четверг, 28 июня 2007 г.

The Discreet Charm of Sweetness

The Discreet Charm of Sweetness

In Europe, maduro cigars are often underestimated regarding their quality. The reservation among many smokers concerning maduros needs to be traced back mainly to earlier times, to the image of dark tobaccos which were often deficient and uniform in both style and expression. Flatness and inharmonious sweetness are associated with these cigars. Today, however, aficionados ought to newly reevaluate their rating of maduros. The tasting of the European Cigar Cult Journal has demonstrated that maduros can be cigars which are strong in expression and rich in taste.

Maduros are very popular in the USA. Every reputable brand offers cigars with dark wrapper leaves. Maduro means "ripe" in Spanish, involving a longer fermentation of the wrapper leaves in order to reach the dark shade. These leaves are very oily, rich in aroma and smelling markedly earthy. Within the color palette of the maduros there is a distinguishable range covering grades of darkness which are the result of the selection and fermentation of wrapper leaves.

Maduro can, on the one hand, refer to the tobacco leaf color or on the other, concern the manufacturing process.

The traditional maduro leaf comes from the uppermost tobacco leaves on the plant. The additional maturing from direct sunshine results in a certain sweetness which is associated with maduro wrappers. Depending on whether the leaf has grown higher or lower on the plant, the aroma is either fuller or milder, respectively.

Along with the additional maturing under the sun, maduro wrapper leaves are fermented longer and at higher temperatures than usual (up to 65.5 degrees Centigrade, or 150 degrees Fahrenheit). The high temperatures give the leaves their dark brown to black color. Tobaccos which can resist the higher temperatures during fermentation are used for maduro wrapper leaves.

Different techniques which are based on the experience of the individual tobacco experts are used for this process. Simplified methods involve a kind of "cooking" of the wrapper leaves in steam chambers (at 82 degrees Centigrade, or 180 degrees Fahrenheit, and higher). This procedure results in milder maduro cigars. In the commercial business of cheap cigars, maduros are also dyed and sweetened with sugar in order to obtain the desired color and sweetness.

Maduros produced this way have also substantially contributed to the bad image of this type of cigar. The classically processed wrapper leaves can provide maduros with richness in aroma and variety in taste, together with the charm of subtle sweetness. This maduro tasting was carried out by members of the tasting panel of the

European Cigar Cult Journal.

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