Cgarface

[cgarface]

Optimal Smoking & Rolling Moistures

Optimal smoking moisture content for a cigar is 12-13.2%, depending on which industry pro you talk to. This equates to around 62% RH, depending on usual variables that go into RH (temperature, etc).

It takes 2 months in "the room" for the bunch to expand and the wrapper to contract as the whole thing equalizes to 13.2%. The wrapper tightens and the seam lines “disappear.”

At the time of wrapping, the bunch should be ~10% moisture, i.e. 52RH.

The wrapper should be 19% moisture at the time of wrapping, i.e. 85RH.

As the bunch and wrapper equalize toward the overall 13.2%, the bunch expands as it takes on moisture, and the wrapper tightens as it loses moisture. This results in a tight-feeling, smooth, seamless cigar that, assuming it was constructed properly, maintains its perfect draw despite feeling very firm.

[cgarface]

Filler-to-Wrapper Ratios

“Smaller ring cigars give you more of the wrapper flavor. This is simple math: the narrower a cylinder, the higher the ratio of surface to volume.”

I’ve been told that by people who know their geometry, which I do not. So part of the joy I’ve always taken in rolling and smoking smaller ring sticks is that I get to compare and contrast different wrappers with them, to a greater extent than I do with the fat logs.

Just now, sitting out in the morning sunshine smoking a nice Cameroon-wrapped 6x43, I looked up the math formulae for volume (filler) and area (wrapper) of cylinders and I ran two hypothetical sticks through those formulas to get their ratios of surface-to-volume, a 5x32 and a 5x64. I went for extremes to really get a feel for the difference in ratios.

Here’s what I got:

5x32

area: 8.25

vol: 0.98

~8:1

5x64

area: 17.28

vol: 3.93

~4:1

So the 5x32 has roughly 1.91 times the wrapper-to-filler as the 5x64. Nearly double.

[cgarface]

A Robusto Bunch Weighs ~13.5 grams

If there’s anything new-to-me about the bunch I’m making (given blend for a given vitola), then I’ll do just one and mold it for 10 or 20 minutes and check the draw before I bunch another, with any needed adjustments to filler amount.

But if I know the correct weight for a perfect draw for that vitola, then I can weigh the first bunch instead of having to mold it for 20 minutes.

This works because I always cut my bunches to half-an-inch longer than the final intended cigar. This gives me a very clean tuck-cut on the final finished product.

Last night I molded ten robustos (50rg, 5.5″ bunches) and this morning took the two with the most perfect draw and weighed them. One was 13.25g and the other 13.75g. So let’s call it 13.5g.

[cgarface]

Perfecto Wrapper Template

This is the cut for a perfecto wrapper. The width needs to be narrower than a parajeo cut, too, for a closer fit to that curvaceous body, about 1.75 inches instead of 2. Up at the top the cut will curve strongly down near the edge of the base of the leaf. You start the wrap with the bunch positioned as shown in the photo. You won’t have to do any special manipulation. Just roll it and the wrapper will fit perfectly to the bunch.

[cgarface]

Maduro Over Corojo

...ain’t a bad smoke. I’ve rolled way worse things with this WLT Maduro wrapper. There’s some good flavor in there, but it’s nuanced. This is 3 seco to 1 ligero, and I think I need to go 2:2 or 1:2 to try to determine whether the good flavor is coming from the ligero or the wrapper.

[cgarface]

Fatties

These are already reading 63% at the head, so I can start smoking manana. Just gotta do my jaw-loosening exercises.

[cgarface]

Laguito No 2 Extra

6.5 x 38 Boxpress Pigtail, FX Smith Indo wrapper. This thing is so beautiful in real life that it pains me to burn it, but burn it I shall, right after I post this.

[cgarface]

I should have been rolling panatelas all along. I love the way they sit in the hand and in the mouth. Better late then never, I reckon. Especially good if you have a great-tasting wrapper.

[cgarface]

Freehand Maduro Lonsdales

I used my Sumatra wrapper as the binder on these.

[cgarface]

Good Morning

When you get up early to wrap those cigars you bunched late last night.

[cgarface]

Party Favors Wrapped

Decided to go ahead and wrap them after a few days drying.

[cgarface]

Party Favors

That’s what I call these paper-molded rolls. The eight on the left, 6.75″, are one blend, and the eight on the right, 6″, are another blend. I should probably leave these bunches in the paper for a month, because the leaf felt kind of humid; but I’ll probably wrap them within the next week or two.

[cgarface]

Los Rios Wrapper = Ecuador Sumatra

Gonna go out on a precarious limb and say this stuff is Ecuador Sumatra. Exact same taste, aroma, color, and texture of Ecuador Sumatra that I have from another source. The texture and aroma/flavor of Ecuador Sumatra is very distinct, and this leaf hits those notes exactly.

And yet the description says "Ecuador Habano Los Rios wrapper."

Since it's flavor/aroma/texture has no resemblance to any Habano I've ever used, and is a dead wringer for the Sumatra, I think WLT could claim that it's Sumatra instead of Habano without any major complaint from customers. WLT already has many Habano SKUs and no Ecuador Sumatra ones. Changing the description couldn't hurt sales.

I do recall the word "Habano" has been tossed around freely by one of WLT's suppliers, meaning "cigar tobacco." In that meaning, this leaf is definitely "Habano." In another meaning, it's probably Sumatra.

[cgarface]

New Wrappers

I rolled nine of those coronas (one gone: smoked), two each with wrappers I know work with the blend, and then one each with new WLT wrappers, as labeled above. 

I think all three of those are Habano. Based on previous experience my hope for those wrappers is not high, with the possible exception of the Los Rios. Fortunately this is an empirical question: after I’ve tried them with all my best blends I’ll know whether they can work for me or not.

The reason I’m not expecting great things is the texture and smell of the wrappers. The texture is stretchy, and the smells are maple and raison. So far, maple and raisin have always indicated insufficient fermentation, leaving unpleasant aromas when burnt. And stretchiness has also tended to indicate youth, sometimes manifesting as harshness (the Los Rios has neither raison/maple nor excessive stretchiness).

I’ll be super stoked if past turns out not to be prelude this time around.

[cgarface]

Petit Edmundo 4 3/8 x 52

[cgarface]

Numbering Blend Tests

Haven’t done it in a long time. Been going strictly on vitola. So if I had five blends in one ziplock bag for a specific date, they’d each have a different length and/or ring, which would be described in the spreadsheet entry for that date.

But this time I thought f it, let’s number’m up and make’em all the same vitola. In this case there were five ligero tweaks, and this one had the most of it.

[cgarface]