After the second fermentation, the sun-grown leaves are aired on racks for a few days, then packed and transferred to the warehouse where they will join the wrapper leaves for the final patient process of ageing.
The fullest-flavoured leaf is aged the longest and the lightest-flavoured leaf is aged the least. Like a fine wine, the longer the leaf is left to mature, the better it will be.
Filler and binder leaves are packed in hessian bales called Pacas. Wrappers are packed in tercios made from Yagua which is the loose bark of the Royal Palm tree, a material used for many purposes in Cuba.
Every bale carried a label rich with information about the leaf including its size, the year of harvest and the date of packing. Tercios are also marked with the code for the escogida where the wrappers were sorted. In addition the labels on pacas indicate the leaf’s Tiempo as well as both the escogoda and the despalillo where the binders and fillers were processed.
It is this that indicated to the blender the specific local character of the leaf which is the key to the distinctive blending of each Habano brand.