Question about blending

[HoyoFan]

This is something that’s been rattling around in my head since I discovered CCs after a long time smoking NCs.

 

How does the blending process happen consistent in Cuba?

 

What I mean is that for the most part, in NCs there is a farm (or group of farms) and a factory. And that tobacco from that farm is used year after year to make that brand.

 

But with CCs the tobaccos is brought to one place from all of the different farms in Cuba and sorted there. How can the blenders tell just by looking at the lead how much and which tobacco they need to create the same flavor?

 

Thanks!

[rabidraccoon]

The blending is much more secretive in Cuba than outside. You are correct that there are central processing facilities (despalillos) where all of the tobacco from surrounding farms is brought but these tobaccos are kept separate. They are not all completely mixed together. After processing, blenders get the tobacco bales with cards on them which state specific information so they can differentiate between all the different tobaccos coming out of the processing facility. I’m assuming that from there it’s just a matter of smoking and sampling everything and figuring out what needs to go in which cigar to stay as consistent with the desired blend. This picture is one I took of one the information cards on bale of processed tobacco at the despalillo.

[NSXCIGAR]

Agree with all above. There are only a handful of people that know what tobacco goes into what cigars, i.e. what finca and field generates the leaf for a specific marca and specific cigar. 

The few master blenders look at those cards, remove them and put a different number on them and send them to the factory with recipe instructions for the factory managers who have no idea where that tobacco originally came from. They only insure the recipe is being adhered to for each cigar. No one except the several master blenders knows where geographically the tobacco in each recipe is grown. It's a closely guarded secret among them and most likely isn't written down formally. 

[Wilzc]

There are guys that will taste the tobacco and grade them, as well as classifying which batch from which farm goes into which blend of cigars. These guys all have really experienced palate and will even tweak the blend ratio to fit the variations of crops for every harvest, to match expected tastes for each vitola.




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[Fuzz]

All of the above is wrong. Two words... Tobacco Gnomes.

[HoyoFan]

This is awesome thanks so much guys. This is why this community and hobby of ours is so great