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4-THE POSITION OF THE LEAF

The bottom leaves are milder in flavour and aroma. they have lessnicotine because they are not so exposed to the sun. They are also larger and have a stronger structure. This gives them a very high combustion index. They also have a low starch quantity.


At the opposite end, the top leaves will have stronger flavours and also contain more nicotine, around three times more than the bottom leaves.


The plant can be divided as follows:

a) The Top Part.

- The very top leaves are called Picadura. They will be dicarded as the nicotine content is too high.

- The upper leaves are called Corona and the tobacco issued from those leaves is called Ligero. This tobacco will be the strongist is terms of nicotine and flavours.

b) The Middle Part (Centro).

- The tobacco issued from these leaves is called Seco; it will have medium flavours.

c) The Bottom Part.

- The upper bottom is called Uno y media and will produce the volado tobacco with a high combustion property but light aroma.

- The bottom part is called Libre de pied and is not used by Davadoff as it is very earthy in taste.


The chemical leaf content is as follows:

-85% water

-15% other materials with a 25% startch content.


5-TRADITION OF THE GROWER/FARMER

Here we are talking about the practices of the farmer. The tobacco plant will be influenced by:

fertilisation process and quantity of water

density of planting per hectare

time of topping

time of harvest: it is only in the last three days of the leaf maturity that essential oils are produced.


The Topping

The topping is the process of cutting the flower off. In order to allow the leafs to develop fully and to get the best of the soil nutriments, the flower needs to be cut off. The farmer will select the best plants (compared to the model species) in his field and leave the flower to develop in order to producue seeds. The rest of the flowers will be cut off. The flowers of tobacco plants hermaphrodites (i.e. contains both the female and male sex). In order to keep the integrity of each selected plant, the farmer will cover the selected flowers with a sort of muslin in order to prevent pollination by insects.


For wrapper leaves, the flowers are not cut, because the farmers are looking for thin and very light flavour leaves. Also the plantations of wrapper leaves are covered with muslin sheets/tents called Tapados. This prevents the leaf from being damaged by extremes of weather and from the sun. leaves exposed to a lot of sun will become very oily and will develop strong flavours. Neither of those qualities are desirable for wrapper leaves.