Stalk Priming

American Photo Services. Tobacco leaves drying, Havana Province, ca. 1920. From the Ramiro Fernandez Collection: I Was Cuba, Kevin Kwan.

For the better part of 2009 we have been researching and studying a very unique dark tobacco harvesting method known as Stalk Priming.  This is an exclusive presentation of an agricultural and processing method which has been hidden or lost to the contemporary world of cigar smokers.   We are calling this content “in development” because we would like to re-create these harvesting and processing conditions and ultimately taste the final product; that will take money, time, and more effort.  In addition, this is considered CMT Curriculum, or ‘advanced’ content which will eventually go into the testing process for Certified Master Tobacconists.

Regardless of all these details, none of the research and writing we do has any value if we do not share it, so here it is…  Please feel free to comment and share.

Thanks to Jose “Don Pepin” Garcia for sharing his time, experience, and wisdom during the development of this content.  The astute observer may have noticed that we included a definition of Stalk Priming in The Tobacconist Handbook and TU Glossary, but this is the first preview of the academic curriculum.