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LO "Brazilian Wrapper Arapiraca"
https://www.leafonly.com/cigar-tobacco-leaf/tobacco-leaves/brazilian-arapiraca-wrapper-tobacco



I got a sample of this leaf from Gdaddy. He also sent me a few of his sticks wrapped in it, using a mild blend. I think he re-molded his as they were a little more than naturally smooth for this leaf. I then, yesterday, rolled three diff blends with this leaf. Normally I wouldn't comment on a leaf I only prepped and rolled yesterday, but it's lunchtime, I'm eating a salad, just smoked one of these guys I just wrapped, and thought I'd share some notes. Funny thing is that though I used stronger filler than his, and he rested and pumped his, our respective sticks tasted nearly identical to me. Mild, lightly spicy, pleasant, with too much nic for the amount of flavor. I think this is an overly-nicy wrapper, which I gather would appeal to most people around here.

This is your standard rough-looking Backwoodsy LO dark-colored wrapper. In my mind they all sort of blur together, having used all of them. What I like about this one is that it's a bit more neutral and less "syrupy" than the LO Braz Mata Fina wrapper. Otherwise they are very similar. Although the wrapper is generally splotched with subtle large green spots indicatative of minimal and hasty care, it didn't taste at all green, a problem I have had with some batches of the LO "Habano shade" series of wrapper. That green flavor is a huge bummer, so glad it's not here.

On the other hand, I put a premium on the aesthetics of a stick in my hand, once the draw, burn, and flavor are there, and these LO brown wrappers are not something you would mistake for a pro-grade wrapper you'd see on a big-name stick in a cigar shop other than on Backwoods-type "rustic" sticks. So these wrappers would not be something that would become part of my regular tobacco kit. The veins aren't massive, but you do have to pluck as you roll to keep things under control.

A big plus is that these things burn fine, like most/all LO dark wrappers. Considering that most WLT dark wrappers don't burn for shit, combustibility is not something you can take for granted. I cased this wrapper yesterday, rolled these last night, smoked them this morning, and they burned ace. You gotta love that. Hopefully the ash might burn a bit whiter with some proper drying time.

I think this would be a good wrapper for a beginner to grab a sample of, and anyone else who doesn't care about the looks of a stick. It won't destroy your efforts by failing to burn, and won't overwhelm your mix, but it will flavor it. And it has a nic that suddenly hits you in second third and makes your head ring.

I'll report back after I've given a few of these some more time to dry and rest.


-b
 
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nic

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LO Ecuadorian Shade Ligero [ https://www.leafonly.com/cigar-tobacco-leaf/tobacco-leaves/ecuadorian-ligero-tobacco-leaf-wrapper ]. Wrapped over my house standard blend of 1 WLT Criollo Seco, 1 WLT Corojo Viso, 1 WLT Criollo Ligero and bound with Jorge Ecuadorian - 48x5.5. Cigar was rolled 2 days ago, wrapped yesterday, smoking currently.



Although the wrapper is generally splotched with subtle large green spots indicatative of minimal and hasty care, it didn't taste at all green, a problem I have had with some batches of the LO "Habano shade" series of wrapper. That green flavor is a huge bummer, so glad it's not here.-b
I'll start with the cons. The flavor is as Blake described above. Sharp and green. There are a bunch of "red wine" notes that are common in under cured, ill prepared leaf. That said, I think it may have some promise with age.

Pros: The leaf is pretty, easy to work with, and burns almost perfect. Cheap too, at $40/lb. If I wasn't so damn picky, I'd be all over this leaf.

I'm searching for 2 wrappers. A quality shade wrapper, and a spicy sun grown wrapper. This leaf, aside from the pro/con listed didn't have the spice I'm looking for. The under cured "red wine" notes maybe covering the spice up, as I did get a hint of pepper now and then. I bought a 1/4lb sampler. Time will tell if I buy any more.
 
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LO "Brazilian Wrapper Arapiraca"
I got a sample of this leaf from Gdaddy. He also sent me a few of his sticks wrapped in it, using a mild blend. I think he re-molded his as they were a little more than naturally smooth for this leaf.
I'm flattered. Two that I sent were marked 'hand rolled' weren't exposed to any mold. Used paper on the binder only. The other cigars sat in a mold overnight. I like a longer press time on the binder. It makes for a good flat surface to put the wrapper on but none of them ever re-entered the mold after wrapping. (I sent the bottom cigar to you)

SAM_0784.jpg
 
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This is a very helpful thread!!
If some more people participate in this thread, like writing "cigar reviews", then this would be very informative for both newbies and experienced homerollers.

PS: Do you guys think standardizing "leaf review" would be better? e.g. breaking a review down to appearance, burn, flavor, price and finally personal thought on it?
 
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LO "Honduran Seco"
https://www.leafonly.com/cigar-tobacco-leaf/tobacco-leaves/honduran-seco-cigar-filler-tobacco
Did a leaf test yesterday. Burned well at various points of thickness. Didn't go out. The burn spreads from the cigar hole out to the edge of the leaf. Had to stamp it out eventually.


Since it burned, I selected and spritzed a half-leaf wrapper of it and chucked that into a casing bag. Then I selected a half-leaf binder, spritzed that, let it rest for a few minutes and rolled a purito using 1.5 leaves for filler. I laid the tails in and ended up with a 40 x 6.

Stuck that in a 40-ring mold for half-hour each side, then wrapped and capped it with the cased wrapper selection. Ended up with a sweet little heart-shaped blemish near the foot. Hated to burn that.

But I did burn it, this morning after a night of rest for it.


Notes:
This burns as well as I thought it would from the earlier leaf-burn test. It burns well and quick on this medium-draw stick. The ash is white and medium-tight.Typically fell at about 2 inches.

The basic aromas I’m getting here are light, sweet spice (very light), a tiny bit of dry woodiness, subtle hints of leather, and that’s about it. The drug effects are minimal and not obvious. No obvious sense of nicotine. My thoughts haven’t drifted much: just concentrating on the aroma, the subtle spice–no pepper, just sweet–thinking about ways to blend this, what it brings to the party.

It actually stands as a cigar unto itself. I wouldn’t quite say “mild,” but more mild-to-medium, biasing mild. Any wrapper you put on it is going to notch it up to legit almost-medium or more.

Yeah, I’m digging it, starting to think that the first blends with it should just be to try a light wrapper and then a dark wrapper and see where that goes, keep everything else the same.

Somewhere around the end of the middle I get an ephemeral blast of light white pepper. Checked the retro and it was mellow, not peppery.

Final third I get the first taste of a “vegetal” thing that is not good; but I think it wouldn’t be an issue with just one leaf of this with various other leafs in a filler blend. Probably wouldn’t notice it. Meanwhile the leather is gone.

In general the first half had a better, more pure flavor than the second half. Hard to say which part of the leaf brings what to the story since I tore off and laid in the tails, so the entire leafs are in there, blended together.

Definitely nub-worthy. Lasted about 35 minutes.

Summation: Good burn, grade-able to filler, some binder and some wrapper in that ½ lb. Good starter kit, good foundation for a blend. I’ll try some wrappers next, then start adding some viso, if that seems like a good idea after the wrapper tests. This 2.5-leaf cigar cost me 79 cents in leaf, delivered.


 
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LO "Honduran Seco"
https://www.leafonly.com/cigar-tobacco-leaf/tobacco-leaves/honduran-seco-cigar-filler-tobacco
Did a leaf test yesterday. Burned well at various points of thickness. Didn't go out. The burn spreads from the cigar hole out to the edge of the leaf. Had to stamp it out eventually.


Since it burned, I selected and spritzed a half-leaf wrapper of it and chucked that into a casing bag. Then I selected a half-leaf binder, spritzed that, let it rest for a few minutes and rolled a purito using 1.5 leaves for filler. I laid the tails in and ended up with a 40 x 6.

Stuck that in a 40-ring mold for half-hour each side, then wrapped and capped it with the cased wrapper selection. Ended up with a sweet little heart-shaped blemish near the foot. Hated to burn that.

But I did burn it, this morning after a night of rest for it.


Notes:
This burns as well as I thought it would from the earlier leaf-burn test. It burns well and quick on this medium-draw stick. The ash is white and medium-tight.Typically fell at about 2 inches.

The basic aromas I’m getting here are light, sweet spice (very light), a tiny bit of dry woodiness, subtle hints of leather, and that’s about it. The drug effects are minimal and not obvious. No obvious sense of nicotine. My thoughts haven’t drifted much: just concentrating on the aroma, the subtle spice–no pepper, just sweet–thinking about ways to blend this, what it brings to the party.

It actually stands as a cigar unto itself. I wouldn’t quite say “mild,” but more mild-to-medium, biasing mild. Any wrapper you put on it is going to notch it up to legit almost-medium or more.

Yeah, I’m digging it, starting to think that the first blends with it should just be to try a light wrapper and then a dark wrapper and see where that goes, keep everything else the same.

Somewhere around the end of the middle I get an ephemeral blast of light white pepper. Checked the retro and it was mellow, not peppery.

Final third I get the first taste of a “vegetal” thing that is not good; but I think it wouldn’t be an issue with just one leaf of this with various other leafs in a filler blend. Probably wouldn’t notice it. Meanwhile the leather is gone.

In general the first half had a better, more pure flavor than the second half. Hard to say which part of the leaf brings what to the story since I tore off and laid in the tails, so the entire leafs are in there, blended together.

Definitely nub-worthy. Lasted about 35 minutes.

Summation: Good burn, grade-able to filler, some binder and some wrapper in that ½ lb. Good starter kit, good foundation for a blend. I’ll try some wrappers next, then start adding some viso, if that seems like a good idea after the wrapper tests. This 2.5-leaf cigar cost me 79 cents in leaf, delivered.

I stashed a whole bunch of gars made with this leaf, then promptly ordered four more pounds. I agree with everything you say about it, but would add this: It's real damn easy to work with. Leaves that bunch up smooth. Blends with most anything. My fave was a simple Hond seco/viso with Dom olor binder. .. but I do like a mild gar. Wrapper takes over from there. Looking forward to breaking out some of these batches as they ripen up here soon. Highly recommend this leaf.
 
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I'll report back after I've given a few of these some more time to dry and rest.
Reporting back re: Arapriaca wrapper. Just smoked another, slightly diff blend (diff viso). The wrapper had green splotches, and there was a green taste from the beginning. This is a bad "unfermented" taste, which I did not associate with any of the fillers. After two inches I cut away the wrapper with a guillotine cutter and the green was immediately gone.
 
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WLT H2K Wrapper
http://wholeleaftobacco.com/Habano-2000-Wrapper-HBN2000.htm

This is a strain that is known for burning issues, and the current WLT supply of it is no exception. Webmost sent some to DeluxeStogie to further kiln to see if that would help, and it did not. These photos are from the further-kilned batch.

There are a few apologists who say that this is not at all an issue, that the inherent combustion properties of a wrapper leaf is irrelevant, that it's all down to the roller's casing and construction skills, the idea being to make the filler burn more slowly so the wrapper has more time to catch flame. I can tell you that I have not discovered the relevant casing or construction techniques in two+years of trying.

DeluxeStogie often shows pictures of what appear to be perfectly burning H2K-wrapped sticks of his own contrivance. That's just not been my experience.

And I have a serious quibble with wrapper that doesn't burn well beyond the obvious tunneling probability: wrapper that doesn't fully and quickly combust puts off a very bad taste that ruins your stick. It's a smoldery melting plastic tire fire kind of thing. Even though the leaf might eventually turn to ash, the process of getting there takes too long and gasses off some nasty shit. So I prefer my wrappers to burn fast, well, and easy. They taste good that way.

As has been suggested by others, the best-case use for this stuff may be to lay in a little strip in the center for flavor, where one hopes it will burn fast without the chance to put off nastiness. I have tried this and not found the improvement in stick taste that I was hoping for. But I believe Webmost has had luck in this regard.

Webmost said he recently tried some H2K used by a Costa Rican cigar outfit, and that H2K had the exact same issues.

These photos show two things: that once heat is removed, there is negligible self-burning going on. And I had to really huff and puff on the cigar applied to the leaf to get it to burn through. And, in the tube where I held a triple-jet lighter to it for several seconds, it still barely ignites, and when it does it bubbles and puts off tire burn, and goes out immediately when the torch is removed.



 
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Works for sacrificial anodes when mailing. There's that. Excelsior.

I often mail out two or three gar packages every weekday morning. Most are sample gars for the business. Some are bombs to BOTLs. This morning, for instance, I mailed out a couple dozen home rolled to the birthday boy in Utah, and a sampler to a customer. I already have two more samplers to pack up for tomorrow. Anyways, I always include a shred of suitably hydrated leaf in each baggie to keep the gars in good condition. It's cheaper than using a Boveda or a water pillow, as well as lookin so much more organic to the theme. Leaf is sacrificial cause it sacrifices its own damp for the sake of the gars in there with it, and it's an anode in the same sense that you attach a lead anode to the bottom of a boat. Besides, the recipients of this type of packaging often remark they think it's charming. So this leaf is at least useful to lavish on that purpose.

But other than as excelsior, this leaf ain't much use.

(excelsior inside the poly bag to the left)
 
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nic

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LO Ecuadorian Seco Shade wrapper
[ https://www.leafonly.com/cigar-tobacco-leaf/tobacco-leaves/ecuadorian-shade-tobacco-leaf-wrapper ]
42x5.25 - house blend
Rolled 7/29 Wrapped 7/31

Use:
Cases easily, good stretch, pretty, tiny veins. Some slight tearing, but I was in a hurry.

Smoke:
Overall neutral, with faint spice. The burn on this early test isn't burning nearly as nice as the ligero version did, oddly. It has needed regular touch ups. However, this is much closer to what I'm looking for in a darker/sungrown wrapper. I look forward to using more of this wrapper and seeing how it ages.


 
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LO Ecuadorian Seco wrapper
42x5.25 - house blend
Rolled 7/29 Wrapped 7/31

Use:
Cases easily, good stretch, pretty, tiny veins. Some slight tearing, but I was in a hurry, but nothing that wasn't hard to correct.

Smoke:
Overall neutral, with faint spice. The burn on this early test isn't burning nearly as nice as the ligero version did, oddly. It has needed regular touch ups. However, this is much closer to what I'm looking for in a darker/sungrown wrapper. I look forward to using more of this wrapper and seeing how it ages.


Looks good. No green flavor? That's why I eventually bailed on this wrapper a couple years ago: occasional green-ness.
 

nic

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Looks good. No green flavor? That's why I eventually bailed on this wrapper a couple years ago: occasional green-ness.
Yes, some. Not at all to the level I noticed from the ligero wrapper. Into the final 3rd and green-ness is starting to show up, but definitely at levels I can forgive.
 
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