Making Cheroot in Myanmar
After sampling the Myanmar style cheroot with our host Mr. A, we were excited to learn our tour of the lake included a stop to view how the cheroots are made by hand. The ladies who roll the cheroots work eight hours a day and can roll over 500 in that period of time. A mixture of tobacco, banana flowers, raw sugar, and various spices are rolled into a special leaf along with a make shift newspaper filter. Once the cheroot is rolled it is banded together with a paper band that also designates its brand. It's a long and tedious job of sitting in the same position and doing such repetitive work to create such an inexpensive object. Needless to say we purchased a teak box filled with a nicely spiced variety of their hand rolled cheroots. Since we were her first customers, she blessed her merchandise with the money from her first sale of the day. They believe it to bring them good luck in sales during the rest of the day.
