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IMFOS

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webmost

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IMFOS


Not the first time, either. Not by a long shot. IMFOS happens to me from time to time when I least expect it. It's been that way all my life life long. Think I know what I'm doing; then, all of a sudden -- INFOS. Bitter experience has reluctantly taught me that the most effective way to deal with IMFOS is to come right out and say so: IMFOS... I aM Full Of Schidt.


Some time ago I remarked that the back yard grower has a long uphill struggle to produce cigar leaves as good as the professional. The pro, after all, does enjoy considerable advantages; including generations of expertise, carefully chosen soil in a tropical climate, the labor of legions of peons, single minded concentration, so forth and so on. Knucklehead took up the challenge. He sent me a various collection of his best, asking me to roll and evaluate them. That was a month ago. The project has been waiting on two tuits: mephitic tooth stinkage prevented my cigar tuit from getting round, while Bearswatter's health prevented my tooth tuit from getting round. Even after I got her out of hospital and the rascal yanked, I had to go and bleed two weeks. Finally, last Saturday, oral surgery and black tea compresses tamed the gusher. Time to get a round tuit. I was eager to begin. So here is what I did...


I scored a couple hands of Connecticut shade from FX Smith's Sons, cause that's the mildest flavored wrapper I could get my hands on. I bound and wrapped Knuck's criollo in FX shade, as you see here:
wallacecriollo.jpg



Then I bound and wrapped Don's WLT criollo in FX shade, as you see here:
doncriollo.jpg



In order to easily distinguish between the two, I left the shade wrapper edge untrimmed on the stick made with Don's WLT criollo. I rolled both sticks as quickies... right out of the bag, no dampening at all. Don's came out with the stiffer draw; while Knuck's came out with a real free draw. The unlit cigars gave me close to the same flavor. The wrapper was a touch of cream and tobacco. The inhale was all raisins. In the foot of the Doncriollo, I could sniff some nutmeg; but in the foot of Knuckriolo, not.


Now I was ready to smoke both at the same time and compare. Nothing but shade and criollo in either cigar. No stinkage to interfere. Bellator MMA on the toob in the garage, Michter's rye in hand. Steady rain outside the garage door. Pen and paper at the ready.


Torched them with a soft triple jet butane. First thing I thought was IMFOS. Both these sticks shared the same raisiny good volume creamy sweet flavor. Not a dime's worth of difference. Well, maybe eight cents diff. Here's the diff:


Six of those eight cents had already hit me right out of the bag: Wallace's knuckriollo had a pungent raisin odor. A real room-filler. Don's Doncriollo has a muted raisin odor, with a nutmeg backdrop. I ran a leaf of each down to Bearswatter; Wallace's first. First thing she said was "Wow! Raisins! That would be good in a candle." Girls and their candles. Don's, she recognized the raisin, but couldn't place the nutmeg. For pure rolling experience, which is an activity where you want to immerse yourself in tobacco leaf aroma, Kuck's leaf was way way more fun.


But once lit, both put out about the same volume of smoke. Both smokes clung in tight clouds. Both the same light grey color. Both lightly aromatic, woody and smooth on the retrohale. The biggest diff here is that Knuckriollo has a bite to it which Doncriollo does not. The farther I got into the cigar, the more that bite became apparent, while Don's just got smoother. I feel like this bite could prolly be cured just by setting the stick aside for six months to age. When I would hit one, and then the other, Knuck's had a raw, edgy quality to it, by comparison; while Doncriollo kept getting mellower as it burnt along. Knuckriollo also gave me a buzz, made me spit, and hit me dizzy. I'd wash my mouth with rye, wait a bit, hit the one, and then the other. The home grown was definitely harsher. Burn also differed. Doncriollo burnt perfectly. Knuckriollo got a woodier flavor, then went out. I torched it again. Smoked a couple hits, turned woody, went out again. I found that I could hit Don's, then hit Wallace's, then watch a bit of MMA, and when I went back to Knuck's, I'd have to suck it three times to bring it back to life; while Don's would still be chugging along with a bright cherry, even a round later, yielding good volume at first hit. I do not like to re-light a cigar. Re-lighting does nothing good for the flavor. So about the fourth re-light, I set that knuckriollo aside, and smoked that Doncriollo to the nub. Same wrapper, same binder, both fillers stored a month in the same ice chest --- Don's WLT leaf burnt a la vela while Wallace's knuckriollo wanted to die. But neither of the two turned studgy, tarry, or swampy; despite it was a thick rainy night. It could well be that on a drier evening Knuckriollo might behave better. Delaware rainstorms are hard as hell on burn anyways, when the air is in such high case that sticks tend to studge up.


Ordinarily, I consider an evaluation of stinkfinger and morning mouth essential to a complete review. In this case (not that kind of case), how would I distinguish between the stinkfinger from one or the other? All I can say is, I had a pleasant citrus finger sniffage the rest of the evening, and a mild au lait in the morning, without any phlegm.


both.jpg



Other than diffs in burn, in bite, in smoothness, and in nutmeg; the flavor itself was smack dab the same. Any burn deficiencies are well offset in the pleasure I got rolling the far more aromatic raisiny Knucklehead criollo grown in Alabama by our skillful brother Wallace. So the score is darn even, far as I am concerned.


Once done with this test, I nubbed Don's quickie, ran upstairs, and fetched a Bobalu cigar. Id never tried one of these before. Scored a sample last month, just to try them out. Perfect construction, flawless wrapper, a bit fat for me. Smooth and well behaved throughout. Pleasant enough. But, flavor-wise, I'll take either of these home rolled quickies over that Bobalu any day of the week at all. I'm sure anyone would.


In sum, that Wallace must be one hardworkinbastid, to have overcome all the natural disadvantages of the home grower, and by painstaking effort, and hard won expertise, to have produced such a super fine leaf as this Knucklehead Alabama Criollo plainly is. Whereas I, IMFOS.


Next test will be Doncorojo versus Knuckorojo; both wrapped and bound in FX's CT shade. Lookin forward to it. Then I'll proceed to the oddly named stuff Wallace grew, which Don has no example of, like "priest's estate", and "brazilian dunker" and "brother in law", all roughly translated.
 

LewZephyr

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Glad to hear both you and BS are feeling much better.

Thanks Webmost for the insightful post.
 

waikikigun

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Thanks for that story, Web. How much post-fermentation age would you guess the respective tobaccos have? Putting aside what 6 months post-roll would do, doesn't the doncriollo have some months/years on it and the knuckcriollo probably fewerso? Or is that somehow negated by kilning? By your description it just sounds like an age thing.
 

webmost

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Thanks for that story, Web. How much post-fermentation age would you guess the respective tobaccos have? Putting aside what 6 months post-roll would do, doesn't the doncriollo have some months/years on it and the knuckcriollo probably fewerso? Or is that somehow negated by kilning? By your description it just sounds like an age thing.
Ask Knuck.
 

Knucklehead

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Thanks for the review Webmost. That was most kind. I'm really glad you enjoyed the leaf. All you need now is some seed.

Time wise, I grew, harvested and air cured the leaf in 2014. I built my kiln in March of this year (2015) and after playing with it and running up high temps while empty to force off gassing and make sure the odors were gone I loaded the kiln with half my 2014 leaf. The first kiln run ended May 17 and the second kiln run ended June 21. I didn't keep up with which leaf was run when, but the leaf I sent webmost was kilned in either May or June. It has rested since then but more aging certainly couldn't hurt.

Strength wise, I only grew four plants of each variety for seed so I wasn't that concerned with separating the leaf by leaf position (Seco, Viso, Ligero) It just all went in the same bag and webmost may have received a mixture of all, or all Seco, all Ligero, who knows? I grabbed the top leaf in the bag and sent it on. When I grow a greater number of plants of each variety in a season, I'll separate the leaf positions. As it was, all the leaf from the four plants together barely filled one vapor proof bag. I kept them together for logistics purposes.
 

waikikigun

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Thanks, Kh. I guess now the other half of the comparison question is how kilned/aged the doncriollo is.
 

SmokesAhoy

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Criollo 98 is a hybrid that had some resistances added to the original strain from what I read. Not stabilized. From what I read.

So it's very exciting that Knucks got his hands on these seeds and they're very similar to the commercial product.

I've tried Don's criollo and it's one of the tastiest tobaccos that I've ever been fortunate enough to try, so thanks to Knucks sharing his seed with me I know I can be OK in the coming zombie apocalypse:)

Thanks for that review.
 

deluxestogie

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"FOS" is a harsh judgment.

I would suggest that you overestimate the general skills of low-wage tobacco farm workers. Also, most low-wage workers engage in a few specific, assigned activities (among the many required to produce finished tobacco), whereas Knucklehead and fellow home-growers have the advantage of mastering the gamut of tasks--from seed to finished leaf, and beyond. Two or three years of intensive, broadly based study of the tobacco arts (growing your own, and keeping up on FTT forum posts) can result in true journeyman skills and understanding.

Ask BigBonner how skilled his seasonal tobacco employees are.

Now, I have sampled Knucklehead's fine cigar leaf, and agree that it is excellent. I rate his Coroja (Cuba) as the very best.

Bob
 

Knucklehead

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I think what soured webmost on home grown was the Drumstick competition he had. The contest was who could roll the best Drumstick looking shape of cigar. Taste was never a part of the equation. I read the thread and talked to some of the guys behind the scenes via PM. Entrants were so scared of the shape that they were afraid to tear up good leaf in a failed attempt. Most sent in entries rolled from Virginia, Burley, etc. Cigarette leaf. The few people I remember sending in cigar leaf were newbies that submitted their fresh, raw, unkilned, less than a year old leaf. The judging was about the best shape, not the best taste. No wonder he drew the conclusion he did. To the best of my recollection, not a single veteran grower submitted a cigar made from primo home grown cigar leaf. This cigar was actually his first experience. I think all I did was pop the cherry. ;)
 

Knucklehead

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Criollo 98 is a hybrid that had some resistances added to the original strain from what I read. Not stabilized. From what I read.

So it's very exciting that Knucks got his hands on these seeds and they're very similar to the commercial product.

I've tried Don's criollo and it's one of the tastiest tobaccos that I've ever been fortunate enough to try, so thanks to Knucks sharing his seed with me I know I can be OK in the coming zombie apocalypse:)

Thanks for that review.

Oh, yeah. Good eye. Don's is Criollo 98. Mine is the original Criollo that was originally grown in Cuba but was susceptible to blue mold. The Criollo 98 is a cross between Havana 92' and `Habana P.R' and is more resistant to the blue mold. They are different varieties.
 

juan carlos

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thanks for an interesting read. it was enlightening to hear the differences from a seasoned taster. I am also humbled by the generosity of sharing the bounty from a harvest of a mere four plants/variety that "barely filled a vapourproof bag"
cool.
 

DGBAMA

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You need to be ambidextrous for the next test. Smoke one with each hand.,.. So "stink finger" parameter can be measured properly. ... Nice review.
 

DonH

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As far as the bite goes, more aging would probably fix that. I think commercial high grade cigar tobacco is aged for several years before rolling.
 

webmost

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I think what soured webmost on home grown was the Drumstick competition he had. The contest was who could roll the best Drumstick looking shape of cigar. Taste was never a part of the equation. I read the thread and talked to some of the guys behind the scenes via PM. Entrants were so scared of the shape that they were afraid to tear up good leaf in a failed attempt. Most sent in entries rolled from Virginia, Burley, etc. Cigarette leaf. The few people I remember sending in cigar leaf were newbies that submitted their fresh, raw, unkilned, less than a year old leaf. The judging was about the best shape, not the best taste. No wonder he drew the conclusion he did. To the best of my recollection, not a single veteran grower submitted a cigar made from primo home grown cigar leaf. This cigar was actually his first experience. I think all I did was pop the cherry. ;)

These were not the only crappy home grown I received. I still have a Big Payback box of home rolled which I ought to delve into. The WLT rolls among them are head and shoulders above the home grown rolls among them.

Of course, there is always the one legged man factor. For some unaccountable reason, it has become de riguer to pretend to disprove a generalization by adducing an exception. This ubiquitous logical fallacy is unflappable these days. If your grow is the exception, more power to you.

I started that contest on the cigar.com forum to celebrate my thousandth post there, IIRC. I figured I could recruit some smokers into rolling. I recall I sent out about a half dozen beginner kits, with leaves and glue and such. One or two guys continued rolling after that; but I don't know whether any still do. It was fun.
 

deluxestogie

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On the matter of home-grown cigar tobacco, the real question is can one produce decent quality cigar leaf. Is it possible? I know that the answer is yes. But it requires experience. And since the crop is, by definition, small, it also requires some luck in the struggles against human errors, pests, weather and the inherent variation from one season to the next.

Bob
 

Knucklehead

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Those shade grows always impress me. I can't imagine hanging acres of that shade cloth.
 

webmost

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Yesterday's test was similar to the previous.
knuckorojo.jpg





This time, I compared Don's corojo to Knucklehead's. The shorter, fatter one with the tapered end and smirched head is Doncorojo; the longer, smoother one is Knuckorojo. Both rolled as quickies, straight out of the bag, no dampening. Both bound and wrapped in FX's CT shade -- edges trimmed for Knuckorojo, untrimmed for Doncorojo.


The raw leaves share the same cocoa and nutmeg odor. I confirmed this with Bearswatter's delicate nose, and we compared it with nutmeg, mace, and allspice from the cupboard. I bound in one half leaf of FX shade, and wrapped in another. The Knuckorojo rolled much tighter. I'm thinking now that Knuck's leaf being a bit damper than Don's prolly leads to this tightness, and may contribute to the burn probs which you will hear about in a few. The product smelled very mild.


I have two kinds of Doncorojo filler: viso and seco. I have no idea which type Knuckorojo is. So I used one viso and two seco for my Doncorojo quickie, versus three somewhere on the stalk for the other. The Knuckorojo rolled much tighter. Not sure how it got so much longer. I'm thinking now that Knuck's leaf being a bit more damp than Don's prolly leads to this tightness, and may contribute to the burn probs which you will hear about in a few. Knuckorojo felt firmer than the fatter Doncorojo.


Both lit easily. Both mild and smooth. Knuckorojo had a woody note right from the beginning. Knuck's ash was snow white, as opposed to the medium gray ash of Don's. I read somewhere that white ash is the result of some mineral or other in the soil. Not sure whether it's this chemical that produces white ash or the damper leaf or both which contributed to the remarkable case (not that kind of case) of don't-wanna-burn which this stick exhibited. All I can say is that this Knuck went out already within the first eighth inch of burn. And it continued that way. Unless I kept on hitting it within 30 seconds, it would go out. For a guy who nearly always has steel in his hands when smoking, this is unworkable. In this case (not that kind of case) I was installing a new petcock into a Yamaha Radian fuel tank. Just could not keep this thing going for the time it took to turn a screw. Re-lit it, fetched a Modelo Especial, opened it, took a swig, lifted the cigar and it was out already. This would not do.


So I smoked them in tandem; Doncorojo first, hands full of steel. Mild, cocoa, never any wood, never any bite. This would be an excellent beginner cigar. The first half had more cocoa, the second half more nutmeg. Very easy to live with.


Once done with that, I put my steel away, sparked Knuckorojo, and turned on college football and sat down. Woody super mild creamy aroma. Bearswatter approved this stick for indoor use. Could not put it down or it would die. Always a bit sour right after re-light. More wood; less nutmeg.


I conclude that either one can be a decent mild smoke if I simply solve the burn prob. Of course, the fact we are getting such a drenching rain here does not help. And the fact the wrapper is so mild means neither of these would be my staple smoke.




Let me emphasize here: FX's CT shade wrapper is head and shoulders the finest textured, most delicate, most even, largest-leaved wrapper I have dealt with. Fabulous stuff. Mediocre stuff for binder, cause it's not strong enough. But for wrapper, outstanding. And it really lets the flavor of what's inside come thru. Burns great. Tastes mild. Look at the fine texture of it, even on a quickie, where I use no mold and take little care to roll smooth:
fxctcloseup.jpg



The drawback is that it just is not tasty in and of itself, the way that my beloved WLT habano is. So with a mild comparo like this, these two cigars in tandem left me hungry for flavor when I was done. Consequently, I went to the mattresses directly after nubbing this comparo, in search of a flavorful smoke. First, I looked for my old standby Uppowoc Perfecto, a blend of criollo & corojo bound and wrapped in habano. Alas, turns out I gave the last of these away just Friday. So I had to resort to the big gun: pulled out an Uppowoc Mataloto, which is mata fina and piloto cubano, bound and wrapped in habano. What a grand cigar! These things are surreal. Made me think, you know, Knucklehead would have a long damn row to hoe to grow and cure tobacco which might produce a cigar anywhere near as good as this. So that's my next test. Gonna try and blend the very best cigar I can from the leaves remaining and compare that to a mataloto. I solicit blend suggestions from you now. Bear in mind that I love flavorful without bite. I steer clear of coffee and pepper. Here are knuck's leaves I have on hand:


corojo cuban seed
remedios seco
brazil dunkel
PI 404935
PA broadleaf seco
swarr viso
hacienda de cura seco
Columbian garcia
Little Cuba viso
criollo
havana 211


The dunker is listed as wrapper; the 211 as binder; the rest as innards.


Open to blend suggestions.
 
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