Tweet
THE TOBACCO ARRIVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
20120704_175049.jpg
I was very excited to get a whiff of the goods when I opened the box but the smell of the tobacco is not what I was expecting. I really like the smell of roll your own tobacco, Marlboro, Winfield etc. It smells nice and sweet to me. This tobacco doesn't smell sweet at all, it is a very overwhelming musty tobacco smell! Not pleasant at all. Perhaps because of the shear amount of it or the fact that it is slightly moist. Anyway, it got me a bit worried about how the cigars would be if it smelt like this.
Regardless, I left work early to get a good start on rolling this evening. The first point of call was to open each of the packages and separate the leaves individually. I spritz the binder and wrappers with water to make them more supple and then chose a few to work with.
I removed the stems from a few binder leaves and cut the bottom part of the leaf off near where the stem was to try to remove the majority of the protruding veins on the leaf. The stems are quite hard to remove, but I think this is because I didn't leave them long enough to become really supple so I could just rip them out.
I was unsure as to how much filler tobacco to put in but decided I would try two seco leaves and one legero leaf for my first cigars. I laid them down on the glass board and then bundled them up. I measured the bundle against the mold and ripped off anything that was too long and added it to the bundle evenly. I say evenly, but this is very difficult and will take some practice to get it right. Then I rolled the bundle in a binder leaf. Actually from half of a whole binder leaf (one side) I was able to roll two bundles. I cut with a cigar cutter the end which will get the cap. Here is my first bundle ready to go in the mold: (please excuse the glass cutting board with bread prints on it!)
20120704_182520.jpg
Then I placed it in the mold:
20120704_182601.jpg
And rolled another five bundles to put in for my first batch. I then clamped the mold shut for 20 minutes:
20120704_190108.jpg
After 20 minute I opened the mold to turn the cigars 45 degrees as the mold pinches the edges due to its design (which is normal). You can see in this picture that I have turned three of the bundles and you can see the crease up the side:
20120704_191523.jpg
Then I clamped the mold shut again for another 20 minutes. During this time I started prepping the wrapper leaves. I chose four Connecticut wrappers and two Maduro wrappers. I must say that a few of the wrapper leaves had small holes in them which made things slightly difficult but decided to use ones without the tiny holes for my first ones in case I get frustrated with them ripping. I placed the, now half, leaves in a moist tea towel to keep them supple.
I opened the mold up, cut the wrapper leaf into a shape which I could roll and rolled the bundle up, stretching the tobacco as I went. I used a small amount of glue (I'm using agar, but I will need to find some pectin as this is not really appropriate as its only a liquid after being heated slightly, so between rolling I had to heat it in the microwave each time).
I cut a small amount of the wrapper leaf into whats called a flag, and then wrapped it around as a cap. Then I used the metal pipe to cut a circle cap which I glued to the top. The cap, for me, is the most difficult part, in part because of the glue I'm using, and also because it is effing difficult! I cut the end off with a cigar cutter to make a nice foot and...so....this is my first batch:
20120704_194954.jpg20120704_215326.jpg
It was quite hard to get them to a uniform size, as I said, getting the bundle to be even was hard and the soft spot was always at the end, which I cut off. Unfortunately, I guess because of the grade of leaf the veins are quite prominent. I tried to roll them out slightly with a rolling pin, which worked to some extent, but they are still evident in the finished product. As I get better at choosing and cutting the wrapper leaves this should improve. In fact, my last cigar I rolled doesn't have any prominent veins and is quite smooth
The cigar rolling itself is quite quick, but the preparation of the leaves is very time consuming, but I should get quicker with time.
Overall, I am very happy with my first attempt and I can only improve from here. I must say that with the amount of tobacco I got I will be able to roll an extraordinary number of cigars! I have barely scratched the surface!
True to my word, that I would try a cigar at each point in the process, I fired one up to see how they were!
20120704_221434.jpg
The first surprise was that it wasn't too moist to light, the second surprise was that it is actually quite good! Maybe I am slightly biased!
The wrapper is slightly sweet on the lips, the draw was almost perfect, nice and firm and needed no touch ups (although I wouldn't expect any issues for this size of cigar) or relights. There was plenty of creamy smoke. I would say that it is medium bodied and tastes fantastic!
I will continue to show my progress here as I improve my rolling and capping (fingers crossed), and as I said in Part 1, over the coming weeks I will have a couple of competitions so that a few of you can sample my hard work (once I'm happy enough with the cigars for people to see them in person!)!
Happy smoking every one
20120704_175049.jpg
I was very excited to get a whiff of the goods when I opened the box but the smell of the tobacco is not what I was expecting. I really like the smell of roll your own tobacco, Marlboro, Winfield etc. It smells nice and sweet to me. This tobacco doesn't smell sweet at all, it is a very overwhelming musty tobacco smell! Not pleasant at all. Perhaps because of the shear amount of it or the fact that it is slightly moist. Anyway, it got me a bit worried about how the cigars would be if it smelt like this.
Regardless, I left work early to get a good start on rolling this evening. The first point of call was to open each of the packages and separate the leaves individually. I spritz the binder and wrappers with water to make them more supple and then chose a few to work with.
I removed the stems from a few binder leaves and cut the bottom part of the leaf off near where the stem was to try to remove the majority of the protruding veins on the leaf. The stems are quite hard to remove, but I think this is because I didn't leave them long enough to become really supple so I could just rip them out.
I was unsure as to how much filler tobacco to put in but decided I would try two seco leaves and one legero leaf for my first cigars. I laid them down on the glass board and then bundled them up. I measured the bundle against the mold and ripped off anything that was too long and added it to the bundle evenly. I say evenly, but this is very difficult and will take some practice to get it right. Then I rolled the bundle in a binder leaf. Actually from half of a whole binder leaf (one side) I was able to roll two bundles. I cut with a cigar cutter the end which will get the cap. Here is my first bundle ready to go in the mold: (please excuse the glass cutting board with bread prints on it!)
20120704_182520.jpg
Then I placed it in the mold:
20120704_182601.jpg
And rolled another five bundles to put in for my first batch. I then clamped the mold shut for 20 minutes:
20120704_190108.jpg
After 20 minute I opened the mold to turn the cigars 45 degrees as the mold pinches the edges due to its design (which is normal). You can see in this picture that I have turned three of the bundles and you can see the crease up the side:
20120704_191523.jpg
Then I clamped the mold shut again for another 20 minutes. During this time I started prepping the wrapper leaves. I chose four Connecticut wrappers and two Maduro wrappers. I must say that a few of the wrapper leaves had small holes in them which made things slightly difficult but decided to use ones without the tiny holes for my first ones in case I get frustrated with them ripping. I placed the, now half, leaves in a moist tea towel to keep them supple.
I opened the mold up, cut the wrapper leaf into a shape which I could roll and rolled the bundle up, stretching the tobacco as I went. I used a small amount of glue (I'm using agar, but I will need to find some pectin as this is not really appropriate as its only a liquid after being heated slightly, so between rolling I had to heat it in the microwave each time).
I cut a small amount of the wrapper leaf into whats called a flag, and then wrapped it around as a cap. Then I used the metal pipe to cut a circle cap which I glued to the top. The cap, for me, is the most difficult part, in part because of the glue I'm using, and also because it is effing difficult! I cut the end off with a cigar cutter to make a nice foot and...so....this is my first batch:
20120704_194954.jpg20120704_215326.jpg
It was quite hard to get them to a uniform size, as I said, getting the bundle to be even was hard and the soft spot was always at the end, which I cut off. Unfortunately, I guess because of the grade of leaf the veins are quite prominent. I tried to roll them out slightly with a rolling pin, which worked to some extent, but they are still evident in the finished product. As I get better at choosing and cutting the wrapper leaves this should improve. In fact, my last cigar I rolled doesn't have any prominent veins and is quite smooth
The cigar rolling itself is quite quick, but the preparation of the leaves is very time consuming, but I should get quicker with time.Overall, I am very happy with my first attempt and I can only improve from here. I must say that with the amount of tobacco I got I will be able to roll an extraordinary number of cigars! I have barely scratched the surface!
True to my word, that I would try a cigar at each point in the process, I fired one up to see how they were!
20120704_221434.jpg
The first surprise was that it wasn't too moist to light, the second surprise was that it is actually quite good! Maybe I am slightly biased!
The wrapper is slightly sweet on the lips, the draw was almost perfect, nice and firm and needed no touch ups (although I wouldn't expect any issues for this size of cigar) or relights. There was plenty of creamy smoke. I would say that it is medium bodied and tastes fantastic!
I will continue to show my progress here as I improve my rolling and capping (fingers crossed), and as I said in Part 1, over the coming weeks I will have a couple of competitions so that a few of you can sample my hard work (once I'm happy enough with the cigars for people to see them in person!)!
Happy smoking every one
really well done mate,loving your work!
Comment