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Blending
How a master blender arrives at the blend you love
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Blending can be defined as the
mixing of different types of tobacco according to a precise
recipe, to produce a cigar with certain desirable
characteristics. The genetical make up of the varieties, the
soil in which they were grown, the amount and quality of the
nutrients given them, the irrigation regimen, the attention to
detail during their agricultural cycle, their ripeness at
harvest, the curing and fermentation procedures, the sorting and
finishing, as well as the environment will determine the quality
of tobacco leaves. |
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After curing and fermentation, the leaves contain organic acids
and other organic constituents. These include carbohydrates,
nitrogen and other elements, as proteins, alkaloids,
polyphenols, resins, oils, paraffin, pigments and other the
chemical compounds. Variations in these constituents create a
Pandora's box of variables in tobacco.
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The most obvius of these are taste,
flavor, bouquet, and aroma. Tobacco can also be heavy-, medium-,
or mild-bodied. Too, aggressiveness of the smoke on the tongue
and upper throat ... evidence of incorrect or inadequate curing
and/or fermentation ... degrades the quality of a cigar. |
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Taste differs from flavor; bouquet
(arguably) differs from aroma. The tongue perceives taste, and
only recognizes sweetness (at the tongue's tip), bitterness
(back of the tongue), saltiness (between the two), and acidity
(sides of the tongue). In contrast, flavor stimulates the taste
buds and the olfactory nerves ... the tongue and nose.
Consequently, flavor is more complex than taste, and contributes
to what we call satisfaction. Likewise, many in our industry
define aroma as the smell ... hopefully pleasant ... noted by
others when we smoke; bouquet is what we smell when we smoke. |
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The number of different taste and flavor
characteristics that can be produced in a blend is almost
infinite. Because a blend usually contains different types of
tobacco, the blender's job is critically important and largely
responsible for the commercial success of a finished premium
cigar. The precise composition of a blend depends on the master
blender's knowledge of the organoleptic (genetic coding)
characterof the wrapper, binder and long filler to produce a
premium cigar in response to consumer demand, as determined by
market research. The master blender determines the composition
of a blend, and who matches the qualities of the tobaccos
available to those of the desired finished product. |
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The burning properties of the tobaccos for
wrapper, binder, and filler are equally important. Does the
cigar burn at a proper rate, neither too fast nor too slow? Do
the wrapper, binder, and filler burn at the same rate? Is the
burn zone ... the black ring at the wrapper's boundary between
ash and unburned leaf ... razor-narrow, or is it wide, even
hanging out over the coal like a pouting lip? What color is the
ash, and how firm is it? Is it smooth, streaked with black, or
cracked? |
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All these characteristics are of concern to the
blender, and usually demand compromises ... to get one quality,
he must sacrifice performance in another area. The
considerations in optimizing all of these can be incredibly
complex, and it isn't a game for rookies. John Vogel, our guide
for this series of articles on tobacco farming, leaf processing,
and cigar manufacturing, is the director of Costa Rican-based
Tabacos de la Cordillera. He has a formal education, first-hand
experience and expertise in all phases of tobacco and cigars ...
cross-breeding his exclusive bank of pre-Embargo Cuban seeds to
obtain proprietary hybrids, planting, natural fertilization and
pest control, curing, fermentation, and all aspects of making
cigars from that leaf. Significant to the writing of this
article, he also is the company's master blender. |
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Vogel explains, "Blending may be the most arcane
of all the various aspects of tobacco cultivation and cigar
production ... how a blender predicts in advance how a cigar
blend will turn out; how he systematically mixes an endless
variety of different tobaccos to create a blend; how a cigar
buncher can repeat a consistent blend, by seemingly only
slapping a handful of leaves together. Out of apparent chaos,
what ensures a superior, consistent product? |
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"The blending process is not just a
helter-skelter series of mixing combinations of leaves together
at random. Instead, it follows an orderly and scientific set of
procedures. First, the blender rolls several cigars from
varieties of cured and fermented leaves he plans to choose from.
The higher its quality, the more important it is to test the
potential tobaccos individually, not only for their inherent
properties of smell, taste and fire-holding capacity, but also
for their external characteristics like color, elasticity,
hygroscopicity and filling capacity. Thus, each of these initial
cigars contains only one variety of tobacco in the wrapper,
filler, and binder. Obviously, he must have not only a sensitive
and discriminating palate, but also one with a good memory." |
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Once he has established this base line
performance of each variety, the combining process gets too
complicated to describe. Vogel continues: "In summary, the
blender rolls and samples dozens of combinations of tobacco, not
only between different varieties, but also in different
proportions of leaves from different levels on the plants. A
tobacco plant is 'primed' (cut) over a period of several days,
from the beginning of the harvest to its end. The
first-harvested seco (bottom) leaves are the most fragrant, but
least powerful. Going up the plant with each priming .. usually
3-5 leaves at a time ... through the viso (middle) leaves, to
the most resinous and powerful, but least flavorful or aromatic
ligero leaves at the plant's top, the blender must balance the
blend. Suffice it to say that the blender's palate compares a
multiplicity of tastes and strengths, before settling on the
best balance." |
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Vogel points out one advantage a cigar
manufacturer that grows its own tobacco has, explaining, "Such a
vertically-integratedcompany can separatethe leaves from each
priming, while companies that buy their tobacco from others know
only that they are buying seco, viso, or ligero, not from which
priming in each category. The flavor and strengh of the leaves
in each priming differ from those in other primings, and
separating them more specifically means finer tuning and thus,
greater consistency, cigar to cigar. |
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"The burn rate of the cigar overall, and
individual burn rates of the filler, binder, and wrapper with
respect to each other, are also an important measure of the
tobacco's quality and suitability. Part of the blender's job is
to determine these burn characteristics, to balance a blend. To
do so, the blender ignites a place on the fermented leaf ...
often by touching it with a cigar coal, conveninetly waiting in
his mouth ... and observes the time for the glowing rim of the
expanding hole to die out. A leaf burn of 20 seconds is near the
minimum that may be satisfactorily used as a cigar wrapper. |
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"A filler leaf with an average leaf-burn burn as
low as 10 seconds may yield a good burn rate for the cigar being
created, when supported by a binder leaf with a burn of 10
seconds or more, along with wrapper leaf with a burn duration of
30 seconds or more. A binder leaf with a burn as low as 3
seconds may be ruinous to the burn of a cigar, even though the
filler and wrapper display desirable burning properites." |
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Like many aspects of producing fine cigars,
blending is less alchemy than it is science and ancient art.
From seeds to finished cigars, lying peacefully in a box
awaiting your pleasure, blending is just one of the phases of
our craft that involve a dogged, meticulous, and loving labor. |
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© Unastar, SA, 2006 |
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"Ancestral
Cuban seeds grow the world's finest cigars™" |
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