Ask halfwheel: What are the different varietals of tobacco, and how are they used in blending?

A few weeks ago we started a new weekly feature on halfwheel where we invite readers to ask questions of the staff, either about the site itself or something cigar industry related. It’s our hope that we can share some more information on both how we work and how the cigar industry works, and this week the question focuses on the latter of those two goals.

Reader Jake J. asked:

What are the different varietals of tobacco, and how are they used in blending? I know Connecticut describes a type of tobacco, but some wrapper is grown in Connecticut and some is broadleaf. Is Honduran Connecticut grown from the same varietal of tobacco as Ecuadorian Connecticut? Why do some companies disclose unusual varietal names used in the filler but provide no substantiating information about what the varietal is or how it came about? It can be so confusing thinking about some of this stuff, but I’d like to know more in-depth about the blending process.

Wrapped inside Jake’s question is a number of things that frustrate not only consumers, but us at halfwheel as well since we strive to provide the most thorough and accurate information about the cigars you smoke, so let’s break apart his larger question into several pieces.

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT VARIETALS OF TOBACCO, AND HOW ARE THEY USED IN BLENDING?

There’s a lot, more than there is time or space to fully address this question, and even then it would be impossible to cover every different type of tobacco and more importantly, what their characteristics are and what kind of flavors they offer. Most of that is due to the fact that many seeds are hybrids, meaning that each growing season the number of seed varietals expands each year.

Tobacco, much like grapes grown for wine, can taste markedly different based on where it’s grown; plants grown short distances apart can have different properties based on the soil they are grown in as well as the amount of sun and water they get and at what points in their life they get it.

But to tackle part of Jake’s question, let’s talk about Connecticut tobacco, which can be a particularly confusing varietal since it refers to both a place and a type of seed. Most descriptions of tobacco will at least list the country of origin, though for Connecticut it is often omitted since American consumers know where Connecticut is located. Within the world of domestic Connecticut tobacco, you have two distinctions: first is shade grown, which is grown under the cover of cheese cloth or a similar type of netting, with the covering blocking a good percentage of the sun’s rays. As a result, the plant grows much taller and produces thinner, milder leaves than the other type of Connecticut tobacco, broadleaf, which is grown without the covering and as such produces a shorter, wider plant with much thicker, oilier and flavorful leaves. It’s also the only one that can undergo the fermentation process that results in maduro leaves, since the thicker leaves are able to handle the heat generated in that process.

You can see both styles of domestically grown Connecticut tobacco in the recap of my visit to Altadis U.S.A.’s Gershel Farm in Somers, Conn., where both are grown.

But not all Connecticut tobacco comes from Connecticut, as Jake pointed out. Those seeds have been taken to Ecuador, where they are grown without the shade covering but benefit from the frequently cloudy skies of the country, which filter the sun’s light naturally. The result is a leaf that falls in the middle of the U.S. varietals in terms of thickness, oiliness and size. The soil also produces a unique taste to the tobacco that tends to be less sour than its U.S.-grown shade counterpart, while also offering a good bit of cream and nuttiness, which can hold up well to a binder and filler that might offer a stronger, flavorful profile.

This is only one example; seeds have crossed borders enough times to fill a passport as growers try to find new tastes and subtleties that result in a tobacco they can sell. This doesn’t even take into account hybrids such as habano 2000, corojo 98, corojo 99, criollo 99 and many, many others. Farmers and agronomists will look to get traits from certain seeds and combine them to make a plant that is not only flavorful, but resistant to disease and produces as high of a yield as possible.

Beyond that, you also have to take into account the three main leaf levels that come from each plant: seco, viso and ligero. The lowest group of usable leaves on the plant are called seco and are used both to aid in combustion and offer a bit of flavor. Next up is viso, which comes from the middle part of the plant and offers a more flavorful tobacco than seco. Ligero comes from the top third of the plant and is the strongest, most flavorful tobacco because it has to produce a lot of oil to guard against the sun’s rays, and it’s those oils that deliver the flavors. However, those oils make it tougher to burn, so only so much can be used in any cigar and it has to be placed in the exact center of the filler to ensure the cigar will burn properly. These three designations are common among all types of tobacco, regardless of where it came from or what varietal it is, though in Cuba viso is referred to as volado.

The goal is to find tobaccos that can come together and not only produce a cigar with a certain strength and flavor profile, but will also burn properly. It’s a process that can take dozens, sometimes hundreds of iterations to reach a finished product, with each tweak affecting flavor, strength and combustion.

WHY DO COMPANIES DISCLOSE WHAT THEY DO ABOUT THE TOBACCO IN THEIR CIGARS?

Jake asked one of the questions that we ask at halfwheel more times than we’d like to, since we believe that consumers should be as informed as possible about what it is they are smoking. However, some companies are intentionally vague about the varietals, generally for one of two reasons.

Most choose to not disclose because they are afraid others might try to copy the blend. As I mentioned above, most manufacturers will disclose the country of origin, but even that can be a challenge, while the occasional brand will disclose more specifics than you might be able to handle, such as Steve Saka did with Sobremesa. If anyone loves both tobacco and information, it’s Saka, and he showed that by releasing a more detailed blend info that seemed to only be lacking the grower’s phone number and address.

The other has due to with a smoker’s preconceived notions.

Quesada is fairly forthcoming with the countries of origins for its cigars, but for the Heisenberg project it didn’t disclose any details out of a desire to have the consumer go into the cigar without any preconceived notions of what it might taste like.

There’s also a thought that consumers might not want a certain cigar based on the tobacco used in it. Mexican tobacco went through this for several years before San Andrés tobacco became the buzz of the industry. Similarly, there is tobacco grown in Colombia that we’ve heard gets spun as Peruvian, since some consumers might not be interested in leaves from that country.

Then, there’s also the thought that a good portion of the consumers simply don’t care what tobacco is in their cigar, so the company doesn’t want to spend time and money telling its story. While a company like Altadis U.S.A. is incredibly excited about Yargüera, a new hybrid grown in Honduras, there are many more companies who simply buy their tobacco either from a farmer, broker or factory, and might not know the backstory themselves.

I wish there was a simpler and more straightforward answer, but in the cigar industry there are so many types of companies that there is no one-size-fits-all answer. My suggestion would be to learn as much as you can about tobacco through things like the Tobacconist University R&D Series, where you get both a finished cigar as well as puros of each of the tobaccos that are used. That way you can smoke each component on its own to see just what it adds to the final blend. Ultimately, it might be your palate that tells the difference between what’s listed on the cigar’s blend and what’s actually in it.

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