It's funny how much a small change, binder and wrapper in this case, can make such a huge difference in taste. It also shows how tastes vary, I think the blend #4 is better than #2 or #2B by a wide margin.
Pete
member's blends
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It's funny how much a small change, binder and wrapper in this case, can make such a huge difference in taste. It also shows how tastes vary, I think the blend #4 is better than #2 or #2B by a wide margin.
Pete
Agreed it really shows how some tobaccos just work better together than others.
charlie G.
Well-Known Member
So true about binder and wrapper. I tried a blend with a Sumatra binder and San Andres wrapper and it just didn't work for me with the blend.
ArizonaDave
Well-Known Member
I've been doing a little research into my favorite blends over the years, and it seems the trick is knowing what flavors go with what. Knucklehead suggested a while back that Sumatra goes better with Dominican, and he's right. WLT's Dominican has a nice medium bodied earthy taste.
Not sure how to explain my formula, but here goes:
I sort different tastes into categories like this:
Earth
Wood
Sweet
Tart
(Yes, there are other flavors, but this is a simple example)
Sweet + Tart= creamy
Earth + Wood= good
Earth + sweet= good
etc, etc....
It's kind of like cooking and adding flavors like a Chef cooking food. Sometimes even a Double Wrapper (or Binder/Wrapper of the Same leaf is good). It depends what flavor you're trying to bring to the forefront.
Also, since we're out of Piloto Cubano Seco, I'll add Turkish Prelep for sweetness. I have to say Prelep is a bit more "Aromatic" that PCS, but is good with most blends I've tried.
DVick sent me a dozen and a half of his home-rolled sticks and asked for an evaluation. They arrived yesterday. I fired one up last night. I settled out on the porch with a watery lemonade on ice. Brought up Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions from Google Play Books on the tablet. That's an 850 page book by Charles McKay, written back in the day when scholars exhausted their subject and readers possessed an attention span longer than that of a butterfly. Those days are gone. But my point is, it took me 200 pages of this book to finish this cigar. Over two and a half hours. For one thing, because the sticks DVick sent me average around six and a half inches long. For another thing, because this stick, at least, burnt so very slowly. Full volume; but slow and steady. For another thing, because I found it gave me the best flavor if I burnt it real slow. I recommend as slow a burn as you can manage. Many a rank experience can be cured by patient method. And last but not least, because his cigar tasted so good that I burnt it to the nub.
Just look at this burn:
... and it stayed that razor sharp from end to end. The construction was soft throughout. The wrapper was not glued, is the only negative about it. I like to roll a cigar in my lips as I draw, to better taste the wrapper. Without glue, I tended to roll the wrong way and unravel it. I am no fan of the shaggy foot. But this shaggy foot lit without dropping too many nasty embers.
Other than that, the soft construction seemed to suit the soft everything else. The smoke was soft and dry. The flavor was soft and mild. The wrapper felt soft and dry in my lips, like velvet -- no oil to it at all. Softest of all was the perfectly clean finish, so soft in the mouth. Soft retrohale. This morning's morning mouth is soft and smooth as well.
DVick is not sure what's in the sticks he sent; but we know the leaves he sent me were mostly habano seco, habano viso, and the like. I'm thinking this probably represents a pure habano experience.
I am riding Sopowa to the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness in a week and a half, for a week long canoe camping adventure. I have six or eight of those black plastic telescoping cigar tubes. If I can get DVick's sticks to fit into cigar tubes, I will take them with me. Long lasting soft smokes, all natural, good volume to help repel the skeeters, with a very nice morning after flavor.
What would possess a guy who can roll this good a stick to jettison his stash?
Just look at this burn:
... and it stayed that razor sharp from end to end. The construction was soft throughout. The wrapper was not glued, is the only negative about it. I like to roll a cigar in my lips as I draw, to better taste the wrapper. Without glue, I tended to roll the wrong way and unravel it. I am no fan of the shaggy foot. But this shaggy foot lit without dropping too many nasty embers.
Other than that, the soft construction seemed to suit the soft everything else. The smoke was soft and dry. The flavor was soft and mild. The wrapper felt soft and dry in my lips, like velvet -- no oil to it at all. Softest of all was the perfectly clean finish, so soft in the mouth. Soft retrohale. This morning's morning mouth is soft and smooth as well.
DVick is not sure what's in the sticks he sent; but we know the leaves he sent me were mostly habano seco, habano viso, and the like. I'm thinking this probably represents a pure habano experience.
I am riding Sopowa to the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness in a week and a half, for a week long canoe camping adventure. I have six or eight of those black plastic telescoping cigar tubes. If I can get DVick's sticks to fit into cigar tubes, I will take them with me. Long lasting soft smokes, all natural, good volume to help repel the skeeters, with a very nice morning after flavor.
What would possess a guy who can roll this good a stick to jettison his stash?
dvick003
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the kind review web... I am hoping to continue rolling cigars. I love the habano 2000, criollo 98, and corojo 99 but I have been itching to try less common/non-commercial varieties. I am hoping that someone will suddenly be "possessed" to help me out with this problem.
waikikigun
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Good write-up and sounds like an excellent stick.
Criollo and corojo are the perfect filler combo. They're great wrapped in H2000, San Andreas, or broadleaf. Really the only wrapper Ive tried that I didn't like wrapped over those 2 was Cameroon. Wasn't bad but doesn't compare to the 3 I named IMO.
Smokin Harley
Well-Known Member
I just rolled 6 that the blend is this-
1 leaf each...
Criollo98 Viso
Criollo 98 Seco
Corojo Viso and
bound with Ecuador Maduro inner leaf scraps from wrapper leaf
right now they're wrapped in newspaper strips ,seems to be a nice poor-mans mould.
they'll be wrapped in Corojo
they're about a 5 x 48
what I did was layer the two visos and then spiral wrap the seco around that kind of like a first binder then actual binder is like I said , the inner scrap from an Ecuador Maduro wrapper leaf.
I must be getting the feel of how much leaf to use for filler , they all turned out the same ring size.
I finally wrapped the ones I rolled two weeks ago . I'm also getting better at wrapper and cap. I've brought the width of my wrapper leaf down to 2 1/4 inches . Wrapper stretch of the Ecuador Maduro is simply amazing. Sure lays down nice.
1 leaf each...
Criollo98 Viso
Criollo 98 Seco
Corojo Viso and
bound with Ecuador Maduro inner leaf scraps from wrapper leaf
right now they're wrapped in newspaper strips ,seems to be a nice poor-mans mould.
they'll be wrapped in Corojo
they're about a 5 x 48
what I did was layer the two visos and then spiral wrap the seco around that kind of like a first binder then actual binder is like I said , the inner scrap from an Ecuador Maduro wrapper leaf.
I must be getting the feel of how much leaf to use for filler , they all turned out the same ring size.
I finally wrapped the ones I rolled two weeks ago . I'm also getting better at wrapper and cap. I've brought the width of my wrapper leaf down to 2 1/4 inches . Wrapper stretch of the Ecuador Maduro is simply amazing. Sure lays down nice.
Smoked another of DVick's shaggy-footed Churchills last night. Soft soft dry dark flavor. Reminded me of a mild Cuban. This one didn't burn so well as the other -- couldn't make it to a nub, cause it was raining outside; but it still lasted a couple hours. Reading Solomon Northup's "Twelve Years a Slave" downloaded from the innerwebz. Drinking crappy rye recommended by a clerk at a very well-stocked liquor store. Sat down to read for an hour; didn't get up for three.
waikikigun
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Which crappy rye.
Winchester. Remember that name ... and forget it !
You into rye? Have a recommendation? I am new to it. My fave so far is Michter's. Distilled in Lititz PA since 1730 or some such.
waikikigun
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I am into whiskeys in general.
Ryes are interesting these days because they are so similar to bourbons. They used to be a softer milder thing than a bourbon; now not necessarily.
Anyway a very good value-priced (~$20) rye to keep in your bar is Bulleit. For ten bucks more High West Double Rye is also very good.
I remember I was sitting in the rose garden in 1998 when I read a note from my landlord's wife. They'd owned the place since 1960. His ex had recently forced him to sell so she could cash out. So his current wife wrote good bye notes to each of the tenants. Hers read, "I will always remember you sitting in the rose garden with your cigar and glass of whiskey on ice."
Ryes are interesting these days because they are so similar to bourbons. They used to be a softer milder thing than a bourbon; now not necessarily.
Anyway a very good value-priced (~$20) rye to keep in your bar is Bulleit. For ten bucks more High West Double Rye is also very good.
I remember I was sitting in the rose garden in 1998 when I read a note from my landlord's wife. They'd owned the place since 1960. His ex had recently forced him to sell so she could cash out. So his current wife wrote good bye notes to each of the tenants. Hers read, "I will always remember you sitting in the rose garden with your cigar and glass of whiskey on ice."
Smokin Harley
Well-Known Member
I've had Bulleit Rye...very smooth and tasty.
"I will always remember you sitting in the rose garden with your cigar and glass of whiskey on ice."... as Im sure your memory of it is just as vivid.
"I will always remember you sitting in the rose garden with your cigar and glass of whiskey on ice."... as Im sure your memory of it is just as vivid.
waikikigun
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Ya, Harley. That is for sure. One hopes to fill one's life with such moments, I reckon.
I think Bulleit is over rated cause people like their bourbon. Bourbon is sweeter, rye is spicier.
Next time yer in DullAware,,,
Birage
Well-Known Member
I think Bulleit is good, but not near as good as the Russel's 6 year rye. Hey, Webmost, remember at La Birage Cabana when I was rollin' some mix filler and throwing in some of the Shurazi dark fired, prilep, etc.? Thanks to the St. Lucian rum I have no idea of what was put in any of the cigars, but I decided to fire one up even though it could of used some age, and I smoked it to the nub. Maybe we all should just wing it more often, seemed to work out good. Of course, I have to smoke the other nine to see if that is consistent, maybe they won't be that good. Anyway, have a nice time on the camping trip, and I did receive your package, thanks.
dondford
Well-Known Member
+1 "I think Bulleit is over rated"
Bulleit, Templeton, Filluster, High West, Pepper, Redemption, Smooth Ambler, George Dickel and I'm sure others are not distilled by the companies (bottlers) that sell them. They are all distilled and aged at MGP, a massive distillery in Indiana. MGP runs huge continuous, tower reflux "stills" and looks more like a oil; refinery than what most think a whiskey still looks like (the almost extinct pot still) Many of these companies go on and on about their secret grain bills, special yeasts, special water, etc etc, when in fact they have it trucked in from MGP; some bottle it as is, some does some extra aging, proofing, blending etc before they sell it as their creation. Believe it or not, there is more BS and hype in the whiskey industry than there is in the cigar industry. Having said the above, I will say that MGP makes good whiskey (and especially a good job at aging), it's just the dishonesty that gets me.
-1 "Ryes are interesting these days because they are so similar to bourbons. They used to be a softer milder thing than a bourbon; now not necessarily"
I don't think so, many modern bourbons have no rye content, the ones that do have small rye content. The newer style bourbons are wheated, oated, almost all contain barley and much softer than the old style bourbon and ryes. The old style US bourbons had much higher rye content. The original rye's had a much spicier taste than bourbons. Prohibition changed American's taste in whiskey where the old style bourbons with high rye content and rye's fell out of favor when American's only had access to Canadian whiskey, blended whiskey and gin and vodka. There is a rye revival going on now with many new old style rye's on the market. I like Rittenhouse 100 proof.
D
Bulleit, Templeton, Filluster, High West, Pepper, Redemption, Smooth Ambler, George Dickel and I'm sure others are not distilled by the companies (bottlers) that sell them. They are all distilled and aged at MGP, a massive distillery in Indiana. MGP runs huge continuous, tower reflux "stills" and looks more like a oil; refinery than what most think a whiskey still looks like (the almost extinct pot still) Many of these companies go on and on about their secret grain bills, special yeasts, special water, etc etc, when in fact they have it trucked in from MGP; some bottle it as is, some does some extra aging, proofing, blending etc before they sell it as their creation. Believe it or not, there is more BS and hype in the whiskey industry than there is in the cigar industry. Having said the above, I will say that MGP makes good whiskey (and especially a good job at aging), it's just the dishonesty that gets me.
-1 "Ryes are interesting these days because they are so similar to bourbons. They used to be a softer milder thing than a bourbon; now not necessarily"
I don't think so, many modern bourbons have no rye content, the ones that do have small rye content. The newer style bourbons are wheated, oated, almost all contain barley and much softer than the old style bourbon and ryes. The old style US bourbons had much higher rye content. The original rye's had a much spicier taste than bourbons. Prohibition changed American's taste in whiskey where the old style bourbons with high rye content and rye's fell out of favor when American's only had access to Canadian whiskey, blended whiskey and gin and vodka. There is a rye revival going on now with many new old style rye's on the market. I like Rittenhouse 100 proof.
D
waikikigun
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Thanks for the Rittenhouse tip!
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