08. TOBACCO FERMENTATION

The fermentation process is carried out in almost hermetic warehouses. It consists of grouping the tobacco bunches in a proportionate, orderly, and compact way, in piles called trojas. For this, quantities of tobacco ranging from one thousand to ten thousand kilograms are required; this quantity, for the natural humidity and compression of the leaves, makes these elevating their temperature, exude, and eliminate the excess of resins, nitrogen, and nicotine, this is how it goes fermenting. Such a process it's repeated from 5 to 6 times, it involves moving the troja, and the leaves position for the troja temperature stabilizes in a lapse between 55 to 60 days, this favors that the tobacco is fully fermented, thus acquiring refined aromas, homogeneous color, exclusive flavor and special quality.

The art of fermenting raw tobacco consists of knowing how to rotate the position of the tobacco bundles inside the troja, each time it moves from place. This rotation is based on the fact that the bundles or matules occupy different places in the different levels and spaces that make up the troja, in this way, in an orderly and proportional way, the tobacco can be subjected to the temperatures that the troja keeps inside. And thus, the leaves can be fermented in a homogeneous way.