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