Blending 101 By kuzi16 Published: Tue July 8, 2008 8:02pm PrintEmail
Does it start with an Idea? Does it start with a featured leaf? Yes. Either you have an idea on what the taste you want to be or you have a leaf that you want to showcase. At this point you roll your first test cigars. If it is a taste that you are after, you use the knowledge of your years of experience to get your idea rolling. Without fail your first blend will not be exactly what you want. If your cigar is too strong you must add a bit of lighter tobacco. If it has not enough spice you need to ad a bit of tobacco that has spice to it. Depending on what kind of changes you want to make in the flavor profile you can change different factors. For example, taming down the power of a cigar is a common issue. You can make a cigar milder in many ways: You can get tobacco from a different country. You can get tobacco that is shade grown. You can get tobacco that has more age on it. You can get tobacco that is a lower priming (maybe the first or second). You can also have any combination of the just recently listed options. There are so many options out there its mind boggling. The best way to learn how to blend is to become very familiar with all aspects of tobacco and how it is made into a cigar. With this article I will try and bring to light some of the basics of what needs to be known to blend a cigar. Keep in mind that I am by no means an expert blender. In fact, I am a novice cigar smoker with too much passion and too much time on my hands. Some of this info you have seen before. Some may be new.
Wrapper/Filler. Of course, how much and what kind of tobacco you use will impact the flavor. It is widely understood that a good percentage of the flavor comes from the wrapper leaf. Depending on the strength of the wrapper leaf it can be about 40%-60% of the flavor. (If not more) That means that 60%-40% of the flavor still comes from the filler. Within the filler itself, having the right amount of different leaves is critical. Most of the strength of a cigar comes from the filler. Much of the complexity is in the filler. The filler is the chance to take the focal flavor in the wrapper and give it some life.
Some of the first decisions in making a blend will probably have to do with what country or region the tobacco will come from.
Country/Region Let’s start with the biggie: Cuban tobacco. Cuban tobacco is usually described as spicy and more full bodied. It is highly aromatic, and usually complex. In my opinion there is nothing amazing about the tobacco itself, it’s just a very good version of tobacco. The "forbidden fruit" makes it more tempting. Don’t get me wrong, if Cubans weren’t so hard to get id smoke em as often as I could.
The DR: this country produces a lot of tobacco and it seems that many of the strains from the DR originated in Cuba. This combo tends to yield some very complex cigars. I find Dominican tobacco to be not as spicy or as full bodied as Cuban. The best cigar I have ever had was a Dominican puro.
Ecuador: this region's tobacco is usually a bit on the mild side compared to the same strain grown in other areas. Personally I find cigars with primarily Ecuadorian tobacco a bit on the "simple" side. Not to say it isn’t good, because it is (the 5 Vegas Limitada uses it as a wrapper) it’s just a touch mild.
Honduras: this is one of my favorite areas to have tobacco from. The tobacco is full bodied and round in flavor. Spice is hit or miss. The aroma is usually strong.
Mexico: Not usually known for its amazing tobacco. The leaves are strong and stand up to fermentation well. They are also used as binder because of the heartiness
Nicaragua: This tobacco is very close to Honduran tobacco. I find it less "round" than Honduran but don’t get me wrong, it’s still some of the best tobacco in the world.
Connecticut: one of the widest used wrappers in the industry. Usually on the mild side. Connecticut shade is more elastic and Connecticut broadleaf is heavier and has more veins. Broadleaf is a common go-to for the maduro process.
Indonesia: Most Sumatran tobacco comes from Indonesia. The tobacco is "neutral" in nature. There isn’t usually too much of any one flavor. This sometimes can be described as a "classic" tobacco taste
Cameroon: this region also produces very "neutral" tobacco. It is originally a Sumatran seed that was imported to the area so it has the characteristics of the Sumatran strain just tamed down even more. Because of the neutrality of the leaf it can be used to bind/wrap very complex fillers.
The differences in country are due to climate, elevation, weather and soil conditions. Each of those factors effect the tobacco differently. It is entirely possible to have tobacco come from two different parts of the same country and taste different. However, for the purpose of this thread, I won’t be getting that detailed.
The tobacco itself has almost all come down from a Cuban tradition.
Types of Tobacco There are a few major types of tobacco used in cigar production. Most have derived from the two big plants used in Cuba: Criollo and Corojo. All other tobaccos in the world are descendants from these two plants. Through natural selection and genetic engineering most other strains of tobacco were “created” The Criollo strain can be documented all the way back to Columbus’s visits to the Caribbean. It is the classic Cuban tobacco. It is rich and round in flavor with a spice to it. The Corojo tobacco plant is a derivation of the Criollo. It was created in Cuba through natural selection to resist mold. The taste is a bit more barnyard (in a good way) and it still has a spice to it. Connecticut broadleaf is a common wrapper and binder leaf. It is usually a bit on the mild side and has a tendency to be vegetal in flavor. There is little to no spice. The Sumatra seed is also a common wrapper for cigars. The flavor is a bit more even and there is a little spice to it It is possible to plant a Connecticut seed in Honduras. This will taste like a standard Connecticut leaf but will take on some of the characteristic of the Honduran growing region. This specific example could give you a “mild but round” flavor.
Priming Another factor in the blending process is the priming of the leaf. The higher the priming, the greater the exposure to the sun, the longer it stays on the plant and the stronger the tobacco. The first priming of the tobacco plant is the lowest leaf on the plant. It is the closest to the ground and gets less sun. The second priming is the next two leaves above; the third priming are the 4th and 5th up from the ground, and so on. There are up to 8 primings of a tobacco plant depending on what type of plant it is.
Age/Fermentation Most tobacco reacts the same way to the ageing process. Age smoothes out the taste and mellows the tobacco as well. The longer it ages the mellower and smoother it will be.
Once the tobacco is picked it is set aside to ferment and/or age. Not only does this change the color but it changes the flavor profile. A maduro process is different than just aging. Maduro also “cooks” the tobacco. The bales of tobacco are tightly packed. This high pressure causes heat within the bale and the tobacco cooks. The tobacco gets darker and the sugars are drawn out. The tobacco mellows a bit. Many people believe that the darker a cigar is the stronger it is. This is not true. It is actually quite the opposite. A maduro leaf will be a bit mild and sweet compared to the same leaf that has not gone through the maduro process.
This brings up the tangent of Oscuro vs. maduro. Maduro has more to do with the fermentation where as Oscuro wrapper leaves are taken from the top priming or medio tiempo (literally “half time,” meaning they’ve been left on the plant 50% longer). Since these leaves have been exposed to a maximum amount of sunlight, they begin to cure on the plant. You end up with a darker, thicker, richer and more flavorful leaf than that of a pure maduro.
Now that you have your test cigars rolled, it is time to get tasting. Every little nuance of the cigar is noted. Qualities that are undesirable are identified. Some tobacco is taken out and some is added. Since there are virtually endless combinations of growing region/seed/priming/age/fermentation, a complete understanding will get you a cigar that is worth smoking. There could be hundreds of test blends.
This concept of factors beyond growing region influencing flavor is what gave us the Perdomo lot 23. The cigar is made from only tobacco that came from one field. There is exactly one growing region in this cigar, and one type of plant. Complexity comes from blending different primings and how the tobacco is aged.
Each individual leaf has its own character. How it tastes is made up of all the elements above (plus some not mentioned in detail). The real key in blending is having very discerning taste and an incredible understanding of how everything affects tobacco. This short essay could (in theory) be the beginning of a life long study of the plant and cigars. Many people study the concept of blending all their lives and only a few of those are going to be considered the great blenders of their time. - 728 Views - View Comments (0)
