One of the products that attracts the curiosity of all those who arrive in Cuba is the Havana Cigar, one of the most characteristic products of the island, whose history is indissolubly intertwined with the history of the Cuban nation.
Tobacco (Nicotiana Tabacum) is a plant native to South America (specifically near Lake Titicaca), widespread in all pre-Columbian civilizations: the Aborigines used it as a medicinal leaf to treat various diseases and used its smoke in religious rites.
One of the sailors who arrived in the New World with Christopher Columbus in 1492, Rodrigo de Jerez, was responsible for introducing the habit of smoking this leaf in Europe.
Native people rolled up palm or corn leaves, putting tobacco inside, then lit one end and “drank” the smoke from the other.
Jerez, back in Europe, introduced this custom but the Spanish Inquisition judged his habit “sinful and infernal”, imprisoning him.
When released, seven years later, the smoking habit had already spread.
The Church struggled for many years to combat tobacco in Spain and other European countries, but already by the mid-16th century, the habit of smoking had become a fashion for all social classes. Even Jean Nicot, one of the ambassadors of the Queen of France, Catherine de’ Medici, brought her not only the leaves but also the seeds to alleviate her usual migraine.
Unsurprisingly, the famous Swedish naturalist Linnaeus decided to derive the scientific name of the curious botanical species (Nicotiana Tabacum) from the diplomat’s surname.
Today, tobacco is widespread all over the world, and it is indisputable that over a hundred countries grow this plant, using large quantities of resources, means and people for cigar production.
Superior quality, however, is usually associated with the craftsmanship of certain particular pieces, called “puros” (pure Cuban cigars). They are carefully rolled and made with an exceptional raw material that distinguishes CUBA, rightly considered the epitome of fine tobacco, thanks to its spectacular HAVANA CIGARS.
Indeed, it is worth emphasizing that when we talk about Havana, in the commercial sector of tobacco, the reference is solely for the prized Cuban cigars because, as specialists usually say: HAVANA is an unattainable category outside the territory of the big island and this is not only due to the wisdom of cultivators and rollers but also to particular natural conditions.
The tobacco with the necessary qualities to make a HAVANA comes from specific areas of Cuba.
Only in the region known as Vuelta Abajo (in the province of Pinar del Rio), in small areas of the central provinces (Sancti Spiritus and Villa Clara), and in the province of Santiago de Cuba (on the south-eastern side) are there suitable grounds for this production.
In a “pure” HAVANA, all the tobacco that is used is of the Cuban black tobacco type, descending directly from the plants discovered by Columbus on October 27, 1492.
However, it takes two types of leaves for these cigars, in which they are grown differently: on one hand, there is the covered tobacco, which grows under a fine net of cloth that allows the plants to absorb the heat from the strong tropical sun: through the net, the light is filtered, and with this process you get huge and thin leaves that you choose to make the “Capas” of the “pure” HAVANA. These are in fact, the most expensive leaves in the entire global cigar industry.
The rest of the “puros” instead roll with the so-called sun tobacco (divided into “tripe” and “hood”), which is also highly prized.
First, you need to plant the strain in the nursery and carefully treat it for a month and a half until it reaches about 15 centimeters in height. Subsequently, they are transferred to real plantations, whose land must be plowed several times over two and a half months.
The harvesting of the leaves is done gradually as they grow on the plant, but they are not all picked at once. Instead, an effort is made to give them the necessary time to become sufficiently large.
Typically, two or three leaves are removed at a time, from the bottom to the top, in a process that begins forty days after moving from the nursery to the plantation.
From the moment of harvest, these leaves are hung on wires that lie inside rustic huts (casas de tabaco or Vegas), so that they can slowly dry in another meticulous and entirely natural process called “secado”, which can last ten, fifteen or even more than eighteen months. Only when they are completely dried and have acquired the characteristic brown color are these chosen leaves used for the production of “puros”.