We then went through to the rolling room where many ladies were seated at benches fabricating and rolling the premium handmade range. They used small manual rolling machines similar to what people use who roll their own cigarettes for assembling the filler and binder and then apply the wrapper by hand. Production quantities are small with the premier cigar – the Corona Leader – only producing 450 boxes of 25 per week.

An interesting note. The ladies were sprinkling a fine dust, just a tiny pinch, on to the filler before applying the binder. I asked what this was and was told that it was powdered sandalwood, I sniffed the dust and it had that lovely sandalwood aroma. Sandalwood is prohibitively expensive and I stated my surprise at using it even though in such minute quantities. This apparently had been introduced to the Thanshers handmade cigars many years ago and gives the cigar a unique aroma and flavour which ideally compliments the fine Sri Lankan tobacco.

Into the next room and here were the machine made cigars. A high ceiling room with the old large paddle fans going at full speed. The machinery was ancient, but made in a time when machinery was built to last. Here cigars were being produced at a frantic rate compared with their hand rolled neighbour and the room was very active with people moving around feeding the machines with tobacco or removing finished cigars. Also there were some vanilla flavoured cigars being produced here and the aroma of the locally grown vanilla pods was delightful

Next was the machine made tobacco chopping / grading machinery. A locally designed and built machine for grading tobacco pieces by size – a little similar to tea size grading machines that I have seen – the large pieces were diverted to a bin which would supply the better quality cigars, the smaller sizes lower quality cigars and finally a sort of dust which is used occasionally for producing snuff but in the main goes into fertilizer for coconut plantations. Nothing is wasted and I saw no sign of any chemicals or any artificial product at all – all 100% natural products.

Finally we went through to the box construction room. Here good quality woods were being used to hand make the boxes for the premium cigars, and whilst there is some new machinery here for producing cardboard packs the majority of the hand made premium cigars are packed in these beautiful inlaid and clear varnished wooden boxes.

An excellent visit to an old fashioned factory oozing with history.

The Thancher’s Corona Leader is beautiful to look at, slightly rugged, dark brown and with a slightly oily feel. It is mild to medium in strength, has a fresh, slightly toasty tobacco taste, which is overlaid with a caramel sweetness. It produces abundant smoke, an excellent aroma and has a long aftertaste.