As far as Europe is concerned, cigars and other forms of smoking date back to the arrival of Columbus in the West Indies in 1492, where he found that the natives of the island were smoking primitive forms of a cigar shaped from rolled leaves, made of aromatic herbs.

Much of the territory in the West Indies, Central and South America belonged at that time and for next 250 years or so to the Spaniards in the form of Spanish colonies and it is for this reason that they were responsible for early development of tobacco and its commercialization. This Spanish influence also explains why most cigars types have Spanish names, for example Senoritas.

In fact, the Spanish prohibited exports from their colonies, except to Spain and it was via this source that exports to other parts of Europe were made.

The Netherlands

The cigar has been a favorite form of smoking in the Netherlands since manufacture started at the end of the 18^th century. Due to dominance of the East Indies by the Dutch from the beginning of the 17^th century, Dutch cigars have influenced leaf grown firstly in Java and than Sumatra.

  
Tobacco of Nicotine                       Nicotine Tabacum

Many of the present Dutch cigars are composed of about 70% Indonesian leaf combined with another large proportion Brazil and Cuba tobacco leaves.

Origins of cigar tobacco

As the Dutch cigars do not comprise just one type of tobacco, but a well balanced blend of high quality tobaccos, cigar tobacco is selected from several plantations all over the world, like Indonesia, Brazil, Greece, Columbia and Cuba. The most visible part of the cigar is the beautiful (and very costly) outer wrapper leaf; this comes mainly from Indonesia, and Brazil plantations. Beneath this is the binder leaf which the most suitable tobacco is Javanese Besuki. Inside this again is the filler, comprising the body of the cigar, a carefully tuned blend of various tobaccos originating from Brazil, Indonesia, Cuba. Greece etc.

All the main cultured varieties of tobacco belong to the Nicotina Tabacum family. The tobacco plants are annuals. Time between sowing and picking the ripe leaves takes no more than 5 months.
  
Nicotina Tabacum                 Picking the Tobacco

Picking is normally done by hand and in three steps. The bottom leaves are the first to show discolouration (time to harvest them) then the middle ones and finally the top leaves.

After the leaves are picked, they are hung up to dry for about three weeks. The next stage is fermenting the leaves. This fermentation changes the tobacco characteristics; the colour of the leaves is much more uniform and the final aromas have been created.
  
Hanged Tobacco leaves       Grading the Leaves

The final step in the process is grading the leaves by colour and by size. Afterwards they are pressed  into bales. These bales are shipped to the auctions where our masterblenders buy their tobaccos.