Scents of the Caribbean
La Palma tobacco is fairly considered to be among the best in the world. The first commercial plantations date back to the mid-19 th century, when the palmeros who migrated to Cuba started to come back to their homeland.
1. History of the crop
The industrial making of cigarettes climbed up spectacularly in 1923, with the installation in El Paso of Pedro Capote factory. Five years after its opening, it already had a revolutionary rolling machine. In 1972, the multinational consortium RJ Reynolds bought the property, which moved from the old building close to the church of Nuestra Señora de Bonanza to the new industrial zone in the town outskirts. And Japan Tobacco International (JTI) was the last owner of the factory, which finally closed down in 2000 following an international restructuration of the bussiness.
But this major setback for the municipality did not bring the small tobbacco plantations to an end. The local varieties of tobacco are still grown and serve as the raw material for cigars of outstanding quality. The greatest part of the production has moved nonetheless to Breña Alta, on the other side of the island. Having said so, tobacco is also grown in El Paso, Breña Baja, Santa Cruz de La Palma and even in farmlands close to the Caldera de Taburiente National Park.
2. From the planting to the drying
The tobacco plant (Nicotiana tabacum) is quite demanding. For a start, it has to be planted at around 250 metres above sea level, in an area which has to be both warm and far from the coast, to avoid the pernicious effects of the maresía (sea breeze). The crop grows fast and lives a short live, so it needs vast amounts of nutrients and water. And to make things worse, it is very sensitive to a vast array of pests, including viruses, arthropods, worms, moulds and slugs.
But healthy plants are not enough, on its own, to guarantee a good production of tobacco. On the contrary, you need for them to grow leaves of a very specific length and thickness. One of the keys is to get the desbotonado right (the process of plucking the inflorescence, to prevent the plant from interrupting the production of leaves). Intensive growers use chemical inhibitors to achieve it, but on the grounds of quality they are not used in La Palma. Instead, growers hand-pluck the sprouts one by one and by hand. The harvesting period, a fair reward to all this trouble, starts in May and ends before the first winter chills, during the months of September and October.
If the harvest was successful, every adult plant would have yielded between 35 and 40 leaves, which are hand picked and enter the drying stage. To desecate them they are faced one against the other in groups of three and hanged from the cujes (horizontal wooden pegs). No stoves are used to accelerate the process, which relies entirely on the sun. Just the expert eye of the farmer determines the position and height of every cuje, that has to be adjusted almost daily depending on the weather and the drying of any given leaf. After a month, it is time for the tobacco to enter the chinchal (a Cuban word which refers to the workshop and travelled from overseas alongside the plants).
3. The making of the cigars
The cigars, from La Palma as from anywhere else, have two different parts. The outer layer (capa) has to be impeccable, giving it the good looks. The inner layer (tripa, which means literally gut) has less to do with the appearances than with aromas and flavours.
The elaboration process starts with the despalado, which consists in stripping the central nerve from the previously moist leaves. They are then pressed for an hour (with a humble weight, which can be a stone over a wooden plank). When the craftman begins to give shape to the tripa , he introduces leaves from Brazil, Cuba and Santo Domingo, which intensify the aromas without devaluating its character. Every one of them is individually rolled and pressed again in a mould, three hours on each side, until they display a perfectly cylindrical shape.
The last phase is the adding of the capa , which has to be glued with extreme care while keeping a careful eye on the moisture. The skill of the chinchalero is measured by his ability to hide the seams, as he has to finish the cigar with the only help of a rather basic glue, made out of rice starch. The craftman works over each cigar on a wooden board, fiddling with his metal cutter with the precision of a surgeon. The final cut is for the corazón (heart, in Spanish): the drop-shaped cutting used for the tip.
After the cigar band is in place, it is ready to be wrapped and marketed. According to its external shape, they will be labelled as nuncios (large and thick), viuditas (short and tailed), panetelas (long and thin), peticetros (middle-sized), coronas (slightly larger), etc.
Greetings to all
Antonio
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