User Manual

All Habanos – with very few exceptions – are made by the same meth-

od as the cigar rollers, the torcedores, and their female counterparts,

the torcedoras, have practised for a long time. No machine can replace

their skilled hands.

The tools: a

wooden board, two

cutters – a special blade

(chaveta) and a disc-cutting tool (casquillo) -,

a guillotine, a pot of ﬂavourless natural vegetable gum (goma)

and a template to check the length and girth (cepo) of the cigar.

And most important of all: skilled hands.

There are four categories of cigar rollers and only the few of them in the top

category are allowed to make the larger and more complicated Habanos shapes

and sizes (e. g. ﬁgurados). It takes many years to perfect the art of traditional

cigar rolling and over the years there has been only one change: meanwhile it

is mostly women, the torcedoras, who make the cigars.

First the cigar roller gathers together

the leaves of the ﬁller, folding and

aligning each leaf to ensure a straight

passage for smoke. Then all the leaves

are placed with their tips (which are

less strong in ﬂavour) towards the foot

or lit end of the cigar so that the ﬂa-

vour will intensify as it is smoked.

Now the cigar roller forms the cylindrical

bunch (bonche) by rolling the ﬁller into

the binder. Once made, the bunches

are pressed in a mould for at least

30 minutes to set their shape. Then

the cigar roller trims the wrapper.

The bunch is laid on the wrapper and

rolled. After this, a section (so-called

ﬂag) is cut from the spare wrapper to

form the cap of the cigar (la perilla). It

is wound round the head to close off

the open end.

Then a small disc of wrapper is cut out

with the casquillo and secured on the

ﬂag with the colourless and ﬂavourless

vegetable gum. Finally, the cigar is

guillotined to length.

The art of the torcedores

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