Blending Thread

[blisscigarco]

so your tasting process does not take aging into account?

Not anymore, no. I went from trying to stock up a 1000 sticks with at least a year on'em to pretty much rolling board-to-mouth. The disadvantage is that I'll miss some of the benefits of 6 months or a year in the box; the advantage is I don't waste time and space and hope and prayers on tobacco that's bad and ain't going to get good.

 

[Jim D]

Not anymore, no. I went from trying to stock up a 1000 sticks with at least a year on'em to pretty much rolling board-to-mouth. The disadvantage is that I'll miss some of the benefits of 6 months or a year in the box; the advantage is I don't waste time and space and hope and prayers on tobacco that's bad and ain't going to get good.

B, if you find something you enjoy with the short time from board to mouth, in your experience would it only get better with time? I guess I'm asking if it is worth it to stock up a blend you enjoy that is only a couple days old.

 

[blisscigarco]

B, if you find something you enjoy with the short time from board to mouth, in your experience would it only get better with time? I guess I'm asking if it is worth it to stock up a blend you enjoy that is only a couple days old.

Yeah, it would, so long as your aging environment (tupper, humi, whatever) is good. I think a few of us here have noticed that good things tend to happen at 6 weeks, 6 months, 1 year, with the tobacco we've got access to.

 

[ras_oscar]

Not anymore, no. I went from trying to stock up a 1000 sticks with at least a year on'em to pretty much rolling board-to-mouth. The disadvantage is that I'll miss some of the benefits of 6 months or a year in the box; the advantage is I don't waste time and space and hope and prayers on tobacco that's bad and ain't going to get good.

I understand the space constraints. I REFUSE to buy a third cooler for cigars. 2 plus a wood humidor is plenty enough, thank you very much. My mold holds 10 so that's what I roll of each blend. That gives me 2 for rott, 2 to share rott, and 6 to age for future sampling.

 

[Marc L]

 

[blisscigarco]

I thought I'd paste some notes here. I had a basic 1:1:1 blend that I liked but that I wanted to have more kick; so I rolled six versions of it, adding a different viso-ish leaf to each one. Here are my tasting notes, now that I've smoked all of them (these were blind tests where I just grabbed one from the box each day and smoked it, and the #, which IDs them in my spreadsheet, was listed on the inside of the label):
2/2. #6 WLT Criollo 98 Viso. Not terrible but not magic. Mild sweet-sour-ferment.
2/3. #4 WLT Nica Habano Viso. I think it was gonna be pretty good but my throat went numb. Something funny musta happened to that leaf.
2/4 #1 WLT MF. Best so far. Brought a mildly sweet, woody, peppery element that worked.
2/5 #3. Jorge ligero. This was too dry. There was a tad of that CC Partagas D4 "burnt honeycomb," which I liked, but a dry woodiness that I didn't like.
2/5 #5 Nica Habano Ligero. This brought an intense dry pepper with some vanilla. Probably my second favorite so far to the MF.
2/6 #2 LO Braz Viso. Pretty good, a nice little zing, otherwise too mild.

 

[webmost]

Fellers

A customer tells me he salted away a bunch of cured and aged Black Mammoth filler years ago. He'd like to get some rolled up. Of the common wrappers and binders which are available to us from LO or WLT, what should I try to bind and wrap this stuff with? Does it do well with CT shade, for instance?

Here are the wrappers I have on hand:

• San Andres
• FXSS CT shade
• Butcher PA
• Ecuadorian seco shade
• Nicaraguan
• Brazilian Mata Fina
• Ecuadorian ligero shade
• Sumatra
• Corojo Oscuro
• CT Havana 7
• Broadleaf
• Honduran Habano

and these binders:

• Silver River
• KY sumatra
• Dominican
• Dominican Olor
• Honduran Hab
• Cameroon

However, as you can see, I am not averse to buying another binder or wrapper you may advise. Just please don't suggest anything not available.

TIA

 

[BrewinHooligan]

Fellers

A customer tells me he salted away a bunch of cured and aged Black Mammoth filler years ago. He'd like to get some rolled up. Of the common wrappers and binders which are available to us from LO or WLT, what should I try to bind and wrap this stuff with? Does it do well with CT shade, for instance?

Here are the wrappers I have on hand:

• San Andres
• FXSS CT shade
• Butcher PA
• Ecuadorian seco shade
• Nicaraguan
• Brazilian Mata Fina
• Ecuadorian ligero shade
• Sumatra
• Corojo Oscuro
• CT Havana 7
• Broadleaf
• Honduran Habano

and these binders:

• Silver River
• KY sumatra
• Dominican
• Dominican Olor
• Honduran Hab
• Cameroon

However, as you can see, I am not averse to buying another binder or wrapper you may advise. Just please don't suggest anything not available.

TIA

What are Black Mammoth fillers? Do you have a flavor profile or description?

 

[webmost]

What are Black Mammoth fillers? Do you have a flavor profile or description?

Home growers talk about it a lot. I've never fooled with it.

 

[Jim D]

Tonight's rolling was about trying a couple new blends. I've previously found simple blends of equal parts seco and ligero to be enjoyable and tried that on 2/16/18 with Piloto seco and Piloto ligero. Good smoke but this needs something more. Tonight the first 4 added a leaf of Mata Fina and the second 4 added a leaf of Brazilian Habano viso.
I'll see how to move forward after trying a couple of these.

 

[blisscigarco]

Tonight's rolling was about trying a couple new blends. I've previously found simple blends of equal parts seco and ligero to be enjoyable and tried that on 2/16/18 with Piloto seco and Piloto ligero. Good smoke but this needs something more. Tonight the first 4 added a leaf of Mata Fina and the second 4 added a leaf of Brazilian Habano viso.
I'll see how to move forward after trying a couple of these.View attachment 109015

That's pretty much where I start, too. 50/50, including the binder as part of the "seco" weight. So like a basic robusto would be 9g binder-seco, 9g ligero. Do you include your binder as part of your 50/50?

 

[Jim D]

That's pretty much where I start, too. 50/50, including the binder as part of the "seco" weight. So like a basic robusto would be 9g binder-seco, 9g ligero. Do you include your binder as part of your 50/50?

I haven't yet but when smoking have found the binder to have significant influence on the flavor. For instance I don't like using the PA binder on my piloto seco, mata fina, dom ligero blend. I really liked the dom binder for that so subbed in Piloto seco as binder. Now I'm trying the Ec seco binder, next I'll try the Nic binder everyone seems to like.

 

[blisscigarco]

I haven't yet but when smoking have found the binder to have significant influence on the flavor. For instance I don't like using the PA binder on my piloto seco, mata fina, dom ligero blend. I really liked the dom binder for that so subbed in Piloto seco as binder. Now I'm trying the Ec seco binder, next I'll try the Nic binder everyone seems to like.

I find every piece in a stick has a significant effect, which is why I like to start simple and work up.
A few blending thoughts:
1) Sometimes 2 ligeros instead of one seco, one viso, one ligero, works great. So if I'm low on visos, I'll try a different ligero in the viso spot, and get good results. This could be construed as a 1:0:2 blend, but I think of it as a 1:1:1 if one of the ligeros isn't overpowering strength-wise, e.g. a good Dominican.
2) I tried all the Dominican secos at LO, and surprisingly the "Piloto Cubano Volado" had the most rich flavor; richer than the Olor seco, PC seco, and also the Honduran seco. Most people probably see volado and think "no flavor." In this case it's not true. Unfortunately they are currently out of that. Fortunately I have a nice supply. They say it's "on the boat."
3) A single leaf of WLT Nicaraguan Habano Seco (also currently unavailable, of course) can add a little "something" to a mix without messing it up. It's kind of a magic spice leaf but not necessarily the best leaf for the full seco portion of a blend.
4) I use the olor seco as my binder; and I've been reading up a lot lately where I notice this is actually typical for top Dominican sticks: Olor binder, PC filler, which is exactly what I stumbled onto. One thing I haven't tried yet is the LO Olor ligero. While Olor is theoretically milder than PC, I'm going to see how the Olor Ligero works as the viso portion of a blend.

 

[BrewinHooligan]

I find every piece in a stick has a significant effect, which is why I like to start simple and work up.
A few blending thoughts:
1) Sometimes 2 ligeros instead of one seco, one viso, one ligero, works great. So if I'm low on visos, I'll try a different ligero in the viso spot, and get good results. This could be construed as a 1:0:2 blend, but I think of it as a 1:1:1 if one of the ligeros isn't overpowering strength-wise, e.g. a good Dominican.
2) I tried all the Dominican secos at LO, and surprisingly the "Piloto Cubano Volado" had the most rich flavor; richer than the Olor seco, PC seco, and also the Honduran seco. Most people probably see volado and think "no flavor." In this case it's not true. Unfortunately they are currently out of that. Fortunately I have a nice supply. They say it's "on the boat."
3) A single leaf of WLT Nicaraguan Habano Seco (also currently unavailable, of course) can add a little "something" to a mix without messing it up. It's kind of a magic spice leaf but not necessarily the best leaf for the full seco portion of a blend.
4) I use the olor seco as my binder; and I've been reading up a lot lately where I notice this is actually typical for top Dominican sticks: Olor binder, PC filler, which is exactly what I stumbled onto. One thing I haven't tried yet is the LO Olor ligero. While Olor is theoretically milder than PC, I'm going to see how the Olor Ligero works as the viso portion of a blend.

I can vouch that the olor ligero does not seem as thick or smell as strong as other Dominican ligeros that I have worked with. Only smoked it in one blend that had other new to me tobacco so I can't compare directly but will say that I think it is tasty.

 

[Jim D]

I find every piece in a stick has a significant effect, which is why I like to start simple and work up.
A few blending thoughts:
1) Sometimes 2 ligeros instead of one seco, one viso, one ligero, works great. So if I'm low on visos, I'll try a different ligero in the viso spot, and get good results. This could be construed as a 1:0:2 blend, but I think of it as a 1:1:1 if one of the ligeros isn't overpowering strength-wise, e.g. a good Dominican.
2) I tried all the Dominican secos at LO, and surprisingly the "Piloto Cubano Volado" had the most rich flavor; richer than the Olor seco, PC seco, and also the Honduran seco. Most people probably see volado and think "no flavor." In this case it's not true. Unfortunately they are currently out of that. Fortunately I have a nice supply. They say it's "on the boat."
3) A single leaf of WLT Nicaraguan Habano Seco (also currently unavailable, of course) can add a little "something" to a mix without messing it up. It's kind of a magic spice leaf but not necessarily the best leaf for the full seco portion of a blend.
4) I use the olor seco as my binder; and I've been reading up a lot lately where I notice this is actually typical for top Dominican sticks: Olor binder, PC filler, which is exactly what I stumbled onto. One thing I haven't tried yet is the LO Olor ligero. While Olor is theoretically milder than PC, I'm going to see how the Olor Ligero works as the viso portion of a blend.

Awesome, thanks for the details. I ordered some of the Olor recently also so will try that as binder too. Sadly I was too slow on ordering the volado but if it's on the boat, maybe I'll get another shot at ordering some.
As for the Nic habano seco, I have a little remaining, I think I'll add that in my next rolling session, thanks for the idea.

 

[Jim D]

I find every piece in a stick has a significant effect, which is why I like to start simple and work up.
A few blending thoughts:
1) Sometimes 2 ligeros instead of one seco, one viso, one ligero, works great. So if I'm low on visos, I'll try a different ligero in the viso spot, and get good results. This could be construed as a 1:0:2 blend, but I think of it as a 1:1:1 if one of the ligeros isn't overpowering strength-wise, e.g. a good Dominican.
2) I tried all the Dominican secos at LO, and surprisingly the "Piloto Cubano Volado" had the most rich flavor; richer than the Olor seco, PC seco, and also the Honduran seco. Most people probably see volado and think "no flavor." In this case it's not true. Unfortunately they are currently out of that. Fortunately I have a nice supply. They say it's "on the boat."
3) A single leaf of WLT Nicaraguan Habano Seco (also currently unavailable, of course) can add a little "something" to a mix without messing it up. It's kind of a magic spice leaf but not necessarily the best leaf for the full seco portion of a blend.
4) I use the olor seco as my binder; and I've been reading up a lot lately where I notice this is actually typical for top Dominican sticks: Olor binder, PC filler, which is exactly what I stumbled onto. One thing I haven't tried yet is the LO Olor ligero. While Olor is theoretically milder than PC, I'm going to see how the Olor Ligero works as the viso portion of a blend.

When you add 2 ligeros, would you keep the total ligero weight the same and just add half of each? So instead of one leaf of 9 grams you'd have two of 4.5 grams each?

 

[blisscigarco]

When you add 2 ligeros, would you keep the total ligero weight the same and just add half of each? So instead of one leaf of 9 grams you'd have two of 4.5 grams each?

Wait, let me sort out my math...
Okay: for example: binder+seco = 5g. Then 5g of some mellower ligero (pretending it's the viso); and another 5g ligero (as the ligero). So it's a faux 1:1:1, with the details being there is a "ligero" pretending to be the viso; and the binder is included in the weight of the seco.

 

[Jim D]

4) I use the olor seco as my binder; and I've been reading up a lot lately where I notice this is actually typical for top Dominican sticks: Olor binder, PC filler, which is exactly what I stumbled onto. One thing I haven't tried yet is the LO Olor ligero. While Olor is theoretically milder than PC, I'm going to see how the Olor Ligero works as the viso portion of a blend.

I'm going to work on this part tonight. Will bunch up some of my piloto seco, mata fina, dom ligero blend and bind it with dom olor. Question is what to wrap with? CT Shade, Nic binder, good old Ec Seco?

 

[blisscigarco]

I'm going to work on thus part tonight. Will bunch up some of my piloto seco, mata fina, dom ligero blend and bind it with dom olor. Question is what to wrap with? CT Shade, Nic binder, good old Ec Seco?

All of them to see which you prefer; right?

 

[Jim D]

All of them to see which you prefer; right?

That's right. I can't imagine not liking any of them but want to see what the differences bring.
The Ec Seco is the wrapper I've used most so that is just a control sample to see how the binder change alone impacts this. The rest is just more fun experimenting.