Pics of your Sticks!! 2023-2024

[WillQuantrill]

Just under the wire! Ha. These are my examples from 2023. I bought a torpedo mold from Don awhile back but as you can see still trying to perfect the pointed flag wrap head. The banded cigars are all experimental blends made with WLT. I will roll 4 of various blend profiles and smoke them at different age points to document their profile. With these taste test sticks I have been banding with date rolled and wrapper type. I have found my best success using Hab 92 from WLT, but let me stress that my rolling skills are in their infancy. The smaller "texas toothpick" cigarillos are the MOST important. These puros I rolled this week from 2023 harvest from my back yard! I am in great anticipation to try these little bastards as they are still resting in my dry box before I partake. These cigarillos mark the first smokable leaf I have been able to produce with great help from the fine men on this forum! Thank you! God bless and Happy New Year friends!

 

[FrostD]

Happy New Year!

Finished wrapping up a blend tonight. It’s a blend I may have posted before called “The Wannabe”. Same blend with a tweak or two. Reason why I called it “The Wannabe” is due to how so many “Premium” cigar blends are, it may come close. Jury still out…

The Wannabe (w/ tweaks)
W- Connecticut Broadleaf
B- Nicaraguan
F- 1x Nicaraguan Estelí Ligero
1/2x Nicaraguan Jalapa Ligero
1x Nicaraguan Condega Viso
1x Nicaraguan Jalapa Viso
1x Nicaraguan Estelí Seco
1x Nicaraguan Condega Seco 2015

52 ring gauge mold. Some may have been able to handle 50 ring gauge if you didn’t trim ends and try to add it to the cigar.

 

[SlamFire]

Three of my experimental blends in my funky homemade Elm burl ashtray… Clockwise from bottom left: Habano 92 wrapper, MSA binder, Nicaraguan fillers; Ecuador Sumatra Wrapper, Corojo Binder, test fillers; Brazilian Foiano wrapper, Connecticut Broadleaf binder, all Piloto Cubano filler…

 

[FrostD]

Cranked out another batch of sticks last night. Some more of the R.O’B blend. Slight tweaks on the wrapper and 1 filler leaf type. Original wrapper Brazil CT 2013, used the Brazil CT 2012. Nicaraguan Condega Seco 2014 is the original, tweaked it to the Nicaraguan Condega Seco 2015. These slight changes I’ve noticed can make a difference. Crazy how 1 year difference can do that!

R.O’B. Blend :
Wrapper-Brazilian Connecticut 2012
Binder-Connecticut Broadleaf
Filler-1x Black Ligero
2x T-13 Viso
2x Nicaraguan Condega Seco 2015

All 50 ring gauge. May have been able to get away with a 48 ring gauge on some.

 

[FrostD]

Just finished up a new blend to try out. All leaf is from WLT. I will say that the Ecuadorian Rosado wrapper is delightful to work with, easy to stretch, and has a great aroma to it. Excited to try this one out!

“Luna Rosado”
(52 Ring gauge)
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Rosado
Binder: Dominican T-13 Viso
Filler: 1x Dominican CV Corojo Ligero
1x Dominican CV Criollo ‘98 Ligero
1x Dominican Criollo ‘98 Viso (Not CV)
1x Dominican CV Corojo 2006 Seco
1x Dominican Criollo ‘98 Seco (Not CV)

The 6 on the left side I finished wrapping on 1-7-24. They’ve been sitting on my rolling table for about a week with ambient room temps right around 70F/40% RH. They are definitely dried now. Labeled them and put them in bag with the sticks from the last 3 blends I posted up. The bag has a small 55% humidity pack in it. I tend to let each cigar dry out in ambient temps for 1-7 days before bagging and bringing the humidity back up. Come to think of it… I think I need to reorder some 62%-65% humidity packs for continued aging or to have them ready to smoke and not be overly dry.

 

[Ycc]

4.75x52
6.5x44

All Cibao Valley filler. Shade and Corojo wrapper.

View attachment 44571

这制作方法太专业了，感觉不比古巴产品差
This manufacturing method is so professional that it feels no worse than Cuban products

 

[FrostD]

Just got home from a 2 day work trip and letting these babies sit compressed in the trunk press. Decent press overall on them. True test will be a draw test. I measured dimensions and have only tried 50 big gauge so far. Also, this is probably my 3rd or 4th attempt at a barber pole. It has been a bit since I’ve tried this method and first attempt at a batch to press for a few days to ensure they form up.

This blend is a slight tweak on the binder and wrappers of the R.O’B. Blend I’ve posted in the past.

R.O’B. Barber Pole
Wrappers:
-Candela
-WLT Connecticut Seed

Binder:
-WLT Pennsylvania Broadleaf

Fillers:
-1x WLT Dom. CV Black Ligero
-2x WLT T-13 Viso
-2x WLT Nic. Condega Seco 2015

Used 2x 50 ring gauge molds and wrapped within 2-3 days in the molds. Wrappers were prepped in my “casing cooler chamber” for at least 5-7 days. Every day rotating stacks and racks. Put wrappers in with binder leaf to help get as pliable as possible. Inspected every day to make sure no mold was starting to form. I still need to get better at even lines, but tried a few things out that I think over time & more practice will benefit.

 

[MadFarmer]

My reward for all my hard work yesterday. Home grown tobaccos, Glessenor lugs and a single top leaf from my 2022 Vuelta Abajo that turned out to have flash dried too green to be workable. Once I'd smoked through that the rest was delicious.

 

[Silverone858]

I smoked the first one, these are the next 4. Piloto Cubano wrapped in a criollo 98.
What are you using for a round cap cutter say 46 ring and 52? I gotta get some molds but I spent my wad on leaf. Lol

 

[GreenDragon]

One of my new neighbors in the cul-de-sac is a cigar guy, so we got together last weekend for some whiskey and cigars. This turned into an impromptu lesson on how to RYO cigars which everyone enjoyed. Was having too much fun and forgot to take pics of the finished cigars before they took them home, but here is a pic of the setup when we got started.

 

[FrostD]

Enjoying a home roll from January down in Montego Bay, Jamaica!

 

[deluxestogie]

Each Spring, I start to roll cigars when the weather warms up. Today I rolled my first cigar of the season. Without fail, every year, that first cigar reminds me to select less filler, but I'm a slow learner. Today's cigar was obese. While the head of the 6½" stick was about a 52 ring, the foot—Sigh!—was a challenge for my 64 ring cutter. So a fat, tapered beast it was.

• Wrapper: Glessnor (2019) EMS
• Double Binder: two tattered Ecuador Shade "wrappers" (WLT)
• Filler: 3 entire leaves of Peru viso (WLT)

It was an enjoyable 75 minute smoke, but I was too embarrassed to photograph it. The next one will be be more reasonable.

Bob

 

[FrostD]

Each Spring, I start to roll cigars when the weather warms up. Today I rolled my first cigar of the season. Without fail, every year, that first cigar reminds me to select less filler, but I'm a slow learner. Today's cigar was obese. While the head of the 6½" stick was about a 52 ring, the foot—Sigh!—was a challenge for my 64 ring cutter. So a fat, tapered beast it was.

• Wrapper: Glessnor (2019) EMS
• Double Binder: two tattered Ecuador Shade "wrappers" (WLT)
• Filler: 3 entire leaves of Peru viso (WLT)

It was an enjoyable 75 minute smoke, but I was too embarrassed to photograph it. The next one will be be more reasonable.

Bob

That Peru Viso is some tasty leaf for sure! Sounds like a good blend there @deluxestogie

 

[FrostD]

A round 2 box press barber pole from early March. Been awhile since I was able to get in 2 sticks in 1 day!

 

[WillQuantrill]

A round 2 box press barber pole from early March. Been awhile since I was able to get in 2 sticks in 1 day! View attachment 50441

Vacation with sea and sand? Perfect 2 stick day!

 

[deluxestogie]

Still a bit sloppy, but improving. What I easily recall over the winter each year is that most of the "rules" of rolling a cigar are silly, and don't matter much. (My goal is usually a wonderful smoke, rather than a work of art.) What I seem to forget over the winter is that the case of the wrapper will determine how carefully it is trimmed, and how flawlessly it will wrap the bound doll.

Since this was a petite cigar, I did not trim the foot as much as I should have. So the foot is raggedy, and not quite filled.

This simple combination of a US CT Shade wrapper (and binder) over pure Peru viso provides a fairly flat flavor profile: woody and "dry". The burn was good. But the overall aroma and taste of the filler would have benefited from a bass note with a touch of sweetness, like a Pennsylvania broadleaf or seedleaf, seco or viso.

Bob

 

[GreenDragon]

Last night’s cigar, one from my impromptu rolling party with the neighbor. All WLT leaf. Love the wrapper color.

 

[FrostD]

Smoking an extra Padron K.O. V2 that I made a batch of for a client, that I had sitting in the travel humidor from 11/25/23. 2nd to last night in Jamaica. So far the burn is a little wonky but the flavors are on point! Enjoy em while you got em folks!

 

[deluxestogie]

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Today, the temps bounced back up to late springtime (i.e. cigar weather). No prediction of chilly temps through April 21.

This Criollo 98 viso puro is quite smokable as is. Burn is excellent. Strength is only a notch above medium. It's aroma profile could benefit from the addition of a somewhat lighter (lower) leaf.

[One of the Criollo 98 viso leaves was uniformly speckled with light tan, frog-eye spots. I was tempted to use it as an artistically decorative wrapper, since it had no apparent holes, when I held it up to the light. But I decided that it probably would not actually seal particularly well, since the frog-eyes are thinner and a bit stiffer than the rest of the lamina.]

Bob