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webmost

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Larry sent me a snootfull of his Kentucky Habonner... lookit this stuff:

habonner.jpg


Is that some beautiful color or what? You should see it in person!

This is by no means the largest leaf among them. Literally the first leaf that I reached in and grabbed hold of. This one's about sixteen inches long. I have a twenty four inch ice chest where I keep leaves. I stuffed BigBonner's baggie corner to corner in there, and it still had to double back on itself to fit, so you can guess from that how long these are. This one, at least, is not so wide as the Habano 2000 wrapper that I've been using. On the other hand, the stem is way way the heck straighter than what I'm using, which is going to make it that much easier to prepare. It's tetxture is a mite thicker, much oilier, and feels stronger. The veins, as they approach the stem, are considerably smaller.

But the biggest diff, I think, is gonna be flavor. Before I even opened the box, I could smell Kentucky. Once I opened the bag, whoo boy, super redolent of figs! Earthy, savory, wowee.

Meanwhile, Larry also included a wee baggie of his perique. Has anyone used this stuff in a cigar yet? You open the baggie, immediately you want to cook up stew with it. Or sausage -- it would make a great sausage. Spicy stuff.

Here's the plan for Christmas: I have four different sorts of WLT ligero on the way right now, from Don's recent Black Friday sale: piloto, corojo, criollo, and nic hab. I'm gonna take the new/old perfecto mold that I scored a couple weekends back, you know, the one that no one wants to buy, and I'm gonna real quick roll up a supply of 4 1/2" habonner bullets -- one leaf WLT habano seco, with a half leaf of one WLT ligero for punch, bound and wrapped in habonner. Ten with each ligero, and then ten with a shred of this perique. That'll give me fifty bullets to salt away. Once that's done, I'll roll up a similar batch with a leaf of this WLT criollo seco I have so much of. I think I'll make up some cigar bands, call these little sticklets Larry's Army. Hopefully have this all fixed up by the end of the year. Aged up, this is gonna make great ammo for Johnny Sotweedseed next summer. I can smell it now!

Can't wait. Might have top start with the perique right now.

The awful thing of it, I've been fighting with an asthma type ailment, so that I haven't smoked a thing in two weeks. All the better for rolling and stashing, I guess.
 

waikikigun

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What Black Friday Sale? I've been checking the leaf page every day hoping for news of a BFS and never saw anything about a Black Friday Sale.
 

Brown Thumb

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What Black Friday Sale? I've been checking the leaf page every day hoping for news of a BFS and never saw anything about a Black Friday Sale.
Thanksgiving day parade Sale.
Enter thanksgiving in the in the coupon box at checkout for 30% off cigg and cigar fillers. I think.
 

webmost

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Just to update on that HaBonner Larry sent me --

I bunched up ten of these little 4 1/2" bullets for Larry's Army -- WLT hab seco, a shred of BigBonner's perique for flavor, bound in habonner baccy. Unfortunately, the way things turned out around here, I had to leave them in the mold too long. When I do that, they get hard, they don't swell up when removed, and the mold marks don't want to roll out. Today, I prepped some habonner for wrappers. Right away, I could see it was going to be a struggle. WLT habano 2000, when I set it between wet towel layers to limp it up, the turns real stretchy. Habonner, when I do the same thing, it turns weak... especially around the leaf tip, which is the place I most need to get stretchy, so it can conform to the shape where the conical tip transitions to the barrel. So that's not good. We'll see how it dries; but I'm thinking now that this may make a fine wrapper for a parejo, where you can use it dry, but not so much for a perfecto.

I like the shape this wee mold gives me: Lookee Here ...

BonnerBullet.jpg



You can see I made the foot end of the barrel swell out like a salomone. That's just front-loading the extra shred of perique. [obscurewordplay]Way midgetary for a salomone, tho... maybe more like a Davide. [/obscurewordplay]

Just for an experiment, I wrapped the last two with FX Smith's CT Shade, like so:

BonnerBulletCT.jpg


That leaf was not prepped, so it looks pretty shaggy. Just thinking the shade might add creaminess, and is more suited to make good wrapper.

Wish I could try these darn things. Still struggling with an asthmatic type ailment. Have not smoked a thing in about three weeks. Seems like the less I smoke the more I roll.

Don's ligero due to arrive tomorrow. I'm excited.
 

waikikigun

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Sorry to hear about the asthma. OTOH the few weeks off the stick and the extra rolling impulse are probably some sort of recompense.

That is a really great shape.

How do you get your FX Smith wrapper? By unwrapping their 99 cent cigars, or do they hand you a pile of leaf in exchange for web work, or do they sell leaf at retail, or...?
 

webmost

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How do you get your FX Smith wrapper? By unwrapping their 99 cent cigars, or do they hand you a pile of leaf in exchange for web work, or do they sell leaf at retail, or...?


Craig and I have become friends. I run out there several times a year. One of the finest motorcycle rides you could ask for. I did some quickie web work for him. When I first met him they had zero website.

I have unwrapped their cigars but could not reconstruct a cigar from their pattern ... only works with machinery. I'd like to figure out how to emulate the curlicue at the end of the wrapper that makes the cap. Gotta love machinery.
 

waikikigun

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So he gave you some wrapper is what you're saying. Nice.

Do you mean emulate the curlicue in the process of chopping the Dominican cappishness of it in a live human wrap?
 

webmost

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You probably know the story. It's a Nihon classic. There's this old zen gardener, grows the best chrysanthemums in all Japan. Fame spreads far and wide. Emperor hears about him, loves chrysanthemums himself, sends a messenger: Emp coming next weekend to see your flowers. Old gardener gets busy pruning his garden. By the time the Emp shows up, there's only a single flower left. Perfect in every way. Emperor asks "Where's the rest?" Groveling gardener replies "Your Divine Majesty, none of those were worthy of your visit. Only this single unblemished perfect chrysanthemum stood the test." Story purports to illustrate Japanese quest for perfection.

Look how perfectly this habonner bullet is drying down:

habonner4.jpg


Wish I could snap the dark shine of it. Wonderful shape. Tightening down just right. By the time this ages long enough so that the spots disappear, I will just have to throw out every other cigar in all the various humidors and coolidors. This is it.








Re-thinking habonner wrapper. If it's going to come out this nice, then I will have to sort thru, trim out the best bits, and roll with it. Golly.
 

waikikigun

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I smoke those other chysanthumums so that the emperor's one(s) can age some.

That is a real beauty.
 
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