Look at the perfect smoke ring floating through a hazy dream. Realize the ingenious method and the rituals that stemmed from a huge broad tobacco leaf. Smooth, sophisticated and sensual, the Tuscan cigar has come a long way into the elite world of aroma and taste. Sit back with an Italian grappa and inhale the aromatic flavor of a Tuscan cigar and let the dawn break through with a blend of taste and fragrance.
Travel with Christopher Columbus as he ventured into Cuba in 1492. Intrigued with the religious ritual where the tobacco leaf was rolled and smoked after offering it to their gods, Columbus soon brought the seeds back to distribute in other countries. The Cubans smoked the rolled leaf in an interesting looking device called the 'tabaco'. Soon other explorers sampled it and brought the seeds back to be planted at first in the royal garden of Lisbon in 1558. As an amazing fact, the French Ambassador Jean Nicot, whose name was lent to the naming of the word 'nicotine', ordered the seeds to be sent from Portugal to France in 1560. Walk into the royal herb garden, where Caterina dei Medici preserved the tobacco plant for its medicinal properties and called it the 'Queen's Herb'. Go through the papal corridors where tobacco was regarded as the 'Holy Herb' by Cardinal Prospero of Santa Croce. Monks from different orders received the seeds distributed by the Supreme Pontiff and the cultivation spread in the Lazio region.
Follow the tobacco trail to the factory on the Garibaldi road where the tobacco was cultivated by the Dominican monks, the nuns of St. Caterina in Magnanapoli besides other convents and monasteries. Pope Alessandro VII Chigi issued an order in 1665 where privatized tobacconists were authorized to sell tobacco for its medicinal value.
Inhale the aroma of perfumed tobacco as it was made into snuff for the genteel ladies. But soon as in all innovative products, the use of tobacco was disfigured into abusive purpose and the tobacco was created into a smoking device in 1590 by the Englanders. As an addictive element, tobacco was pronounced as injurious to health and had strong opposition from the doctors as well as banned by Pope Urbano VIII. But both the governors and Benedetto XIV supported the tobacco trade with the result that sowing, harvesting and importing of tobacco were enjoyed by everyone.
Witness the 'pleasurable accident' of the Toscano cigar in Florence during 1815. Light up a 'slow smoke' and watch perfect rings ascending into the air. As a brilliant aftermath of a sudden downpour of rain, the tobacco growers who had left their bales of tobacco uncovered, found to their dismay that the tobacco had got completely drenched. After a hurried rush to get their bales indoors to dry, the farmers found to their delight that when dried the drenched tobacco could be transformed into aromatic cigars that was a super hit! The 'accident' that turned into 'success' moved the production from Florence to the province of Lucca.
The Grand Duchy of Tuscany invites you to Lucca to walk through its gabled barns to view the brown gold of the rural economy of Tuscany. Walk along the production lines and look at the bales of Kentucky tobacco leaves that were left out in the rain and watch the deft fingers roll the brown leaves with tender care and experience. Most sought after and famous through Europe among the connoisseurs of cigars, the Toscano was born over one and a half centuries ago in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany in Lucca's tobacco factory. Wander through the small valleys and pass the valleys of the Chiana, the Arno and the Tiber and look at the quaint gabled tobacco drying barns. Ideal for growing the black tobacco, these rich fertile valleys also house the barns for drying the leaves. You will wonder why the air has changed and is hazy and smoky. Through a chink in its misty path, you can see rows and rows of tobacco leaves drying with the slow process of heat and smoke from fires lit beneath it. This accounts for the smoky aroma that is produced from the Kentucky tobacco which is cultivated on the banks of the Tiber. This unique fragrance has set the Tuscan cigar apart from its peers with its authenticity.
Sit with the tobacco growers and sort the dried leaves and bundle them to be boxed for the next process. The dried leaves can now wait even for years in this stage. Travel the short distance to Lucca and get down at the factory to watch an interesting procedure. The boxes of tobacco leaves are immersed in water and then sorted out as the dry delicate leaves can acquire the humidity it needs to be rolled into the wonderful cigar. Next, the biggest, thickest and best leaves are chosen which can be stretched and cut into half to form the wrapper or the outer covering of the cigar with perfectly matched leaves. The other leaves are cut into strips to make up the filling for the cigar. Stop and exchange pleasantries with the women of Lucca as they joke and talk about their families and traditional recipes. But the perfection goes on in a smooth and uninterrupted rhythm. With serious concentration in the midst of the banter, the women roll out the cigar with dexterity. A supervisor oversees the entire production and takes care to ensure the traditional quality of the Tuscan cigar with expertise while maintaining the correct standards in an ambience of total peace and calm.
Take a peek into the humidity room where the glistening cigars are arrayed. Spread on cloth, the cigars are carefully administered with the right amount of humidity and temperature. This is the magic formula behind the success where the ensuing chemistry brings out the lovely enriched aroma and flavor. The Toscani is then allowed to dry and then sent to the warehouse after being wrapped with cellophane paper to mature for a further six months to two years till the full perfection of maturity is reached. As an interesting fact, the Tuscan cigar is almost always compared to traditional food products. With its fantastic taste and smell, the Tuscan cigar is grown on traditional rich soil with traditional manufacture that brings out its true colors and fragrance.
