GLENTANA NEWS - Glentana resident Jaco Snyman rolls his own cigars.
Jaco says: "I grew up on a farm. We grew a bit of tobacco, not for sale, but for the workers on the farm." This was near Wolmaransstad, in North West Province.
"I started rolling cigarettes from an early age," he said. "When I started working, I bought a weekend house in the Lowveld and I bought some tobacco from the farmers there and rolled cigars.
"Then I met an interesting guy who travelled the world and had gone to Cuba. He showed me how to work with tobacco and roll cigars and I have been doing it for 15 years now."
Jaco is a lawyer. When he worked in a practice in Johannesburg, he did not have time to roll cigars, but having moved to Glentana, he has the time for his hobby.
He says he has a small clientele of serious cigar smokers and he makes cigars when he receives an order.
"The part of the cigar that is furthest away from your mouth has the outer point of the leaf, which is stronger than the one closest to the main stem of the leaf.
"I use three to four leaves in a cigar."
The end of the cigar furthest from one's mouth is called the "foot" and the end that one puffs on is the "head" of the cigar.
Exciting
What is exciting about smoking a cigar, is that it is a "developing experience", Jaco notes.
With cigarettes the tobacco leaves are milled into pieces and the cigarette tastes the same from start to finish; there is no progression in taste.
"With a cigar, you don't smoke for effect; you smoke for ritual and taste. Cigar smoke is not inhaled. You take it into the mouth, taste it and then blow it out.
"A cigarette is for the nicotine effect that you're craving," he says. "With a cigarette, if you leave it unsmoked, it will burn through. A cigar is different; it will go out after a minute or so. You need to keep puffing to keep a cigar going.
"You could have a good smoke this afternoon, then tomorrow at 11:00, have another smoking experience. This way, a cigar can last three days."
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