We had the good fortune of having Jarrid Trudeau, Executive VP of Kristoff Cigars stop by our studio to show a step-by-step process of bunching. Specifically, the Entubar bunching technique, a rolling method that originated in Cuba and is now commonly used within the cigar industry.
To start this process, we began by taking apart the entire cigar. First comes the wrapper. If done correctly, the wrapper should come off as one composed leaf and remain intact. Once you pull the wrapper off, you can tell how delicate the leaf is. Wrappers are one of the most impactful components of a cigar. That’s where most of the flavor you taste while smoking comes from.
Next, beneath the wrapper, you have the binder portion of the cigar that holds the cigar’s very core. Much like the wrapper, the binder leaf is one composed, consistent leaf.
The difference between a binder leaf and a wrapper leaf is how rough binder tobacco can feel. The wrapper is much smoother and, of much higher quality. Not to mislead as the binder is by no means inferior to its counterparts, it is still a high-quality tobacco. It's just by nature a little bit rougher due to it being sourced from a different part of the tobacco plant.
Finally, we get to the filler part of the cigar. Once all our components are laid out on the table, we begin the Entubar bunching process. Entubar bunching consists of rolling the filler components into lazy tubes over each other.
The natural path for air through a cigar is much easier when you're drawing through a bunch of straws, as it would be if you were drawing through a bunch of pages of a book.
As we start to remove some of these different fillers, you can see the vast array of colors that are in the tobacco leaf. The contrasting colors and other attributes you see in a filler represent tobaccos from several countries such as Nicaragua or the Dominican Republic.
One of the most important bits of the leaf is the Ligero, which is generally in the center and aids in combustion because it burns slowly. Bunching cigars can give you a good perspective on how much tobacco is used and if bunched correctly or incorrectly, how it can affect your overall smoking experience.
The lazy tube mechanism in the tobacco allows it to be easier to draw air and create a natural path versus if someone were to stack the tobacco leaves flat. With a flat stack although faster and simpler in creation, less air passing through the cigar is inevitable.
When we bunch cigars, Kristoff does the Lazy Entubar or Estrujado technique which directly results in a more liberal air flow making the draw on the cigars as aromatic and consistent as it is.
