No product on earth enjoys a more painstaking treatment in its presentation and packaging, starting with the perfect colour-matching of the wrappers. |
Sorting the Colors
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Wrappers come in many finely distinguished shades of colour, and great care is taken to ensure that all of the cigars in any one box are the exact same shade.
The colour of a Habano wrapper is purely natural in origin - no artificial process is used to force it. Leaves from the upper levels of the plant are
naturally darker, and become darker still in the course of fermentation.
Among the most senior workers in the factory are the Escogedores - colour graders - who work in pairs to colour-match the wrappers in any box or bundle of Habanos. |
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One Escogedor sorts the cigars en masse, dividing them by colours and shades of each colour in a pattern of columns and rows that may well represent 60 or more finely distinguished shades.
A second Escogedor then sorts the cigars within each shade, one box-full at a time, ordering them so that any slight differences in tone run dark to light from left to right across the box.
The Escogedor also chooses which face of each cigar will face upwards in the box. |
Applying the Bands
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Cigar bands were introduced in the 1860s by Don Gustavo Bock, a European who had arrived in Havana to make his fortune in cigars. Legend has it that his idea sprang from a desire to protect the white-gloved fingers of his more refined customers from staining. True or not, cigar bands grew to become the Habano's most potent popular symbol, prized by collectors and copied by every rival.
The Anilladora - or 'bander' - delicately applies a band to each cigar and places them in their part-dressed box, following the Escogedor's arrangement in every detail: same face upwards with the band appropriately aligned, and the same order left to right |
Dressing the Box
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Cuba was first to introduce the classic labelled cigar bo
x in the mid-19th Century, and it remains the best-known form of Habano packaging. The extravagant paper trimmings on the box are called habilitaciónes, literally dressings. Each label has its own time-honoured name and all of them are applied by hand.
Some labels are applied before the box is filled, and some afterwards.
Old and rare labels have become collector's items. | |
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