San Andres Tuxtla

The dominant maduro wrapper of the last decade: near-black, thick, oily and pebbled, giving sweet cocoa, coffee, dried plum, damp earth and a peppery back edge. Young or under-fermented San Andres has a characteristic sour, slightly ammoniated bite that a good manufacturer ferments out and a careless one does not. It is thick enough to slow the burn appreciably and its high sugar content makes it prone to running if the cigar is smoked too fast.

The upper primings carry the deepest color and the most sugar and are the wrapper grades most manufacturers want. Lower and middle leaf is milder and commonly used as binder, where its thickness helps hold a bunch together.

Dark, heavy volcanic soil from the Los Tuxtlas field in southern Veracruz, exceptionally rich in organic matter and minerals. It builds a thick, oily, high-sugar leaf that darkens dramatically in fermentation.

Hot and very wet - among the rainiest parts of Mexico - with high year-round humidity and warm nights. The conditions favor mass and sugar over finesse.

The Tuxtlas have grown tobacco since before the Spanish arrived, and the Turrent family has farmed the valley commercially since the 1880s. The leaf spent decades as a cheap workhorse before the maduro boom made it fashionable.

Expanding strongly on the back of sustained maduro demand, with quality now varying widely between careful and opportunistic producers.