How is a hand rolled Cuban cigar made?

This lady we saw in the center of Trinidad make a cigar by hand

A cigar is a tightly-rolled bundle of dried and fermented leaf tobacco which is rolled in a series of types and sizes that is ignited so that its smoke may be drawn into the mouth

Cigar tobacco is grown in significant quantities in the Vinale Valley in Cuba

Tobacco and other crops are cultivated on the bottom of the valley, mostly by traditional agriculture techniques

The origins of cigar smoking are still unknownIn Guatemala, a ceramic pot dating back to the tenth century features a Mayan smoking tobacco leaves tied together with a string

Sikar, the term for smoking used by the Maya may have inspired the name cigar

Cuban cigars bought in Havana

A Cuban cigar is considered by experts the best there is

We have therefore visited in Havana a cigar shop to buy a few cigars

During a visit to a cigar factory, we`ve seen how the cigars

were rolled and wrapped

Unfortunately we weren`t allowed to photograph and we couldn`t buy

cigars in the factory 

We visited a tobacco plantation in the Viñales valley

We visited a tobacco plantation in the Viñales valley

The tobacco farmer told us about the process of tobacco cultivation and showed us how he rolled a cigar

Click on the movie and you see it

The Viñales valley is growing, according to experts,

the best tobacco of the World

Since 1999 this valley is on the World Heritage List of UNESCO

The Pinar del Río province covers an area of ​​10.860 km ², has over 726.000 inhabitants and is situated in the extreme west of Cuba

Pinar del Río is, with seventy to eighty percent of the Cuban tobacco production, the main supplier of this famous Cuban product

The provincial capital is therefore called the

"Tobacco Capital of Cuba”

During the growth the flowers are cut out, so all the nutrients benefit to the leaves

Because not all the leaves are ripe at the same time, they are plucked one by one

The leaves are after harvesting bundled in size and structure and hung out to dry in a well ventilated tobacco barn

This causes the tobacco brew (ferment)

This process takes about 10 weeks and then the tobacco originated is often a little bitter

To improve the taste different varieties of tobacco are mixed

with each other

We were invited to drink a delicious cup of Cuban coffee and were allowed to see his house

The tobacco fields in the Vinales valley have red earth

We first drove up to the Hotel Los Jazmines to take photos and enjoy the beautiful view of the Vinales valley

Then we drove to the valley

In the Valley of Viñales, around the town of Vinales you find one of the most remarkable landscapes of Cuba

Between the upright, limestone pillars (Mogotes) in the dark red and very fertile soil, the best tobacco in the world grown

The plantations in Vinales growing, fermenting, drying and triaging here the tobacco leaves that are usually processed elsewhere in Cuba into quality cigars such as Cohiba and Montecristo

The valley was placed in 1999 on the World Heritage List of UNESCO