Blend testing

[BrewinHooligan]

My marshmallow blend wrapped in the LO Nica wrapper @blisscigarco sent me. Not as strong or overpowering as I expected and I think it really works with this blend. Loads of cream and some raw almond flavors with a moderately spiced retro and maybe a hint of something like wintergreen. Not super complex and not really getting transitions but I'm enjoying it

 

[webmost]

I scored a batch of Honduran S, V, and L from LO to salt away; but I doubt that their packaging will support long term storage; so I am looking for ways to use it up. Tried 1 seco, 1 viso, 1/2 ligero, wrapped in LO San Andres. Very pleasant; but I thought it needed spice, and 2 1/2 leaves made a parejo too plump for me. Three half leaves are enough for an uppowoc perfecto. And that's my fave size. So I tried a half leaf LO Hond seco, a half leaf LO Hond viso, a half leaf WLT criollo, bound with a half LO Nic binder, wrapped in a half leaf LO Brazil. Good. Thought to improve on it. Tired a half, half, half, bound with habano 2000 wrapper scrap, wrapped with the Brazil. Dynamite cigar. Even Bearswatter endorsed it. She said: "That's what a cigar ought to smell like". Still thought I might improve on it. Tried half, half, half, with LO San Andres wrapper for binder (too many holes in the batch LO sent me for consistent wrapper), then a Brazil wrapper. Smoked that just now. Think I stepped backwards there.

I like this Brazil wrapper. Very thin and delicate, shiny, flavor transparent. But it's not real easy to work with, for a perfecto. Doesn't want to stretch round the shape. Think I'll have to save it for parejos. Really need to score a 46 gauge mold, so I can make a corona. Anybody sees a good buy on a corona mold, alert me to it.

Next up I'll try half, half, half, bound with the LO Nic binder, wrapped in my old friend H2k, and compare that to the same wrapped with FX Smith's CT shade. I think one of those two is gonna turn out batch-worthy. Might throw in a shred of LO's Honduran ligero, if that doesn't make the bunch too tight in the mold.

 

[Sprouthog]

Honduran is on my list for the future. One of my favorite commercial cigars is the DE LP9. COBL wrap, Mata binder, Nic and Honduran filler. Think it would be fun to figure out the blend, but that's for another day. Getting ready to go fishing and I've got a couple hundred flies to tie.

 

[webmost]

I scored a batch of Honduran S, V, and L from LO to salt away; but I doubt that their packaging will support long term storage; so I am looking for ways to use it up. Tried 1 seco, 1 viso, 1/2 ligero, wrapped in LO San Andres. Very pleasant; but I thought it needed spice, and 2 1/2 leaves made a parejo too plump for me. Three half leaves are enough for an uppowoc perfecto. And that's my fave size. So I tried a half leaf LO Hond seco, a half leaf LO Hond viso, a half leaf WLT criollo, bound with a half LO Nic binder, wrapped in a half leaf LO Brazil. Good. Thought to improve on it. Tired a half, half, half, bound with habano 2000 wrapper scrap, wrapped with the Brazil. Dynamite cigar. Even Bearswatter endorsed it. She said: "That's what a cigar ought to smell like". Still thought I might improve on it. Tried half, half, half, with LO San Andres wrapper for binder (too many holes in the batch LO sent me for consistent wrapper), then a Brazil wrapper. Smoked that just now. Think I stepped backwards there.

I like this Brazil wrapper. Very thin and delicate, shiny, flavor transparent. But it's not real easy to work with, for a perfecto. Doesn't want to stretch round the shape. Think I'll have to save it for parejos. Really need to score a 46 gauge mold, so I can make a corona. Anybody sees a good buy on a corona mold, alert me to it.

Next up I'll try half, half, half, bound with the LO Nic binder, wrapped in my old friend H2k, and compare that to the same wrapped with FX Smith's CT shade. I think one of those two is gonna turn out batch-worthy. Might throw in a shred of LO's Honduran ligero, if that doesn't make the bunch too tight in the mold.

Oh yes. Absolutely. That's the ticket.

Mellow, deep, flavorful. I need to roll a box of these. Half each honduran ligero, seco, viso; half a criollo 98 seco. Pinch off the gnarly bits so the roll isn't too tight. Nic binder. Now here's the key: habano 2k wrapper cause I love that soft moody flavor.

Got the wrapper and binders prepping now. Got the bands designed. This is gonna be epic.

 

[webmost]

Scored 1/4 lb. each LeafOnly samples of Nicaragua, Ecuadorian Viso, Ecuadorian Ligero, and Ecuadorian Seco wrappers. Wrapped each flavor over a blank uppowoc perfecto bound with Nic binder. Filler in each was 1/2 leaf each of LO Honduran seco, ligero, and viso, for mellow body; plus a full leaf of WLT criollo 98, for sweet spice. The Hond viso leaves (IIRC) were the largest; the Hond seco not far behind; but the Hond ligero leaves were real darn small; so that a half leaf of that adds just a smidge. The criollo98 leaves were also small; so that a full leaf of that adds no more baccy than the half leaf of viso. I have tried these blanks with other wrapper, even stashed a boxful with H2K wrappers, so that they are a known quantity to me: good mellow flavorful body.

Here are the four test wraps:

Each handle reasonably easily. None were as stretchy as the Habano 2000 which I favored before ... not by a long shot. Each was thin and delicate enough to produce a fine seamless finish. Each was much darker than the olive tan H2K -- Nic the lightest. You can see right away that if these were not test blanks, but had been made to be seriously presentable, then you could get a real good texture and appearance out of any of the four.

Have tried two of the four sample wraps so far. Wanted to try all four within reasonable time of each other, to compare. But weather is turning even more stifling starting today, which will prevent smoking eves on the cigar porch; while special work concerns will prolly prevent me hitting the nearby cigar lounge. Not gonna happen. So I will tell you what I've found so far:

I smoked the Nic first. Gave me a rich Nic flavor with plenty of espresso. In fact, more coffee than what I ordinarily favor. To be fair, I had a Nic binder beneath that; so it might be more tolerable without the double Nic dose. But a rich, smooth, big boy cigar nonetheless. I would be proud to pay eight bucks for this blend. Some warn that this Nic wrapper overpowers the filler. Might be so; but you do get the bread, the spice, the espresso you expect from a Nic wrapper. Maybe not the cocoa nor the cedar ... but I don't know whether this Nic wrapper is a habano, you see, so... Bottom line : I might bind this with something else and come up with a very fine smoke.

I smoked the Ec seco second. Holy Huaorani, Batman! These Ecuadorians are H2K leaves; so the cocoa and cedar come thru the way I like. It's like they took the H2K I am used to, grew it in the shade to be more delicate, darkened it up with a half maduro-ation process to throw coffee in the mix, and there you are. I could smoke a lot of these. Makes me anxious to see if the Ec viso or Ec ligero are even better. The Ec ligero leaves are smaller than I would like; but the Ec seco leaves are purely gigantic, and they are thin as Bible paper. I believe the three Hondurans start you out with a balanced body, your Nic binder offers your hearty Nic spice, the criollo adds the sweet spice, while the Ec seco tops it off with a halfway maduro character. I'd liken this to something Nestor Miranda might blend up.

Burn was commendable on both sticks. I nubbed both sticks.

Oh, and finally: The 1/4 lb of seco yielded 26 half leaves; so 26 wrappers. The ligero, being a smaller leaf, yielded 36. The others in between. Maybe one in ten has some holes in it. So a quarter pound of any of these should be plenty to wrap a box of stashables.

No time to spell check ... gotta run to the bank.

peace out

 

[Gdaddy]

The Ec seco is on it's way so I can't wait to try it. Sounds really good.

 

[nic]

Robusto rolled with what is probably my most consistent blend; 1 WLT Criollo Seco, 1 WLT Corojo Viso, 1 WLT Criollo Ligero, bound with LO CT2LS. This was wrapped with a new wrapper sold at WLT, a Honduran Habano from 2012 [ http://wholeleaftobacco.com/Honduras-Habano-Wrapper-2012-crop-year-HHWrapper.htm ]. I'm not a huge fan of Honduran tobacco, but the price, age, and seed caused me to take a gamble. This Robusto is only about a week old, but decided to smoke it, before I got to many cigars wrapped with this leaf.

So, initial impressions. It is a beautiful wrapper, and very easy to work with. However, it comes to case quicker then I expected considering it's thickness, and I now have 4 or 5 whole leafs that are to far gone to be used as wrapper. Flavor wise, it is definitely Honduran. The primary flavors contributed were rich soil and mushrooms. The first inch or so was especially strong, and managed to cover up the filler almost completely. After that first inch, the blend started to come out, and while I didn't dislike the combo, I don't think that this wrapper is going to be used with this blend any longer.

I'm going to roll some Cameroon/Domincan, bind with Connecticut Broadleaf, and wrap with this wrapper. I think this will be a good combo, but I'll definitively report back when I do.

Also, contrary to my typical behavior, this picture is completely unedited, so as to show the wrapper as it really looks, as best as I can with my cell phone.

 

[webmost]

Robusto rolled with what is probably my most consistent blend; 1 WLT Criollo Seco, 1 WLT Corojo Viso, 1 WLT Criollo Ligero, bound with LO CT2LS. This was wrapped with a new wrapper sold at WLT, a Honduran Habano from 2012 [ http://wholeleaftobacco.com/Honduras-Habano-Wrapper-2012-crop-year-HHWrapper.htm ]. I'm not a huge fan of Honduran tobacco, but the price, age, and seed caused me to take a gamble. This Robusto is only about a week old, but decided to smoke it, before I got to many cigars wrapped with this leaf.

So, initial impressions. It is a beautiful wrapper, and very easy to work with. However, it comes to case quicker then I expected considering it's thickness, and I now have 4 or 5 whole leafs that are to far gone to be used as wrapper. Flavor wise, it is definitely Honduran. The primary flavors contributed were rich soil and mushrooms. The first inch or so was especially strong, and managed to cover up the filler almost completely. After that first inch, the blend started to come out, and while I didn't dislike the combo, I don't think that this wrapper is going to be used with this blend any longer.

I'm going to roll some Cameroon/Domincan, bind with Connecticut Broadleaf, and wrap with this wrapper. I think this will be a good combo, but I'll definitively report back when I do.

Also, contrary to my typical behavior, this picture is completely unedited, so as to show the wrapper as it really looks, as best as I can with my cell phone.

It is a nice color. Easy to work with. But too veiny.

Wjhat do you mean by saying "However, it comes to case quicker then I expected considering it's thickness, and I now have 4 or 5 whole leafs that are to far gone to be used as wrapper". Gone where? I routinely dampen batches of wrappers and leave those batches set for later use. Are you making yours damper than I do? Do you keep them in a hotter place? Mine stay in a coolidor in an air conditioned room. I used to put them in the garage beer fridge; but I've been too lazy to walk down to garage lately, and it hasn't created any problem that I see. Far as I can tell, the longer they set, the flatter they get.

 

[nic]

It is a nice color. Easy to work with. But too veiny.

Wjhat do you mean by saying "However, it comes to case quicker then I expected considering it's thickness, and I now have 4 or 5 whole leafs that are to far gone to be used as wrapper". Gone where? I routinely dampen batches of wrappers and leave those batches set for later use. Are you making yours damper than I do? Do you keep them in a hotter place? Mine stay in a coolidor in an air conditioned room. I used to put them in the garage beer fridge; but I've been too lazy to walk down to garage lately, and it hasn't created any problem that I see. Far as I can tell, the longer they set, the flatter they get.

Warmer. It was in a bag, in my un-insulated garage. So, "gone" in this case means it started to fall apart.

 

[BrewinHooligan]

Last night I had the pleasure to test drive a couple of @nic blends. I promised a review of them so here they are. Per his instructions I started with the main house blend (number 2) named El Caballo. Per his notes "equal parts criollo seco, corojo viso, and criollo ligero bound in Ecuadorian binder and finished with an Ecuadorian H2k wrapper". Definitely was looking forward to this as I love a filler combo of corojo and criollo and we all know by now my love of an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper.

Right off the bat I was amazed at the amount of cream from this blend. Poking through the cream was a generous amount of spice, some toasted nuts, a hint of citrus, some wood/leather, and unsweetened cocoa. The first third carries all of these flavors.
Approaching the second third the spice mellows slightly, as does the cream. Both the earthiness and citrus starts to build. At the halfway mark the citrus has become very present and the spice has become more subdued.
In the final third earth and coffee grounds have started to dominate while the citrus starts to diminish some. There is something almost meaty that I can't put my finger on.

This was a very tasty stick. I would be happy to have a bunch of these on hand. The draw was ideal and the burn held straight to the end. A+

 

[BrewinHooligan]

Next up was a variation of the previous blend, but substituting the corojo viso with Colombian seco. I have never used Colombian tobacco in my blends and while I'm sure I have smoked a commercial stick using Colombian tobacco, I can't remember anything specifically.

On the first light the draw was a little loose, but nothing bad at all. There is a fair amount of cream and coffee, along with a nice spice on the retro. In the first third there is lots of cream and I start to get hints of something like a cross between almonds and pistachios.

In the second third the flavors remain fairly consistent, however the cream fades some and there is a dark roasted coffee flavor building.

In the final third I start to pick up some floral notes. Typically I do not care for "floral" but this is enjoyable and balances well with the flavors of coffee grounds that are coming through, there is a mild spice, and hints of caramel.

I had to touch up the burn a couple times but my humidity has been high due to recent monsoons and I think that was the reason for the burn issues I experienced.

I thought for sure that the standard El Caballo would be my preferred blend, but I found myself enjoying this one more than the original blend.

 

[nic]

I thought for sure that the standard El Caballo would be my preferred blend, but I found myself enjoying this one more than the original blend.

I can't stand the stuff. You'll be getting the rest.

 

[BrewinHooligan]

I can't stand the stuff. You'll be getting the rest.

Now that's an intricate way to calculate bombing a brother. Take it easy guy!!

 

[Hopduro]

My God i have found bliss. I am lucky enough to be smoking a cigar from @blisscigarco, I couldn't resist it in the humi any longer.

Tonight, the Cristales.

The draw is perfect for me, that slight looseness that let's you puff once for a bouquet of smoke. It's delightful. This should be obvious, but the burn is razor sharp too.

So many people will disagree with this statement, but throughout this smoke, i felt like I was smoking a perfectly rolled cuban. The flavors are so similar to partagas and h. Upmann.

So the Cristales fired up in the first third with rich, yet smooth leather, coffee, and baking spices. I love this vitola, small rg yet over 6 inches long which keeps the heat far from the palette!

Halfway now, the flavors have gotten much spicier and a touch of black pepper, now it's definitely more NC-like. Crazy transition, keeps you on your toes! The ash holds for almost an inch at a time. Still even burn line.

The wrapper is still so shiny and oily!

The final third refocused to the beginning's baking spices, almost pie-like, with a splash of cream and cocoa. I let it extinguish with just over an inch left. Thanks Blake, these are going to be terrific if you can let them sit for a few more months. I figure the middle was just young flavors, but hot damn this was amazing!

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk

 

[blisscigarco]

My God i have found bliss. I am lucky enough to be smoking a cigar from @blisscigarco, I couldn't resist it in the humi any longer.

Tonight, the Cristales.

The draw is perfect for me, that slight looseness that let's you puff once for a bouquet of smoke. It's delightful. This should be obvious, but the burn is razor sharp too.

So many people will disagree with this statement, but throughout this smoke, i felt like I was smoking a perfectly rolled cuban. The flavors are so similar to partagas and h. Upmann.

So the Cristales fired up in the first third with rich, yet smooth leather, coffee, and baking spices. I love this vitola, small rg yet over 6 inches long which keeps the heat far from the palette!

Halfway now, the flavors have gotten much spicier and a touch of black pepper, now it's definitely more NC-like. Crazy transition, keeps you on your toes! The ash holds for almost an inch at a time. Still even burn line.

The wrapper is still so shiny and oily!

The final third refocused to the beginning's baking spices, almost pie-like, with a splash of cream and cocoa. I let it extinguish with just over an inch left. Thanks Blake, these are going to be terrific if you can let them sit for a few more months. I figure the middle was just young flavors, but hot damn this was amazing!

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk

Glad you enjoyed, sorry about the NC part. I do try to duplicate the Cuban profile as best I can. I have kept one or two of these for myself to test at 6 months and one year and I'll let you know how it evolves.

 

[nic]

My God i have found bliss. I am lucky enough to be smoking a cigar from @blisscigarco, I couldn't resist it in the humi any longer.

Tonight, the Cristales.

The draw is perfect for me, that slight looseness that let's you puff once for a bouquet of smoke. It's delightful. This should be obvious, but the burn is razor sharp too.

So many people will disagree with this statement, but throughout this smoke, i felt like I was smoking a perfectly rolled cuban. The flavors are so similar to partagas and h. Upmann.

So the Cristales fired up in the first third with rich, yet smooth leather, coffee, and baking spices. I love this vitola, small rg yet over 6 inches long which keeps the heat far from the palette!

Halfway now, the flavors have gotten much spicier and a touch of black pepper, now it's definitely more NC-like. Crazy transition, keeps you on your toes! The ash holds for almost an inch at a time. Still even burn line.

The wrapper is still so shiny and oily!

The final third refocused to the beginning's baking spices, almost pie-like, with a splash of cream and cocoa. I let it extinguish with just over an inch left. Thanks Blake, these are going to be terrific if you can let them sit for a few more months. I figure the middle was just young flavors, but hot damn this was amazing!

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk

Jealous.

 

[Hopduro]

Glad you enjoyed, sorry about the NC part. I do try to duplicate the Cuban profile as best I can. I have kept one or two of these for myself to test at 6 months and one year and I'll let you know how it evolves.

Even the NC part wasn't bad, the transition kept it interesting. Damn this felt like a cuban!

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk

 

[Gdaddy]

Would you mind sharing the blend? What has made this so Cuban like? Curious minds what to know.

 

[blisscigarco]

Would you mind sharing the blend? What has made this so Cuban like? Curious minds what to know.

Some info on this stick. It's a 40x6. I purchased the tobacco in February and rolled this thing in early July 16, so it's got about six weeks on it. I.e. it's very young and will go through serious changes at the 2-month and 3-month marks based on my experience with this leaf and my methods. I mention the purchase date because there is a great variety batch-to-batch. Stuff I bought in February, May and July is totally different.
The blend:
4g seco, 3g viso, 5g ligero, filling out the bunch with seco as needed.
(33/25/42) (2.09 per leaf: slightly strong)
Wrapper: USA CT
Filler, binder, and wrapper treated with my "Cuban-style" mojo, rum, vanilla, pineapple, water. I use a slightly different mojo formula on the wrapper than on the filler/binder.

 

[webmost]

I'm having nothing but failures trying to find a blend to bind with PA BL binder. I need suggestions for filler and wrapper that won't go full on stankish ashtray on me. Here's what I have plenty of for fillers:

Corojo -- seco, viso, & ligero
Criollo -- seco, viso, & ligero
Willy's -- seco, viso, & ligero
Nicaraguan -- seco, viso, & ligero
Piloto -- seco, viso & ligero
Mata Fina -- unspecified
Honduran -- seco & viso
LO Dom volado
Habano lidero
San Vicente ligero


I'd appreciate tips which to bind with PA broad.

For wrapper, I have Hab 2k, corojo oscuro, CT shade, Honduran habano, Honduran cuban seed, Brazilian sumpin or other, and a whole lot of odds and ends; plus LO Ec shade viso and ligero (used up all the seco... gotta score more)

TIA