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Published: June 20th 2017
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Geo: 23.1168, -82.3886
Jeff here:
I didn't feel great when I left for today's activities, but well enough to participate and I did not want to miss the cigar factory.
The El Corona cigar factory was founded in 1842 and has been in continuous production since. There are currently 650 employees in the factory, of which 350 are "rollers". To completely master the cigar rolling process takes 5-8 years (!) - the oldest roller at El Corona is 73.
Before the tobacco leaves used in the cigars reach the factory the tobacco farmers have fermented them for up to 9 months and then the leaves are aged 1-5 years.
A cigar is not made simply by rolling up tobacco leaves, but each cigar or type of cigar follows a specific recipe. The flavor of the cigar is based on the recipes of the proportion of leaves from the top, middle and lower part of the tobacco plant. The cigars we saw being rolled were a recipe of two bottom leaves, two middle leaves and 1/2 of a top leaf. There are two methods of cigar making (chopped and long) and El Corona uses the long method which involves laying the leaves lenghtwise onto an
outer leaf to be rolled. This allows the air to flow up the center of the cigar when inhaled. The chopped (and I'm not sure that is the right word, but it was how it was described) method involves chopping the leaves and then placing them in the outer leaf to be rolled. This method is more economical as it is most often automated and give the cigar a harder draw because the air doesn't flow as freely through the leaves.
A fascinating part of the process was how the tips were made and put onto the cigars. The rollers carefully applied some sort of waxy adhesive on the end of the cigar then using a piece of tobacco leaf about the size of a half dollar, placed the tip leaf just so on the cigar end, and wound it tightly completing the cigar.
The 350 rollers at this factory turn out up to 10,000 cigars a day!
No photos were permitted at this stop, but I slipped away to surrepetiously take a photo of a mural in the entrance way of the cigar making process. Sneaky me, as I finished taking the photo I glanced up and saw a security camera
pointed right at me.
Hurried back to join the rest of the group...
(A note from Jane: the cigar factory photos you see below were ones we took at a factory in Little Havana, Miami, FL)
Our next stop was a visit to the Fuster House to see the ornate tile work throughout the house and in the yard. The decorative tile artwork concept has been adopted by the neighborhood and now over 100 homes have added some element of this style to their property. Some is quite artistic, some is kitschy and some is just bizarre.
We had lunch with a famous retired Cuban baseball player (and his interpreter). He played from the 1970s into the early 1980s. I'm not a sports person, so not only do I not remember what position he played, I don't remember his name. Jane would have loved this!
Finally, back to the hotel, where I promptly got sick - just the one time - and woke Jane up mostly to make sure she was still alive. I called Stevyn, our guide, to let him know that neither of us was well enough to go to dinner and then I, too, went to bed. Before laying down
though, I set my phone alarm to wake us in 90 minutes. We need to pack up our stuff because I'm not sure what shape we'll be in tomorrow morning and having it done ahead of time will let us sleep a few minutes longer.
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