Thursday, March 25 2010
By Andrew Marshall
Travel Writer,
Troy Media
HAVANA, CU, Troy Media -- A man’s voice crackles over an antiquated loud speaker system as he reads a chapter from a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel, the words filling the vast room where dozens of men and women listen. With heads bowed over long wooden workbenches and with their hands methodically rolling, chopping and tucking, they create Cuba's most famous product.
I am inside the world famous Partagas factory in Havana and this has been the unchanging scene of cigar making since 1845. For a cigar aficionado like me, this is 'the pilgrimage,' for it is here that some of the world's finest cigars are handcrafted, from the powerfully rich Cohiba Robusto to the magnificent Partagas Double Corona.
Factory tours take around one hour, and cover the various stages of cigar production. It all starts in the selection room, where sorters grade the various tobacco leaves, and ends in a tiny room where the finished cigars are packed into cedar boxes which are then pasted with their official green and white seals that confirm authenticity...story continues here
