The cigar trade is remarkably involved and a lot of the protocols and processes utilize manual operations, meaning people are at the heart of the industry. That’s been true for centuries, maybe even longer, and it’s impressive — at least I think so — that most of the business still operates in this way. The cigar making process is still very much the same as it used to be hundreds of years ago.
One of the more interesting elements of the cigar trade is the manufacturing process behind the finished premium cigars you grab off a shelf and light up. Before that cigar ever reaches you, it has touched an average of 300 hands from seed to ash. I’m of the belief that you cannot truly respect the product, or the craft, without knowing all the effort that goes into creating a cigar.
A step-by-step breakdown of the cigar making process
Recently, we explored the different types of cigar tobacco that farmers and manufacturers produce. That guide also briefly details the cigar-making process: from planting a tobacco seed to cultivating it and rolling it into a cigar. But I wanted to give a much more detailed primer on the entire process, including more nuanced steps that go into preparing the tobacco for use in the average cigar. For instance, what is the priming stage, or what about the color sorting and pilone stages? If you’ve never heard of those, that’s exactly why I want to go into more detail.
Step one: Planting the seeds
Source: Briley Kenney / The BS Lounge
Source: Briley Kenney / The BS LoungeSource: Briley Kenney / The BS Lounge
True to any plant, the very first step involves planting the seed. What many people don’t know, and it’s quite surprising once you find out, is just how small a tobacco seed really is. If you’ve ever seen a tobacco plant, and how tall they grow, the contrast is remarkable. A single tobacco seed is about the size of a pin-head, and you can fit hundreds in your hand at once. In fact, a popular fact that gets tossed around is you can store about 1,000 tobacco seeds inside a thimble.
That also puts into perspective how so many Cuban emigrants were able to smuggle tobacco seeds out of the country during the mass exodus in the late 1950s.
Farmers initially plant tobacco seeds in seed beds, much like small potting trays. They don’t go right to the fields. They’re cared for regularly until they grow to a few inches high. Then, artisans sift through the adolescent plants to weed out impure or unwanted varieties, repotting them until they’re big enough to move to the fields. Finally, they transplant the tobacco to the fields in organized rows, allowing them to grow to their massive full height.
Once they’re a certain size, usually pretty close to full grown, cultivators will begin priming the leaves by trimming or removing them in stages. Typically, priming begins from the bottom of the plant, moving up the central stalk. This allows the upper or top leaves increased exposure to the sun, enabling them to receive more nutrients.
Some tobacco varieties are chopped down from the bottom of the plant without primings, including the stalk — these are called Stalk-cut tobaccos. This is done with Broadleaf and Mexican San Andrés tobaccos, for example.
After priming or harvesting, workers move the tobacco leaves to the curing barn. On many farms, the barns are called casas de tabaco. When building the barns, farmers place the doors or open sides so they’re facing east and west to allow for optimal air circulation.
Workers tie the tobacco leaves in pairs or bundles and hang them in rows using sticks called cujes, or lathes. They remain in the curing barn for four to ten weeks. The airflow “cures” the tobacco, removing or reducing certain properties. Fermentation removes sugar, chlorophyll (the chemical compound that makes the leaves green), and some moisture. Over time, the leaves achieve their signature dark or rich brown colors as they dry out and cure.
In my opinion, this is one of the more unique processes in cigar-making and it’s really cool to witness.
Step four: Pilone or piling the dry leaves
When ready, the leaves are removed from the curing barn and piled up to support the fermentation process. Manufacturers use a pilone to do this because thousands of pounds of tobacco stacked up creates pressure. That, in turn, creates natural heat, which is necessary for fermentation to begin.
Try to imagine huge bales or piles of dry tobacco leaves stacked on top of one another in tight configurations.
Step five: Actual fermentation
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Fermentation is when the cigar tobacco really starts to take shape and gain some of its robust and nuanced flavor. Natural heat and pressure ferment the leaves, removing mostly ammonia, moisture, and impurities during the process. Fermentation can happen anywhere from 60 to 90 days up to months or even years. The stretch of time depends on the type of tobacco and the intended results.
However, workers do not leave the pilones or stacks unattended for the entire time. At various stages of the fermentation process, leaves are rotated to encourage equal fermentation. Leaves from the bottom of the pile move to the top and vice versa. Throughout the process, someone monitors the internal temperatures. When the pilone reaches a certain threshold, workers rotate the leaves.
Step six: Baling the fermented tobacco
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What do farmers do with hay when they’re ready to trade or ship it out? They roll it into functional bales. That’s the same idea behind baling the fermented tobacco. When it’s ready, workers take the leaves and stack them inside wooden crates or cardboard boxes.
Sometimes, workers will lay burlap or nylon sheets between the wood and the leaves. When the bales hit a specific weight, workers compress the leaves and seal the bundles using the burlap or nylon sheets.
Step seven: Aging the tobacco
The tobacco bales are moved to a warehouse or storage space and left to age from months to years. The length of time varies from crop to crop. Aging the tobacco removes some harshness, refining it to create a smoother, more enjoyable crop.
Step eight: Bunching the aged tobacco
Source: Briley Kenney / The BS Lounge
Source: Briley Kenney / The BS LoungeSource: Briley Kenney / The BS Lounge
Source: Briley Kenney / The BS Lounge
After aging, cigar factory workers called “Buncheros” will build a custom blend of filler and binder tobacco leaves. Don’t confuse this with the cigar rolling process, which comes later. Bunching is divided into three distinct methods:
Entubar – Filler tobaccos are rolled into the shape of a cylinder and then roller into a binder in the same shape.
Accordion – Buncheros fold the edges of the filler tobaccos inward, stack the leaves and then wrap them in the binder, giving them an accordion-like structure.
Book making – Buncheros stack the filler leaves flat and then fold them, like a book, with the binder wrapped around the bundle.
This process essentially preps the tobacco for the rollers and makes it easier for them to do their tasks.
Step nine: Rolling the cigar
Source: Briley Kenney / The BS Lounge
Source: Briley Kenney / The BS LoungeSource: Briley Kenney / The BS Lounge
Source: Briley Kenney / The BS Lounge
We’ve moved into the actual construction of the cigars in the cigar making process.
Cigar rollers, called “Rolleras,” take the pre-bunched tobacco leaves, apply the wrapper, and roll it all into the correct cigar shape. They do this at near unfathomable speeds in a quality factory. If you ever have the chance to see cigar rollers in action, it’s incredible. They produce bundles of hundreds upon hundreds of cigars per hour and the rolling rooms are usually vast and filled with lots of rolling pairs.
Step ten: Color sorting
Most brands color sort the finished products, especially the bigger cigar manufacturers. The blend in the cigar could be exactly the same, meaning the same tobacco leaves across the board. Still, they color sort the cigars.
This step serves a couple of purposes. First, it helps ensure that all cigars packaged and bundled inside a box are the same shade or color. This uniformity gives them the premium presentation we’re all used to. Second, it allows artisans to discover and remove cigars with blemishes, damage, and other imperfections. Most of the time, the color sorting area is well lit or basks in natural light.
Step eleven: The aging room
Workers move the finished cigars into the aging room and leave them, once again, to age and refine some more. Aging rooms are typically climate-controlled and lined with Spanish cedar, not unlike a humidor. This stage of the process can last between several weeks to many years. When you hear a manufacturer say that a limited edition release has been aged ten years, for example, those cigars were sitting in the aging room for that period. Sometimes, this part of the cigar making process is longer than all the other stages combined.
Master blenders and cigar sommeliers will be the first to tell you, aging the finished cigars “marry” the taste profile. This is where the flavors and aromas become more uniform, mellowing and smoothing out to become the finished blend that you, as the consumer, get to experience.
The Final stages of the cigar making process
Source: Briley Kenney / The BS LoungeSource: Briley Kenney / The BS Lounge
Source: Briley Kenney / The BS Lounge
If they haven’t already been packaged up, the cigars are removed from the aging room, sealed up accordingly, and sent to retailers and lounges across the world. That’s officially the end of the cigar making process.
This is your time. This is when you’re able to purchase the cigars, bring them home to your humidor, or smoke them in the lounge. Enjoy!
Briley has over 16 years in the publishing and content marketing business. He's been writing about cigars for nearly half that in various forms. What makes him a tour de force is he also smokes them.
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