Cuba and Cigars | Curing & Fermentation |
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The
curing process of dark tobacco in Pinar del Rio
Process
of aging of dark tobacco
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Principles and foundations of aging
The aging of tobacco is a slow but very important and necessary process
to guarantee an appropriate balance among an important group of compounds
that will determine the presence which will allow the Habano to satisfy
the demands of the consumer.
For all those
people who are not experts in the cultivation of tobacco, the aging process
is only associated to the one that is carried out in special packings
that receive the name of bales in Cuba. However other moments exist mainly
in the industrial and commercialization processes. |
Packings
used in Cuba for the development of the aging phase (picture to the left).
They are built with yagua (bark of the royal palm). (Picture to the right).
In the industrial
process aging is verified in the cabinet (to see picture below left),
this aging doesn't take long duration of time, but it is important because
the cigar still has a high content of humidity and also in the boxes where
the final product is packed (to see picture below right) which are elaborated
with fine wood.
In
the warehouses and specifically in the humidors also the aging process
occurs.
It is well-known
that certain products of exceptional quality like cheeses, the pure cigars,
the good wine and other spirituous drinks require of a maturation process
and of deep qualitative changes that are known with the generic name of
fermentation and aging.
The concept
of aging can not be defined as if it were that of fermentation, because
in the first case neither the elevation of temperature due to the effect
of reactions of oxidation takes place, nor the losses of dry mass are
of consideration, for that reason the period of aging of dark tobacco
can vary from some months until several years.
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The process of aging of tobacco for wrappers and for fillers of pure cigars
Tobacco for
wrappers is aged in bales and the volume that it occupies is relatively
small, its mass oscillates between 45 and 50 kg. In the picture you can
appreciate the yaguas that are the material used for making the bales.
A good aging
requires at least to conjugate three factors appropriately: appropriate
humidity (it should never be very high), good compression of tobacco (see
pictures) and appropriate isolation of the external environmental conditions.
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