Hand-rolled cigars are works of art. The best cigar makers put their heart and soul into every stick, from the expertly blended aged fillers and coarse, fragrant binder, through to the beautiful oily wrapper and artisan cap.

This is more than just quality control. The best handmade cigars offer a personal, tactile touch that can’t be matched by a machine. Carefully crafted for just the right density and a smooth, even draw, hand-rolled cigars take it to a whole other level.

The clue to what makes hand-rolled cigars special is in their name. Not only are they made by hand, but they are rolled using long filler tobacco leaves.

Rolling long leaves creates a single bunch with tiny spaces between the different layers, allowing the smoke to be drawn smoothly and evenly throughout the length of the cigar.

In contrast, machine-made cigars use short fillers or ‘picadura’. These are chopped-up tobacco leaves, similar to those used in cigarettes.

Chopped tobacco can be formed into a cigar shape by machine, but it doesn’t offer the same attention to detail. Whole-leaf long fillers give the stick a consistent flavor profile, allowing it to be smoked as the master tobacconist intended.

Cigar rollers follow a time-honored tradition of preparing the tobacco, forming the bunch, applying the wrapper and the cap, and sealing the deal with some natural gum. Here’s a more detailed look at each of the main stages:

Selecting the tobacco

The cigar maker’s skill starts with farming the tobacco, choosing the right types of tobacco seed and the right soils and locations.

Once the leaves are harvested, they must be dried and fermented. Often during this process, the master tobacconist will check the temperature by pushing their forearm into the piles of leaves, just one more hands-on example of artisan expertise.

Vintage tobaccos are then aged in climate-controlled barns, sometimes for several years. Finally, the dried, aged leaves are moistened to make them easier to work with, and the vein is gently pulled out of the middle of each leaf.

Bunching the filler

Experienced cigar makers then bunch the filler, carefully following the recipe to make sure every hand-rolled cigar contains the exact blend of different tobacco types in the right quantities.

The leaves are pressed and folded by hand, then rolled into a cylinder. The cigar maker leaves a narrow space through the center of the stick, allowing the smoke to be drawn through it with each puff.

Applying the binder

Each filler bundle is completed with a binder layer, which holds the filler leaves together. The binder is often coarse and not as visually appealing as the wrapper, but it’s important to the cigar’s structure and flavor. It’s the unsung hero of many cigars.

The binder and filler together form the ‘bunch’ and, in many cases, this could be smoked in its own right. However, it’s standard practice to add an extra wrapper layer, after pressing the bunch into shape for 30-45 minutes in a wooden mold.

Hand-finishing the wrapper

Cigar rollers apply the outer wrapper, which is an artform in itself. This is sometimes done by the same cigar maker who rolled the bunch, or sometimes by a different person, which can increase output from 100-150 sticks to 250-300 a day.

The roller also checks the bunch for any soft or loose spots, another example of hand-rolling allowing for a quick but expert moment of quality control that would be impossible to achieve by machine.

Finally, the roller applies the cap, closing up the head of the cigar by folding a loose end of the wrapper leaf over it, or by adding a separate piece of leaf. This is another truly artisanal part of the process, especially when using complicated methods like a hand-applied triple cap.

The world’s best factories

The best cigar makers have led some factories and some entire countries to be known on the world stage for their premium handmade cigars.

Cuba built its reputation on the artistry of its tobacconists and cigar rollers. Nicaraguan puros hand-rolled in the factories of Esteli are a more recent addition to the list of the world’s best cigars.

Boutique cigars handmade in the Dominican Republic are among some of the most respected in the modern-day industry, too, with many new faces in the tobacco world basing their operations there.

Torcedores (or Torcedoras, if they’re female) are master cigar rollers, often from a long line of cigar makers who have passed their skill and knowledge through the generations.

Rolling a long filler cigar is an artisan talent, selecting the right leaves and bunching them together in just the right way. A premium handmade cigar must be perfectly formed along its entire length, or it will be rejected at the quality control stage.

The artistry of Torcedores and Torcedoras is considered to be the heart of premium cigar production. It’s not about making as many cigars as possible. It’s about making the best cigars possible.

Another way to think about it is like this: the master tobacconist who creates the blend is like an architect drawing up a blueprint.

The Torcedores and Torcedoras need the knowledge to follow this blueprint. They’re the craftsmen and -women who put the cigar together, to create the physical stick for you to smoke.

While hand-rolling cigars is a tradition that has survived for generations, it doesn’t trap cigar-making in the past. In fact, it’s crucial to enabling innovation in blends and flavor profiles.

Artisan cigar rollers offer the attention to detail needed to accurately recreate the same cigar, time after time after time. This allows tobacconists to develop new blends and experiment with tiny nuances of flavor.

In the end, that drives the tobacco industry forward. New, fresh and exciting cigars are coming onto the market all the time, often from small-batch boutique studios where they can be hand-rolled in limited editions.

They say that up to 500 hands are involved in getting a cigar from farm to market. That’s a proud lineage behind every stick, and something to treasure as you hold that cigar to your lips and light it.