Papa Leo Rolling La Gloria Cubanas at Kensington Tobacconist

by Walt

Papa Leo of La Gloria Cubana CigarsOn Friday I did my normal thing and made plans to head over to Kensington Tobacconist. Unlike my usual visit, there happened to be an event scheduled for that afternoon. The featured cigar was the La Gloria Cubana Artesanos de Miami. The added bonus to this event was that it also included a cigar roller working his craft.

The roller at this event was Papa Leo, a master roller for La Gloria Cubana. From what I understand, he is not one of the select rollers for the Artesanos line, but is a torpedo specialist. Communicating with Papa Leo was very difficult as he spoke very little English and not a sole at the event spoke more that a handful of Spanish words.

On a beautiful day in Pennsylvania, I stood outside watching Papa Leo roll cigar after cigar. While there, I spoke with the General Cigar rep briefly as well as several of the regulars that stopped in for the event. I made a point to bring along my camcorder to record a few minutes of rolling.

The video runs a little long at about twelve minutes. I was considering cutting it down but decided against it at the last minute. In the early stages of the video Papa Leo had a bit of a struggle with wind gusts. After the wind died down, he started moving at a very quick pace. I’m told on the average day he can roll approximately 150 torpedos.






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