Pics of Your Sticks

[TheReMixologist]

Two points... If you want a dark wrapper you can stove the leaf in your home oven. Moisten the leaf and wrap in aluminium foil and bake at 220 for 2 hours and 20 minutes. You can get it almost black.

Many of the commercial sticks are dyed to a dark uniform color.

Secondly, there's the old discussion about how much does the wrapper influence the overall flavor. I'm in agreement with Don Pepin who says it's less than 25/30%. Others will disagree. The appearance of a maduro wrapper looks much richer to the eye and can implant a mental perception. Blind tasting in a dark room may yield surprising results.

If you carefully remove the wrapper from your favorite 'high end' commercial cigar and put it on your home roll tobacco would it really transform the cigar into a new amazing stick? I'm sure for some the perception would be greatly improved. The thin, small percentage of leaf is the only part of the cigar that's visible. This 'eye appeal' is very important in the cigar industry. The wrapper, the label, the box is all there to influence the perception.

Soooooo.... I'll whistle in my note here to say ... I'll have to agree & disagree with the wrapper %tages... but then... I'm no Don Pepin... I do be stogie pimpin though ... so it is my experience that when the wrapper is 1ply and mild... it adds least to the overall blend... maybe around 20%... 2ply... 40%... however... more robust and full flavored leaves can be as much as 40% with 1ply... and can be a hostile takeover of a blend at 2ply. Flat Shag ANY blend for proof of wrapper influence ply by ply... in other words... stagger your flat shag exposure by 1/2 inch stagger with binder only exposed first... then with jacket/liner (if you use one) followed by 1ply wrapper followed by 2ply wrapper... PER wrapper varietal used. Without question this will reveal the %age contribution of each PER Blend. A wrapper may perform a solo in some blends and in other blends be bass note to the harmony of the filler and in other blends it may perform in perfect harmony with all layers. So my long winded point is... it depends on the blend. I am 400 distinct blends in my short lived career and can not bring myself to say it is for esthetic value alone. Even my design details play a role... the impact is minimal but definitely a present.

I agree 100% about the retail blends ... in addition to staining or cheat fermentation that the wrappers are 1. Excessively stretched ... nearly to a fault. 2. Using only a fraction of one wrapper per blend in order to get more sticks per leaf. 3. Applied after shrinkage leaving minimal room for expansion and contraction repeats which occur in commute and with humidor acclaimations. All these present high risk to resting damage and smoke damage... especially with rgs abouve 50... they also directly impact the flavor as our 1ply is their 1/2ply. So putting theirs on ours may not improve ours at all. 4. Adding oils for additional glare I mean shine. While so many of them are cutting corners... we can retain superior quality in other ways such as performance and consistant blend mastery.

 

[webmost]

While so many of them are cutting corners... we can retain superior quality in other ways such as performance and consistant blend mastery.

Not just that... when you finally know how to blend what you really like, it's like this is the gal I want to marry. No more wasting time & money hitting on one stuck up skank after another, cause this gal curls my toes, I'm done hunting. You can easily waste an absolute fortune paying ten bucks a pop for one crapshoot stick after another. The odds of finding the stick you want at the store are not good even if it comes complete with a beautiful wrapper. Just cause it has a beautiful band and was impeccably wrapped by a consummate pro means nothing ... that's just lipstick on a pig.

And that doesn't even count the pleasure you get settin at the table dippin your hands in the work.

Scuse me... I gotta go pull two out of the mold right now. You guys go ahead & keep talking.

 

[TheReMixologist]

Not just that... when you finally know how to blend what you really like, it's like this is the gal I want to marry. No more wasting time & money hitting on one stuck up skank after another, cause this gal curls my toes, I'm done hunting. You can easily waste an absolute fortune paying ten bucks a pop for one crapshoot stick after another. The odds of finding the stick you want at the store are not good even if it comes complete with a beautiful wrapper. Just cause it has a beautiful band and was impeccably wrapped by a consummate pro means nothing ... that's just lipstick on a pig.

And that doesn't even count the pleasure you get settin at the table dippin your hands in the work.

Scvuse me... I gotta do pull two out of the mold right now. You guys go ahead & keep talking.

exactly!!! And once you go fresh it's hard to go back to blind dating the humidor blends.

 

[Bruce T.]

It's a hot, dry California summer day. I'm setting out front of my rolling shack, having a smoke. Off in the distance I see a procession of trucks winding up the road toward me, throwing up dust that turns the horizon a deep, dark orange. Beside me I have a wooden box containing pounds of the finest dark brown wrapper leaf from WLT and LO.

The first truck pulls up. A silver-haired, mustachioed man wearing a fine Stetson approaches me with a large bundle. "Sir, I am Eladio Diaz, Davidoff master blender. I bring you three pounds of our "133," the maduro wrapper we use on our esteemed 702 series. I will trade you these for any three pounds you have there in that box."

"Hell no! Get outta here with that shit!" I say. "I already got the best maduro wrapper leaf right here. Get on, now! Git!" I kick dust at him as he hightails it back to the truck with his shitleaf.

Next truck pulls up. It's Kyle Gellis, from Warped. "Yo," He says. "I've got a few pounds of that Habano oscuro we use on El Oso. Wondering if you could hook me up with some of that stuff you got there. I'll throw in one of these 'Be Exclusively Different' cups for free."

I duck into my shack, return with my loaded double-barrel and a few extra cartridges. "The fuck out of here, Kyle." I raise the gun in his general direction.

Next up: Jonathan Drew. Before he can roll his Landcruiser's window half-way down, I'm over there like: "Don't be trying to trade me none of that crap you roll around those Liga Privada T52 cigars, Jonathan. I'm good with what I got right here! You roll along, now!"

He throws up a swirl of dust as he spins that thing around and hauls ass back the way he came.

Beat-looking '54 Chevy pickup truck rolls up. Handsome young fella, no doubt Cuban, by the looks of the word CUBA on his licence plate, registration expired 1959, gets out, goes to the back and pulls out a 150-kilo sack of the wrapper used on the Cuban Partagas line. "Sir, I will trade you this for just fifty pounds of your finest retail maduro leaf."

"Get the hell out of here with that garbage, you damn commie!" I say, as I blast both rounds at the sky and quickly reload.

Final truck. Creaks to a stop. Old dude gets out. It's Jose Padron. I say, "But, Jose, I thought you died last year. I and so many other cigar fans mourned your death. What are you doing here?"

"Well, senor, I heard you had some of that LO Arapiraca, so I came back from the dead to trade you a few pounds of the stuff we use on our Padron 1964 madur--"

BOOM. BOOM.

Hey Bliss, not only can you roll a mean cigar, you also write really well. This was hilarious, a real joy to read. Thanks.

 

[Jim D]

Two points... If you want a dark wrapper you can stove the leaf in your home oven. Moisten the leaf and wrap in aluminium foil and bake at 220 for 2 hours and 20 minutes. You can get it almost black.

Many of the commercial sticks are dyed to a dark uniform color.

Secondly, there's the old discussion about how much does the wrapper influence the overall flavor. I'm in agreement with Don Pepin who says it's less than 25/30%. Others will disagree. The appearance of a maduro wrapper looks much richer to the eye and can implant a mental perception. Blind tasting in a dark room may yield surprising results.

If you carefully remove the wrapper from your favorite 'high end' commercial cigar and put it on your home roll tobacco would it really transform the cigar into a new amazing stick? I'm sure for some the perception would be greatly improved. The thin, small percentage of leaf is the only part of the cigar that's visible. This 'eye appeal' is very important in the cigar industry. The wrapper, the label, the box is all there to influence the perception.

I think this is dependent on the ring gauge, the wrapper selection, and the blend.
Keeping all leaf counts the same, I tried an experiment were I swapped binder and wrapper on the same blend to see if there was an impact. From my notes, I always preferred the ones wrapped in seco, the ligero wrapped was always more bitter, even though all leaf counts were identical. I guess this is in line with @TheReMixologist notes on leaf marriage and positioning.
I've tried to evaluate wrapper contribution by leaving the first inch bound and unwrapped but I'm not a good judge that way. What I find better is to smoke a few that have no wrapper at all, then smoke some with the wrappers I want to try. I almost always come back to the Ecuador Shade Seco. I'd like to get back to some Ecuador Shade Ligero but alas, it's out of stock. And after seeing @Hopduro Ecuador Shade Viso, well that's now on my list of leaf to sample...

Anyway, I believe the wrapper plays a significant part in the orchestra of cigar performance at my house. Of course, 25/30 % as quoted above is significant so maybe we are all saying the same thing in different ways.

 

[Gdaddy]

I think this is dependent on the ring gauge, the wrapper selection, and the blend.
Keeping all leaf counts the same, I tried an experiment were I swapped binder and wrapper on the same blend to see if there was an impact. From my notes, I always preferred the ones wrapped in seco, the ligero wrapped was always more bitter, even though all leaf counts were identical. I guess this is in line with @TheReMixologist notes on leaf marriage and positioning.
I've tried to evaluate wrapper contribution by leaving the first inch bound and unwrapped but I'm not a good judge that way. What I find better is to smoke a few that have no wrapper at all, then smoke some with the wrappers I want to try. I almost always come back to the Ecuador Shade Seco. I'd like to get back to some Ecuador Shade Ligero but alas, it's out of stock. And after seeing @Hopduro Ecuador Shade Viso, well that's now on my list of leaf to sample...

Anyway, I believe the wrapper plays a significant part in the orchestra of cigar performance at my house. Of course, 25/30 % as quoted above is significant so maybe we are all saying the same thing in different ways.

Good point. It's all up to each individuals perception. When you see a beautiful dark wrapper it sets the 'stage of greatness' even before lighting it. Like knowing a bottle of wine is $100 before tasting it. Knowing it's price sets the stage for awesomeness (even though it may not be). Once a cigar has been placed upon the 'Pedestal of Awesomeness' people will vehemently defend their opinion.

Perception is so easily manipulated. Watch this video on tasting exotic drinking water and how the people are able to actually taste a difference even though it's all the same water out of a garden hose.

 

[blisscigarco]

Hey Bliss, not only can you roll a mean cigar, you also write really well. This was hilarious, a real joy to read. Thanks.

Thanks a lot, Bruce! I really appreciate those positive comments. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

 

[blisscigarco]

that was a great read!

Thanks a lot, ReM. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

 

[BrewinHooligan]

A new blend out of the mini torpedo mold. .5 ec habano seco, .5 corojo seco, .5 nica habano seco, .5 corojo ligero, bound in ec binder, wrapped in Aripiraca. Smoked this while performing some overdue firearm cleaning on an old .22lr. This blend is much milder than my norm, but loaded with flavor. Perfect with an iced americano to start the day and not overwhelm the palate.

Crapatalk wont let me load the pic, but it was a good lookin stick and I was more than pleased with the blend early on. Rest should prove very kind to these

 

[blisscigarco]

6x54 torpedo.

 

[Sp33d3rific]

What a difference a mold makes.

I used that ~38 rg mold I didn't want to use. I figured what the hell, I got it, might as well give it a shot.

Got me some sticks I'm quite happy with. Much more solid throughout the cigar.

Going to do two more with a different binder and then smoke one of these.

Corojo Seco and viso
Criollo 98 ligero
Sumatra binder
Ecuador maduro Wrapper

All from WLT.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk

 

[LarMoeCur]

WOW! Those are some tasty look sticks!

 

[Sp33d3rific]

WOW! Those are some tasty look sticks!

Thanks, I'm trying to be patient and let them dry out a bit more before I light one up. I am going to try one tonight (as its ROTT) and see how it goes. I did the same blend but with a Dominican binder just out of curiosity. I'm almost out of my Criollo 98 ligero. Tonight decided if I re-order it or not

 

[blisscigarco]

Thanks, I'm trying to be patient and let them dry out a bit more before I light one up. I am going to try one tonight (as its ROTT) and see how it goes. I did the same blend but with a Dominican binder just out of curiosity. I'm almost out of my Criollo 98 ligero. Tonight decided if I re-order it or not

Apparently the CV Criollo 98 Ligero is the same thing as the non-CV Criollo 98 Ligero. Either that or it's just a coincidence that there're only 2 pounds left of each...

 

[Sp33d3rific]

Apparently the CV Criollo 98 Ligero is the same thing as the non-CV Criollo 98 Ligero. Either that or it's just a coincidence that there're only 2 pounds left of each...

Thanks for the heads up. Ordered a lb of it, as well as the CV Corojo ligero. Figured why not.

I think I'll have enough to do a full CV cigar once it gets here.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk

 

[Sp33d3rific]

The Sumatra binder trial smoke. It tastes pretty damn good. The draw is a little tight. It's definitely firmer in feel than the others I've rolled. It's still a bit moist though. I'm assuming that's not helping with the draw being tight.

I'll give the other one proper rest time. Same thing with the Dominican binder sticks I rolled.

Here goes to the long wait.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk

 

[BrewinHooligan]

Apparently the CV Criollo 98 Ligero is the same thing as the non-CV Criollo 98 Ligero. Either that or it's just a coincidence that there're only 2 pounds left of each...

Coincidence. They are definitely not the same

 

[blisscigarco]

Coincidence. They are definitely not the same

I kinda gotta wonder about the working of their database, tho: not only did they both show only 2 lbs, they both went down to 1 lb simultaneously, I assume when homeboy above ordered his one pound.

 

[Marc L]

That would be a solid business move.

 

[BrewinHooligan]

I kinda gotta wonder about the working of their database, tho: not only did they both show only 2 lbs, they both went down to 1 lb simultaneously, I assume when homeboy above ordered his one pound.

Well, their database has had me wondering for a while. I use the criollo ligero a ton and noticed a big change and difference with the CV stuff. If I ordered the CV and got the standard I would be pissed