Quote:
Originally Posted by HK3-
Great photos and thanks for sharing them.
Question- Do you know if the wrappers are dyed? I notice the womens hands are all discolored from handling the wrappers.
|
Welcome.
I can tell you with 100% certainty that the wrappers are NOT dyed. They are handled wet and that is the natural coloration and oils of the leaf coming off on her hands. The hands of everyone who handles the maduro leaves look like that from the wet leaves. If it were dye it would look like she had been sticking her hands into a bucket of heavy black ink, or, better, black paint.
Notice the black plastic bag on her left? That's the wet wrappers, they are sprayed down with water and placed in that bag to retain moisture before they are given to the rolleras. Same reason for the multiple bottles of water - one is hers to drink, the other is for wetting the rag and leaves. Directly to her right of the rolling block there is a rag, stained dark brown from the oils, which is used to wipe down the metal rolling block leaving a film of water on it before lying down the next leaf. If you look at the corners of her rolling block, you'll see the deposits/build up that don't get picked up that often.
Regarding the metal rolling block, one of the reasons for the metal rolling block for the maduros is to keep the oils on the capa, which in turn helps create that nice sheen to the wrapper. Light (natural/EMS, etc) capas are rolled on a wooden bock similar to what the bunchero is using, and are applied moist, but not anything like the maduros, which are quite wet. That's all it is, there is no trickery, no dye, no glycerin, no cooking, etc.
I'll go through the rest of the photos and see what I have for the Padron factory - they do things a bit differently there (nothing unscrupulous or artificial - just a very different and unique style), very interesting contrast in styles.