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issue #3 ©<br />
l i n k e d<br />
25<br />
Passion, meticulousness<br />
and an unfailing eye are<br />
what it takes to create<br />
true legends<br />
Alongside flawless work by the torcedores, a<br />
cigar can only be classified as a Habano after<br />
meeting the most stringent quality standards.<br />
As cigar rollers with years of experience, the<br />
supervisores know their trade inside out and<br />
are highly skilled. They continuously monitor<br />
the work of their torcedores subordinates in the<br />
galera, checking the techniques used, the quality<br />
of production and the dimensional accuracy.<br />
In a second step, the cigars are passed on to<br />
the experts in the quality control department,<br />
who check the weight, the length, the diameter,<br />
the firmness and the production quality.<br />
They are particularly fussy about the cigars’<br />
external appearance: the wrapper must exhibit<br />
an even tension, and the head of the cigar<br />
must be exactly the right shape.<br />
Cigars that fall short of the mark will never be<br />
classified as Habanos.<br />
Every factory also has a number of employees<br />
with other peculiar professions: take the<br />
tasters (catadores), for example, whom one<br />
might call professional smokers. They try several<br />
cigars a day and grade them according<br />
to fixed criteria: aroma, taste, strength, draw,<br />
uniformity of burn and overall quality. They<br />
sample between three and five different cigar<br />
formats (vitolas) at each sitting. If the cigars<br />
deviate from the character of the brand or the<br />
format, the taster recommends adjustments.<br />
Once Habanos have passed quality control,<br />
they are placed in a cedar-lined conditioning<br />
room (escaparate), which is often also referred<br />
to as the “treasury” of the cigar factory.
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