A perfectly-cogged system designed to protect both the quality and the development of habanos has been operating in Cuba for a quarter of a century.

Claimed by smokers from around the world, the habano is the most successful cigar in the market, capable of pleasing the most demanding customers. But to protect its chart-topping position, this item needs staunch guardians, like the Tobacco Research Institute. This facility is located in San Antonio de los Baños’ Tumbadero Farmhouse, south of Havana and since its foundation 25 years ago it outlined such clear-cut goals as the protection of Cuba’s tobacco traditions and the contribution of scientific and technical breakthroughs for the sake of stepping up both the quality and development of this coveted product. A Clear Path Even though a Tobacco Experimental Station was run in Pinar del Rio’s San Juan y Martinez since 1937 and a similar facility was opened in 1940 in Cabaiguan –currently in the province of Villa Clara– the grand opening of the abovementioned institute allowed for the creation of a nationwide network for the protection of tobacco all across Cuba, based on the integration of its three basic fronts: biology, agronomy and industry. That explanation was picked up by Excelencias from agronomist Vladimir Andino, head of this institute that many people consider a genuine protective shield for the habano. The facility has a payroll of 397 workers –206 of them in the main building– and features 43 researchers, including 8 doctors of science and 27 masters. These experts have played a major role in keeping up the quality and international leadership of the world’s finest cigars, thanks to the achievement of tobacco species resistant that don’t let go the plant’s organoleptic characteristics, so important for the identity of the cuban black tobacco. Its breakthroughs are applied in the field, in the plantation and in the spread of new agronomic and phytosanitary guidelines, just another aspect the center pays nonstop attention to. Eumelio Espino Marrero, the institute’s chief of Development, makes his own point. The winner of the Habano Man of the Year Award has been bestowed with the Carlos J. Finlay Order for his outstanding studies and researches. This man of science, who has written several books and countless articles, loves delving into genetics and rooting for new advances and applications. That’s why he acknowledges that one of the fundamental tasks in the world of habano is the spread and introduction of all breakthroughs in both technology and species all across the island nation’s tobacco realm by the hand of the growers and planters. Catering to them and hanging out with them have led to a whopping 90 percent of technological discipline –the correct application of all guidelines. This has no doubt direct repercussions on harvest upshots and the quality of the raw materials. With this view in mind, some 550 supervisors work within the framework of a special system that embraces 22,000 tobacco fields scattered on the island. That means that the efforts of a dozen people at the Tobacco Research Institute are spread nationwide. In addition to providing better access to knowledge and more efficient practices to all producers, they also oversee their labor and stand for key players in the safeguarding of traditions and the quality of habanos. That embraces the variety of tobacco to be grown, soil selection, the weather conditions in the plantation and the productive experience of workers. All these elements must work like clockwork in a bid to improve the quality of Cuban black tobacco and its one-and-only features in the making of habanos. Tasters Call the Shots The third seasoned and ineludible voice in the history of the Tobacco Research Institute is Juan Jose Lopez Freire’s, chief of the Industrial Division and a great taster per se who’s strongly linked to the gourmet world and sommeliers, someone who keeps tabs on the expectations of the faithful habano smokers. His responsibility lies in contributing his own to the blends in terms of both quality control at the factories and the appearance of new products. Many of the most celebrated new things designed for smokers from around the world carry a piece of his contributions and those coming down the pike from the tasting commissions at each and every cigar factory around the country, the technically so-called Habano Sensorial Evaluation Panels. This functions as a need and a demand, and it represents a fundamental mechanism laid out not only to guarantee the permanent quality of the habano, but also to validate the blends and the upcoming products. Keeping in mind that Habanos S.A. marches on and sets the tone in terms of trends and preferences in both the market and among its customers with a rock-solid stance as leader and paradigm of premium cigars, it’s not hard to imagine then the tremendous responsibility its tasting commissions have. Thus, the process previous to the launch of a new product becomes a highly rigorous, complex and delicate task that takes years of tests, studies and a prolonged period of trials and assessments like an all-out inquiry or multilateral consultation carried through in a thorough and cautious fashion every step of the way in which tasters, armed with their sensorial keenness, take the lead in assessing the aroma, strength, draw, burning and even format and quality patterns in the hand-rolling process, always in line with the demanding requirements jointly established by Tabacuba, Habanos, S.A., the Tobacco Research Institute and the Habano Protected Guarantee of Origin Regulatory Council. Only at the end of the thorough effort, according to the coincidental levels in the positive appraisal of all these aspects, they reach to a definitive new product that could start breathing on its own and being part of the selective habano family.