Monday, April 17 2006
By Jill Scott (NY1)
APRIL 18 - As part of NY1's Bronx Week celebration, we continue to find things that are made in the Bronx. NY1's Jill Scott filed the following report on one shop where cigar makers are on a roll.
From a
Robusto to a
Churchill, cigar aficionados love finding new smokes, but a place in the Bronx is creating the perfect one; one that you design yourself.
"You can pick the flavor. You can pick your size, the taste, the texture. If you like something mild or something a little stronger or something lighter, we can accommodate you," says Robert Salgado of VIP Cigars.
At VIP Cigars on Westchester Avenue in the Bronx, you can not only buy or smoke a cigar, you can also learn how they are made. Roller Felix Diaz makes these babies to your liking.
"It's something different, something our grandparents used to do. A lot of grandparents used to roll cigars back 50 to 60 years ago," says Israel Cruz, co-owner of VIP Cigars.
And its not just the rollers that go way back. Many people don't realize that cigars are really a part of Hispanic Culture. Most of the world's rollers are Dominican or Cuban, and a majority of the worlds tobacco is grown in Latin American countries.
The owners of VIP Cigars say they opened this business not only to fulfill a need, but to introduce people to the lost art of cigar making.
Basically, cigars are made in three steps.
"The first one is what we call in Spanish, Le Punio, where he takes the cigar and rolls it into the first leave which is called la capota. From there he puts it into the moldings," says Cruz.
Then the rolls are put into a press for about an hour to give the cigars their shape.
"The last step is he pulls out the cigar from the molding and adds the final cap, which in Spanish we call la capa.
This is where the true art of cigar making is seen.
As for the customers, many say they love watching their orders come to form.
"It's personal. To see the guy making it, you know where it comes from. It's not wrapped. It's fresh. To smoke, it's just perfect," says customer John Chiofalo.
Aside from flavor, a nice thing about a custom cigar is that you can also select the size. You can even super-size. The torpedo size is a foot long and will probably take you a day and a half to smoke.
But no matter how you like it, the experience alone is sure to ignite your passion for cigars, and the education will open your eyes to a whole new type of Latin flavor.
To see Jill's NY1 report on video, click one of the links below:
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Source: NY1.com
