How We Roll

HOW WE ROLL…OUR CIGARS…from the beginning

The Tobaccos…

The first step in the process of creating our fine, premium hand-rolled cigars is the selection of the tobaccos.  We start with tobaccos that are a combination of Nicaraguan and Cuban blended seed. We select only tobaccos that have been aged for a minimum of one year and from the enriched soil areas of Esteli, Jalapa, Condega and the volcanic region of Ometepe Island.  Our wrappers are sun-grown tobaccos from Ecuador and Nicaragua Jalapa.

Blending of Tobaccos…

One of the most crucial steps in the hand making process of premium cigars is the blending various tobaccos that will produce the flavor, strength and consistency of our fine cigars.

Cigar Making Process…

All of our cigars are hand-rolled in Nicaragua.  Since their climate is very humid, we maintain the moisture under control with dehumidifiers for the fillers.  We dry the tobaccos in climatized rooms.  The fillers are stored in climate controlled rooms of 72 degrees and 14% humidity.
The filler leaves are rolled by a pair of rollers sitting together at a rolling table, a Bonchero and Torcedor.  The Bonchero makes an “S” shape with each tobacco leaf.  This will provide the best draw and even burn of the cigar.  Once the body of the cigar (the “bonche”) has been rolled it ready to be pressed into the length and ring size.  The bonche is placed in molds and pressed for about an hour.

Once the bonche has been pressed it is ready to have the wrapper rolled.  The wrapper tobacco is moistened and stored over night in a dark room.  Each wrapper leaf is moistened carefully and hung up on a wire and kept in a dark room to make the wrapper more pliable.

The selection of the wrappers come early in the morning.  Each leaf is separated in size, color, and texture.  Once the wrappers have been selected they are then rolled over the filler and binder to produce our premium cigar.

Cigar Inspection and Quality Control…

We inspect each cigar after it comes out of the presser molds.  We also run each of our cigars through our Draw Master machine. Unlike most cigar manufacturers who run only random number of cigars through the draw machine, each of the La Sonrisa cigars is measured by the draw machine.  If the cigar passes this inspection, the Rolera will roll the cigar with the delicate wrapper and finish it for final inspection.  At this point our cigar master will look for imperfections such as soft spots, poorly constructed bondy, green spots or wrappers with some other imperfections.  If the cigar doesn’t pass this visual inspection for color and texture consistency, it will be put into the seconds bin and not packaged.  We will not sell a La Sonrisa cigar unless it has passed our rigid quality control process.

Aging the cigars…

Although aging cigars is a long process, it is an important for it to mellow into a unique blend which is smooth and rich.  Our cigars rest for approximately six months in our climate controlled humidors consisting of about 70 degrees and 70 percent humidity.