In this story, we will explain why cigars taste the way they do specifically relating to how they are harvested and how that affects the flavor.
Welcome to Sigars.com, the cigar industry, an online marketplace for premium small-batch cigars delivered right to your door. When it comes to harvesting the tobacco that will eventually be used to create premium cigars there are two basic methods, the first being leaf priming and the second being stalk cutting.
Let’s start with the more common and popular method today, which is called leaf priming. The tobaccos that make up a premium cigar are derived from different primings. Priming when discussing tobacco refers to different sections of leaves on a tobacco plant, the number of findings varies, but six is the average.
The first priming is found closest to the bottom of the tobacco plant. The sixth is going to be closest to the top. The higher the priming, the stronger the tobacco thus, the stronger taste. The three main sections of a tobacco plant from the top to the bottom are the ligero, seco, and volado. They’re further broken down, adding sand leaf, viso, and corona. Tobacco plants also grow flowers, which are at the top of the plant.
These are normally pruned to draw in more nutrients to the rest of the plant for thicker healthier leaves while also limiting exposure to bugs. So when field workers are priming the tobacco plants, they start at the very bottom go in between the different rows, and snap off the leaves from the plant stalk, working from the bottom up in groups of three leaves at a time.
The tobacco workers know when the tobacco leaves are maturing because the green color starts to get a little lighter and the tip of the leaf begins to bend. The higher you go on a plant there are going to be three main things that are changing. First: the leaf colors are going to go from lighter to darker while the flavor and strength are going to go from mellow to full as well as more combustible to less combustible.
This is why the Volado portion is commonly used in fillers because, you know, you got to like that thing up for a nice smoke while the like ligero is used tighter on the inside.
The second most popular harvesting technique is called stalk cutting. Stalk cutting used to be the most popular harvesting method, but today is overall much less common. This entails harvesting the entire tobacco plant at once. By cutting close to the bottom stock, cutting methods were originally developed in areas where labor was either very expensive or scarce or for small independent growers who counted on their families to help them harvest.
During the curing process, the stalks are draped over long sticks and dried outdoors for 24 hours then moved to cure barns. One advantage of stalk cutting is that having the entire stalk intact, helps to fortify and feed the leaves while they air curing. During the air curing process, the stalks are draped over long sticks and dried outdoors for around 24 hours then moved into curing barns. So there you go. Next time you go and smoke a cigar with a friend you’re going to be able to be like, did you know that the most common harvest thinking is called leaf priming?
A cigar with friends is a commitment of your time to connect with distress and relax.
