Recently I ran into a cigar or two. Like so often in my life I realized that there are worlds around me I do not have any idea about.

A cigar became a mark of sophistication, authority, and good taste. By a process of carefully selected leaves, the process of drying and rolling; the cigar became an artisan item, equivalent to a work of art. In time it became a sign of greatness of important men to be accompanied by only the very best cigars. The following people have established themselves as true icons and champions of the cigar. 

With a background like this, where do we start to learn more? Where do I start looking for cigars?

If it is a male orientated hobby, let us start with size. Average would be a 7 x 38. That means 7 inches long. The ring size is measured as X times 1/64th of an inch. Thus the 38 would be 38 times 1/64. What does the size matter? The longer and wider the cigar, the cooler the smoke and that means your flavor will be fuller. The larger the cigar the more complex the taste.

Pajero is the standard type of cigar. It is a cylindrical shape, with a head (the front that will be lit), body and a foot. This side is neatly closed with the wrapper and will need to be cut before lighting. Other forms are grouped under Figurado’s. These are Pyramids, Bellicose, Torpedo’s and many more. Each will have its own champions that will tell you why that cigar form is better.

Of course the most important part is the tobacco. The most obvious to start with will be the wrappers, or the leaf used to cover the cigar. There are subtle differences in the appearance of wrapper leaves. They vary from cream to yellow through subtle green to darker brown and to almost black. They are named from Double Claro through Colorado to Maduro and any amount of combinations of these. The color depends on the amount of sunlight the leaves get up to the ripening and amount of fermentation allowed .Lighter leaves have a dryer taste, while darker ones would be sweeter.

Wrapper leaves are grown with care. The wrapper leaves will inform the content, 60-90% of taste and flavor is derived from the wrapper. Aesthetics play a role as well. There must be no blemishes. A single leaf must cover the whole cigar. Oils in the leaf will give it a slight sheen, and as we said the color is very important in creating expectation from your unlit cigar.

Cigar tobacco comes from the Caroga cultivar. Plants are usually harvested from bottom to top. The bottom leaves are those that ripen earlier and the bottom leaves being more flavor rich. A plant can be harvested up to eight times in a season.

When the tobacco is ripe it is harvested. Then follows a curing process. leaves are bound in bunches and dried. Light will be eliminated for hydrolysis and oxygenation to take place, and for the amount of chlorophyll to be removed. Then leaves are dried in air (wind) that ideally should take about 40-60 days. This process can also be accelerated by heat from a fire or in mass production in a kiln. The main indicator is to check the main vein on the leaf.

The leaves are then put through a first and second fermentation. Leaves are batched in bales, with stable heat and humidity and a decrease in air flow. Humidity and temperature is regulated.

After finishing the making process cigars are aged. This is a slow fermentation process. the larger the cigar, the better the aging process. On average aging is allowed for six to 12 months, but better handmade cigars are aged up to six years. After buying your cigar it can still age at home, provided that you have good storage with constant temperature and humidity.

Anatomy of a cigar

As already stated, a cigar consists of a head, body and a foot.

It is built up in 3 layers. The filler is the inside leaves. They are from top leaves, darker in color, more oily and they burn slower. The filler is covered by the binder. Binder is more course leaves that will hold the filler together. They tend to be lighter in color and flavor. The Wrapper is the outside leaf. Here the aesthetic look is very important. There should be no blemishes and should feel soothing to both hand and lips. The foot is covered with the same color leaf in one to three wrappings and should form three layers.

By now I know a little about a cigar. Later I will comment on the ritual of smoking one.

After several meetings with the architect we are at a point where we can start talking about “our house” with a picture of what it might look like in my mind. I have a very visual brain. I tend to visualize things in images. I can only properly think of things if I can see what it should look like.

The first stage of planning was floor space and how to accommodate it in the slope of the land without too much excavation. Seeing that we had very specific needs it took us some time to get to the ideal. With great excitement we reached a step in the planning that we were happy with. It meant that we had to go back several times to “the drawing board “ and to start all over again. Especially the kitchen had great challenges as we have very specific needs there. Above all, we do not want to make the place too big.

Once again, I am impressed with how much thinking goes into simplicity. We have such set ideas of what things should be like, that it takes imagination to change ideas in your head. At last our floor plan was finished. We are satisfied with traffic flow through the more public spaces, enough light, cross ventilation, sun angles summer and winter, views, wind direction not to talk about things like storage space privacy in certain areas and a thousand other small concerns important to us. That includes studio space for me, a home office for Frederika and even a small place for woodwork and a tinkering place for me to play in.

Even with the house spread over ( technically) four levels, we still planned it that we would need to use the stairs in our direct living space as little as possible, as we plan to live there into old age if we are fortunate enough to have that luxury. It means that living area, main bedroom and garages are on one level. (I am not going to carry groceries up and down flights of stairs if I can help it!)

So far so good! The next step was the design of the facades. What a shock to see that the perfect house looks just like all the other new houses in the area. I do not really know what I expected, but always having lived in older houses in Worcester this modern monster did not fit into my picture of home. I brooded for 24 hours before I accepted that I actually opted for something totally new ( that might also be translated as modern).

I sat down thinking about what upset me and then started to redesign the look by lining up windows and creating unified lines and areas of contrast in color and texture. Fortunately the architect is a patient man. The next set of plans were perfect.

Weekly meetings with our architect seems to become a highlight in our busy weeks. The first meeting was to establish our basic needs, what exactly we need in our new house, which land surveyor we want to use as we need to know the exact contours of the stand. We want to use the contours of the land as closely as possible so that we can minimize excavation.

With the second meeting Wilhelm had a basic floor plan. It was very exciting and extremely disappointing at the same time. The ideas were brilliant, I must confess, but it was not what we had in mind. Well, not exactly… So we brooded over the plans. We could not respond immediately as the next day I was part of an art exhibition opening in Wellington, and the Monday morning the exams of our post graduate Ethics course started in Stellenbosch.

On Monday night we tackled the problem. Poor Wilhelm got a detailed e-mail discussing every detail on the plans. Changes were made to just about every square meter. Like a true professional Wilhelm said, on my enquiry if he received the mail, that he got the mail, and that he might even read it at some stage!

Saturday was our follow up meeting. With his usual smile he listened attentively to our lamentations. On Sunday evening, as we were about to leave for our second week of Ethics classes, he handed the second set of plans to me, this time hand drawn. This time the response is great. We still need a few changes to it, but it was already closer to our ideal.

An added problem so far is that it is difficult to envisage the results as we do not have any idea of aesthetics so far. We do not really know even what style he has in mind. That would most likely be another struggle waiting to be fought. So far we are still very excited.

The saga continues.

Finding the right architect

I always wonder why people, when they make the biggest investment in their lives, they believe , they should do it without any professional input. If you have toothache you consult a dentist, if you want a haircut, you seek the best hairdresser in town, but if you design a new house, your biggest single investment you will likely make in your life, you do it yourself or ask somebody that can draw to do it for you.

A lot of friends frown when I say that I am going to have an architect design the new house. The first question I usually get is: “ Do you know what those guys cost?” or “Why, don’t you know what you want?”

In my experience, whenever I walk into a house, or even if I just see one from street level, I can immediately see which one was designed and which one was just drawn by somebody. But like most things in life it is a personal choice.

My personal choice this time around is Wilhelm Sadie. We worked together before and the result is an incredible little holiday home that always feel like a piece of heaven. I know he listens to what I say and tries to accommodate our whims, but he is hard headed enough to be stubborn if we want something that will not work.

The first step he did, that really impressed me, was that he made a house call. He said he needed to see our furniture and art collection before he could start thinking about the house. We , like anybody else I suppose, have furniture that has meaning for us. Pieces of furniture we grew up with and that we collected at specific times in our life together that says who we are.

Our art is more of a problem than a collection. We have lots of it. When Frederika and I got married we each already had a collection. Unfortunately our art is not bought for investments. We buy art because we love it, the paintings tell a story of who we are, where we were and what is important to us. A lot of the friends we made in Worcester are friends. The art we collect of them tell their as well as our story. A story of growth, pain, progress, life and friendship. If I show you our art I show you fragments of my life.

I can hardly wait to be able to exhibit our lives on the walls of our future home.

At the outset we have three main objectives and needs for our new our home: Big open living space, views and big walls to accommodate our art.

The photos of sketches at the top is whrer i had to give measurements of every single important piece of furniture in the house. The story continues…