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Non designated leaf: how does it fit into my blend strategy?

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Most filler leaf on the online suppliers' pages is designated as ligero, visio or seco. However, some give no such primings designations. Is there a reason for omitting this information? All my blends start with 1L seco, 1L visio 1L ligero, so it does matter to me what I am swapping out. Links to a few examples are below:


https://wholeleaftobacco.com/Mata-Fina-Filler-upper-stalk-position-BrzlMF.htm
https://wholeleaftobacco.com/Honduras-Habano-Filler-2012-crop-year-HDRNCS.htm
https://wholeleaftobacco.com/Tennessee-Fire-Cured-VA-309-TNFireCured.htm
 
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The mata fina I use as a viso. Some individual leaves are thin enough to be seco and you can adapt for those if you desire. I've even smoothed out a couple to try them as wrappers buy that's a lot of smoothing because it comes so bunched up. I think this has been out of stock for quite a while....
The Honduran Habanos filler, I tried a split with one of the guys and enjoyed. It's impact on the flavors were significant so I used it sparingly in the viso/seco area while bunching.
I've never ordered any of the fire cured leaf so can't help there.
In general, when you get the leaf and feel how thick or heavy it is, you can adjust where it goes in the bunch as you see fit. I put heavier leaves toward the center such as CTBL fillers and ligeros. The thinner non designated leaves can move toward the outer areas of the bunch.
Enjoy the adventure! Let us know what you decide,
Jim
 

Dominican56

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That’s a good question ras and often I wonder too where on the plant some leaf comes from.
I’ve hacked together so many different blends, probably a hundred that I’ve recorded and out of that I think I’ve got 4 or 5 I’ll make more of.
Gotta say, right off the table some are really good but after 4 months not so much. I’ll try the “not so much” ones in a year.
Blending is quite an art I’m thinking.
The pros grew and ferment their leaf exactly how the want it. We home rollers are in it for the adventure. :)
 
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After you have exhausted every possible blend combination and find it's still lacking you might look for a new avenue for improvement.

I not saying that blending isn't important but it's a final 'tweak'. For example, La Flor Dominicana has a triple ligero that tastes fantastic. Why is this if blending is so important? It's all ligero! Because they process their tobacco to another level. They don't have a magic wand that is able to grow 'special' tobacco leaves out of the ground. It's a tobacco leaf just like ours but they process it, they improve it to another level...we don't.

The level of flavor and quality improvement can only come from improving the basic flavor of the leaf. Then, lastly, you blend it. You can't (try as you may) blend a group of basic, mediocre tobaccos and expect anything more than mediocrity. Yet everyone keeps looking and buying new tobacco looking for the 'Holy Grail' of blends.
 
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An example...take a top quality steak. (Yes, you can buy a top quality piece of meat.) In its basic form if you don't season it and just cook it, it will be mediocre at best. Even the simple addition of salt will make huge improvements to the flavor. Of course they're are herb rubs as well. Ruth Chris adds butter on top of their steak that adds a delicious richness. Good chefs will tell you "fat carries the flavor".

No, they don't raise special cows just for high end restaurants. The chefs know how to 'process' the steak to another level. There's more than just plopping down your money and throwing it on a fire. Don't blame the butcher for your mediocre steak.
 
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An example...take a top quality steak. (Yes, you can buy a top quality piece of meat.) In its basic form if you don't season it and just cook it, it will be mediocre at best. Even the simple addition of salt will make huge improvements to the flavor. Of course they're are herb rubs as well. Ruth Chris adds butter on top of their steak that adds a delicious richness. Good chefs will tell you "fat carries the flavor".

No, they don't raise special cows just for high end restaurants. The chefs know how to 'process' the steak to another level. There's more than just plopping down your money and throwing it on a fire. Don't blame the butcher for your mediocre steak.
Would you help us along with some leaf recipes to improve the smoking? I recall your mention in the past of using some vanilla extract with either vodka or Jim Beam and misting leaf with that mixture.
Thanks in advance,
Jim D
 
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What carries the flavor in a raw unprocessed
Would you help us along with some leaf recipes to improve the smoking? I recall your mention in the past of using some vanilla extract with either vodka or Jim Beam and misting leaf with that mixture.
Thanks in advance,
Jim D
Sit tight. Been doing a lot of revisions on recipes and will post some shortly. FYI... I now use a digital scale to measure everything. I'm converting these measures of weight into standard measures using simple ounces and teaspoons. This way there will be less room for error and no need to buy a digital scale. People wouldn't buy a scale anyway.

One word of warning... most people can't follow directions exactly. They usually mismeasure or add or remove something and then met with failure.
 

Dominican56

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An example...take a top quality steak. (Yes, you can buy a top quality piece of meat.) In its basic form if you don't season it and just cook it, it will be mediocre at best. Even the simple addition of salt will make huge improvements to the flavor. Of course they're are herb rubs as well. Ruth Chris adds butter on top of their steak that adds a delicious richness. Good chefs will tell you "fat carries the flavor".

No, they don't raise special cows just for high end restaurants. The chefs know how to 'process' the steak to another level. There's more than just plopping down your money and throwing it on a fire. Don't blame the butcher for your mediocre steak.
Sir, you offer a lot of great advice and toss in some science, too. I appreciate that.

You are completely right about the limited quality and quantity of leaf we have available as home rollers.

For me, and only me, I’m happy so far with the cigars I can make with the leaf available to us. I don’t expect to emulate anything in the commercial cigar space. My blends (only 4 or 5) are better than anything I can buy.

Perhaps my tastebuds will argue with that perception sometime in the future, but right now I’m making cigars I’d rather smoke than ones I can buy.
They are different from commercial cigars, but dang, they are really good.

I smoke a commercial stick once a week as a sanity check and while I don’t dislike the commercial cigar, I still prefer mine to the store bought ones.
Having said that, I still like a Padron 64 and a T-52 now and again.
 

Dominican56

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But...,
I wish we had access to really nice wrapper leaf. Lots of the home rolls pictured here on BOTL have that homemade look to them. Not necessarily a bad thing, I suppose
 
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But...,
I wish we had access to really nice wrapper leaf. All of the home rolls pictured here on BOTL have that homemade look to them. Not necessarily a bad thing, I suppose
What specifically is it that makes them look "homemade" ?
 

Jan Bynens

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@Marc L has the most professionally looking cigars so I’m not including him

Usually a mottled look and larger veins. But mostly a mottled look to the wrapper.

Pro sticks have minimal veins and wide tight seams.

I depends more how you wrap your cigars and prepare your wrappers, the leaf has minimal impact.
This is a fairly thick veined leave !
I prepare my leaves 10 minutes before I roll.

wrapper.JPG
 
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I think commercial sticks have a consistent look because they cull through the wrapper leaves and select those that are consistent as to color, are whole and without ragged edges. Also, it's also less labor intensive for the rollers to use high quality raw leaf. I suspect the leaves they cull out become binder, or filler, or are wholesaled to manufacturers of short filler cigars. It would be interesting to learn whether the leaf available to us comes from the curing barn or somewhere downstream. Of course if I were to ask our retailers ( whom I admire and respect) that question, I would probably sound insulting, so I'll, just sit quietly here in the corner and ponder
 
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