The Factory

[gettysburgfreak]

Once the leaves have arrived at the factory, the initial effort is to unbundle them, check each for quality and refresh the dried plants with a water shower. After draining the excess water, the leaves are placed in a high 90% humidity room for 4-6hrs. Then the leaves are de veined by workers usually women, who remove the center stem with a quick, decisive motion and separate the whole leaves into halves. These half leaves, the raw material now ready to be made into cigars, are further sorted into 18-20 classifications by experts, also mostly women, who separate the leaves into piles over a half barrel covered with ox skins, or on their thighs.

Once sorted, the rolling process begins as the now selected leaves are bunched and delivered to the rollers gallery.

The gallery is a noisy place, with many people at work and a reader or radio dispensing literature, news, or music. This practice apparently began in 1865 at the El Figaro factory. The leaves are sorted into the mixtures that will be used for the type of cigar that the roller will make each day and then delivered to the specific rollers table. There, the roller will combine the formula of ligero, seco, and volado leaves inot the specific factory shape and brand he or she will make. Some rollers put together a complete cigar on at a time by hand, while others use wooden molds to hold the filler and binder, then press them into shape in a giant vice for 30-40 minutes and finally apply the wrapper.

source:

perelman's pocket cyclopedia of havana cigars pg 24-25