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8-THE AGEING

During the whole process, each type of tobacco from each field and from each farmer is kept separately and fermented separatly. Once the fermentation is finished, the tobacco is packed in bales of 60/70 pounds and placedin the ageing room at at a hygrmetry of 78 to 80% for up to 7 years. During the ageing process, the leaves develop a full flavour aroma. The stronger the tobacco the longer the ageing process.


Each cigar company has a differant policy for ageing. Davidoff has an inventory of around 3 to 4 years of cigar production.


Davidoff buys wrapper tobacco that is already fermented, processed and aged but davidoff does a second fermentation. The wrapper used by Davidoff is Maruna wrapper. This is a heavy and very oily tobacco, which is why Davidoff does a second fermintation instead of using the second option.


The second option would be to use a boiler/steamer. The cooking process will "kill" the tobacco and its flavours. The wrapper will then have no more influence on the aroma of the cigar because of the high temperatures used in that process.