Pics of your sticks!!

[mwaller]

Perfecto!!!

 

[dubhelix]

Organic Rot Front Puro, straight ligero cheroot.

 

[MarcL]

 

[MarcL]

 

[MarcL]

 

[MarcL]

 

[DistillingJim]

Organic Rot Front Puro, straight ligero cheroot.

How did the Rot Front turn out tastewise?

 

[dubhelix]

The rot front ligero (and Seco) tastes and smells like black cherries and licorice. Kind of like commercial chewing tobacco. I haven't blazed that stogie yet, though.

 

[DistillingJim]

Amazing. Keep us updated when you light it up.

 

[dubhelix]

Amazing. Keep us updated when you light it up.

Ok then. A little bit sweet, a little bit spicy. Not the best burn (all oily ligero) unless I puff at it pretty good, but when I get it going, it's a proper cigar.

On a scale of "Philly Blunt to Don Pepin Black Label" it's a solid 3.5. Lol.

Not bad for only being three week old leaf.

If my Snus comes out tasting anything like this backwoods stogie, I'll be a happy camper.

 

[MarcL]

5 X 25 at the foot to 35 RG

Crooks Cigars

 

[deluxestogie]

Well, it's not truly a puro. I used a double binder of Sumatra. Otherwise, the wrapper and all the filler are top leaf from Nostrano del Brenta 2016 after kilning.

The leaf is very large, and feels like Naugahyde. I brought the wrapper to medium case prior to rolling, and lit the cigar before allowing the wrapper to fully dry. So it looks like it's not burning well. In reality, this cigar would burn like a candle wick if I allowed it to. It yields a very light gray-white ash. Top leaf of most varieties has difficulty burning, unless blended with lower leaf. So this is unexpected.

The underside of the Nostrano del Brenta top leaf is a rich maduro color, while the upper surface is the glossy oscuro. As a wrapper, its greatest fault is that it may tear if expected to provide too much compression of the bunch. Hence the Sumatra binder. Besides, I was concerned that using the Nostrano del Brenta as a binder as well as wrapper simply wouldn't burn. I see that it would have burned had I used it.

The taste and aroma do not remind me of either Caribbean or American cigar leaf varieties. It is full and smooth, but not sweet. I've pondered its vaguely recognizable tastes. It is delicious. The best I can identify is a blending of three ingredients:

• unsweetened, black espresso coffee (more Italian than French or Turkish roast)
• a well-baked pastry with a dab of prune filling
• toasted pumpernickel bread

Maybe the wrapper's color is playing tricks with me, but I really do taste the toasted pumpernickel. (It makes me want to go buy some cream cheese and smoked salmon.)

It is curious that this top leaf is no darker than the Nostrano del Brenta middle leaf, shown below:

And then there's this one, also from a few months ago:

Bob

 

[OldDinosaurWesH]

Those poor Nauga's! Did they scream when you took their hide?

Wes H.

(Dating myself)

 

[deluxestogie]

This cigar is solid and rigid, because of four factors.

1. The filler is in low case. It's too brittle to roll "entubado." It crushes and cracks, but does not crumble.
2. The tip portion of the dried stem was left in each of the froglegged leaves, and reaches about 3/4 the length of the double corona. The stem segments are carefully kept near the center of the bunch, so they can't poke a hole in the binder.
3. I used a double binder. WLT Sumatra binder has excellent burn, and is very sturdy stuff. (The two binder leaf halves are laid on top of one another, and rolled around the bunch in a single pass.)
4. When I rolled the bunch, I cranked it down as tightly as the double binder would permit, without rupturing. As long as the filler is truly in low case, I have never been able to roll it so tightly that it impedes the draw.

I chose to use my rainmax mold, because after the bunch was bound, it looked fairly cylindrical (not typical for me) and about the right diameter. Once the bound bunch was in the mold, I felt obligated to trim the outer margin of the wrapper, so as not to spoil the contour.

While smoking, the cigar does soften up, but not a lot. And the embedded stems keep it rigid.

This is a mild-to-medium strength cigar.

Bob

 

[Youn]

First stick with real leaves!
These are from WLT and I made a puro Criollo 98 Seco for a test.

(To begin rolling with mud lugs in very poor shape - no elasticity and a lot of holes - have a bright side : when you turn to high quality leaves, although filler grade, everything seems easier… and the smoked result is far more rewarding!)

It was too loose but smokable, burns heavenly, tastes like a great cuban (not a surprise) but better than anything I've smoked before!
This Seco is strong and it gave me a kick… I don't know if the very flowing draw has participated to this sensation.
I really enjoyed it (many thanks to Don and his great stuff!).

 

[Youn]

I had a quite similar process at the same time, Bob!
I made a stick with Paraguay Flojo Viso filler and Criollo 98 Seco binder and wrapper.
The Flojo was in less than low case and very creased so I didn't removed the remaining mid ribs and I made the bunch just as you've described but my binder and wrapper were not sturdy as your Sumatra and the result was quite loose. I decided to make a sort of box pressed (I have no mold and I simply did it manually with salvage pieces of wood).
Here is the final stick :


Finally, the draw was very good and I enjoyed this little smoke. The Paraguay Flojo Viso is milder than I was expecting and a pure filler of it don't gave an overly powerful smoke.
It's very flavorful and it's different from anything I ever smoked.

 

[Leftynick]

My homegrown blend. 2 Besuki seco, 1 Little Dutch ligero, 1 Little Dutch seco, binded and wrapped using single Harrow Velvet leaves (my only wrapper worthy leaves).

I must say this blend is very complex. It give me different taste each quarter. The first quarter I get the taste of bitter, strong espresso and mellowed down to creamier cappuccino taste in the second quarter. Halfway down it tasted a bit salty, reminded me of salty caramel and finished to typical woody taste. It has hint of sweetness too, and has a lot of spiciness. The besuki used as filler were harvested way too ripe so I think that is why my cigar tasted a bit sweet.

This beat many cheap cigar from convenience store I used to buy, and my first time to taste a cigar that has complexity in taste. Now I know why blending different leaves is required to make a good cigar.

I am getting the hang of rolling cigar, and get better draw each time. Cant wait to add more varieties to blend with.

 

[mwaller]

Congratulations - the cigar looks great!

View attachment 22034
View attachment 22035

My homegrown blend. 2 Besuki seco, 1 Little Dutch ligero, 1 Little Dutch seco, binded and wrapped using single Harrow Velvet leaves (my only wrapper worthy leaves).

I must say this blend is very complex. It give me different taste each quarter. The first quarter I get the taste of bitter, strong espresso and mellowed down to creamier cappuccino taste in the second quarter. Halfway down it tasted a bit salty, reminded me of salty caramel and finished to typical woody taste. It has hint of sweetness too, and has a lot of spiciness. The besuki used as filler were harvested way too ripe so I think that is why my cigar tasted a bit sweet.

This beat many cheap cigar from convenience store I used to buy, and my first time to taste a cigar that has complexity in taste. Now I know why blending different leaves is required to make a good cigar.

I am getting the hang of rolling cigar, and get better draw each time. Cant wait to add more varieties to blend with.

 

[Gavroche]

First stick with real leaves!
.

Happy to you... very quick to deliver... Don is a magic man... he have action with USPS lol

 

[MarcL]

san vicente, criollo viso, flojo seco, mata fina fillers. dom seco binder, corojo wrapper