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Dominican56

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You must be mistaken. There has never been a finer leaf:
http://fairtradetobacco.com/threads/7650-WLT-Dominican-Binder?p=140581#post140581

:woot:

Bro, you got to 1k smackers down the leafhole even faster than I'd guessed you would.:greedy:
I'm hooked! I'll post a pic of my leaf pile.

That binder took a lot of work to make it usable. It had the worst horrible ammonia smell I've ever experienced, even worse than diapers a week old. I kid you not.

But after soaking it and casing with a little dilute lemon juice I used it. Really, it was the worst quality leaf I've gotten. However, from the tips I got here, I was able to salvage it.

I'm in all the way on making my own cigars. It's more rewarding than I can express here.

Keep in mind, newbies like me are only successful at such an early stage because of your, and other "how to " Videos you graciously published.

Without you forerunners new folks like me wouldn't be as successful as we are.

For that I thank you.
 
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So now I'm sitting on over a kilo buck of leaf, not including molds and other equipment but I'm quite satisfied with my choice of taking the first steps.
Not so hard to do as it sounds. You can blow a key on just 30 pounds of leaf, which is not that much. Throw in some molds & stuff... and there you are.
 

Dominican56

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Well I've got one of my early sticks lit. It's pretty dang good. It's quite good, I'm surprised. It's 45 days old, one of my very first. It's much better now.

Aging and maturing has to be more molecular diffusion and perhaps a tiny bit of secondary fermentation that changes the character of a cigar.

At least that's my hypothesis on the subject. :). For what its worth.
 

Dominican56

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Did you ever have a "bad rolling day?"
Man, nothing cigar related went right last night.

The plan was to roll 12 sticks according to the test blends I did yesterday. Normally I'll get everything prepped, lay out leaf in piles, left to right as I use them. I had everything ready and it was going pretty well... until.... I rolled three great looking cigars then it went to shit. I had a glass of wine and spilled it all over half of the leaf piles that were splayed out. While mopping it up, the wine soaked leaf piles got mixed up. After that I didn't really care much so I just rolled with what I had. I made no effort to make 'em pretty I just slapped them together. Who knows how they will turn out.

Oh man, such a good plan down the tubes.
 
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Did you ever have a "bad rolling day?"
Man, nothing cigar related went right last night.

The plan was to roll 12 sticks according to the test blends I did yesterday. Normally I'll get everything prepped, lay out leaf in piles, left to right as I use them. I had everything ready and it was going pretty well... until.... I rolled three great looking cigars then it went to shit. I had a glass of wine and spilled it all over half of the leaf piles that were splayed out. While mopping it up, the wine soaked leaf piles got mixed up. After that I didn't really care much so I just rolled with what I had. I made no effort to make 'em pretty I just slapped them together. Who knows how they will turn out.

Oh man, such a good plan down the tubes.
Not done yet. Wait till you smoke one of those mystery stix and find out it is dynamite but now you have no clue what blend went in it.
 

Dominican56

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Ha! I've already done that. At first I would simply roll a bunch and toss them in the box. My objective was to have a surprise stick each time I grabbed one to smoke. A few were simply OK, some were crap, and some were simply outstanding. So now, I keep pretty good records.

I jot down what I want to roll then use that as my recipe. I use a 3x3 note pad to jot down the info, then I place the cigar on top of the note to dry over night so I can sample in a day or two. I'll put band on it with a code that indexes the note. I'll tape the note in a notebook for replication, or not. Then sometimes I'll simply jot the build list directly into the notebook and put a band on the stick asap.

Last night I rolled 4 or 5 using the 3x3 note method.

This weekend I want to make another dozen or so of one of the "good" blends.
 

Dominican56

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Flo-jo

Yahknow one can’t believe everything in the home roller section. I rinsed my first pound of flo-jo ant that ruined it. Turned it to some astringent tasting crap.

My other pound (WLT) doesn’t seem to be as sweet as the first (before ruination). I’m thinking the flo-jo has some kinda mojo on it to make it sweet.
 

Dominican56

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Last night we had another couple over for dinner.

He's a cigar smoker like me and his wife will smoke one once in a while.
I rolled one for him and one for her on Sunday. Hers was rolled using olar and his was a bit more potent.
My wife doesn't let me use the microwave to dry them because she said they stink. Sadly I didn't have a chance to get a sneak microwaving session in Sunday or Monday evening.
I left a fan blow on them overnight but still to wet.

I explained to our guests that about half way through the cigar they'll turn to crap simply because they're too wet.
They really liked the first half they smoked. They were surprised how good they were.
This is a couple I know well and know they wouldn't hesitate to let me know if they didn't like 'em. It was nice knowing they really liked the first half of the cigar.

After dinner we went to the basement where I demonstrated how I roll them.
They went home with 3 nice looking cigars, two with caps nicely affixed.
My instructions were to keep them out of the humidor for a week and wait until the first of the year before smoking them.

All in all, a fun evening.
 
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