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In the beginning, there was darkness. I am without form, but a great plan is in the works. With the expertise of my creators and the help of the earth, I will multiply and eventually be transformed into a premium cigar wrapper. Join me on my journey – my destination is pure pleasure.
Many mornings and evenings go by until I find myself as a tiny round shape amongst my hundreds of thousands of siblings from our mother plant. For some of us, it takes eight years of research and crossbreeding by our creators to get here. Only the best 10 percent of us are sown in a comfy growing tray in the greenhouses. We’re looked after daily, and I grow. So much so that I change shape to a little seedling that needs trimming. I’m of the Dominican San Vicente family, meaning I’m taller than my Olor or Piloto companions. After about 45 days, it’s time for my siblings and me to explore the real world: the tobacco fields.
Skilled agronomists place us a foot length apart in soil, which they’ve already prepared months ago. I grow best in the shade, which is why we get protected by a cloth. An economic drip irrigation system waters us regularly. We thrive in these wonderful surroundings, since our agronomists regularly feed our field its customized nutrition formula. During the day, we’re busy with photosynthesis, but at night we rest and recover. I soon weigh 20 million times more than when I was a little seed.
I mainly consist of leaves now. Sometimes I grow little flower buds, which are removed so I can put all my energy into the big leaves. After around 50 days, we start to bow towards the soil to thank it for nourishing us. That’s when the farmers start harvesting. They take only two of my leaves every three days. First from my lower part, uno y medio, then from my middle, centro largo and centro corto, and finally my upper corona leaves. Quality cannot be rushed.
In the curing barns, experts hand-sew our leaves onto a bamboo stick, so we can dry evenly. We can take all the time we need here to change color from green to yellow to brown. We lose 60 percent of mainly water weight but gain all the more flavor. It’s dark and quiet, except for the three daily temperature and humidity checks done by the agronomists. It’s a joy to rest here while our chemical composition changes. After roughly 45 days, we leave the barn.
After a quick and enjoyable visit to the sauna, where I get rehumidified with vapor, I’m now reunited with my many grown companions in a person-high fermentation pile. It’s pretty warm – I sweat out nicotine, essential oils and other nitro elements and evolve in structure and color. This supports my combustion and smoothness in the cigar later. We get flipped by hand every month, which takes 32 hours. We go through two fermentations and stay in the pile for a total of two years, during which we are checked daily, as our temperature mustn’t rise above 50° Celsius [122° Fahrenheit]. Our master blenders test us regularly for flavor, combustion, color, and elasticity.
We’re then taken to the warehouse to rest in tobacco bales. Depending on the cigar that we will dress, we stay here for up to five years. But we’re never alone. The master blenders come in regularly to test how we taste and combust. Pleasant for us, but a lot of work for them – all bales combined, we weigh 2,600 tons!
The moment of truth: Do I meet the high quality standards to become part of a Davidoff cigar? We’re checked and sorted by texture, color, and grade, and I’m proud to be amongst the selected few to make it.
Before the big moment, I am weighed to ensure consistency in all cigars. I know I’m in good hands, as the two rollers responsible for us have been mastering their trade successfully for over 10 years already. This is where I meet friends from the Dominican Piloto and Olor families. I’m the last one to join the party, as we wrapper leaves provide the final touch in the taste and appearance of a cigar. The white band we receive in the end is our award for excellence.
We rest for another three months and are checked again. Every cigar in a box needs to look the same, so we are again classified by color and appearance. After 170 individual steps and the 300 skilled hands that check our journey, we’re finally at the finish line and ready to be enjoyed by you. We took our time so we can fill yours beautifully.
