They should be done sometime in November. Not sure how long rolling is going to take. We only have an 8 cigar press right now (4.5x56) but plan on getting a 20 cigar press with something closer to a corona or robusto size.
Things have gone well since my last post. We are now rolling cigars and I have tried a couple of them. The darker wrappers are the best. They have a sweet smokey/campfire type taste with some pepper notes. We have rolled some pretty crappy looking ones, and some good ones. We've rolled big ones and small ones. Some are long filler, and some are mixes/short filler.
We have tried to stick with mostly darker leaves for the wrapper, as we are maduro guys anyways. We haven't gotten to the ligero tobacco yet (that will be ready by next week) so right now the blends are mixtures of seco/volado. So far the cigars have been Havana 263/Dixie Shade/Penn. Red filler, mostly havana 263/Penn. Red binder, and Dixie Shade wrapper (some being Penn. Red wrappers). We've rolled them with, and without the cigar press. With a bag and a half of tobacco, we have rolled over 40 cigars and I still have about 9 bags left. Needless to say, a lot of cigars! Here are some pics:
As we let the rolled cigars sit, we will be sampling them, and may even send some out to some folks to try out. I will report back again soon!
Thanks! No special training, though I wouldn't say that my cigars look very pretty. I just watched some youtube videos and got one basic lesson from Felipe Sosa (master cigar roller for Torano) at a cigar tastings once when a few of us were able to roll wrappers onto some Torano cigars.
I haven't been able to smoke much yet. Tried another last night and it tastes good but I get little to no smoke because they are all still too wet. I have to let them dry outside of the humidor for a week or two first.
I'm smoking another one of my handmade cigars. I have smoked several now. Some have burned very well and had a good taste, and others have not burned at all and/or had a very bad taste.
This one tastes pretty decent. It has a sweet oaky taste with almost a hint of maple syrup. It's not blowing me away, but it's still pretty cool to sit down and smoke something that you created. Six-seven months in the making. From babying the seeds to seedlings, to tilling the ground and getting them ready for planting, to watering and fertilizing them, to picking the ripe leaves, washing them, hanging them up to color cure, organizing/filing them in the kiln to super ferment, and pulling stems/rolling the cigars.
It's hard work and I had a lot of help from my friends, but all in all I think of this project as successful. Will I do it again? I'm not sure, but if I do, it will be in less amounts of tobacco next year. We have rolled almost 60 cigars and still have another 150 at least to roll (I'm guess more). I WILL be giving some out to friends, and also in a contest through http://crapnetwork.com. Stay tuned for that.
I'm smoking another one of my handmade cigars. I have smoked several now. Some have burned very well and had a good taste, and others have not burned at all and/or had a very bad taste.
This one tastes pretty decent. It has a sweet oaky taste with almost a hint of maple syrup. It's not blowing me away, but it's still pretty cool to sit down and smoke something that you created. Six-seven months in the making. From babying the seeds to seedlings, to tilling the ground and getting them ready for planting, to watering and fertilizing them, to picking the ripe leaves, washing them, hanging them up to color cure, organizing/filing them in the kiln to super ferment, and pulling stems/rolling the cigars.
It's hard work and I had a lot of help from my friends, but all in all I think of this project as successful. Will I do it again? I'm not sure, but if I do, it will be in less amounts of tobacco next year. We have rolled almost 60 cigars and still have another 150 at least to roll (I'm guess more). I WILL be giving some out to friends, and also in a contest through http://crapnetwork.com. Stay tuned for that.
"pretty cool" i think not. freakin' awesome! always get excited when this thread pops up.
Rolled another 30 cigars in this last batch, only a couple more batches left and we'll have gone through all of the leaves. Only problem is it's mostly seco left and some ligero that needs more fermenting. I need to do a count but I know we are definitely over 200 cigars.
Decided to count them all up. 203 cigars rolled so far, not counting the 30 or so that I have given out/smoked. So around 230 cigars rolled and it looks like we can easily roll another 50 with what is left in the kiln. Pretty good haul overall. Soon the smoking and gifting will begin (and a contest for Crap Network).
Damn this whole project has been great to follow. Good job thanks for the update. So did you smoke other samples, are they medium bodied? Did you all make a specific bunch recipe or a few or just tried many combo leaf bunches?
We tried a few different blends in the beginning and then stuck with what we thought tasted the best with the leaves we had. Obviously we couldn't be 100% choosy since the big guys throw out a bunch in the blending process and we tried to use just about every bit of tobacco we could. There are some inconsistencies but overall we get the same taste. It's med-full flavor and full-bodied in strength. These cigars pack a punch of nicotine. The flavor profile would be best described as sweet, smoky/campfire, with slight black pepper. Our only main issue with them is they tend to go out when not puffed on. Not sure if that is just the environment they grew in or not, but a minor annoyance for smoking something we made ourselves. The smoke itself is very smooth. All of my friends, including myself, was very surprised at how high quality they actually turned out. We were expecting poop.
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As we let the rolled cigars sit, we will be sampling them, and may even send some out to some folks to try out. I will report back again soon!
I haven't been able to smoke much yet. Tried another last night and it tastes good but I get little to no smoke because they are all still too wet. I have to let them dry outside of the humidor for a week or two first.
This one tastes pretty decent. It has a sweet oaky taste with almost a hint of maple syrup. It's not blowing me away, but it's still pretty cool to sit down and smoke something that you created. Six-seven months in the making. From babying the seeds to seedlings, to tilling the ground and getting them ready for planting, to watering and fertilizing them, to picking the ripe leaves, washing them, hanging them up to color cure, organizing/filing them in the kiln to super ferment, and pulling stems/rolling the cigars.
It's hard work and I had a lot of help from my friends, but all in all I think of this project as successful. Will I do it again? I'm not sure, but if I do, it will be in less amounts of tobacco next year. We have rolled almost 60 cigars and still have another 150 at least to roll (I'm guess more). I WILL be giving some out to friends, and also in a contest through http://crapnetwork.com. Stay tuned for that.
Rolled another 30 cigars in this last batch, only a couple more batches left and we'll have gone through all of the leaves. Only problem is it's mostly seco left and some ligero that needs more fermenting. I need to do a count but I know we are definitely over 200 cigars.