Pics of Your Process

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Latest WLT T-13 viso came here too damp. Thought I could use it that way; but then it began to acquire that odious diaper pail stink. So yesterday afternoon I spread leaves in a sheet-clad work bench to dry:


Took several batches to get them all done.

I have another unopened pound. I suspect I should do the same with that.

Been raining so often lately that I'll need to pick a comparatively dry window.

So if you order some T-13, give it a good feel & see if it needs airing before salting it away.

 

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Opened the second pound I bought. Also damp. No diaper pail stank yet, tho. So airing this bagful in batches:



The coolidor I'm storing them in reads 70%. Hope that's dry enough.

 

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This morning:




Now:



At the rolling station:



Damn hard to get a new roll to dry in these conditions. The viso I dried out on the garage the other day, it still reads 70% in that coolidor.

The damn windows are fogging up! :



Hopefully, we can get some powerful thunderstorms here this evening to knock some of this down.

It's a jungle out there.

 

[FrostD]

This morning:

View attachment 173606


Now:

View attachment 173607

At the rolling station:

View attachment 173608

Damn hard to get a new roll to dry in these conditions. The viso I dried out on the garage the other day, it still reads 70% in that coolidor.

The damn windows are fogging up! :

View attachment 173609

Hopefully, we can get some powerful thunderstorms here this evening to knock some of this down.

It's a jungle out there.

Agreed! I know the feeling Web. I look at the thermostat all the time when I roll. When inside humidity levels are within a certain range I have to realize how fast it will effect how fast the leaf will dry up. It’s been hot and fairly dry outside here, which it’s normally hot and humid.

 

[blisscigarco]

75F here in Santa Barbara, 65RH. Let's see what I can do with this stuff web sent me.

Yes, the bag marked Indo does indeed contain FX Smith Sons CT Shade wrapper. Extremely shin, fragile, cracking apart, a light gray-greenish tone, should be challenging and fun to try to prep it and wrap with it. Must be real vintage stuff.

 

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smooth bunches:

help produce smooth gars:


and that's why I like to use wrapper as binder

 

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Wrapping with Ugandan Dark Air Cured here lately. No clue what seed was grown. There's various sizes and textures in the same 1/4 lb batch. This is one of the larger ones:



22" x 12". (I laid a coupla corona molded bunches on top for scale.)

The edges on these larger ones tend to be obstinately curly. Just can't get them to lay flat no matter how long I leave them in the conditioner. Also rather veiny. Luckily, if you cut the wrapper strip back past the curl, stretch well while wrapping, and roll the wrapped gar hard on the table, those veins will flatten out. I'm also leaving the bunch rather loose to help. The color on these big leaves is excellent. It's the smaller ones which have white mineral spots. Loads of wastage, as I do not use anywhere a whole leaf to wrap these two coronas.

I'll soon be done with this 74 series; then box these, and seek the next blend.

 

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I scored a quarter pound of Ecuadorian Habano HS wrapper and another quarter pound Nic Rosado DAC, both from Total Leaf.

They ship promptly enough to put LeafOnly to shame (assuming LO were capable of the emotion.) Their thin poly bags bear a nice custom logo; but I wouldn't expect one of these bags to keep leaf in good condition for more than a pair of weeks, so I'm sticking these TL bags inside empty WLT bags.

The Rosado passed the smolder test with flying colors:


The Habano, unfortunately, did not:


Compare how much the smoke of each obscures the photo on the wall. The Rosado smoldered until I put it down; the Hab smoldered prolly ten seconds. So Hab flame resistance remains a thing.

As for flavor & aroma:

The Rosado snurfed mild & wholesome, and the smoke tastes quite smooth as well. I feel confident in this stuff. The leaf itself has an inviting tang to it.
The Nic Hab smoke was too scanty to snurf or taste. The leaf itself was flavorless. So It's hard to gauge how it would smoke. Might make a good transparent wrap for a moody Nic gar.

Both these leaves are incredibly thin! Beyond delicate. If they were not dark they'd be diaphanous.

Thus the Hab inflammability wrapped over a suitably flammable binder & filler would prolly burn right. This stuff is perhaps a quarter the thickness of Habs I have used before. OTOH, that also means they are prolly not so flexy strong as one would expect of a Hab wrap. Also, the Habs are mostly small. I'm thinking to try a headless short gar filled with Nic viso and wrapped with this small stuff. Just have to figure what binder might suit this combo. Suggestions welcomed. Might try the Sumatra wrapper... but have to smolder test it first, to make sure it will set off the Hab.

The Rosados are giant leaves. Because they are so thin, a mere quarter pound makes for a generous hand. I'm thinking they might wrap a batch of delicados. Just have to figure out what would go inside. Time to rummage round the leaf tubs to see what strikes me. Perhaps try Rene, cause I haven't touched that wonderful stuff in a while.

n.b. : The smolder test is simple: Pinch a couple inches of leaf off the stem. Light it. Watch it smolder. Now snurf it. Now open your mouth and let it smolder into your taste buds. Watch it smolder. Waft some into your face. You can get a pretty good idea what leaf brings to the table just by doing this. And you can get an excellent idea how it burns.

 

[blisscigarco]

I scored a quarter pound of Ecuadorian Habano HS wrapper and another quarter pound Nic Rosado DAC, both from Total Leaf.

They ship promptly enough to put LeafOnly to shame (assuming LO were capable of the emotion.) Their thin poly bags bear a nice custom logo; but I wouldn't expect one of these bags to keep leaf in good condition for more than a pair of weeks, so I'm sticking these TL bags inside empty WLT bags.

The Rosado passed the smolder test with flying colors:
View attachment 174285

The Habano, unfortunately, did not:
View attachment 174286

Compare how much the smoke of each obscures the photo on the wall. The Rosado smoldered until I put it down; the Hab smoldered prolly ten seconds. So Hab flame resistance remains a thing.

As for flavor & aroma:

The Rosado snurfed mild & wholesome, and the smoke tastes quite smooth as well. I feel confident in this stuff. The leaf itself has an inviting tang to it.
The Nic Hab smoke was too scanty to snurf or taste. The leaf itself was flavorless. So It's hard to gauge how it would smoke. Might make a good transparent wrap for a moody Nic gar.

Both these leaves are incredibly thin! Beyond delicate. If they were not dark they'd be diaphanous.

Thus the Hab inflammability wrapped over a suitably flammable binder & filler would prolly burn right. This stuff is perhaps a quarter the thickness of Habs I have used before. OTOH, that also means they are prolly not so flexy strong as one would expect of a Hab wrap. Also, the Habs are mostly small. I'm thinking to try a headless short gar filled with Nic viso and wrapped with this small stuff. Just have to figure what binder might suit this combo. Suggestions welcomed. Might try the Sumatra wrapper... but have to smolder test it first, to make sure it will set off the Hab.

The Rosados are giant leaves. Because they are so thin, a mere quarter pound makes for a generous hand. I'm thinking they might wrap a batch of delicados. Just have to figure out what would go inside. Time to rummage round the leaf tubs to see what strikes me. Perhaps try Rene, cause I haven't touched that wonderful stuff in a while.

n.b. : The smolder test is simple: Pinch a couple inches of leaf off the stem. Light it. Watch it smolder. Now snurf it. Now open your mouth and let it smolder into your taste buds. Watch it smolder. Waft some into your face. You can get a pretty good idea what leaf brings to the table just by doing this. And you can get an excellent idea how it burns.

Interesting report. Never heard of such thin Habano wrapper.

 

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Looks like these super-thin Habano wraps are gonna lay down nice, other than a tooth or two and a few curly veins. These are quickie test gars. Hard to even find the seams:




The color is darker than either of these pics.

Soon know how they taste and burn.