Our master blender, Manuel Inoa, speaks in an interesting online session at ‘Light ’em Up Lounge’ with host Reinhard Pohorec, contributor to ‘Cigar Journal’, and with all the fans of Premium cigars who attended the virtual event held on March 8th from last year.
Manuel Inoa, who has been making great cigars for 35 years, first explained how he came about working in the industry. He was not born into a family with a tobacco tradition, but focused on Industrial Engineering; but that didn’t stop cigars from becoming his calling.
“I wasn’t born into a tobacco family. I am one of the only blenders who doesn’t have a family tradition behind him when it comes to making cigars or growing tobacco. When I started working in the factory to improve quality and efficiencies, I became related to tobacco and fell in love. It was love at first sight. When I saw tobacco and people enjoying it, I forgot all about industrial engineering. I loved the passion behind it.” Inoa explained.
The cigar manufacturing processes and the preparation of the blends by Manuel Inoa
For almost an hour and a half, Inoa spoke about the manufacturing processes of cigars, especially with regard to blends; but also about the factors that affect how the cigar will be: the harvest, the selection of tobacco, the type of seeds, the foliage layer of the tobacco leaves in the plant and the processes of the leaves for the tobacco (curing, drying, fermentation, destemming, aging).
In response to questions from the attendees, our master blender broke down all the steps that are taken to create a cigar: the demands of the market, the availability of tobacco, the tasting of different blends until reaching the final one, the passage of the possible blends through panels of experts, the selection of the best tobaccos and more.
He also detailed the challenges and problems that have to be dealt with on a daily basis, such as always maintaining the same profile of a specific cigar over the years. “You have to have a large inventory of tobacco for that, because the tobacco crop can change a lot from year to year,” he said.
To learn more about Manuel Inoa’s passion for tobacco and all the details about the manufacture of Premium cigars, you can watch the video of the master class of our master blender in ‘Light ’em Up Lounge’ here and keep up to date with all their activities in www.lightemupworld.com.