Two cigars can be the same size, from the same country, with the same wrapper color, and still taste nothing alike. The difference is the blend: which tobaccos went into the cigar and in what proportions. The person who decides that is the blender, and at many companies the senior one is called the master blender. This chapter of Cigars 101 follows a blend from the first leaf samples to a finished line on the shelf. For where this step sits in the whole sequence, see how cigars are made.
What a blender works with
A blender works with tobacco that has already been cured, fermented, and usually aged. The raw material is not one leaf but a library of them. Each leaf can differ by seed variety, country, farm, harvest year, and its position on the plant: volado from low on the stalk, seco from the middle, and ligero from the top. Wrapper, binder, and filler explains what each of those leaves does in the finished cigar.
The recipe for the filler is called the ligada in Spanish. In the Cuban tradition, the ligada is a mix of ligero, seco, and volado, and the blender also chooses the binder and the wrapper that go around it. Outside Cuba, the recipe can also combine leaf from several countries, which makes the cigar a blend rather than a puro.
Cigar Journal, in a long feature on blending, quoted Carlos Oliva of Oliva saying that blending begins in the fields. A blender can only use the tobacco the company has, so growers keep blenders informed during the season, and companies that grow their own leaf try to control how it is grown and cured. Companies that buy leaf from other growers have more choice, but they can find it harder to get the same tobacco year after year.
Starting with a goal
A new blend usually starts with a target. Sometimes it comes from the market. Cigar Journal reported that the Cohiba Maduro 5 began when the marketing team at Habanos S.A. asked for a fuller-bodied Cohiba line, based on market research and requests from distributors. Davidoff told halfwheel that a new line there starts with a brief to its master blender describing the experience the cigar should give. Other blenders work from their own taste. Pete Johnson of Tatuaje told Cigar Journal, half joking, that he makes his cigars for himself.
Whatever the starting point, the blender is aiming at a few qualities at once. Cigar Journal summarized them as flavor, aroma, strength, combustion, and draw. A blend that tastes good but will not stay lit is not finished, so the burn matters as much as the taste.
Test cigars and the blending table
The work is done by smoking. Hostos Fernandez of Tabacalera La Isla, in a blending walkthrough summarized by My Cigar Pack, describes rough "blending cigars" made from a single tobacco and smoked only to learn what that leaf contributes. Some leaves add sweetness, some strength, some help the cigar burn, and some seem flat alone but become important in a blend.
From there the blender combines leaves in trial proportions and has them rolled into test cigars. These often carry numbers rather than names, and the blender takes notes on each one. A change might mean more seco for aroma, a different binder for the burn, or a smaller share of ligero to soften the strength. Where a leaf sits in the bunch matters too. Many blenders put slow-burning ligero toward the center, with leaves that burn more easily around it, as described in bunching and rolling by hand.
Tasting panels
Many companies do not leave the final choice to one person's palate. They use a tasting panel, a group of experienced smokers who test the candidates.
The details vary. At Tabacalera de García in La Romana, Dominican Republic, long the home of the U.S.-market Montecristo, Cigars-connect reported that a group of eight master blenders submits new blends to panels for blind tests held in silence. They score taste, appearance, burn, strength, and aroma, and reject any blend that falls below a set minimum score. One of those blenders said that a new blend takes four to six months, and that one project tested 12 options and others as many as 20.
For the Cohiba Maduro 5, Cigar Journal reported that the Cuban tobacco research institute proposed six starting blends, and the work then moved to the El Laguito factory. A single trusted roller made the test cigars for the six months of development. About ten people tasted each day's version, and close to fifty tasters had taken part by the end. Davidoff told halfwheel that the candidate blends for its Winston Churchill line were tested by panels in many regions before one was chosen.
Adjusting strength and flavor
The panel's notes send the blender back to the leaf. If a blend is too strong, the usual lever is the filler, especially the share of ligero. If it tastes thin, the blender may add seco or a leaf with more character. If it burns badly, the answer may be more volado, a different binder, or a different bunch. The wrapper can change the result a great deal. Some lines are sold with two or more wrappers over the same filler and binder, as wrapper types and colors describes. A darker wrapper is not the same thing as more strength, as strength, body, and flavor explains.
One line, many sizes
A cigar line comes in several vitolas, and the same recipe does not smoke the same way in every size. A thin cigar puts more wrapper in each puff and leaves less room for ligero in the center. A thick one holds more filler. The ring gauge and length cheat-sheet covers how size changes that balance.
For that reason, some companies adjust the blend for each size. Hendrik "Henke" Kelner, the longtime master blender at Davidoff, told Casa de Campo Living that one Davidoff line can contain up to three different blends, depending on the size and diameter of the cigar. Not every company works this way, and most do not publish the recipe for each size.
Keeping a blend consistent
Creating a blend is only half the job. Don José "Pepín" García of My Father told Cigar Journal that there are two kinds of blending: creating a new blend, and maintaining one in production. The second never ends, because tobacco is a crop. Weather, soil, and the harvest change the leaf from year to year.
Kelner made the point at a tasting reported by the Russian cigar site Cigarinfo. Knowing the formula is not enough, he said, because next year the tobacco will be different, and a blender has to change the mix to keep the same taste. Large stocks of aged leaf help. In a Cigar Aficionado profile, Kelner said Davidoff held about four and a half years of binder and filler in its warehouse, and that the stock let the company stay consistent.
Companies divide this work in different ways. Cigar Journal reported in 2008 that José Orlando Padrón personally led the upkeep of Padrón's blends with a small circle of family and his factory manager, while companies such as Oliva and Plasencia used expert tasters in each department. Sometimes the right leaf is simply gone. A poor wrapper crop can force a company to change the taste of a line or stop making it, and some companies build limited releases around a small lot of unusual leaf for that reason.
Where to go next
- The three leaves and what each does: wrapper, binder, and filler.
- How the leaf is prepared before it reaches the blender: fermentation.
- How the recipe becomes a cigar: bunching and rolling by hand.
- How factories check the result: quality control and construction.
- Brands named in this chapter: Davidoff, Padrón, Oliva, My Father, and Cohiba.
- Terms: master blender, ligada, blend, puro, and the rest of the glossary.
- The full course: Cigars 101.
Smoke Rings sells the tools and not the tobacco: cutters, lighters, and humidors, sold through eBay (seller us-grai), plus empty cigar boxes for collectors. For the cigars themselves, our sponsor AbsoluteCigars.com is your best source.
Sources: Cigar Journal, Blending: Behind the Scenes (Colin C. Ganley, Spring 2008): Carlos Oliva on blending beginning in the field; growers/purchased leaf; Pepin Garcia on creating vs maintaining a blend; Cohiba Maduro 5 (Habanos marketing request, six initial blends from the Cuban tobacco institute, El Laguito, one roller, ~10 daily tasters, ~50 total over six months); five characteristics (flavor, aroma, strength, combustion, draw); Pete Johnson; Padrón kept blends within family and factory manager Gabriel Fernandez; Oliva and Plasencia tasters per department; bad crops forcing change or discontinuation. Cigars-connect, How does the Grupo de Maestros create a new blend? (Tabacalera de García: blind silent panels, five criteria, minimum score 90, 4-6 months, 12-20 options). halfwheel, Behind the Blend: Davidoff Winston Churchill (brief to master blender, panels across many regions). Casa de Campo Living interview with Hendrik Kelner (up to three blends per line by size and diameter). Cigarinfo.ru report of a Kelner master class (formula must change to keep the same taste). Cigar Aficionado, Kelner—Davidoff's Tobacco Guru (about 4.5 years of binder and filler in stock). My Cigar Pack recap of Hostos Fernandez (Tabacalera La Isla) blending walkthrough (single-tobacco blending cigars). Tabacalera/Habanos manufacturing page (ligada of ligero, seco, volado; master blender sets proportions). No invented statistics, scores, quotes, or tasting notes.