A good cigar is supposed to look lovely before anyone’s eyes, soft to the touch and enchanting to the nose. Yet a good Habano can only flaunt its roots a few seconds after being lit up

In the mysterious maze of the cigar-making industry, there’s a select group of exceptional beings who are entitled to the right of lighting them up first and have the last say. They are the tasters, including the female tasters.

And when those women speak they do utter strong words. We’re talking about the women that in all major cigar factories across the island nation hold down the proud responsibility of authenticating the quality of Cuban cigars.

At the Jose Marti Cigar Factory –formerly the H. Upmann factory- the female tasters are distinguished by their experience and strong commitment to the quality of the product.

Xiomara Navarro Soa, 58, has been a cigar taster for over a decade. And so are Edith Sanchez Abreu, 50, with 14 years of experience under her belt, and Iraida Martinez Torriente, 57, with over 20 years in the trade of tasting cigars. They are three of the finest cigar tasters in that well-known factory of the island nation’s capital.

Each morning starting at 7:30, they joined a group of 14 cigar tasters that split in two shifts of seven people each and march to the so-called sensorial panel, a sort of test bed in which each and every cigar taster has his or her own smoking stall or booth. It’s a pleasure they share somewhat together.

“It’s the best moment,” Xiomara beams. “That’s the time of day when our palates are not compromised. On a daily basis, each and every one of us tastes three cigars, and we drink tea between the smoking sessions just to rinse our mouths. We can’t even catch a cold because that would seriously affect our natural conditions in the workplace.”

“Sometimes just one long draw is good enough to cast a cigar away,” Iraida explains. “The draw is the first thing we put to the test and that’s a key element. A Habano with no good draw dies before seeing the light of day.”

“After that,” she goes on, “and if the draw’s good, then four or five puffs will be enough to determine the rest of the features: the aroma, the taste, the strength and the burning. That’ll also do the trick to assess quality overall, ranging from excellent to bad, though it’s pretty hard to find a bad cigar here in our factory.”

“The strength of the cigar,” Edith butts in, “is felt right here, in the back of the throat. You can tell if it’s got a good kick, if it’s a very strong, strong, mild strong or mild cigar. However, the aroma and the taste ought to be felt right away, while the burning meets the eye in the form the cigar burns and in the color of the ash.”

“The secret is,” Xiomara concludes, “that a cigar should taste like tobacco, smell of tobacco, and burn like a good Cuban cigar does. Quality depends on us and that’s something we feel very proud of.”

For her part, Mercedes Regalado Garcia, chief of the sensorial panel at the H. Upmann factory, explains that the cigar-tasting condition is a rigorous process in which the worker’s experience must be taken into account. Nonetheless, apprentices should go through a number of tests to determine their natural abilities, as well as endure some training the post requires.

“There’s one particular test,” Mercedes says, “that we conduct with all lights out and in which the cigar taster must give exact answers about the features of the Habano he or she is smoking and hasn’t been able to see.”

“That’s why we trust in the collective evaluation of our cigar tasters, and that assessment serves as a guideline to benchmark the work of our cigar rollers or just detect any glitch in the process,” Mercedes concludes.

Thus, from one puff to the next, these humble women get their job done everyday. Their experience and expertise, their palates, their eyes and their nostrils are charged with testing the quality of the world’s finest cigars. And you can take that to the bank because their words come out as strong as the premium cigars they taste.