are the domain of cigarettes and machine-made cigars, which are mass-produced in the billions.  On the craft side, rolling the perfect handmade cigar is an artisanal skill, and one that takes many years to fully master. Blending tobacco is as much art as it is science, and because tobacco is subject to the whims of nature, the blender must be able to work effectively with an ingredient that can change from year to year due to crop variations.  Like wine, some vintages are better than others, but cigarmakers will do everything in their power to ensure that their product is consistent, even though crop quality is highly dependent on the weather. Consistency, however, isn’t the same thing as cloning, and there will always be minute variations from cigar to cigar. As with any handmade product, no two premium cigars will be exactly alike. The finest, most sincere cigars are natural expressions of both the cigarmaker and the soil from which the tobacco was grown.  2.Two Hundred Pairs of Hands It’s often said that 200 pairs of hands touch your cigar before it makes it to your humidor. Some claim the number is even higher. Suffice to say, every time you light up a cigar, many, many people with many different skills all contributed to bring you the ultimate handmade product.  It starts with seed selection and greenhouse cultivation. Cigar tobacco starts as a tiny seed, most often planted in a tray and grown in a greenhouse. Once the seedlings are a few inches high, they’re transplanted to the fields where they can flourish. At full height and maturity, the leaves are removed by hand, harvested and hung in a curing barn to dry and turn brown. That’s a few dozen hands before the tobacco has even left the farm. The cured tobacco is then taken to a facility, unpacked and piled up for fermentation. When fermentation is complete, the tobacco pile is separated and laid on drying racks to air out. Then, it’s all repacked and stowed for aging. After a few years, the aged tobacco is unpacked again, rehydrated in a special misting room and categorized for color. That’s a few more dozen hands. The outer wrapper leaves will also undergo destemming or despalillo, a process where the thick, central vein is removed from the leaf. Sometimes that step is done completely by hand, other times the tobacco is fed through a stripping machine. For filler, a worker will remove part of the stem by hand, leaving the rest intact. More hands. Don’t forget the rolling process, which requires appointed factory workers to dole out the proper proportions of aged tobacco to the rollers each day. The torcedor takes his pile of leaves back to his rolling table and recreates the cigar according to the cigarmaker’s blend, bunching and rolling each cigar by hand. The blend is formulated of exacting proportions of very specific tobaccos to impart a very particular smoking experience—a formulation that puts more hands on your cigars.  Finished cigars are sorted for color consistency, then sent to the aging room. Finally, they’re banded up, boxed and sent out. This is the basic chronology of how a cigar is made. There are, of course, plenty of other quality-control steps that vary from operation to operation, and nearly all are completed entirely by hand, but the point is this: a single hand-rolled cigar is a massive human effort that requires hands-on expertise on every level. Tobacco arranged in enormous piles (pilónes) for fermentation. The combination of pressure, water and naturally occurring heat will rid the tobacco of undesirable properties like bitterness. 3. Tobacco Undergoes Fermentation Fermentation is common to producers of wine and spirits, defined as a process that converts sugars in organic material to alcohol, often with the use of yeast. In the tobacco industry, it’s more of a microbial fermentation—one that breaks down the leaf organically through the use of water, pressure and oxygen. No alcohol is produced in tobacco fermentation, but the process releases heat as it changes the chemical composition and physical traits of the leaf through humidity and oxidization.  Tobacco undergoes fermentation for one simple reason: it makes the tobacco taste better. The process affects the flavor and smell of

Damage from Hurricane Ian has left Cuba short of tobacco barns, reducing tobacco planting in Pinar del Río by half- Reference www.cigaraficionado.com Pinar del Río, the region in Western Cuba where most of the country’s premium tobacco is grown, is facing perhaps the worst tobacco harvest in history, according to a report by Granma, the Cuban state-run newspaper. The lingering effects of Hurricane Ian, which destroyed most of Pinar del Río’s tobacco barns in late September, are largely to blame.  The hurricane made landfall in Pinar del Río on September 27, and tore across the island with winds in excess of 100 miles per hour, leveling about 90 percent of the region’s tobacco curing barns, more than 10,000 structures in all. Burdened by the impossible task of rebuilding them all in time for the growing season, Tabacuba, the agricultural arm of Cuba’s tobacco industry, said in a report that it would prioritize the highest-quality farms to meet export demands. Tabacuba cited lack of building materials as the main problem.  Cuba had originally planned for farmers in Pinar del Río to plant around 11,000 hectares of tobacco (about 28,000 acres) for the 2022-23 season, but they will most likely struggle to achieve even half that amount. So far, 5,150 hectares (about 12,726 acres) have been planted, according to Granma. Harvesting this amount of leaf will require approximately 4,000 curing barns, and currently, only 1,400 have been built. Despite the adversity, tobacco grower Hector Luís Prieto has been fortunate. “I have recovered 100 percent, thanks to a lot of work and support,” he tells Cigar Aficionado. “The quality this year is muy bueno,” he says, adding that the quantity on his farm was about normal and that all of his barns have been rebuilt.  According to other sources in the region, efforts are being concentrated toward wrapper production because of current wrapper shortages. There is no shortage of filler, sources say, so Tabacuba is hoping to minimize the hurricane’s effect on cigar production by boosting the cultivation of wrapper as much as it can. Habanos S.A., the marketing monopoly and worldwide distributor of Cuban cigars, provided Cigar Aficionado with a statement on the situation: “Habanos S.A. and Tabacuba, as usual, are closely and effectively working to support the tobacco sector in its recovery and minimize the impacts…We can assure that Habanos S.A. will do its best to guarantee the highest quality and the excellence of all its marketed products and will never put demand above quality.” 

This lineup of lighter cigars shows that a smoke can be both mild and flavorful Mar 31, 2023 | By Thomas Pappalardo– Reference cigaraficionado.com When someone says “mild cigar,” the connotation is often a smoke that’s lacking in flavor and character. While it’s true that some mild smokes can come across as papery and thin, there are plenty of cigars on the market that are light in body, yet big on taste—and here are 10 of them. Whether you prefer the understated elegance of Connecticut shade wrapper over the spicy strength of sun-grown Corojo or are just looking for a lighter smoke to start the day, we at Cigar Aficionado combed through our database of recent ratings to bring you 10 cigars (many of them bargains) that lean toward the milder side. But they also scored 90 points or more, showing that flavor and complexity can be found in blends at any strength level. San Cristobal de la Habana is one of the newer Cuban brands dating only back to 1999, and this belicoso was launched in 2018 as an exclusive for La Casa del Habano shops and Habanos Specialists. The smoke is floral and nutty with notes of toast and marmalade before a lightly woody finish. It’s a great introduction to Cuban cigars if your tastes tend to go mild. See full tasting note. The core VegaFina brand made by Altadis is quite popular in Europe for both its easygoing character and its competitive price, but it’s a bargain here in the U.S. as well. Retailing for less than $8, this large cigar measures 7 1/2 inches by 50 ring gauge, which works out to roughly $1 an inch. The creamy smoke is layered with impressions of toasted almond and cedar that lead to a sweet butterscotch finish. See full tasting note. With the recent news of Alec Bradley being acquired by Scandinavian Tobacco Group, and all the company’s new releases, it’s easy to overlook this understated gem. Short in stature, this diminutive cigar from Alec Bradley’s Connecticut line is long on flavor with notes of toast, pecan and creamy coffee that come together for a sweet cappuccino finish. See full tasting note. Those who remember smoking cigars in the 1990s are probably familiar with Cuba Aliados. In 2021, the sleepy brand was purchased by Oliva Cigar Co. Rather than make the cigar in Nicaragua, Oliva contracted JRE Tobacco to produce the Cuba Aliados Original Blend. Despite the ReGordo’s girthy dimensions, this is an easygoing grande that leaves impressions of pepper and cedar with sweet vanilla, caramel and cinnamon. See full tasting note. Rolled at the Fuente factory in the Dominican Republic, this long “A” size from J.C. Newman is 8 1/2 inches long and the biggest on this list, but don’t be intimidated. Despite its size, the Robusto No. 1 is as mild as the Connecticut shade wrapper suggests, offering hours of nutty, floral smoke with a soft undercurrent of fresh tobacco. It’s perfect for that long, springtime stroll when the weather is just too nice to stay indoors. See full tasting note. Although Oliva Cigar Co.’s full-bodied lines such as Serie V or Serie V Melanio get all the press, the Gilberto Oliva Reserva Blanc is an elegant alternative. Named in honor of the company’s patriarch, who passed away in 2017, this brand was blended for subtlety, and the Torpedo delivers tasty notes of lemon, wood, cream and vanilla without overpowering the palate. See full tasting note. Topped with a small pigtail, this Honduran petit corona is aptly named as smoking this cigar should take up no more than your lunch hour at work. Retailing for less than $6 (before taxes), it’s the most affordable option on our list, and quite welcome, especially in this time of inflation. The combustion is slow and cool, and this little cigar imparts a very satisfying smoke, laden with notes of herbs, cedar, pecan and leather. See full tasting note. Topped with a knotted pigtail cap and made with an uncut foot, this tan Churchill from the Dominican Republic has all the rusticity of a farm-rolled cigar. The smoke is primarily herbal and woody but gains some welcome sweetness with dessert-like notes of cinnamon, vanilla and a prominent nuttiness that intensifies and follows through onto the finish. See full tasting note. The Cortado line marks two firsts for the non-Cuban Partagas brand: the first time Partagas cigars have ever featured an Ecuador Connecticut wrapper and the first time they’re made at the STG Estelí factory in Nicaragua (Partagas is usually made in the Dominican Republic). It’s a five-country blend with an Indonesian binder and filler from Honduras, Mexico and Nicaragua. A sweet note of graham cracker takes the lead accented by star anise and wood. See full tasting note. This tan toro from Ventura Cigar Co. is the milder off-shoot of its Psyko Seven brand. Made in the Dominican Republic, the cigar is composed of an Ecuador Connecticut wrapper, Dominican San Vicente binder and mix of Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers. It all amounts to a toasty smoke of nuts, oats and hints of black tea. See full tasting note.