Any experience with leafonly.com?

[itallushrt]

Very cool!

I was happy to see some "dark fire cured" tobacco for sale on the site. As a native Kentuckian it's great to see some home grown product being sold. Although not for cigars, as it says, it is a really neat way to cure tobacco and the smell is incredible. In the late fall/early winter when the crops are cut and the barns are "lit" the smell permeates the country side. They shut the barns up and literally cure the tobacco with smoke from a large fire maintained inside the barn. All the old school wooden barns aren't exactly tight and leak lots of smoke. I know several farmers who either still do or used to put out the product. Every one of them reported having folks traveling through the area stop and about beat their door down trying to tell them their barn was on fire.

This is a really cool thread and I'm impressed by tx_tuff's pics and experience.

Good luck to you Stew take lots of pics!

 

[tx_tuff]

Can't wait to see it and what you do with it. Take plenty of pics!

 

[Stew]

Okay, so I got my tobacco today. First of all, the leaves are packaged in bundles, wrapped in a plastic bag and then boxed up. The leaves were moist when I received them and were pliable and ready to work with. Its also worth mentioning that they smell GREAT!

I also bought pectin and a capper tool from them. I made up a batch of pectin (mix with water, microwave. Instructions included but its super easy). I unpacked the tobacco and got ready to process it. The smaller pile is the Conneticut broad leaf maduro. The larger leaves is the Havana 7.

I began spreading it out on my cutting board. The way the leaves are rolled up they have to be delicately spread open. It helps to roll them with a rolling pin on the cutting board, spreading the leaf behind the pin with your hand. I then cut the stem out using my Ginsu Chaveta :grin: This is pretty simple. I then stacked the leaf halves in to two categories: Leaves with holes for filler, leaves with no or little holes for wrapper binder.

Once I had enough sorted I began to try making my first bunch. So I just had at it, starting with the havana leaf. I can tell already this takes a lot of skill and practice. Bunching is key to the cigars consistency. Its really hard to get the right amount and also make it the right length and then also keep it from falling apart while rolling it with the binder. This is what my first one looked like after binding.

I made up a couple more and threw them in my mold.

I left them in the mold for about an hour, turning a quarter turn at a half hour.
A couple after molding.

I found wrapping to be difficult because its important to cut the leaf to the right shape so it covers the cigar completely and cleanly. Its also very important to select leaves with the smallest veins. I was able to wrap a couple and throw em in a dry desk top to dry out. They are pretty ugly. I don't have pics.

Thats where I quit for tonight. Its quite time consuming and there is a lot to learn but I can already tell I'm SORT of getting the hang of it.

I'll keep updating as there is more progress. Gonna give it another shot tomorrow. Enjoy!

 

[Stew]

I should also add that the leaves dry out very quickly while working. I had to put a lot back into the bag with some distilled water sprayed on top to keep it moist. I also covered the leaves on the table with paper towel moistened with distilled water. Keeping it moist makes it a lot easier to work with!

 

[tx_tuff]

How did you bunch the filler tobacco? I rolled each one up like a tube as best as possible instead on bunching them together. Also I was told by a roller, that once you wet the wrapper leave down it needs to be used within a few days. One thing I forgot to say in my earlier post was to make sure and seat the heads of the cigar all the way up against the top of the mold. I didn't do a good job and had flat caps LOL.

Looks like your getting the hang of it, and I thought the same thing about it being harder then it would be. Are you using a "how to" video or something? Did somebody tell you to turn the cigars in the mold? And to me one hour seems kinda short, but it worked.

Keep it up, I want to see you burning one.

 

[Stew]

I'm following this:
http://www.howtogrowtobacco.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=65

And I've watched about every cigar rolling video on youtube.

Ive got a couple in the mold I'm going to leave over night. We'll see what happens when I get back at it tomorrow. I Intend to use all this tobacco within the next couple days.

 

[tx_tuff]

You are going to be a busy bee!

 

[vivalanation734]

Very cool thread! Let us know how they smoke.

 

[tx_tuff]

I'm following this:
http://www.howtogrowtobacco.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=65

And I've watched about every cigar rolling video on youtube.

Ive got a couple in the mold I'm going to leave over night. We'll see what happens when I get back at it tomorrow. I Intend to use all this tobacco within the next couple days.

Here are my threads from when I rolled mine. Didn't go into as much detail but you can get some kind of idea. Like I said I bunched mine different, I rolled the leaf up by itself, and then bunched them in my hand. This is the way I watched it in a factory. And main thing is the ones I have smoked burned perfect.

http://www.cigarclubhouse.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1562

http://www.cigarclubhouse.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1564

http://www.cigarclubhouse.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1565

 

[Cornrow_Wallis]

It's great that you guys are trying this and all the pics and how-tos are sweet. Reading this thread and the howtogrowtobacco thread really makes me want to try and roll my own, but I'd bet by the time any tobacco I ordered got to me I'd already be bored with it.


I'll have to settle for living vicariously through you guys, so keep up the good work. :smokingbo:smokingbo

 

[Stew]

Alright, so these are the best of the batch. I was able to make about 20. I don't think the leaf I had was high enough quality to wrap. A lot of veins.

Basically I learned from this that Cigars are truly an art form that must take serious skill and a lot of practice to perfect. I certainly have an increased appreciation for hand made cigars now Anyways, well see how they smoke. Who knows, maybe I have some tasty sticks here. But even if they all suck, It was still a cool experience and I learned a lot. Perhaps Ill try again some time...but for now Im going to stick to buying cigars. :cbig:

 

[the_fridge]

Alright, so these are the best of the batch. I was able to make about 20. I don't think the leaf I had was high enough quality to wrap. A lot of veins.

Basically I learned from this that Cigars are truly an art form that must take serious skill and a lot of practice to perfect. I certainly have an increased appreciation for hand made cigars now Anyways, well see how they smoke. Who knows, maybe I have some tasty sticks here. But even if they all suck, It was still a cool experience and I learned a lot. Perhaps Ill try again some time...but for now Im going to stick to buying cigars. :cbig:

Good stuff bro and thanks for sharing the experience with us. Looked like fun!

 

[t_ron99]

Cool thread. Very interesting.

 

[stroke]

great job! Reminds me of this story:
The Rarest Cigar In The World
Essay: Great Moments
I read it a while back and it, coupled with your personal experience, is rather inspiring!!

 

[tedp]

Very cool indeed!

 

[ItalianCustom]

that post about growing has me thinking hard about trying it next year

 

[L8A]

Great thread!! Let us know how they smoke.

 

[JNT]

Dont kid yourself. Those cigars look good. I've never gave this thread a look. Thought it was about another online cigar retailer thread.

I've been thinking about trying this for awhile, but figured it was out of my league. I really want to give it a go now. Be nice to get some Cuban tobacco, and mix it with some other stuff.

 

[tx_tuff]

Makes me want to try my hand at it again. You did a good job.

 

[stroke]

Dont kid yourself. Those cigars look good. ...

I totally agree!!