Nobody can deny that Cuba has the supremacy of teh tabacco industry. The famous Cigars, celebrated worldwide for its aroma and flavor, presence and quality, are coveted every where.The history is very well-known: John F. Kennedy, former president of the United States, before signing the embargo against Cuba in 1963, ordered his assistant to buy all the cigars of Washington. He was an inverterate smoker. Nobody knows if Kennedy himself deceived the rigors of the blockade, acquiring Cigars in another market. But the truth is that all obstinate American smokers have constantly avoid the laws that harass the small neighboring country if they want to enjoy the exceptional aroma of a cuban cigar.

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Since the tobacco was descovered by those who arrived from Old Continent, Cuba was called the tobacco paradise, a myth that has stayed in tiem. The essence between the Cuban tobacco and the ones cultivated in other regions of the planet is in fact the plant that is cultivated in lands that exist only in this country. The worldwisde known Cuba Cigar are the best in their class because in them converge three ideal conditions for its existence: the land, the climate and the knowledge and abilites accumalated by the producers during centuries.

In the beginnings, the tobacco had some mystery. It was also used as medicine, food, for rites, as religious offering or as gift. Many people say it has miraculous powers.

Christopher Columbus wrote about tobacco in his diary. The residents from the primitive Cuba gave him some mallets of leaves that he didn´t know how to identify at that moment. Later on, he compared and verified them with other Indo American places: it was the tabacco, cultivated in the Caribbean and Latin America.

However, cuban tobacco had a mistery. The magic of the Cigar begins in the plantations. This is a long process that embraces the tobacco makiing, that will end in the factories. The tobacconist is some sort of a goblin, a person with a special talent, provided of secrets that he transmits to his family and generations. It is like a gift to communicate with the land and the seeds. Not everybody can be a tobacconist. It is necessary to have master, talent, love and intuition.

The cultivation it consists of several stages: The preparation of the land, in which the ground is broken up several times until achieving slight and candid solis. They should be near a water soucer, since humidity is very important.

Another stage is the seed care, because the seed is one of the things that should be best preserved for the cultivation. It is also essential the cleaning of the land and transplant to eliminate the weeds and to impede the devastation fo the leaves.

The plantation must be taken care seriously, administring the proper amount of water, and proctecting it from the excessive sun, the rain and the grass. The harvest is the most important process. It requires a titanic effort and an extreme care. A violation in this step is paid espensive: never will have good tobacco. Little will be twister able to do to convertg the leaves in an aromatic and competitive product. There are secrets: the mature leaves, from down to up.

Two types of plants: In Cuba are cultivated the Corojo and the Creole. From the Corojo is extracted the gut and the cape, the inner part of the cigar. From the Creole is used the layer. The two varieties receive different treatments in the cultivation.

Cue to the air: The cut tobacco leaves are taken to the tobacco houses, its first laboratory after its cultivation in the plantations. But this process, at least in Cuba, is carried out in a natural way. It requires extreme surveillance so that the leaves are no damaged. It is necessary to take care of temperature, humidity and light. It is the final cure of the tobacco. Then the first fermentation takes care. The cured and dehydrated leaves asre gathered in the mallets and they are transported to the fermetation house. They are pilled up in big bundles of half meter high. They remain there during 30 days.

The removal of veins and steams and classification: Te removal of veins and steams is a singular process, It requires a classification for classes and grades. The classification responds to three features: color, texture and leaf type. Then, the second fermentation takes place. It has as purpose to purify the tobacco and to subject it to a chemical process that strenghts even more its flavor and aroma, and eliminates the impurities accumulated in the previous phases. The gut leaves should rest for some days. They are placed in shelves or parrilleras. Then the tripe is packed in jute sacks, and layers in some cubic packages called tercio, where they are aged during two years. Once properly classified, they receive the necessary preservation and the periodic fumigation.

The cultivation and cure process have concluded. The leaves are ready to be received in their new palace: the tobacco factory, to pass to hands of the new magicians: the cigar maker.
The production: Now the next artisti intervene: the cigar maker, the despalillador ( one who removes the veins and steams) and the tier. They are the ones that guarantee the flavor, the scent, the mark, the elegance and the art of packing the cigar. In their hands is where the cuban tobacco becomes the best cigar of the world.

The twisting of the tobacco is the most important stage: the art of tobacco making is decisive in this process. The job is resrved for the best tobacconists, because a great deal of talent is required. There are lots of things to take into account such as the size, the gross and the appearance. Each branch has it exaxt measure and the tobaccos should pass by a space because each cigar band has it own measure.

The cigars are classified in five colors: light, red, light red, mature red and mature. Without irs ring, the tobacco doesn´t have commercial and public value, although it smells and taste s the best in the world. You can choose the mark, the cigar band , the name, the series, the yea, the legend. You will be able to smoke it at your favorite hours, because it will always be a splendid cigar, intimitable, the best tobaccos of the world