Name This Leaf

[webmost]

This beautiful leaf...

...is thin, delicate, about 24" long and 15" wide when stretched out, and came out of a WLT bag labeled "mata", written with a sharpie. No idea where I originally got the leaf. This is the leaf I wrapped round U Maks. I wonder whether it's really mata at all, cause the delicious flavor of it did not make me think mata. I do that some times -- I'll stick some leaf in a WLT bag to prep it, then I'll neglect to re-label the bag, gets set aside in the shuffle, thus creating a mystery leaf. Do that too often. That would explain the slight ammonia odor, if I'd done that.

Any bright ideas what this leaf might be?

Here it is again round the Maks:

Color looks too dusty chocolate for mata. I'm thinking some of LO's Ecuador viso Habano shade. Too large for the Ec ligero Hab shade, and not enough spice for the Ec seco hab shade. But remarkable bigness for viso.

 

[Marc L]

thin, delicate, dusty chocolate, slight ammonia odor, ... Mexican San Andres

 

[Ozark Rambler]

Brad. You should call it Brad.
And Marc, that's one of the more interesting cigar shapes I've yet seen. Is that just some try hard, or could there possibly be a reason to roll it thus?

 

[webmost]

thin, delicate, dusty chocolate, slight ammonia odor, ... Mexican San Andres

By Golly, MarcL, you may have hit a home run there. Checking my account at LO, I see where I ordered a 1/4 lb sample of San Andres wrapper last July. Being as those LO bags are so futile flimsy, I would prolly have stuck that sample into an empty WLT bag to keep it fresh. Makes sense. ... but then again, I see where I also ordered a 1/4 sample of what LO calls Brazilian wrapper. So it might be that, labeled "mata".

The obvious solution here, I gotta get a pair of 1/4lb sample bags from LO and compare.

Brilliant, MarcL.


... and since I had an order pending, I hit their chat bot and asked them to throw a quarter pound of SA and Brazilian in the box. They sent me a link to pay the diff. All set. We'll soon know something.

 

[blisscigarco]

Based on that first photo, it's probably LO "Brazilian Wrapper." SA would theoretically be more chocolaty, but in the case of the products from LO by those names, the Brazilian is the one with the cocoa note, the SA not so much, if you close your eyes.

 

[Marc L]

Brad. You should call it Brad.
And Marc, that's one of the more interesting cigar shapes I've yet seen. Is that just some try hard, or could there possibly be a reason to roll it thus?

Yeah right? did you notice the box pressing of the center? but, I don't know maybe? I'll quote the makers press release..

"The shape symbolizes the geography of the fertile Cibao Valley of the Dominican Republic, which lies between the mountain ranges of the Cordillera Septentrional and the Cordillera Central on the north and south respectively. The region represents the heart of the Dominican cigar industry."

Here's a write up. halfwheel DOT com/review-quesada-40th-anniversary-salomon-press

By Golly, MarcL, you may have hit a home run there. Checking my account at LO, I see where I ordered a 1/4 lb sample of San Andres wrapper last July. Being as those LO bags are so futile flimsy, I would prolly have stuck that sample into an empty WLT bag to keep it fresh. Makes sense. ... but then again, I see where I also ordered a 1/4 sample of what LO calls Brazilian wrapper. So it might be that, labeled "mata".
The obvious solution here, I gotta get a pair of 1/4lb sample bags from LO and compare.
Brilliant, MarcL.
... and since I had an order pending, I hit their chat bot and asked them to throw a quarter pound of SA and Brazilian in the box. They sent me a link to pay the diff. All set. We'll soon know something.

That would be amazing! I can hardly wait.

 

[BrewinHooligan]

I will put in my .02, from the picture I am leaning towards Ecuadorian habano. The veins are way to straight to be Mata fina and it's doesn't quite look right for San Andrés. This is just the opinion of some random interwebz surfer looking at a single picture.

 

[webmost]

Preliminary results lead me to believe MarcL's guess was right. Lined up the new LO SA, the new LO MF, and the mystery wrapper labeled "mata", and compared. Same color both sides and similar veins, SA and the so-called "mata". That's only visual, tho. This evening, I'll give it the smolder test... light un pedazo de cada a la vela and see if the smoldering odors compare. Too much coffee in my snoot this morning to do a test like that.

Here's the biggest caveat, tho: I got a quarter pound sample of Nic wrapper from LO some time back, liked it, ordered a pound... that's the order I got just yesterday which I added the other two test quarters to ... and the pound they sent me just now bears exactly zero resemblance to the quarter pound sample they sent me before, on the basis of which I ordered the pound. Previous Nic wrapper was short wide very dark leaves laying flat with no shine. These new don't bear any resemblance. Folded up super long shiny chocolate colored leaves. In fact, they look amazingly like the SA we were just talking about! So I'll bet a fat man and his donut that just cause those rascals labeled this SA this time doesn't mean they didn't label it MF before.

So. Who knows.

Meanwhile, I'm fascinated to try out these new CT Havana 9 leaves. Thinking they'll be excellent binder.

 

[Marc L]

You all may be aware of the practice to determine quality/identity were, by taking a small piece of leaf and chewing and tasting it a sense of it can be had. I first saw this being done by Jesus Fuego and AJ Fernandez.

 

[webmost]

The chew test was inconclusive. The smolder test tells me the mata matches the brazilian, while the SA smoldered quite different. So who knows. The good news is, all three smoldered real aromatic. all three look great.

sent from Hopduro's mama's phone

 

[konmtu]

The chew test was inconclusive. The smolder test tells me the mata matches the brazilian, while the SA smoldered quite different. So who knows. The good news is, all three smoldered real aromatic. all three look great.

sent from Hopduro's mama's phone

Lol!

 

[Hopduro]

Lol!

Wow just noticed that!!!

 

[NOGILLS2]

nickragua on instagram talks about working with Brazillian Mata Fina binder. Thought I would throw that out there.

 

[Marc L]

nickragua on instagram talks about working with Brazillian Mata Fina binder. Thought I would throw that out there.

Are you talking about this?

 

[NOGILLS2]

yes