Pics of your sticks!!

[tullius]

Thanks guys. I have learned much from so many of you here. Thanks for generously sharing your knowledge.

Nos. 2-4, same recipe as above:

 

[MarcL]

 

[Moth]

What am I looking at MarcL?

 

[deluxestogie]

That's pretty wild! You could probably ride that to Tahiti.

Bob

 

[MarcL]

What am I looking at MarcL?

Those are three Culebra cigars with Condega fillers, Vuelta Abajo Binders and, Criollo 98, Candela, and Rosado wrappers

 

[GreenDragon]

The original snack pack

 

[tullius]

roll no. 4, up in smoke

 

[Jvergen]

Sorry the picture is not great but one of my first cigars using a press a 60 x 6 , used a scale to measure out all leaves, filler corojo 99 deco with a Dominican binder and wrapper. Let it sit 2 weeks before smoking the 99 is really nice thanks Bob.

Jeff

 

[deluxestogie]

I can't even recall the last time I smoked a "premium" commercial cigar this good. With the exception of a fat scrap of WLT PA Broadleaf added to the filler to broaden the aroma profile a tad, all the rest is WLT Honduras Habano Wrapper. I selected the lightest color leaf of 3 Honduras leaves, and used both halves as a double-binder. I lightly misted the binder leaf a couple of minutes prior to rolling. I didn't actually apply a wrapper on top. No trimming, no glue, no mold. Just damn good tobacco. The photo was taken about 7 minutes after I rolled it. It can rest after I'm done with it.

Nicotine is medium+. Its taste is smooth and subtle, with a full, rich Honduran aroma. The draw is ideal. Burn is excellent.

Perhaps this is not the most frugal use of true wrapper quality leaf, but we're still talking only $45 for a "box" of truly superb, generously-sized cigars. That's a mere $2.25 per stick.

Bob

 

[MarcL]

 

[deluxestogie]

When I use a PA Broadleaf as binder, wrapping the cigar with Cameroon smooths the taste in my mouth. That's what I did here--Cameroon wrapper on top of a PA Broadleaf binder.

Unfortunately, the undersized Cameroon wrapper that I used burst open, just short of the head.

Fortunately, I'm not rolling this as a gift to a father-in-law, so the cigar doesn't have to resemble any other cigar on the planet.

Unfortunately, I had to unwrap the Cameroon and trim it severely.

Fortunately, I could leave a third of the bound bunch exposed, and just make a giant cap with the crippled Cameroon leaf strip.

[Pretend you don't even see that hideous clothespin holding it all together. I use a clothespin on every cigar that I roll, when I don't use glue. And that comes to a whole lot of stogies. After remaining in place for a few minutes, the clothespin can be removed, and the head wrap stays in place. I then trap the wrapper with my fingers, just below where I will cut the cigar. After clipping it, I stick it into my mouth. Once I've held the cigar in my teeth for about a minute, the wrapper remains in place on its own for the next hour or more of smoking. It even stays put if I leave a cigar butt in the ashtray overnight.]

Bob

 

[waikikigun]

When I use a PA Broadleaf as binder, wrapping the cigar with Cameroon smooths the taste in my mouth. That's what I did here--Cameroon wrapper on top of a PA Broadleaf binder.

Unfortunately, the undersized Cameroon wrapper that I used burst open, just short of the head.

Fortunately, I'm not rolling this as a gift to a father-in-law, so the cigar doesn't have to resemble any other cigar on the planet.

Unfortunately, I had to unwrap the Cameroon and trim it severely.

Fortunately, I could leave a third of the bound bunch exposed, and just make a giant cap with the crippled Cameroon leaf strip.

[Pretend you don't even see that hideous clothespin holding it all together. I use a clothespin on every cigar that I roll, when I don't use glue. And that comes to a whole lot of stogies. After remaining in place for a few minutes, the clothespin can be removed, and the head wrap stays in place. I then trap the wrapper with my fingers, just below where I will cut the cigar. After clipping it, I stick it into my mouth. Once I've held the cigar in my teeth for about a minute, the wrapper remains in place on its own for the next hour or more of smoking. It even stays put if I leave a cigar butt in the ashtray overnight.]

Bob

For a dude in his 70s, you sure worry a lot about what the father-in-law will think.

The cigar looks cool; "dad" would probably think so to.

 

[deluxestogie]

All three of my former fathers-in-law are buried deep. Two of them were already dead before I stole away their daughters. The other did manage to outlive the marriage, and he was always a picky old coot.

A father-in-law cigar is my surrogate for excessive concern about whether or not your very own artisanal cigar looks just like the stuff belched out from the factories by the container load. It's like aspiring to create art...just like they sell at Walmart.

I do appreciate a beautifully rolled cigar, though my tastes in that regard might be considered...eclectic.

Bob

 

[Jvergen]

I know I'm new to the forum but I'm a fan of Bob's method of roll them and smoke them. I like the idea of what would be considered a fresh taste rather than married. In the food world I have been requested by customers to make fresh tasting products in a convenient 1 shot format but have to explain that soon as the they and combined and made shelf stable it all goes away. On that note I have been digging through the forum and found post talking about the American cigar, I have a order in with Bonner for a few of the tobaccos which look like they fit the bill, any additional thoughts on the subject ?

Jeff

 

[deluxestogie]

like they fit the bill, any additional thoughts on the subject ?

From the upcoming WLT Wiki:

American-Style Cigars:
For well over a century and a half, the majority of cigar smokers in the US smoked what may be considered American-style cigars. Originally all hand-rolled, by the early 20th century, most of these cigars were being machine-bunched as well as machine-wrapped, which kept their retail prices below about 10 cents per stick. Their fillers used American variety tobaccos, such as Pennsylvania Red, Little Dutch, Lancanster Seedleaf, Glessnor, Swarr, Maryland and even burley varieties. The binders tended to be American binder-class tobaccos, such as Wisconsin Seedleaf, Comstock Spanish, Pennsylvania Broadleaf and Connecticut Broadleaf.

American preferences for wrappers were focused on light-colored claro leaf, with thin, Indonesian Sumatra wrappers taking the lead in the late 19th century, soon replaced by the newly developed Connecticut Shade Grown. There were also Florida Sumatra, Dixie Shade and several others. Dark wrappers were nearly all Connecticut or Pennsylvania Broadleaf. Following World War II, the popularity of green wrappers, called candela, increased (presenting the image of a “cleaner” cigar habit), and displaced nearly all natural wrappers for about a decade in the 1950s. [Candela wrappers are flash-cured while still green, retaining the leaf’s chlorophyll, and completely lacking in any natural cigar flavors.]

Most American-style cigars are delicious and enjoyable, but fundamentally different in taste and aroma from cigars made with predominantly Central American and Caribbean varieties of leaf. The introduction of Honduran and Nicaraguan cigars in the late 1960s and early 1970s began to make inroads into the popularity of American-style cigars (in the US), but only among a niche clientele. They did, however, eliminate the popularity of candela-wrapped cigars. “Natural” and soon, “Cameroon” wrappers became the favored wrapper on American-made cigars. [Cameroon wrappers are a variety of Indonesian Sumatra Deli leaf grown in the African country of Cameroon.]

The so-called cigar boom of the late 1990s—with its celebrity-endorsed reviews and numerical cigar ratings, spelled doom for the American-style cigar, and eventually, by about 2017, for the entire cigar manufacturing industry in the US, which has nearly ceased to exist, with the exception of the mega companies owned by Swedish Match and other multi-national corporations.

Bob

 

[waikikigun]

All three of my former fathers-in-law are buried deep. Two of them were already dead before I stole away their daughters. The other did manage to outlive the marriage, and he was always a picky old coot.

A father-in-law cigar is my surrogate for excessive concern about whether or not your very own artisanal cigar looks just like the stuff belched out from the factories by the container load. It's like aspiring to create art...just like they sell at Walmart.

I do appreciate a beautifully rolled cigar, though my tastes in that regard might be considered...eclectic.

Bob

Thank God they never knew the sorrow of having their daughters hook up with some eclectic roller.

 

[GreenDragon]

Bob once again sent me down a rabbit hole. I decided to roll an “American” style cigar this afternoon based on the above info and leaf on hand. This is a mix of home grown and Big Bonner leaf:

Fl Sumatra, Glessner, Lancaster (Filler and wrapper), Burley, Little Dutch, and Maryland (binder).

I’ve used all these before, but always blended with “Cuban” varieties. I was very pleasantly surprised at the result. I’d classify the flavor as mild, with top notes of jasmine and caramel. The nic content was definitely medium/full due to my leaf selection. Will be adding this to my regular rotation.


Mise en place


No de-stemming. Curly leaves wrapped inside flats entubano style.


Binder


Quick dry in the sun before lighting. (I had to splice both halves of a leaf together for the wrapper. I wasn’t paying attention and put one half veins up by mistake! LOL)


Enjoyment whilst birdwatching.

 

[deluxestogie]

 

[deluxestogie]

Cheap Coffee Press

A huge can of cheap coffee can be used to gently square press a cigar on the open, kitchen counter. A clothespin clamps the head of the cigar (left), while a pair of heavy duty pliers and some scissors stabilize the other end of the cutting board, preventing it from changing pitch and roll. The stogie stayed there for about 90 minutes.

Okay. So it looks like a fat man in yoga pants, or even an unnamed skyscraper in Hong Kong. I'm sure it would have come out better if I had instead used $40 worth of 9.72 ounce bags of Starbucks espresso-grind coffee.

Seriously, a corona-size cigar would square-up easily with this sort of arrangement.

Bob

 

[waikikigun]

Cheap Coffee Press

A huge can of cheap coffee can be used to gently square press a cigar on the open, kitchen counter. A clothespin clamps the head of the cigar (left), while a pair of heavy duty pliers and some scissors stabilize the other end of the cutting board, preventing it from changing pitch and roll. The stogie stayed there for about 90 minutes.

Okay. So it looks like a fat man in yoga pants, or even an unnamed skyscraper in Hong Kong. I'm sure it would have come out better if I had instead used $40 worth of 9.72 ounce bags of Starbucks espresso-grind coffee.

Seriously, a corona-size cigar would square-up easily with this sort of arrangement.

Bob

I was gonna say a mummy's dick; but yeah, what you said.