The manufacturing process
Mixing tobacco is part of the manufacturing process. In the past the process was mainly done by hand. As in practically all other industries, machines have come into use and the operators have acquired a more controlling and checking role. This allows the quality of the end product to be brought under better control. Machines after all can be accurately adjusted. They do exactly what they have been made for and set for. The same applies in the fine-cut tobacco industry. Tobacco processors now have ways and means of seeing what happens to the tobacco during the manufacturing process, intervening and making adjustments should the tobacco prove not to be entirely in the right condition during its journey through the process.
The manufacturing process begins with the tobacco's arrival in the factory. The various types of tobacco are weighed in accordance with a blend decided beforehand. The number of components per blend can vary up to thirty. To ensure that the dry tobacco remains supple and pliable it is treated with steam in a vacuum cupboard. To do this first all the air is removed from the tobacco to allow steam and water to penetrate. The tobacco leaves are then put on the mixing belt at a constant rate so that within a certain period of time all the components of the mix have passed over the mixing belt. Now the mixed tobacco is again made more pliable using steam. This allow the piles to be disentangled and results again in loose tobacco leaves. The leaves are moistened in a rotating drum so that they can be more easily treated. Once the leaves leave this drum there are all muddled up. For the cutting process they have to be laid out parallel. This is done automatically by means of a system of conveying belts and vibrating gutters. To ensure that the moisture fully penetrates the leaf, the leaves are stored for a number of hours in a space where the temperature and humidity is closely kept at a certain level. Now the tobacco is brought to the cutting table, pressed flat and cut crossways over the length of the leaf. The width of the cut depends on the type of final product.
Because the tobacco is cut crosswise, this produces the characteristic long tobacco strips. In the middle of the leaves there is a small piece of vein which is referred to in the tobacco world as 'the eye'. But the veins cannot always be cut straight. This results in the so-called little stems. The cut, moist tobacco is dried in heated, rotating drums until the required percentage humidity has been achieved. To bring the tobacco, which has become warm through drying, to the correct temperature, it is cooled by air. The tobacco thus treated remains stored in an air-conditioned space before being packed. The tobacco is weighed and packed to the required weight, after which the packages are packed into units of ten items. These in turn are put into boxes to be sent off to customers at home and abroad.
Pressed tobacco
A variant of fine-cut tobacco is used for a certain type of pipe tobacco. Before it is cut the tobacco is first of all pressed, which is why is it called pressed tobacco. The manufacturing process of pressed tobacco is very similar to that of ordinary fine-cut tobacco. But because it is quite specific it is interesting to see how it is done.The batches of tobacco, which are needed for a blend, go to begin with into the manufacturing process separately. This tobacco too is made supple and pliable by steam in a vacuum cupboard. The next step is the stripping machine. Here the leaves are stripped of their veins. As a result of the removal of the veins, at the end of the manufacturing process, the tobacco strips will be shorter than the ordinary fine-cut tobacco and the so-called little eye will also be missing. The leaves are then brought onto a sorting belt and sifted. It is only then that the different batches are mixed into a blend. Depending on the final product natural aromas are added. The tobacco that is processed in this way is pressed into cakes weighing about eight kilograms. The special nature of this tobacco arises during the pressing. The pressed cakes are stored in an air-conditioned space. The next step is cutting. The cakes are cut to the desired width in specially-designed cutting machines. The product is stored in chests, again in an air-conditioned space, and then it is ready to be packed. Pipe smokers refer to this type of tobacco as Cavendish.
Quality care
The fine-cut tobacco industry does everything it can to guarantee the quality of its products. This begins with the tobacco buyers. They buy the right lots with a great deal of care. In their turn the blenders decide how the different lots must be mixed to ensure that the final product is of a consistent high quality. And then there are the tobacco processors who have a great deal of influence on the condition of the tobacco during the manufacturing process. There are also the so-called panels of smokers. Each panel comprises a number of specialists who have been selected because of their capacity to distinguish taste and aroma. The smokers' panel meets at regular intervals to test the final product, to see whether the taste and aroma are up to scratch and how the tobacco burns etc. Changes in taste happen very slowly, but looked at over a longer period it is noticeable that Dutch smokers today want a different kind of smoke than they did twenty years ago. The fine-cut tobacco industry adapts accordingly and uses test panels and test markets to check out their new products.
© 2007-2009
ThirdWave Webdesign.
Powered by
ThirdWave CMS.