I have noticed that some of my blends have a harshness to them in the back of the throat, others are soft and smooth. I'm not taking about vitamin N, I have a reasonable tolerance to that. Is the harshness caused strictly by immature leaf that is still outgassing ammonia and creating the harshness? Is it caused by Ligero in the blend? Should I just set the leaf aside for a defined period of time? Reduce ligero content? something else?
FYI, my standard recipe is 1 leaf each of Ligero, Visio and Seco.
Been ruminating this topic. Did some experimentation and inward debate. Have reached tentative conclusions. These conclusions do not include mojo, aging, nor neglect of appearance.
The whole line of FX Smith's Sons cigars are smooooth. None have an enviable appearance. But they do smoke smooth. You may like the flavor of this one better than the other one, but no one can reasonably say that any variety bites the tongue or throat. Personally, I despise the cherry, vanilla, bourbon, cocoa, etc. infused Tuscororas. But even these, I think, though they might gack your throat, would never bite your tongue. None of the other varieties they make would ever gack you. All these blends have been perfected over a hundred fifty years to be smooth enough so that you can light the next gar off the last gar all day long. And they smoke that smooth basically off the table. Why were they blent to be this way? Because cigars used to be enjoyed that way, one after another, most all day long. That's why they come in boxes of fifty. In their heyday, FXSS rolled nine, ten, twelve million gars a year, and were surrounded by plenty of other manufacturers outputting just as many, selling them by the wheel. A guy calls up today, or comes to the web site, like as not he'll order two to four boxes of fifty, and be back for as many next month. Just spoke to a gal in Virginia who buys 400 at a whack for her old man. He loves to work all day in the yard with a gar in his jaws.
That's not how cigars are enjoyed today. Nope. Nowadays it's more apt to be one powerhouse smoke in the evening, thrice a week. Hence, they are
hit me with a baseball bat & get it over with cigars. FX customers often complain to me that whenever they smoke an expensive hand rolled foreign cigar they can't taste anything the rest of the day. They wind up throat-gacked and tongue-tarred. Not what they want. They want to smoke one mild smoothie after another. They don't want to spend a sawbuck for a single stick that prevents them from smoking the next stick out of their box of fifty.
What's in these smoooth FX gars? Predominantly barn cured CT & PA broadleaf, with broadleaf binder & broadleaf or CT shade wrapper. There may be a sprinkle of Honduran or Dominican; maybe as much as five percent. That's as outlandish as the filler gets. One budget blend goes so far as to use an Indonesian shade wrapper. Popular gar; but not exactly a flavor bomb ignited in yer mouth. They want leaf that gets you coming back over and over.
What leaf goes in one of your ten buck store boughts? Strong distinctive flavors go in there: Corojo, criollo, habano, flojo, mata, piloto, San Andres ... fermented to be powerful, & blent by leather tongued gar gobblers each one desperate to out-do the next. They want leaf to knock your socks off.
What is therefore made available to us as amateurs? Leaves like the store boughts use. We heard about it, we gotta try it. Corojo, criollo, habano, flojo, mata, piloto ... etc. What's more, it's made available as seco, viso, and ligero. Heard about it, apt to buy all three. You want to up the chances for flavor bombs to collide? Start with recondite distinctive strong flavors then proceed to more strength. Who among us regularly buys CT or PA broadleaf filler to make a humble gar that we can light one after the next? No. We tend to take the knock your socks off approach.
I experimented Sunday. Smoked a Smith Perfecto Natural down to the nub, followed by a store bought Nostalgia. The first left me pleased, happy, and ready for more; but by half the second I was ready for full stop. Yet the Nostalgia is nowhere near Torano's strongest gar. Not even. And I love Toranos.
Yesterday, other way round. Started with my home rolled Uppowoc Mataloto. Smooth, rich, piloto and mata, bound & wrapped in Ec habano, aged a year and a half. Loved every puff of it; but sure not ready to hit anything else after.
Here's my main point right here: Swinging for the fences encourages extreme results. If we hit it, we hope to hit it out of the park. But... When we foul it off, it's gonna land in the nose bleeds. Most often, we just strike out. Nor have we any prospect of a century and a half to perfect our work. That's not to say you can't get a smooth result from strong ingredients. But it seems more likely you will get a harsh result when you don't.
The slightest mis-match can screw a blend. You know that? Plays well with A does not imply plays well with B. Here's an example of that: I love that olor binder. Dom56 hates that Olor. Shipped his despised olor to me. Turns out his is Olor ligero. I've been playing with that T 13. Rosado wrap, olor binder, all T 13 within, you get a dandy gar. Rosado wrap, Sumatra binder, T 13, you get a super mild gar lacking something. Rosado wrap, Sumatra binder, T 13, half a leaf olor ligero at the core, you get a horrible gack you can't smoke half of. I have tried Rosado wrap, Sumatra binder, T 13, as little as a third of a half of a leaf of olor ligero at the core, & all I get is awful. Turns out olor seco binder works does not imply olor ligero works.
Here's my recommendations... Either:
A) Start with a mild filler, like the Cibao VA seco, the Dom seco, or the T13 that's just come available now. Seco, I said; not ligero. Keep things dry as you can. Don't muck it up with too many different components to go wrong. Simple. Surround it with mild wrappers. Go from there. Play what the big leaguers call small ball.
Or...
B) Accept you will have to fight your way thru a lot of gackworthy harsh failures in search of one smooth strong blend that knocks it out of the park.
Make sense?
