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If the cigar is too loose you simply need to learn to roll it tighter. Don't look for the mold or wrapper to correct the initial mistakes of a loose draw. The mold sets the shape and forces all the cigars to the same size, which they are not. This is done for cosmetic reasons and does nothing...

David said if you mush the leaf you can bruise it and it will go darker. He demonstrates by rolling it in his hand and uses the analogy of how an apple or lettuce gets bruised. Perhaps the dark spots that can occur on light Connecticut leaf is caused by bruising or rough treatment... just a guess.

Some interesting points in the show on how maduro wrappers are made. Barry spilled the beans talking about adding glycerine to the outside wrapper to make it darker, oily and smooth. Food coloring painted on. Sauce made from stems. Highest nicotine level. The wrapper can be "bruised'" causing...

Brewinhooligan has it right. Sugar turns nasty when it's burned. Mojo doesn't need to be on every leaf in the blend. If you want to tone down just the ligero then leave all the other leaf natural. Pineapple is high in citric acid. Cigar leaf is generally higher ph. The higher alkalinity...

The darkest wrappers with small veins is the Brazilian Arapiraca Wrapper ( LO ) or the San Andres is even darker. Smaller and finer than any dark wrapper I've seen. In fact, the veins are small enough to get 4 wrappers out of one leaf. Makes a beautiful cigar.

Love it! That's exactly how I roll. Entubado, no mold and hand rolled.

You better get rolling. That's one huge pile of cigars. :woot:

Oxygen is highly corrosive. Causes things to rust. It should have some reactive influence on the tobacco.

Since aging is an oxygenation process, cigars sealed in pure oxygen may accelerate this action. An interesting thought. My reasoning was to remove moisture from the deepest inside of the cigar and refill it with low humidity air for drying acceleration (shorten the rest period)

Don't let them sit long if they're damp. Mold will set in pretty quick. Since there are a lot of leaves to wash and dry, I wanted an easy system to dry a pound at a time. A roll of plastic fence from Home Depot and 4 poles to attach it to and made what looks like a long mesh hammock. I set it...

Good for you. You can gets some extra lbs. and stash it away to age for a few years. It really doesn't go bad. I have some stuff sitting for 4 years now.

I don't know. It goes as low as the pump can take it and never had a problem.

I don't care if it takes a week to get delivery as long as the leaf is good when it arrives. I'm in no rush and a week isn't that long to wait. Just try to anticipate your needs and order accordingly ahead of time. No stress.

Believe me, you can sling them just like that and it helps shake everything off and doesn't hurt the leaf at all. Watch the water spraying off the tips. IF you soak the leaves for more than a few minutes the leaf will absorb the water, get soft and mushy and become much more delicate. Working...

The washing gives me piece of mind. I do believe there is an acidic (bite) element that's removed. Is it insecticide? I don't know. Again, it's a large tub of water and dunk 20 or 30 leaves at a time and quickly swish it around and remove it from the water. No soaking. A shower head would also...

Simple wash in water is further processing. Is there insecticide on the leaf? They do use insecticide. I don't really know what's on the leaf. Some Flojo I received was so dirty that sand was literally falling out on the table as well as dead insects. Decided to give it a quick 5 second dunk in...

I'm not positive who LO and WLT get their leaf from but a fair guess would be Lancaster Tobacco co. http://lancasterleaf.com/Products.htm# It would make sense since their shipping costs would be reduced since both Co.s are relatively close to Lancaster and they can order as little as one bale...

That's a great story! I was the local fireworks dealer when I was a kid. Tobacco leaves do vary from crop to crop. This is a problem for blenders. I would imagine, like wine, grapes vary from year to year. Trade secret recipes and methods are very well guarded indeed. Of all the old...

You can take a handful of scrap leaf and hand press it into a cigar shape and roll it up in a binder. As you roll, try and maintain the shape. It's really quite easy and the cigars are very smokable. On a long leaf you can cut it length wise. You have 2 long binders out of 1/2 leaf. This way...

Agreed. My cigar collection is like a box of chocolates. I roll them, store them and hope for the best but I don't worry about a half of leaf here or there. I spend more time on leaf preparation prior to rolling than worrying about a hit or miss blend by simply pulling leaves out of the bag.