Substitutions for Filler Blends

[Smokin Buffalo]

I have Nic ligero and seco. I see some blends on here that look pretty good and I'd like to try but call for viso. I thought I had ordered viso but must have made a mistake and now I see WLT is out of it. My question is if a blend calls for Nic viso, can I just use Nic ligero. I'm sure the answer is yes but should it be a 1=1 conversion or use half the amount or 3/4? Perhaps 1/2 ligero and 1/2 seco would work? Or am I treating this a little too much like a food recipe and trial and error is the only way to know?

 

[kullas]

Re: Substations

Sounds good to me. Can roll a small stick and try it out. I rolled one the other day out of scrap and was the best tasting stick I have rolled to bad I don't know what was in it.

 

[waikikigun]

Yeah, gonna say that IMHO it's not all that scientific. Example: I have a ton of different leaves in my "shed," have bought most of the leaf you can buy retail in this country, and I've got seco that is thicker and darker than some of my ligero; viso that is thicker and darker than some of my ligero; viso that is lighter than some of my seco, some ligero that is thick as tire rubber and some viso that is thin as toilet paper (double ply). And some things where all three primings seem like virtually the same leaf. And then, some of the lighter stuff might taste stronger than some of the darker stuff, etc. So, one way would be to find out just what the recipe dude's viso looked/felt/tasted like, and then if your ligero is kinda close to that, you're golden.

Or just do what you said.

 

[juan carlos]

turn 'em and burn 'em.

if it works out, do it again.

 

[deluxestogie]

...it's not all that scientific.

I agree. With my home-grown leaf, the primed leaves end up stored by their priming level, while the stalk-harvested leaf ends up being tied into hands, and eventually stored as a tied hand containing all of the leaf from one or two plants. Sometimes, there is less variation among the leaves in a tied hand than in a priming-sorted bag. This varies by the tobacco variety. I've even had tied hands that varied less than a purchased leaf of a specific priming.

As I assemble the leaf to go into a cigar, I just look through what's in a bag, and select what I'm interested in. Tobacco, just like tomatoes from the garden, are natural products of the land, and vary from plant to plant, and even from leaf (fruit) to leaf (fruit), regardless of the artistic priming graphics.

Filler blend recipes do function as a rough guide, and are particularly helpful to the novice blender. As your blending becomes more intuitive, it will just happen--like making a pot of chili.

Bob

 

[Smokin Buffalo]

Thank you all for the replies. I guess it is a bit of an artistic endeavor as well as personal preference. got it.

 

[Knucklehead]

Thank you all for the replies. I guess it is a bit of an artistic endeavor as well as personal preference. got it.

When you are dealing with a new variety or blend, blind luck plays an equal role since you haven't sampled it before. Once you learn the characteristics of a particular variety, experience comes into play, and you will have a better idea of which varieties and stalk positions play best with one another and can make educated guesses about your blending. Roll a few puros (single variety cigars) along the way to get an idea of what that variety and leaf position may bring to a blend.