What is extra special about El Septimo cigars tobacco?

We have previously written about why El Septimo cigars are cheap compared to what you get, now let’s go into depth about why the flavors are as pure as they are.

When I first lit an El Septimo cigar, I was amazed at how the cigars tasted as clean as they did. Day after day, I lit different cigars from their collection to see if I was imagining it or not. Michelangelo, Botticelli, Da Vinci, Raphael, Rembrandt, Salvador Dali, Van Gogh, Rebelde Blue, 20th anniversary and Augustus Connecticut became my test subjects and the result was always the same, the flavors were different but the “clean” feeling on my palette was always the same.

During an interview I did with Zaya, he explained the El Septimo process and why the cigars were as clean in flavor and texture as they were. I was amazed. Zaya explained the El Septimo process compared to other brands. Information I will share with you here and now.

Is Zaya a madman or genius?

I was asked by Zaya to do a test. A test that he said gives prof of the quality of El Septimo cigars. During the interview, Sharry (Zaya’s wife), Andreas and George from Swecigars sat to listen to us. They had spent time with Zaya and confirmed his words. When you smoke a classic regular cigar from almost all brands, everyone knows that your clothes and body smell strongly after and for several days if they are not washed, but not El Septimos, he said proud. The smell disappears almost immediately. My thoughts screamed. – This guy is probably a bit crazy, a cigar that dos not leave a smell on your clothes?

You will get the result of my test and how I did the test at the end of the article

The refining process has not changed much in 500 years.

You could say that cigar culture in Europe began around the 15th century after Columbus arrived in Cuba in 1492. Time has flown by, but the process of refining tobacco has not changed much to be unique.

Infectious plant diseases are usually stopped with pesticides (made on animal feces)

In the classic process of growing black tobacco, pesticides are used that are more or less made from fermented animal feces. The feces are melted down into a liquid form and sprayed on the tobacco about 200 times during the 8-month long cultivation period I got explaned to me. The pesticide reduces plant infections because flies and similar carriers of infection do not want to land on the tobacco plant. In this way, the risk of large parts of the harvest being lost is reduced. The pesticide settles on the leaves almost like a form of glue that is later activated when we light a cigar. It is one of the big reasons why our clothes smell bad the way they do.

To improve the quality of the tobacco, El Septimo has chosen to take a different path. A path that eliminates the use of pesticides. Instead of spraying the plant 200 times with pesticides, they don’t spray it once. Growing tobacco is an art in itself, but doing it at high altitudes where the temperature drops and the oxygen level becomes poorer is a form of art in itself. Bacteria do not thrive at high altitudes and therefore die from that exposure. This makes the tobacco “cleaner” than it usually is and also reduces the risk of odors getting your clothes and pestacides in your loungs.

A fermentation that is unique but should almost be an industry standard.

When I listened to Zaya and how he explained the entire fermentation process at El Septimo, I was a little taken by surprise.

The biggest reason why fermentation happens is quite well known, to get rid of ammonia and nitrates found in tobacco.

The tobacco is stacked in pilons (bales) that naturally heat up, when the internal temperature reaches 45-60c the tobacco is turned and the outer leaves become the inner ones, etc. If you miss your chance and the tobacco gets too hot for some reason, the tobacco is lost and 8 months of work was for nothing. This work is time and manpower demanding. On average, it takes 3-4 people 6-12 hours to turn a pilon depending on the size.

The fermentation starts a process where the tobacco sweats, the viscosity of the oil which is thicker causes the ammonia and nitrates to wannish from the plant.

It is said that it takes 6-8 weeks for the ammonia and nitrate to disappear from the tobacco and a time frame that is a bit of an industry standard. However, this has proven to be completely wrong. Even though some of the substances disappear at this time, there is still a lot left in the tobacco. How do we know that the substances are still there? Zaya and El Septimo have used special instruments to read the levels produced during fermentation. It has been shown to take up to 1 year before they completely disappear from the tobacco.

While most are satisfied with a fermentation of 6-8 weeks, El Septimo has chosen to go a step further to completely get rid of the harmful substances in the tobacco. They do not care about time, they guality and by facts. They measure the values at regular intervals and only when the machine says they are 0 ammonia and nitrates left are they satisfied with the fermentation. This ensures that the quality is higher and impurities disappear. With a fermentation process that is 46 weeks longer than the industry standard, there is also a great risk of the tobacco being lost due to the extended working hours. A risk they are prepared to take to get rid of impurities that many other companies thought were gone by 8 weeks. Imagine keeping track of the temperature with precision of over 1000 pilons at the same time and managing to organize the turns in time to avoid the risk of losing the harvest and the amount of extra work and effort that goes into producing the cigars. I am quite humbled when I hear how extensive the extra work that goes into getting the perfect tobacco.

Aging

Now one last interesting fact. It is said that time is money in all industries, the cigar industry is no exception. Time may be money, but quality takes time. For most producers, they age their tobacco between 1-3 years and only for special editions longer. Zaya explained that their standard is a minimum of 5 years and up to 15 years on their basic range. Through the extended aging processes, you get a more rounded and full-bodied flavor in the cigars.

Before we go any further, after what you have read, I want to ask you a question.

Which cigar is cheaper if you compare quality and labor? The $10 cigar that is fermented for 8 weeks and then aged for 3 years or the $40 cigar that is fermented for 52 weeks to get rid of the chemicals and aged for 8 years?

Do my clothes smell after smoking a El Septimo cigar?

As I mentioned at the beginning, I had been asked to test the cigars and I smelled after smoking.

To be extra picky, I sat in my usual place, the balcony at home. One day I smoked a cigar that was not El Septimo (I will not mention the name and even though I knew that clothes would smell) and the next day An El Septimo (it was Rebelde Blue). After I had smoked the cigar with no name, I went inside and put my shirt on a chair to go away for a few hours, when I came back the smell was still there, the smell was still there the next morning, I asked my wife to smell my clothes and she confirmed my thoughts.

Now to put El Septimo to a harder test, I sat in my classic place (the balcony again), to give a little more pressure to the test, puff after puff I chose to direct the smoke straight down towards my shirt, something you rarely do and which I did not do with the cigar with no name the day before. The cigar was finished and I did the same as before, the shirt was hung on a chair, I went away and when came back to my surprise, The smell I had expected was not there. The clothes were not ruined by the stench and could be used further. I was sure that they would stink but to my great surprise they did not.

I can’t guarantee that your clothes won’t smell, but the results I got convinced me quite a bit.

To make it a little easier and understandable, When you grill with wood and add chemical liquids and paper to facilitate ignition, after grilling there is a chance that the ash will give off an aroma. However, if you grill without liquids and paper, then the only thing that will be left is an odorless ash.

Zaya thank you for sharing all the information and education about farming and how long it takes for Ammonia and nitrate to disappear from the tobacco.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank swecigars for their recommendation of El Septimo cigars a long time ago.