CigarsLover Magazine I 2023

CIGARS
Blends & Formats
Adapting the "receta" to the formats of a line is one of the master blender's many tasks.
A talk with Claudio Sgroi into hidden blending scenarios.
by Giuseppe Mitolo
The process of making the cigar recipe or, as it is
more commonly defined today ”the blending,”
represents the crux of the whole process of making
a product. Everything starts and ends at the
exact moment in which the initial idea and the finished
product coincide. Perhaps also for this reason, blending
is a subject that never ceases to provide surprises and,
for us technicians in the sector, offers continuous stimuli
for further study.
To do this, we asked Claudio Sgroi, master blender and
CEO of CST Consulting, some questions. However, do not
fall into the illusion of reading a classic interview, because
more than an exchange of questions and answers it was
a discussion, during which we talked about everything,
from their respective personal projects to which were the
best dishes to savor on a trip to Southern Italy. At the beginning
we compared blending to a knot, which is created
at the beginning of a project and unties when the concept
cigar offers exactly the ideal envisioned smoke. But when
developing a blending idea, do you think first of the filling
or of the wrapper? "It depends" Claudio replies, in a drastic
but amused way, not failing to argue. An uncertainty
linked to many factors, both productive and non-productive.
Sometimes it is necessary to produce a cigar that
the market requires, therefore it is necessary to respond
to a trend or to a specific request from a customer or
an importer. Think, for example, of the need to recreate
a given taste or to offer a product with a particular band
or leaf of filling. Other times the master blender receives
14 #1-2023 CigarsLover Magazine