Are Cigars Sometimes Dyed – Or Not?

[kaelaria]

This is from Alex Svenson of Cigar.com:

Im jumping on a plane and dont have long so here is a short answer...yes many do this. It is not a dye but they will soak tobacco in water then wipe the natural colored water over wrapper to even color. A true maduro is actually quite ugly. Some people may even steam their wraper to even the color. This is an accetable process so long as the wrapper is fully fermented and it is being done for asthetics. However, some unsavory companies do this to make a not fully fermented maduro look darker and use it as a short cut which is very bad. So it all depends. As for the bleeding, all tobacco bleeds, the daker ones more so than the lighter and sometimes it is not the wrapper, it is tar. Just my quick 2 cents. Some guys in the DR actually use Mineral Oil on the outside of their wrappers to make them look oilier. It isnt harmful per say, but yet another process. In terms of seeing cigars rolled in the factory and assuming it is died, the rollers who roll maduro have to wet the thick maduro wrappers to make them pliable. Often times, this creates serious tobaccco bleed on the hands and looks like die but it is alll natural.

[alfredo_buscatti]

I've read several articles by Steve Saka of Drew Estate, and all have been quite informative.

Here is a link about maduros by him that touches on maduro dyeing.

http://tobacconistuniversity.org/blog/?p=1656

[longknocker]

Thanks For Sharing, Guys! Very Informative!

[Tbagley]

Something about the mineral oil posted comment just bothers me a bit, as I really don't think I want to burn that too much.