The introductory article Tobacco Leaves and Blends (Part I) was born out of my growing interest in the art of selecting and blending tobacco leaves. I mean, every time I light up a Ramon Allones Specially Selected (RASS) I can’t help but stare at the wrapper and wonder, “How do they do it?” It’s not necessarily the premium quality that gets me, but the fact that every RASS I have ever had looked identical to the other. Not only the wrapper color is consistent, but more importantly the texture of the leaf, the oiliness of the surface, even its thickness and combustion are consistent; and when it comes to the smoke… well, I don’t have to tell you that I could be blindfolded and know it’s a Ramon Allones. In this continuation of Tobacco Leaves and Blends we pick up were we left off in part I: the sorting and classification center.

The partially fermented leaves arrive from the farms in two forms. Leaves to be used as wrappers arrive in small tightly packed bundles, whereas the binders and fillers arrive all crumpled up length-wise, like a mountain of little brown sticks. From this point on, regardless of its ultimate role, each leaf will go through the same rigorous steps.

Before being freely handled, the fragile leaves have to be re-humidified at the Mojado; a section of the workshop that is set up for irrigation. Keeping a relatively high humidity from this point on is important to facilitate their handling as well as to aid their ongoing fermentation.

Following this, each leaf must go to the Planchado; where they will be unfolded and flattened by hand, one by one, in order to make the entire leaf discernible for selection. Just bare in mind that we’re talking about thousands of leaves here.

At this point comes the Escogida, and this is where every leaf will be carefully inspected and classified. It’s interesting that for the most part, this kind of detailed work is left to the female workers of the shop; it turns out that they believe a certain amount of finesse is required for the task, a quality that is not overwhelmingly associated with men (if you’ve ever forgotten a wedding anniversary, I need to say nothing further). But whatever the reason, I think we all agree that the system works wonderfully.

The women will sit at their posts (fifty to a shop, sometimes more), surrounded by piles and piles of leaves, until every leaf is assigned to a class. Most, if not all, have worked at this trade since childhood. Of course children do go to school, but it is very common for children to join their parents at the Escogida after school and on holidays; and so, they literally grow up in the trade, so much so, that they will look and feel one leaf out of a thousand and immediately get a sense of its more subtle characteristics, like strength, body, and taste profile. Is it a Partagas, or a Cohiba? It’s only a day’s work to them now, but they get it right every time.

Of course they don’t really think in terms of individual brand labels when they organize the leaves into various classes. So in part III of Tobacco Leaves and Blends I hope to get into the various classes of tobacco leaves that are selected at the Escogida and continue with the remaining steps.