| With Patrice Hirschfeld:Does A Dark Wrapper Mean A | | | | water contained in the green material can be |
| Strong Cigar?Maybe you have heard that the darker | | | | complicated. The process has to be neither too slow, |
| the wrapper, the stronger the cigar. This is both true | | | | nor too fast. The barn is checked several times every |
| and not true. Let me explain! It is true if the two cigars | | | | day and ventilation is adjusted according to the |
| you compare are made from the same blend, have | | | | humidity inside the barn and the outside weather |
| the same binder, and their wrapper has the same | | | | conditions. If necessary, heaters are used to help the |
| origin.You may know that going from the bottom to | | | | drainage.Cigar Wrapper CharacteristicsTo be |
| the top of a tobacco plant, leaves become darker in | | | | acceptable as wrapper, tobacco leaves must be |
| color and stronger in taste. But things are not just that | | | | clean, evenly colored, shiny, elastic, solid but thin, with |
| simple, and this is another example. If you compare a | | | | veins drowned into the parenchyma, large and without |
| slim panatela and a Churchill, both with the same | | | | holes. And last but not least, they must burn properly, |
| components and exactly the same wrapper, I bet you | | | | giving ashes as white as possible. Easy, you think? No, |
| will find the slim panatela stronger than the Churchill. It is | | | | it's a headache to grow and process wrapper leaves! |
| not true when the two cigars have different blends | | | | It's difficult to imagine how many people have sweated |
| and binders, or the two wrappers are not of the same | | | | before you finally smoke your premium cigar.Is An |
| origin. For example, rolled on the same bunch, a light | | | | Open Air Or Shade Grown Wrapper |
| brown, Cuban seed wrapper will be stronger than an | | | | Better?Traditionally, tobacco grows in open air fields. |
| oily, dark brown, Cameroon wrapper. If you like mild or | | | | Wrapper tobacco is a fragile material. At the end, it |
| medium cigars don't be afraid of Maduros: these black | | | | has to be perfect. Strong direct sun radiation can |
| wrappers are generally mild and sometimes sweet, | | | | deteriorate the result. To avoid the risk, fields can be |
| compared with some brown ones.Growing Wrapper | | | | covered with cloths fixed on poles, providing an artificial |
| Leaf.A wrapper grower has a dream : to get perfect | | | | shade. This process, together with irrigation, allows to |
| leaves to produce a Premium Wrapper. As soon as | | | | grower to keep the growing conditions under control. In |
| he starts the operation, the dream becomes a | | | | some equatorial countries, thanks to a naturally cloudy |
| nightmare: weather conditions, insects, fungus, viruses, | | | | sky, this expensive equipment is not necessary.John |
| and all kinds of parasites are here, ready to destroy his | | | | Payne is the Publisher of Web Marketing Ezine, and |
| hopes. From the time he starts setting the seed beds | | | | the Founder of Enviro-Friendly Products.Patrice |
| until the moment he picks the last leaf, it is a | | | | Hirschfeld has spent a lifetime in Tobacco, and is the |
| permanent struggle.Curing WrappersOnce properly | | | | Proprietor of the Online Cigar Shop- Voila Cigars. John |
| picked, wrapper leaves are hung up the same day in a | | | | provides Marketing Consultancy to Voila Cigars. |
| curing barn for drying. Draining out the huge quantity of | | | | |