|
PRTC
Photo Galleries
| A
Day at the Factory |
| |
 Cabinet
Number 3 is open and ready for production. Raw tobacco leaves
are stored for eighteen months as different leaves "marry"
their flavors. Our leaves are hand picked by Don Fidel, our oldest
leaf man. If you speak a little Spanish, Don Fidel will be glad
to discuss the rich history of the factory with you. Don Fidel’s
mother and grandmother both rolled cigars at the Puerto Rico Tobacco
Corporation. The leaves pictured here are being prepared for stem
stripping and separated into right hand and left hand leaf sections.
The workers are preparing the famous Hoja Prieto for the new rolling
season. The Hoja Prieto grows among vanilla plants on the "fincas"
in Puerto Rico. Some of the beans inevitably make their way into
the cabinets (an accident which has become a tradition in the
curing barns in this part of the country) to liven the flavor
of our home grown products. These leaves will be carefully moistened
and rolled into our finest lonsdales, robustos,
double coronas and Churchills. |
| |
 Blocked
bundles in the pre-dawn stage. Cigars waiting for their day. The
blocks are hand made by experienced artisans from pine or aged oak.
The grooves in the upper and lower casings must be cut perfectly
to give the cigars their characteristic shapes. |
| |
 Patricio’s
rolling table at the ready. A solid oak block is used as a base
for handling the tobacco. All the material’s which will be
used are carefully inspected and prepared for the rolling process.
Time: 6:30 a.m. Patricio moves around the factory drying barn looking
for ripe bunches of wrapper leaves with which he will finish the
blocked bundles of tobacco. He is careful to select bundles of the
very same texture and color. This minimizes the sorting process
which follows hand rolling and cuts waste to the minimum. Some of
our wrapper leaves cost as much as $42.00 per pound. |
Next  |
|
);)
);)
);)