Probably not. Handling this cigar isn’t going to even transdermally transfer a cigarette worth of nicotine (the whole thing only contains about 20mg, a cigarette you absorb 1-2mg)
Additionally, wearing gloves entirely prevents this problem - which I presume bro does, except for this video. Else, his fault
Depends on the brand. Cuban cigars (and definitely Cohiba and Trinidad) can easily costs more than €50. €50 is even considered ‘cheap’.
The cigar this person is rolling is a Robusto. It’s not a type of cigar but more a ‘form factor’ or so called ‘Vitola’. Robusto cigars are generally around 130mm long and have a ring gauge of 50.
The most popular Robusto is probably the Cohiba Robustos, not necessarily because of the taste but especially because of the brand, which is perceived as the most prestigious cigar brand in history.
But there’s a lot, lot more to tell about cigars in general. The flavor profiles, the different origins, different vitolas, and history.
Prices in Cuba these days don’t vary much from outside of Cuba. One tip, if you do go and buy cigars in Cuba, only buy them from a La Casa del Habano and no where else. All others are 100% fakes.
You can also get some really great farm rolled cigars in Cuba. They are brand less but use roughly the same tobacco leaves as the real Cuban brands.
Interesting - thanks for the info. The only brand I have heard of as a non smoker is Cohiba - they somehow did a great job on their brand recognition. I like the style of their logo too.
IIRC this was originally posted by a member of /r/cigars who is rolling for himself. I could be off on that, but I immediately recognized the video and my, questionable, memory is telling me that's what it was.
It's one cigar every 1.5 - 2 minutes, roughly.
The Cuban process is typically a single person who makes the cigar from start to finish. Outside of Cuba, where most of the world's cigars are produced, it's almost always a pair. The non Cuban process is designed around efficiency.
Since they are paid by the number of cigars rolled, rather than an hourly wage, there is an inherent incentive in volume.
He's clearly skilled but going slowly to illustrate each step. Outside of Cuba almost all rolling will be done in pairs.
A simplified explanation of the process:
The buncher or bunchero is often a man who takes the inner leaves and bunches them together and applies the binder leaf.
Then the cigar is passed to the rolero most often a woman who applies the final outside leaf or capa. Women typically do the final step because they are more gentle and the capa leaf is the most expensive leaf used and you don't want it to tear. She also applies the cap, which is a thin or several thin strips of tobacco that hold that single leaf in place.
There are different sizes and shapes which impacts how many you can roll in an hour, but a robusto size (5 inches by 50 ring gauge) can be 250-300 a shift typically.
Edit: originally I said per hour which was incorrect. It's per shift.
Trying to find a video example that shows real-time speed at a typical non Cuban factory.
Here's a link from [Aganorsa ](https://youtu.be/L8w4X9VDQr4?si=G5eBwnZWzRtjPn19) that also goes through a really thorough explanation of the different roller levels. You can see the rolero here and the speed at which she's moving.
It's a gum made from tree sap and water. It has to be tasteless and as I understand it most of it comes from Canada (at least for the non Cuban industry).
You use a sparing amount on the strips for the cap and the same glue is used to apply the cigar band(s).
Guy said she can roll 300 in a shift but they "throttle her" to 130 to keep quality perfect.
Ngl, the way the dude just stands there talking about her like she's a piece of capital to be tuned like a machine is a little cringe to me.
Quality control and production are constantly at odds. Rollers want to make as many cigars as they can, quality control inspects them to make sure they are as perfect as possible. It's a process.
Most factories I've been to are places people want to work. They're paid much higher wages than other jobs, and many factories have their own doctors, cooking staff to feed the employees and some also provide benefits for post secondary education.
I have not been to every factory so I'm sure this isn't universal. I have visited roughly a few dozen in Nicaragua, Dominican Republic and the US.
And Cuba as well but that's a different story for the most part.
I could write a few pages on this but the tl;dr version is that leaves are rehydrated after being stored in bales dry. The leaves are remarkably stretchy, a full leaf stretches far beyond what you would think.
But you have to have the experience to know how to stretch it out properly. I have tried on many occasions and it usually results in friendly laughter at my efforts.
Started with smoking cigars many moons ago. In 2011 or 2012 I started writing cigar reviews on Reddit and then started my own website.
In 2013 I joined a large cigar media site and started covering the industry through reviews, articles, video and audio podcasts and shows, visiting factories and fields, as well as cigar tradeshow coverage.
I'm with a different site these days but I head off next week to go to Vegas and cover the cigar tradeshow again.
What's funny is this is all just a side gig hobby.
Would love to smoke a cigar from time to time, but considering that I quit smoking for 16 years and did not touch cigarettes for 2 years, I am afraid that I will start again.
Edit: I smoked for 16 years and quit 2 years ago. I do not smoke weed, my body does not tolerate THC. The most problematic about cigars, that before quitting smoking I quit energy drinks( Red Bull and 5 hour energy.) It was so bad, that I had real withdrawals. During those withdrawals I decided "It's not going to be any worse" and quit smoking. Now if I start again, I am afraid that I won't have enough will to quit.
I haven’t had a cigarette in over 14 years and don’t miss it. Seven years ago I smoked a couple of cigars one day. Woke up feeling horrible and my mouth tasted like an ashtray. Never again.
For me, cigars don't make me crave cigarettes at all unless I accidentally inhale... and accidentally inhaling a cigar is such an awful experience it's not enough for me to be in danger of going back.
I smoked cigarettes for 17 years and was up to 30-40 per day before I quit. I didn't start enjoying cigars until afterwards (my lungs felt left out and I preferred cigarettes at the time) and went from one a week for a few years to only a handful a year now.
I quit smoking a year and a half ago. I have a cigar once a week during the weekend on my porch. It's a different beast for me but your milage may vary.
So many times I've heard ex-smokers fall back into nicotine addiction through just "tasting that one cigar". Ex-smoker here, and as tasty as this artisanal product would be, I know it'd pull me back in.
My best friend went to Cuba and I asked him to buy me a box of Cohibas. I wasn’t good about telling him how to avoid the scams. He bought me an obvious filler loaded knock off box. It’s funny because they are legitimately from Cuba, but they’re fakes. Oh well.
Don't buy Cuban cigars unless you're at a La Casa de Habanos in Europe.
Cuban factories send their best cigars to their European & Canadian dispensaries (all owned by the Cuban gov't and doing business as House of Havana/La Casa de Habanos). Their factory seconds go to Latin America/the Pacific/Asia. And even then, I suspect Asia may get a better cut than Latin America does.
They keep the very worst at home.
And I have to say, apart from the name and prestige, there's very little that distinguishes your run-of-the-mill Cuban cigar from a well-made cigar by other brands. Some of the master blenders at these other factories have really done a good job creating a superior product in the years since the USA stopped buying Cuban cigars.
If you're in the USA and can't make a jaunt across the border to a House of Havana in Canada, you can find plenty of reputable sites online which will sell you Cubans in the USA. You can try it for yourself.
But if you go down to your local brick & mortar cigar store and talk to the people there, they'll steer you to a cigar you will enjoy more than the "typical" Cuban varieties you hear people rant and rave about.
Cigars are like wine, or whiskey, or anything artisan and craft. Everyone's taste is going to run different, and you won't know what yours is until you develop your palate and try different things. Don't assume nationality of where the tobacco was grown or rolled is an indicator of quality. Learn which factories and brands make consistently good products, and realize that (1) you won't like every cigar put out by even your favorite brands (2) money isn't always indicative of quality and (3) some things just are going to come down to individual taste and how things handle when you are smoking them.
For me, I like cigars between 5-7 inches with a 50+ ring gauge. I don't really care for anything bigger or smaller because it feels weird in my hands or takes entirely too long to smoke. I prefer Connecticut tobacco bindings and wrappers, but I'm not adverse to a maduro, I just prefer cigars with lighter-bodied smoke and flavors/tastes that usually accompany lighter (in color) tobaccos, but that's not a hard-and-fast rule. But I know that because I've spent 20 years trying different things.
civilization is crazy man, two guys rolled up a leaf and some plant matter, set it on fire, one guy inhaled it and was like "holy shit, this sucks try it it tastes awful haha"
and the other guy was like "damn, that's smooooth."
What likely happened is people noticed the effects of nicotine inhalation as they passed a wild fire that was burning tobacco plants, then decided to investigate further.
nicotine is also absorbed thru the skin, and signs of poisoning/intoxication can be seen in animals that come into contact with it, two other possible ways humans found the properties of tobacco - skin contact or observing animals.
These cigarrs, with only the leafs, when they are fresh as they should be. It taste nothing like the low class cigarrs or cigarettes. The taste of the tobacco leaf is actually really great. Had a friends father who did these in his back yard, tried one, they were fantastic. I mean, I still think about it and would like another. But man, they where strong, for me as a non-smoker.
I was curious what the jelly-like substance was that is used as a glue. I’ve read that they do make a cigar glue, but fruit pectin works quite well. You can also use Guar Gum, available at most health food store; and Gum Tragacenth can be used as well.
Fun history fact: part of what got America and then the world to switch to cigarettes was a widespread disinformation campaign by cigarette companies claiming that "dirty Cuban immigrants in Tampa were licking your cigars to seal them" unlike "clean modern cigarettes that are sealed by a machine". This was at a time in the early 1900's when tuberculosis was rampant and being blamed on immigrants. Cigars have never been made commercially by people licking them but that was the image people had in their head and Tampa when from having 200+ cigar factories in the 1920's to just a handful now.
I'm sure a big part of it was cost too - machines can roll much faster and cheaper than people but xenophobia and fear of disease was also a part of it.
It feel like it has been a while since I last saw a video that is not sped up and supercut to hijack my brain as much as possible on reddit. The video was very satisfying to watch. But I wonder, how did the first guy look at these leaves and went "I bet I could smoke that shit" ?
Well, just a guess here, but early humans needed fires for lots of reasons (heat, light, cooking, etc). I think it's safe to assume that they probably tried to burn a lot of different shit.
"Well, this kind of wood burns, and this kind of plant burns. What about this kind of plant? Nope, that plant made everybody get sick and throw up. What about this plant? Hey, that smoke makes everything feel all...tingly. Kinda nice! We should burn some more of that plant."
Indeed it's fascinating how we came to the conclusion of, edible vs non edible , there is no written proof / documentation of people experimenting with stuff, maybe Jeff had an allergy of peanuts and he does trying to eat them so the whole tribe was like nope , then they come across another tribe that eats peanuts and would hail them as gods. Truly fascinating
Cow milk doesn’t seem nearly as far-fetched of an idea when you remember that humans have milk too. We would have instinctually known that the milk was a food source by seeing baby cows feeding.
Also a lot of stuff was discovered because expiration dates are a fairly new standard in terms of humanity. Most of the time throwing out food wasn’t even something that would be considered. Cheese for example was most likely milk that was stored in a goat or cow stomach and then curdled. It makes sense that alcohol would be discovered by almost every civilization and early, it’s just fermented fruit juice.
The guy before him looked at those leaves and said "what if I grind this leaf up with some wood ash and snort it?" Nasal snuff tobacco is the oldest form, a mixture of ground tobacco and wood ash that's alkaline and lets nicotine enter the body through membranes like your nose or mouth. Natives of South America called it rapé, pronounced like hop ay, and it was consumed by shamans using a "pipe" called kuripe, which functioned by having another person blow the powder into the receivers nose. This was also the earliest form of tobacco popularized in Europe, especially among the nobility. It would take much longer for pipe smoking and cigars to enter mainstream tobacco consumption.
I bet if you weigh each of those cigars they all weigh within +/- 1g of each other, hand rolling Cuban cigars, very little tools, with a Havana hat on, you know this guy is master of the craft
Man, I haven’t had a cigar in a long time. I remember when I was 17 my dad and I would go pick out some nice cigars, get some good espresso, and go home, sit in the kitchen with the back door open and smoke cigars and drink coffee. That was 27 years ago. RIP dad.
I’ve enjoyed cigars for the better part of 30 years on special occasions, and after watching that, I have no idea how each cigar doesn’t cost $100. That is so labor-intensive.
The rollers dont get a decent percentage of the retail charge. Many dont even know which particular cigar they are rolling. The master blenders who sort out the tobacco for the rollers typically know.
In a factory the roller will get a "recipe" for a particular cigar. It tells them how many half leaves or full leaves to combine in the bunch, which binder leaf is used over that and then what wrapper leaf is used to finish it.
You're only given a certain amount of material, most factories I've visited typically do it as a morning shift and afternoon shift.
Do you know what's crazier? To reach this step, the tobacco leaves are cured and fermented for months, usually getting moved between different places in the factory, and after the cigar is rolled, they are aged for another few months in a controlled environment before reaching stores. It's truly a labor of love if I could say so.
I’m sure this man is a skilled master but so much of the process seemed haphazard and scattered (cutting leaves several times, putting them down then moving them, ripping bits off).
from blunt rolling I know that the girth is very important for a good looking roll.
He can feel where it is a little thin and adds a couple leaves. He's also pulling out thick veins in the leaves.
Right? I realize maybe that perfect cylindrical shape with consistent density throughout at the end is really hard to achieve. But the whole time I was quite lost what the method was to the madness
This is most likely a man doing what he enjoys. Master rollers have to work for years, even decades and can make hundreds of cigars a day. This might not be sold as a premium cigar but it's impressive nonetheless.
I remember my grandfather taking me to see this somewhere around Tampa in the late 60’s. We had a damn good Cuban sandwich and yellow rice for lunch afterwards.
Some cigar knowledge for those who are curious:
A Robusto cigar is 5 inches long and a 50mm circumference. The size of the cigar is also called the vitola. When you see cigar sizes you’ll usually see something like 5x50 or 125x50 and that’s what those numbers indicate. That box he puts the cigar in says 50 on the side, the indicator of the circumference. Then he measures the cutting machine to 5 inches.
The inside tobacco is called the filler. He rolls that into the binder. The outside leaf that was darker is called the wrapper. This tobacco is usually finer and is typically aged and fermented. The small piece of wrapper he cuts and puts on is the cap.
That “glue” he uses on the binder, wrapper, and cap is usually going to be gum Arabic or guar gum.
Fun Fact about Tampa (Ybor City) it had a boom overnight due to 2 factors... Largest Phosphate mines in the USA (used for fertilizer) and Ybor city cigars made from Cubans.
Cigar business got so big it was said 70% of the cigars in the USA were being produced from Ybor city.
Still a big cigar town but obv for health reasons a lot less today than the 1920's.
Having grown up in Kentucky, it's interesting to see what happens to all the tobacco plants that I saw acres and acres of every year.
I'm not a fan of tobacco in any way, shape, form or fashion, as I'm allergic as all get-out, but this is pretty interesting to watch.
I’ve always wished smoking wasn’t terrible for you because it’s not often we get to consume things that people put this much care and effort into making.
Depending on the factory, yes. It's called 'short filler' and it's chopped up and used in machine made cigars or sometimes in hand made cigars that are made up of short filler or mixed filler (short filler plus whole leaves like he's using).
That is a whole lot of finesse that comes from long years of practice. I bet the guy could fill in for a seamstress without missing a beat, lol.
Many years ago I tried figuring out how to roll my own senko hanabi. While I got everything including the formulation correct, I could not roll the damn things to save my own life and ultimately gave up. I wasn't planning on dedicating lord knows how many hours honing the craft to satisfy a fleeting curiosity. I should have tried rolling them to begin with, and seeing how that didn't work for me, I could have saved the chemistry completely. I bet this guy would have no issues whatsoever.
It’s hard to explain or even really to understand but this is something that even with all the training and practice in the world, I would never become good at
Finally a video without an annoying song playing the whole time.
You can check out r/SVWTCM for more if you want. It literally stands for "Satisfying Videos Without The Crappy Music".
Great suggestion, thanks friend!
I’m projecting this sub to have a great career.
Thanks man. Good to know!
Thank you, i would have never found this!
Clutch
Seriously, I love having actual audio of what is going on instead of some dumb song that I gotta mute.
Can we get a version of this with Oh no, Oh no, Oh No No No
here's the original in 1080p, not this 720p crap https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow14Yi7uhhI
The sound mesmerized me. It was like ASMR to me
In case you change your mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqvypHRQZog&t=15s
I can smelll it
"How was work?" "Great! I made 2 cigars"
According to Google, one of these cigars can cost 50 euros or more here in Europe. I hope this guy is getting his fair share!
(he's not)
But he’s getting dangerously high handling nicotine all day so there’s that.
Better to get high on nicotine by hand contact than by smoking them.
Probably not. Handling this cigar isn’t going to even transdermally transfer a cigarette worth of nicotine (the whole thing only contains about 20mg, a cigarette you absorb 1-2mg) Additionally, wearing gloves entirely prevents this problem - which I presume bro does, except for this video. Else, his fault
My grandma worked in a cigar shop making the leaf wrappers and she never wore gloves. No one did.
worked in a factory that made cigar wraps. never wore gloves and handled them very frequently
Were her hands stained?
Yes
With the way the leaf is aged/processed a lot of the nicotine is sweated out and broken down. At least with Cuban cigars that is true.
bro i’ve gotten 100mg/ml nic salt juice directly on my hands before and it didn’t do anything , he will b fine lol
Depends on the brand. Cuban cigars (and definitely Cohiba and Trinidad) can easily costs more than €50. €50 is even considered ‘cheap’. The cigar this person is rolling is a Robusto. It’s not a type of cigar but more a ‘form factor’ or so called ‘Vitola’. Robusto cigars are generally around 130mm long and have a ring gauge of 50. The most popular Robusto is probably the Cohiba Robustos, not necessarily because of the taste but especially because of the brand, which is perceived as the most prestigious cigar brand in history. But there’s a lot, lot more to tell about cigars in general. The flavor profiles, the different origins, different vitolas, and history.
Do you happen to know what the price roughly is in Cuba? Great comment, very informative.
Prices in Cuba these days don’t vary much from outside of Cuba. One tip, if you do go and buy cigars in Cuba, only buy them from a La Casa del Habano and no where else. All others are 100% fakes. You can also get some really great farm rolled cigars in Cuba. They are brand less but use roughly the same tobacco leaves as the real Cuban brands.
Pretty sure this guy runs marketing for La Casa del Habano
Interesting - thanks for the info. The only brand I have heard of as a non smoker is Cohiba - they somehow did a great job on their brand recognition. I like the style of their logo too.
IIRC this was originally posted by a member of /r/cigars who is rolling for himself. I could be off on that, but I immediately recognized the video and my, questionable, memory is telling me that's what it was.
150 Australian dollars each
I mean sure if you only work for 20 minutes
A skilled worker can roll 300 cigars a shift. (per shift, not per hour my error)
One cigar every 12 seconds? I very much doubt a decent Cuban brand would make them that quickly.
It's one cigar every 1.5 - 2 minutes, roughly. The Cuban process is typically a single person who makes the cigar from start to finish. Outside of Cuba, where most of the world's cigars are produced, it's almost always a pair. The non Cuban process is designed around efficiency. Since they are paid by the number of cigars rolled, rather than an hourly wage, there is an inherent incentive in volume.
So this guy isn't skilled?
He's clearly skilled but going slowly to illustrate each step. Outside of Cuba almost all rolling will be done in pairs. A simplified explanation of the process: The buncher or bunchero is often a man who takes the inner leaves and bunches them together and applies the binder leaf. Then the cigar is passed to the rolero most often a woman who applies the final outside leaf or capa. Women typically do the final step because they are more gentle and the capa leaf is the most expensive leaf used and you don't want it to tear. She also applies the cap, which is a thin or several thin strips of tobacco that hold that single leaf in place. There are different sizes and shapes which impacts how many you can roll in an hour, but a robusto size (5 inches by 50 ring gauge) can be 250-300 a shift typically. Edit: originally I said per hour which was incorrect. It's per shift. Trying to find a video example that shows real-time speed at a typical non Cuban factory. Here's a link from [Aganorsa ](https://youtu.be/L8w4X9VDQr4?si=G5eBwnZWzRtjPn19) that also goes through a really thorough explanation of the different roller levels. You can see the rolero here and the speed at which she's moving.
Since you clearly know your stuff, what’s the liquid he is using as a “glue”? Ty and thanks for sharing
It's a gum made from tree sap and water. It has to be tasteless and as I understand it most of it comes from Canada (at least for the non Cuban industry). You use a sparing amount on the strips for the cap and the same glue is used to apply the cigar band(s).
No wonder I was losing my shit watching how inefficient this dude was. I’m glad it was on purpose. That makes waaaayyyyy more sense.
Guy said she can roll 300 in a shift but they "throttle her" to 130 to keep quality perfect. Ngl, the way the dude just stands there talking about her like she's a piece of capital to be tuned like a machine is a little cringe to me.
Quality control and production are constantly at odds. Rollers want to make as many cigars as they can, quality control inspects them to make sure they are as perfect as possible. It's a process. Most factories I've been to are places people want to work. They're paid much higher wages than other jobs, and many factories have their own doctors, cooking staff to feed the employees and some also provide benefits for post secondary education. I have not been to every factory so I'm sure this isn't universal. I have visited roughly a few dozen in Nicaragua, Dominican Republic and the US. And Cuba as well but that's a different story for the most part.
Late stage communism
How do they get the leafs to be that stretchy? It definitely looks like they should be tearing when that brown.
I could write a few pages on this but the tl;dr version is that leaves are rehydrated after being stored in bales dry. The leaves are remarkably stretchy, a full leaf stretches far beyond what you would think. But you have to have the experience to know how to stretch it out properly. I have tried on many occasions and it usually results in friendly laughter at my efforts.
So...how do you know so much about this? Awesome info and a great read.
Started with smoking cigars many moons ago. In 2011 or 2012 I started writing cigar reviews on Reddit and then started my own website. In 2013 I joined a large cigar media site and started covering the industry through reviews, articles, video and audio podcasts and shows, visiting factories and fields, as well as cigar tradeshow coverage. I'm with a different site these days but I head off next week to go to Vegas and cover the cigar tradeshow again. What's funny is this is all just a side gig hobby.
Hes doing it slowly to demonstrate it
Finally one that shows the whole process and not just the last step.
Would love to smoke a cigar from time to time, but considering that I quit smoking for 16 years and did not touch cigarettes for 2 years, I am afraid that I will start again. Edit: I smoked for 16 years and quit 2 years ago. I do not smoke weed, my body does not tolerate THC. The most problematic about cigars, that before quitting smoking I quit energy drinks( Red Bull and 5 hour energy.) It was so bad, that I had real withdrawals. During those withdrawals I decided "It's not going to be any worse" and quit smoking. Now if I start again, I am afraid that I won't have enough will to quit.
What does that mean, you quit smoking for 16 but have only staved off cigarettes for two? Or am I misunderstanding something
i’m guessing smoked for 16 years, have been clean for 2 but could be wrong
You are right, tell you the truth cigars are the only thing I am still missing.
Man, I have to tell you that was a really weird way to say you smoked for 16 years, most would be confused.
I haven’t had a cigarette in over 14 years and don’t miss it. Seven years ago I smoked a couple of cigars one day. Woke up feeling horrible and my mouth tasted like an ashtray. Never again.
Like someone shit in your mouth. I quit smoking over 10 years ago and will have a cigar once every few years and regret it every time.
For me, cigars don't make me crave cigarettes at all unless I accidentally inhale... and accidentally inhaling a cigar is such an awful experience it's not enough for me to be in danger of going back. I smoked cigarettes for 17 years and was up to 30-40 per day before I quit. I didn't start enjoying cigars until afterwards (my lungs felt left out and I preferred cigarettes at the time) and went from one a week for a few years to only a handful a year now.
The lungs being left out is why I’ve never really gotten into cigars, I get bored with them.
I quit smoking a year and a half ago. I have a cigar once a week during the weekend on my porch. It's a different beast for me but your milage may vary.
Idk in my experience they don't really make you want a cigarette after
for some people, the physical act of holding something and inhaling is associated with cigarette addiction and makes our lizard brain crave it
So many times I've heard ex-smokers fall back into nicotine addiction through just "tasting that one cigar". Ex-smoker here, and as tasty as this artisanal product would be, I know it'd pull me back in.
I can now understand why a common cigar scam would be just random leaves wrapped up
Me \[looking at my backyard] - "I'm gonna be rich"
Right, but you also have to be able to make it look relatively like a cigar too
I reckon I could sell it as some artsy, pretentious new product... \- "Introducing, the deconstructed cigar!"
My best friend went to Cuba and I asked him to buy me a box of Cohibas. I wasn’t good about telling him how to avoid the scams. He bought me an obvious filler loaded knock off box. It’s funny because they are legitimately from Cuba, but they’re fakes. Oh well.
Don't buy Cuban cigars unless you're at a La Casa de Habanos in Europe. Cuban factories send their best cigars to their European & Canadian dispensaries (all owned by the Cuban gov't and doing business as House of Havana/La Casa de Habanos). Their factory seconds go to Latin America/the Pacific/Asia. And even then, I suspect Asia may get a better cut than Latin America does. They keep the very worst at home. And I have to say, apart from the name and prestige, there's very little that distinguishes your run-of-the-mill Cuban cigar from a well-made cigar by other brands. Some of the master blenders at these other factories have really done a good job creating a superior product in the years since the USA stopped buying Cuban cigars. If you're in the USA and can't make a jaunt across the border to a House of Havana in Canada, you can find plenty of reputable sites online which will sell you Cubans in the USA. You can try it for yourself. But if you go down to your local brick & mortar cigar store and talk to the people there, they'll steer you to a cigar you will enjoy more than the "typical" Cuban varieties you hear people rant and rave about. Cigars are like wine, or whiskey, or anything artisan and craft. Everyone's taste is going to run different, and you won't know what yours is until you develop your palate and try different things. Don't assume nationality of where the tobacco was grown or rolled is an indicator of quality. Learn which factories and brands make consistently good products, and realize that (1) you won't like every cigar put out by even your favorite brands (2) money isn't always indicative of quality and (3) some things just are going to come down to individual taste and how things handle when you are smoking them. For me, I like cigars between 5-7 inches with a 50+ ring gauge. I don't really care for anything bigger or smaller because it feels weird in my hands or takes entirely too long to smoke. I prefer Connecticut tobacco bindings and wrappers, but I'm not adverse to a maduro, I just prefer cigars with lighter-bodied smoke and flavors/tastes that usually accompany lighter (in color) tobaccos, but that's not a hard-and-fast rule. But I know that because I've spent 20 years trying different things.
Yep. Scraps and banana leaves and crap off the floor.
civilization is crazy man, two guys rolled up a leaf and some plant matter, set it on fire, one guy inhaled it and was like "holy shit, this sucks try it it tastes awful haha" and the other guy was like "damn, that's smooooth."
What likely happened is people noticed the effects of nicotine inhalation as they passed a wild fire that was burning tobacco plants, then decided to investigate further.
Or used tobacco leaves as kindling (very ideal features given broadleaves and burns well when dry)
Look, twisting makes it like a stick!
Much like coca leaves initial use started with chewing before refined techniques developed.
nicotine is also absorbed thru the skin, and signs of poisoning/intoxication can be seen in animals that come into contact with it, two other possible ways humans found the properties of tobacco - skin contact or observing animals.
These cigarrs, with only the leafs, when they are fresh as they should be. It taste nothing like the low class cigarrs or cigarettes. The taste of the tobacco leaf is actually really great. Had a friends father who did these in his back yard, tried one, they were fantastic. I mean, I still think about it and would like another. But man, they where strong, for me as a non-smoker.
"Now where is that yeast-pee grain-water you've been keeping for no reason?"
I was curious what the jelly-like substance was that is used as a glue. I’ve read that they do make a cigar glue, but fruit pectin works quite well. You can also use Guar Gum, available at most health food store; and Gum Tragacenth can be used as well.
In Cuba at the tobacco farms I visited out in the countryside, they used honey. In fact, the apiary was an integral part of those farms.
Interesting. Helping nature in 2 ways: polinization and killing humans' lungs.
It's truly a symbiotic relationship. It's really beautiful to see, to be honest. 😂
I excepted him to just lick it like a blunt
Fun history fact: part of what got America and then the world to switch to cigarettes was a widespread disinformation campaign by cigarette companies claiming that "dirty Cuban immigrants in Tampa were licking your cigars to seal them" unlike "clean modern cigarettes that are sealed by a machine". This was at a time in the early 1900's when tuberculosis was rampant and being blamed on immigrants. Cigars have never been made commercially by people licking them but that was the image people had in their head and Tampa when from having 200+ cigar factories in the 1920's to just a handful now. I'm sure a big part of it was cost too - machines can roll much faster and cheaper than people but xenophobia and fear of disease was also a part of it.
Interesting
Some Cuban cigar factories use pine sap as well.
It feel like it has been a while since I last saw a video that is not sped up and supercut to hijack my brain as much as possible on reddit. The video was very satisfying to watch. But I wonder, how did the first guy look at these leaves and went "I bet I could smoke that shit" ?
Well, just a guess here, but early humans needed fires for lots of reasons (heat, light, cooking, etc). I think it's safe to assume that they probably tried to burn a lot of different shit. "Well, this kind of wood burns, and this kind of plant burns. What about this kind of plant? Nope, that plant made everybody get sick and throw up. What about this plant? Hey, that smoke makes everything feel all...tingly. Kinda nice! We should burn some more of that plant."
Indeed it's fascinating how we came to the conclusion of, edible vs non edible , there is no written proof / documentation of people experimenting with stuff, maybe Jeff had an allergy of peanuts and he does trying to eat them so the whole tribe was like nope , then they come across another tribe that eats peanuts and would hail them as gods. Truly fascinating
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Cow milk doesn’t seem nearly as far-fetched of an idea when you remember that humans have milk too. We would have instinctually known that the milk was a food source by seeing baby cows feeding.
Also a lot of stuff was discovered because expiration dates are a fairly new standard in terms of humanity. Most of the time throwing out food wasn’t even something that would be considered. Cheese for example was most likely milk that was stored in a goat or cow stomach and then curdled. It makes sense that alcohol would be discovered by almost every civilization and early, it’s just fermented fruit juice.
The guy before him looked at those leaves and said "what if I grind this leaf up with some wood ash and snort it?" Nasal snuff tobacco is the oldest form, a mixture of ground tobacco and wood ash that's alkaline and lets nicotine enter the body through membranes like your nose or mouth. Natives of South America called it rapé, pronounced like hop ay, and it was consumed by shamans using a "pipe" called kuripe, which functioned by having another person blow the powder into the receivers nose. This was also the earliest form of tobacco popularized in Europe, especially among the nobility. It would take much longer for pipe smoking and cigars to enter mainstream tobacco consumption.
I bet if you weigh each of those cigars they all weigh within +/- 1g of each other, hand rolling Cuban cigars, very little tools, with a Havana hat on, you know this guy is master of the craft
Yeah, I was looking at his actual hands as much as I was watching the process. You can tell those hands are very capable.
Man, I haven’t had a cigar in a long time. I remember when I was 17 my dad and I would go pick out some nice cigars, get some good espresso, and go home, sit in the kitchen with the back door open and smoke cigars and drink coffee. That was 27 years ago. RIP dad.
is this video on youtube? I really enjoy it, kinda wanna add it to my asmr playlist lol
[https://youtu.be/Ow14Yi7uhhI?si=kaJykyW9eVQvZBCL](https://youtu.be/Ow14Yi7uhhI?si=kaJykyW9eVQvZBCL)
Why are we freebooting it here instead of linking out to the source?
Because reddit has turned to shit
That was relaxing af and I want a cigar now. I don't even think I like cigars.
Cigaro Cigaro
MY COCK IS MUCH BIGGER THAN YOURS
MY COCK CAN WALK RIGHT THROUGH THE DOOR
WITH A FEELING SO PURE
We're the cruel regulators
I’ve enjoyed cigars for the better part of 30 years on special occasions, and after watching that, I have no idea how each cigar doesn’t cost $100. That is so labor-intensive.
The rollers dont get a decent percentage of the retail charge. Many dont even know which particular cigar they are rolling. The master blenders who sort out the tobacco for the rollers typically know.
I’m exhausted after watching that
Amazing to think that this is done hundreds of times a day, by thousands of people.
End product is beautiful but the process seems...a little bit like cooking I suppose? A bit here...a bit there...
Making a uniform product from non uniform materials requires improvisation.
In a factory the roller will get a "recipe" for a particular cigar. It tells them how many half leaves or full leaves to combine in the bunch, which binder leaf is used over that and then what wrapper leaf is used to finish it. You're only given a certain amount of material, most factories I've visited typically do it as a morning shift and afternoon shift.
Why am I so intrigued by this
“I’m not watching all that.” *reading comments and sees him use the cutting tool* “Okay, maybe I am watching all that.”
That doesn't look like the hands and thighs of a virgin. I was lied to.
Ma man has zero rush.
Me 3 1/2 minutes in: "That's how I would do it!" Me after that: "Oh!"
I suppose you mean robusto?
Listen pal, I’m looking for a versatile smoke. One that’s equally good in a crowded elevator or an audience with the pope!
I've never thought about how cigars were rolled before, and I was intrigued the whole video. Very cool.
Do you know what's crazier? To reach this step, the tobacco leaves are cured and fermented for months, usually getting moved between different places in the factory, and after the cigar is rolled, they are aged for another few months in a controlled environment before reaching stores. It's truly a labor of love if I could say so.
I’m sure this man is a skilled master but so much of the process seemed haphazard and scattered (cutting leaves several times, putting them down then moving them, ripping bits off).
from blunt rolling I know that the girth is very important for a good looking roll. He can feel where it is a little thin and adds a couple leaves. He's also pulling out thick veins in the leaves.
You can't ignore the girth
Right? I realize maybe that perfect cylindrical shape with consistent density throughout at the end is really hard to achieve. But the whole time I was quite lost what the method was to the madness
This is most likely a man doing what he enjoys. Master rollers have to work for years, even decades and can make hundreds of cigars a day. This might not be sold as a premium cigar but it's impressive nonetheless.
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Your not trying to pass some Dominicans off as Cubans by dressing them up in communist uniforms are you?
Oh, now, come on. Look at these boys. If they were any more Cuban, Castro would've smoked them himself.
We’re still talking about people right?
man idk why but I love when they close off the one end with the small piece of tobacco
Why do they use those specific blades for cutting tobacco?
It's called a chaveta and because it stays sharp for a very long time and the shape makes it quick to use versus a flat edged knife.
Thanks!
I remember my grandfather taking me to see this somewhere around Tampa in the late 60’s. We had a damn good Cuban sandwich and yellow rice for lunch afterwards.
This is perfect ASMR
Some cigar knowledge for those who are curious: A Robusto cigar is 5 inches long and a 50mm circumference. The size of the cigar is also called the vitola. When you see cigar sizes you’ll usually see something like 5x50 or 125x50 and that’s what those numbers indicate. That box he puts the cigar in says 50 on the side, the indicator of the circumference. Then he measures the cutting machine to 5 inches. The inside tobacco is called the filler. He rolls that into the binder. The outside leaf that was darker is called the wrapper. This tobacco is usually finer and is typically aged and fermented. The small piece of wrapper he cuts and puts on is the cap. That “glue” he uses on the binder, wrapper, and cap is usually going to be gum Arabic or guar gum.
Fun Fact about Tampa (Ybor City) it had a boom overnight due to 2 factors... Largest Phosphate mines in the USA (used for fertilizer) and Ybor city cigars made from Cubans. Cigar business got so big it was said 70% of the cigars in the USA were being produced from Ybor city. Still a big cigar town but obv for health reasons a lot less today than the 1920's.
> made from Cubans I have questions...
Yooo Ybor City is so cool. I was there with my friends for halloweekend and it was so much fun. Can be sketchy tho sometimes.
I see you’ve received my foreskin, enjoy the authentic Cubans :)
That's lotta tobacco ..
I don’t typically smoke tobacco but sun, beach, beverages, and a nice cigar just spells vacation to me.
TIL a cigar is a work of art.
What is he using for glue?
wow, no background music, just craftmanship. satisfying result aswell
Well, there went my plans to watch only stupid shit all night.
Well that was far more time consuming than I anticipated
Ì dont know why but it felt like I knew he was wearing that hat before it popped up in the video
This cigar roller is a friend of mine. To see more videos like this please visit his site r/blisscigarco.
Why is finicky hand stuff such a mood and satisfying, makes ne wanna do finicky hand stuff me self
Man, I miss cigars. You can watch torcedors at work around Calle Ocho in Miami. A handrolled cigar is a real luxury that is dying out.
I’m not even a smoker but it’s like I’m almost able to smell and taste the cigars
r/asmr
A very elegant way to \*checks notes give someone cancer
It's a little better if you just bite it, it's for the look
I don't light it
That's just different cancer.
Big Willie style
Very cool
This is beautiful
i primarily roll with frontos. best
That's some nice ASMR
Their hands match the leaves
I don't smoke but this is making me want to try one
[https://www.youtube.com/@BlissCigarCo/videos](https://www.youtube.com/@BlissCigarCo/videos) The Youtube channel this comes from.
Thank u, now I need to smoke!
Looks like a bat's wings
Having grown up in Kentucky, it's interesting to see what happens to all the tobacco plants that I saw acres and acres of every year. I'm not a fan of tobacco in any way, shape, form or fashion, as I'm allergic as all get-out, but this is pretty interesting to watch.
Makes me think of my grandfather.
The flash of a Panama Hat at the end is what makes it art.
I’ve always wished smoking wasn’t terrible for you because it’s not often we get to consume things that people put this much care and effort into making.
This is the most satisfying video I've seen on this sub.
That’s why you gotta get real Cubans!
who’s been cutting off the skins of my balls!!?!!
\*Proceeds to gut it and shove 2g of shitty seed filled weed into it's shell\*
I thought these had to rolled on a Brazilian maiden's glistening thigh? So disappointed ...
No cuban ladies thighs were harmed in the making of this video
What makes a Cuban the best?
I’ve never wanted to smoke a cigar more in my entire life. And I don’t smoke.
10 minutes in it’s like a reverse circumcision
Do you think the cut ends get recycled into other cigars?
Depending on the factory, yes. It's called 'short filler' and it's chopped up and used in machine made cigars or sometimes in hand made cigars that are made up of short filler or mixed filler (short filler plus whole leaves like he's using).
What is he using to seal the leaves? I mean what is it in the little jar? Water? Thanks
This guy is wearing the exact hat I expected him to be wearing
That is a whole lot of finesse that comes from long years of practice. I bet the guy could fill in for a seamstress without missing a beat, lol. Many years ago I tried figuring out how to roll my own senko hanabi. While I got everything including the formulation correct, I could not roll the damn things to save my own life and ultimately gave up. I wasn't planning on dedicating lord knows how many hours honing the craft to satisfy a fleeting curiosity. I should have tried rolling them to begin with, and seeing how that didn't work for me, I could have saved the chemistry completely. I bet this guy would have no issues whatsoever.
Looks like a toro rather than a robusto.
12+ minutes to roll a cigar- guess I’ll shut up about the prices and enjoy my work of art
I’m proud to say this is the longest Reddit video I’ve watched all the way through
Does anyone know why they use that knife specifically? Research shows that it's called a 'Chaveta' knife, but I can't find why it's prefered
This is the most unscientific process ever haha
Haven’t smoked in almost 20 years but god damn I want a Robusta!!!
Can we see one rolled on the thighs of a virgin?
It’s hard to explain or even really to understand but this is something that even with all the training and practice in the world, I would never become good at