If you had to choose just one leaf

[Max Cady]

I have been rolling cigarillos, and I find once I cut out a piece to use as wrapper, there is enough scrap left over that I hardly need to use any other leaf. So I am wondering, if anyone else has rolled cigars using just one type of leaf.

Or another way to phrase it, if you had to choose just one leaf to roll a cigar, what one would you choose?

 

[RandyL]

I have been rolling cigarillos, and I find once I cut out a piece to use as wrapper, there is enough scrap left over that I hardly need to use any other leaf. So I am wondering, if anyone else has rolled cigars using just one type of leaf.

Or another way to phrase it, if you had to choose just one leaf to roll a cigar, what one would you choose?

Nic Habano. Probably the Viso but would also use the Seco

 

[deluxestogie]

What is your motivation for selecting only one "type" (?variety, priming level, leaf grade?) of tobacco?

Bob

 

[waikikigun]

I have been rolling cigarillos, and I find once I cut out a piece to use as wrapper, there is enough scrap left over that I hardly need to use any other leaf. So I am wondering, if anyone else has rolled cigars using just one type of leaf.

Or another way to phrase it, if you had to choose just one leaf to roll a cigar, what one would you choose?

Whatever that leaf is they make Cuban cigars out of.

 

[GreenDragon]

You can’t play “Stairway to Heaven” on a single string guitar.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Come on guys, play along.

Dominican binder.

No, wait!...... Honduran wrapper.






No, maybe not. Dominican.

 

[deluxestogie]

For my home-grown leaf, I have smoked many a fat cigar made entirely of 2 year old Corojo 99.

Bob

 

[Max Cady]

What is your motivation for selecting only one "type" (?variety, priming level, leaf grade?) of tobacco?

Bob

Hi Bob, first I just want to say I found your post from 2017, "Tips on rolling cigarillos", very useful where you show the shape for the cigarillo wrapper. As for the motivation for selecting only one type of tobacco, I found when I cut a piece of leaf to use as the cigarillo wrapper, there is enough scrap left over for filler (most times).

Another question:

For full size cigars, the popular opinion seems to be to blend, approximately 50% seco, 30% Viso, and 20% Ligero. Has anyone tried doing a blend like this for cigarillos? I tried it using a digital scale, but it was a tedious operation where you are dealing with small amounts, although it could be done easy enough.

Thanks everyone for all the input!

The leaves suggested all sound like viable options!

 

[GreenDragon]

@Max Cady There is a good recent video by @waikikigun HERE showing how he rolls cigarillos using scraps left over from rolling regular sized cigars. The filler by default is a blend of many tobaccos. You may want to experiment with mixing small batches of your leftover wrappers with some shredded leaf of other varieties. It's quite fun

 

[Yvan the terrible]

I find it an overkill to weight for each cigarillo, it is easier to make your blend for say 1lb total of leaves then I chop and mix them together. I have found that regardless of blend the wrapper will be the dominant flavour in cigarillo.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

The same blend at a different ring gauge varies in flavour significantly because volume vs surface area of a cylinder is not a linear relationship. Therefore, like Yvan said, the wrapper plays a greater role in the flavour profile of a cigarillo. Consider even how commercial cigarillos are often described in terms of the wrapper. Meharis for example has Ecuador, Brazil, and Java.

 

[deluxestogie]

I agree with CV regarding the dominance of the wrapper on tiny cylinders.

I think the ring gauge also directly influences the combustion temperature. Since we tend to draw on a cigar with a comparable vacuum, regardless of ring gauge, the narrow ones are drawing in air at a faster flow rate--venturi effect. So cigarettes and tiny cigars are burning tobacco at a higher temperature. Different varieties and blends respond differently to different combustion temps.

It's all pretty complicated and sometimes subtle stuff. If you sample each of the ring size cigars of a single commercial blend, every one tastes similar, but also different. I honestly believe that some of the truly finest commercial cigar blenders alter the blend slightly (within the same frontmark of cigars) so that they may actually taste the same.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

No binder, no trimming, no mold, no glue. This uses 3 entire WLT PA Broadleaf leaves as filler, and a half-leaf of the same as a wrapper. Just roll and smoke.

This is a smooth, fairly mellow smoke. The stick burns well, forming an entirely light-gray ash. It's what many American cigars used to taste like. It pairs well with a quiet moment.

Bob

 

[GreenDragon]

No binder, no trimming, no mold, no glue. This uses 3 entire WLT PA Broadleaf leaves as filler, and a half-leaf of the same as a wrapper. Just roll and smoke.

This is a smooth, fairly mellow smoke. The stick burns well, forming an entirely light-gray ash. It's what many American cigars used to taste like. It pairs well with a quiet moment.

Bob

Sounds like the perfect compliment to a summer rain shower and a glass of iced tea.

 

[waikikigun]

Hi Bob, first I just want to say I found your post from 2017, "Tips on rolling cigarillos", very useful where you show the shape for the cigarillo wrapper. As for the motivation for selecting only one type of tobacco, I found when I cut a piece of leaf to use as the cigarillo wrapper, there is enough scrap left over for filler (most times).

Another question:

For full size cigars, the popular opinion seems to be to blend, approximately 50% seco, 30% Viso, and 20% Ligero. Has anyone tried doing a blend like this for cigarillos? I tried it using a digital scale, but it was a tedious operation where you are dealing with small amounts, although it could be done easy enough.

Thanks everyone for all the input!

The leaves suggested all sound like viable options!

Don't get too hung up on that "popular opinion." With the leaf you've got available to you, this will produce a stick that's too mild for many modern smokers. Even 100% ligero can be just fine so long as it's a leaf that burns. Don't let any preconceptions slow you down from finding a blend that hits your preferences.

 

[deluxestogie]

Even 100% ligero can be just fine so long as it's a leaf that burns.

Try one before you roll a whole batch.

Bob

 

[Max Cady]

Thanks so much!

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Exactly. I rolled a 1/2 ligero 1/2 seco just the other day that was great.

 

[deluxestogie]

It's worth keeping in mind that ligero from different varieties will contain differing concentrations of nicotine. Ligero from the same variety, but grown under different conditions (say Virginia vs. Nicaragua) will contain different concentrations of nicotine. Ligero from the very same WLT bag of leaf may contain differing concentrations of nicotine.

As a wuss, I'm knocked on my ass by a fat cigar with too much Nicaraguan (or sometimes even Dominican) ligero.

Bob

 

[waikikigun]

This hobby is about empirical discovery. You've got your particular leaf supply right there and you can try whatever you want. Your best chance might be to get some leaf and try experimenting at the extremes and the middles and calibrating out and in from there. You could try for years to find some blend you loved with 50% seco and 20% ligero and begin to wonder why you ain't found it yet. After all, you followed some formula you read somewhere. Why didn't it work? Because maybe you needed 70% seco or 70% ligero.

Speaking of formulas, I invented a formula and an app that calculates with it, based on what I was finding in dissected cigars. It says that seco = 1, viso =2, and ligero = 3. The average "should" be 1.8-2 for mild-medium, based on what I've found in 100s of cigars (and by guessing the primings based on leaf color). Now your 50/30/20 blend (let's pretend 20 = 1 leaf, which incidentally is what Davidoff does with their formulas) = 2.5 + 3 + 3 = 8.5. Divide that by leaf count (5) = 1.7, a somewhat weak stick even by "mild" standards (e.g. Cohiba Siglo or Davidoff 1000 etc).