- Joined
- Dec 16, 2017
- Messages
- 10
Hello fellow rollers, consistent forum lurker here!
You see, I have you some might call a sit-u-ation over here.
Not long ago, I took over a small weekly cigar club on a military installation in Kuwait and I started to teach free cigar rolling classes. It quickly grew unexpectedly, and we know have 70-90 people a night concurrently. Most classes include 10-15 people, and many times multiple classes a night. They MWR (military morale club) says we are the largest cigar club around southwest asia at the moment, and I am expected to be "reputable" now. Problem is, I secretly have no idea how to do stuff like this for that size of an event. I need help pretty bad, which is why I came here. I am calling the Cigar Roller Bat-Signal!
I tried to categorize my issues, in true military fashion, below:
Equipment -
Im not a rich man. Neither is my club. I have to do more with less, for example we use pizza cutters instead of chavettas, and a medic friend of mine built a still out back to homebrew distilled water. We dont triple cap, because for some crazy reason finding and keeping a sharp capping tool is neigh impossible. That being said,what are your guys/gals tips or tricks to "do more with less"?
Blends-
I admit I love rolling cigars, but I am an amateur when it comes to this. Currently the cigar club looks through the current selection of leaves on vendor websites and picks what they think sounds cool, we order them, throw them together, and I assume they smoke it eventually. Needless to say we have ordered some...interesting stuff. I particularly remember my guy at Leafonly asking me at least three times "Are you SURE??". What would really be great is to find a decent to good blend that may not be the best ever, but focuses more on being palatable for a wide variety of audiences. I know you guys are about a million billion times more savvy with this stuff than I am, and I am shamelessly begging for your GOOD BLENDS!
Humidty control -
Due to regulations we must roll our cigars outside. During the summer and fall the humidity is almost always <10% and the temps usually are between 115 F and 130 F. The leaves dry out almost instantly, leading to a lot of surface spraying with a water bottle to keep it pliable, leading to either wet cigars or dry cracked cigars. I have tried portable humidifiers (usb powered) ones, as we do not have power where we meet, but the water output vs the environment makes it hard to keep up. When I teach the class I usually have to spend an hour for them to roll one cigar, and I am losing my mind trying to find a solution! Any Arizonians or fellow desert folk out there with some advice, I would love you if you could share.
TLDR (Too long, didnt read):
Im in Kuwait and run a weekly large(ish) cigar rolling class/event. I need advice for humidity control and "tips" to do more with less stuff. Also begging for your secret blends (shamelessly)
May the blends be ever in your favor,
smthbrothrj
You see, I have you some might call a sit-u-ation over here.
Not long ago, I took over a small weekly cigar club on a military installation in Kuwait and I started to teach free cigar rolling classes. It quickly grew unexpectedly, and we know have 70-90 people a night concurrently. Most classes include 10-15 people, and many times multiple classes a night. They MWR (military morale club) says we are the largest cigar club around southwest asia at the moment, and I am expected to be "reputable" now. Problem is, I secretly have no idea how to do stuff like this for that size of an event. I need help pretty bad, which is why I came here. I am calling the Cigar Roller Bat-Signal!
I tried to categorize my issues, in true military fashion, below:
Equipment -
Im not a rich man. Neither is my club. I have to do more with less, for example we use pizza cutters instead of chavettas, and a medic friend of mine built a still out back to homebrew distilled water. We dont triple cap, because for some crazy reason finding and keeping a sharp capping tool is neigh impossible. That being said,what are your guys/gals tips or tricks to "do more with less"?
Blends-
I admit I love rolling cigars, but I am an amateur when it comes to this. Currently the cigar club looks through the current selection of leaves on vendor websites and picks what they think sounds cool, we order them, throw them together, and I assume they smoke it eventually. Needless to say we have ordered some...interesting stuff. I particularly remember my guy at Leafonly asking me at least three times "Are you SURE??". What would really be great is to find a decent to good blend that may not be the best ever, but focuses more on being palatable for a wide variety of audiences. I know you guys are about a million billion times more savvy with this stuff than I am, and I am shamelessly begging for your GOOD BLENDS!
Humidty control -
Due to regulations we must roll our cigars outside. During the summer and fall the humidity is almost always <10% and the temps usually are between 115 F and 130 F. The leaves dry out almost instantly, leading to a lot of surface spraying with a water bottle to keep it pliable, leading to either wet cigars or dry cracked cigars. I have tried portable humidifiers (usb powered) ones, as we do not have power where we meet, but the water output vs the environment makes it hard to keep up. When I teach the class I usually have to spend an hour for them to roll one cigar, and I am losing my mind trying to find a solution! Any Arizonians or fellow desert folk out there with some advice, I would love you if you could share.
TLDR (Too long, didnt read):
Im in Kuwait and run a weekly large(ish) cigar rolling class/event. I need advice for humidity control and "tips" to do more with less stuff. Also begging for your secret blends (shamelessly)
May the blends be ever in your favor,
smthbrothrj