Mastering the Blend

Master blenders work hard to craft a cigar that appeals to the tongue's various taste regions. For example, cigars that rely heavily on the olor tobacco leaf for fillers are known to leave a dry taste in your mouth. Why? The olor leaf has a tendency to set off the tongue's salty regions. It's like eating a handful of salted peanuts. On the other hand, a cigar that uses the San Vicente leaf stimulates the production of saliva. As you can surmise, creating a cigar that has a complex flavor profile can be quite the challenge. To achieve this goal, master blenders use a variety of tobaccos. However, it is not as simple as following a recipe. It takes years of practical experience and an encyclopedic knowledge of tobacco to come up with the right profile. So the next time you light up, take a puff (or two) to honor the cigar artisans who work so hard to give you that perfectly balanced stick.