GLENTANA NEWS - Glentana resident Jaco Snyman rolls his own cigars.

Jaco says: "I grew up on a farm. We grew a bit of tobacco, not for sale, but for the workers on the farm." This was near Wolmaransstad, in North West Province.

"I started rolling cigarettes from an early age," he said. "When I started working, I bought a weekend house in the Lowveld and I bought some tobacco from the farmers there and rolled cigars.

"Then I met an interesting guy who travelled the world and had gone to Cuba. He showed me how to work with tobacco and roll cigars and I have been doing it for 15 years now."

Jaco is a lawyer. When he worked in a practice in Johannesburg, he did not have time to roll cigars, but having moved to Glentana, he has the time for his hobby.

He says he has a small clientele of serious cigar smokers and he makes cigars when he receives an order.

"The part of the cigar that is furthest away from your mouth has the outer point of the leaf, which is stronger than the one closest to the main stem of the leaf.

"I use three to four leaves in a cigar."

The end of the cigar furthest from one's mouth is called the "foot" and the end that one puffs on is the "head" of the cigar.

Exciting

What is exciting about smoking a cigar, is that it is a "developing experience", Jaco notes.

With cigarettes the tobacco leaves are milled into pieces and the cigarette tastes the same from start to finish; there is no progression in taste.

"With a cigar, you don't smoke for effect; you smoke for ritual and taste. Cigar smoke is not inhaled. You take it into the mouth, taste it and then blow it out.

"A cigarette is for the nicotine effect that you're craving," he says.

In making cigars, the main vein in the tobacco leaf is removed, so the leaf loses 70% of the nicotine in it. The construction of the cigar allows for another interesting phenomenon, Jaco notes. "With a cigarette, if you leave it unsmoked, it will burn through. A cigar is different; it will go out after a minute or so. You need to keep puffing to keep a cigar going.

"You could have a good smoke this afternoon, then tomorrow at 11:00, have another smoking experience. This way, a cigar can last three days."

Interesting impact

Cigars have different shapes and sizes, from a petit Corona to a Churchill, to a double Corona. Jaco says: "The cigar is classified according to the length and gauge. This has an interesting impact on the smoking experience, unlike a cigarette which is only one size," Jaco says.

"In smoking a cigar, you may have the taste of strong coffee, then hot chocolate, then a certain nuttiness, as the cigar progresses. The longer the cigar is, the more flavours," Jaco says.

He says smoking a thin gauge cigar is like drinking a watery Japanese soup. There is a small amount of smoke, so less impact on the senses.

With a thick cigar, there is more smoke, so it is like having a full mouth of pasta, with many flavours.

Jaco says the Corona is the most famous cigar shape and the most smoked cigar. It is a straight-shaped cigar with a rounded head, 14cm long.

He says that as far as he knows, he is the only cigar maker in the country, and he even gives cigar-rolling demonstrations.

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