Cigar production facilities still maintain the 200-year-old tradition of rolling cigars by hand. A Torcedor is a highly skilled individual who has undertaken specific and refined 9-month training to roll cigars. Torcedoras make an average of 80–160 cigars daily, depending on the cigar format, experience, and rolling difficulty. Rolling a cigar is a refined skillset; an art that has to follow the process outlined below:
Preparation and Stripping Leaves
Proper preparation of tobacco leaves is vital for producing quality villiger cigars. Torcedoras places the necessary tools and ingredients on work tables to sort them into the three components; the binder, filler, and wrapper. These leaves are moistened, then removed from the central stem.
Rolling
After preparing tools and ingredients, the Torcedoras select an appropriate binder from the “packet” of the day and place it with the tip of the leaf facing the end of the cigar that will be lit. The tobacco flavor is not very strong at the tip, so the smoke intensifies over time. They roll three to five filler leaves to make fine air channels for smoke circulation, then fold them into a bundle and roll them tightly into the wrapper.
Pressing
After wrapping the filler leaves into the binder leaf (this grouping is called a bunch), it proceeds to a cigar press for half an hour and then trimmed off on both ends. The wrapper leaf gives the cigar’s distinct color, taste, and quality. The final step includes rolling the wrapper leaf around the bunch while still damp and the veins facing upwards in a crescent shape. It seals the cigar head with special glue. The cigars are finished in bundles of 50, labeled with the Torcedor’s number, format, cigar brand, and date then left to age for three months.
For quality Villiger Cigars, Contact Tobacco Shop at www.tobacconline.co.uk.