Thread: What cigar did you smoke today?

Thanks John, I have an empty humidor right now, plus I got in an assortment of my fav sticks recently, I think I can spare 20 or so of them for what sounds like a great investment, smoke on brother

One of my DIY rolls. I rolled this one too tight. It was originally a stretched out perfecto sort of shape but I had to cut off about 1-1/2" from the head end for it to draw decently. Nice smoke, though. Very mild, sort of like unflavored hookah tobacco but more woody and aromatic. Filler is all seco and viso. Just a little ligero would probably improve it, overall, but I got to get my roll a little looser. Burns very evenly though.

Originally Posted by Johntoad57

Hi TC! Good to hear from you!

Rum soaked is defined as follows:

I have a special handmade humidor that I only use for this purpose. I take Captain Morgan Spiced Rum and coat the inside of the humidor with the rum. The cedar soaks up the rum, so I generally apply two very liberal coats of the rum.

Then I leave the humidor to set empty for two days with the lid closed. Then on the second day I apply a light coat of distilled water to "wake up the rum". Just a very light coat of water. I try to keep my humidor between 70 - 72% humidity.

Add your favorite cigars to the humidor. I put cedar runners down in the bottom of the humidor so the cigars don't touch the bottom and small runners between the layers of cigars.

I let mine cure for about 3 months before I smoke them. Every couple of weeks, I rotate the cigars and ensure there is distilled water and rum in little dishes. This ensures my 70 - 72% humidity and the rum flavor infuses the cigars. I guess I shouldn't say rum soaked but rum infused cigars.

TC - this gives the cigars a nice bouquet and the taste is that of spiced rum. It's not overpowering but it has hints of the spiced rum. It doesn't change the flavor of the cigar, but it just adds a little bit more character. I love it!

Here's some pictures of how my humidor is set up

This is the humidor that I use to infuse the Rum flavor into the cigars. I made this with aromatic cedar for this purpose.
Attachment 341335

Here's the inside of the humidor. It normally holds 26 cigars, but I have 27 in there now. To the left is my distilled water tray and to the right is the rum tray.
Attachment 341336

Here's the lid with the hygrometer. I've had the humidor open to air a little and the humidity is climbing back to 72%. You see the water and rum trays better in this picture.
Attachment 341337

Keep distilled water and spiced rum in the humidor for around 3 or 4 months and they turn out great. After about 4 months, no more rum, just distilled water. Once a year add some rum in a tray for about a week. The cigars will keep for a couple of years and I promise you, if you like good cigars with a twist of spiced rum, you'll like these.

Enjoy my Friend!

If you really like the taste, try to find a tall jar,you know the ones that clamp shut, and with some velcro attach one of the round humidifiers that you usually use for water ,and soak your spirit of choice, and clamp it shut. Open it once in a while, and you'll get some great flavor from it. Someone bought me one when you could get LaDiva cigars, they were infused with cognac and this thing let me experiment with different liqueurs. Easy to make and cheaper than permanently flavor your humidor, if you don't care for whatever you used first. Or if you're like me, you already have OCD,obsessive collector disorder and have humidor to spare.
And you're a Marine, treat yourself, and aim a little higher than Fink,I'm familiar with them...

Originally Posted by Grizzley1

If you really like the taste, try to find a tall jar,you know the ones that clamp shut, and with some velcro attach one of the round humidifiers that you usually use for water ,and soak your spirit of choice, and clamp it shut. Open it once in a while, and you'll get some great flavor from it. Someone bought me one when you could get LaDiva cigars, they were infused with cognac and this thing let me experiment with different liqueurs. Easy to make and cheaper than permanently flavor your humidor, if you don't care for whatever you used first. Or if you're like me, you already have OCD,obsessive collector disorder and have humidor to spare.
And you're a Marine, treat yourself, and aim a little higher than Fink,I'm familiar with them...

That's an interesting concept. Never considered that. Since I have this humidor set up for this process, I'm going to stick with it though. Works for me. You know, I have tried all cigars; expensive to cheap, and I have to say that the Finck's brand suits my palette the best. It's economical and tastes good to me. I'm content at this point but Thank You! But when we stop the embargo with Cuba, I'll get on board.

Originally Posted by Johntoad57

That's an interesting concept. Never considered that. Since I have this humidor set up for this process, I'm going to stick with it though. Works for me. You know, I have tried all cigars; expensive to cheap, and I have to say that the Finck's brand suits my palette the best. It's economical and tastes good to me. I'm content at this point but Thank You! But when we stop the embargo with Cuba, I'll get on board.

If you like them, who am I to tell you what you like. That being said I tried them when I started smoking cigars in 96, you really can't tell what you like until you have tried them a couple of times, because one box may be great and a few months later, (so there not from the same batch) they are nasty. Funny thing is my first favorite cigar was a brand named Carbonell, and buy all accounts they were the Marlboro of the Dominican republic, and for about a year they were great. Then something funny happened, a brand so popular changed their label, no big deal I thought, boy was I wrong, completely different and not for the better. I was so glad that I had bought all of the boxes with the yellow label and had them tucked away in my big humidor, where two boxes still reside, waiting for my son's to get married. The new ones
(Which have a green label) went over like the bombing of Pearl harbor. Gone and almost completely scrubbed from the internet. I can't find anything about either one. But we're way off track here, it you like your system don't mess with it, but consider this, after a few days you can turn the bottle, my wife thinks there called a canning jar, but doesn't know, upside down, so the vapers have to go up through the stogies imparting more flavor. It really does work, I tried it with two different jars using Grand marnier and the difference was noticeable. If you like just respond to this and I'll post a picture. The nice thing is that you can change flavors, infused with different tastes. I never thought I would like the LaDiva cigars and now believe it or not, are collector items, I found one cigar on Etsy, and it said not for smoking. I'm not sure why as there sealed in glass tubes, so they should be fine to smoke. I have one left and now I can't smoke it because of guilt.
Have a good smoke.
Griz

Originally Posted by Grizzley1

If you like them, who am I to tell you what you like. That being said I tried them when I started smoking cigars in 96, you really can't tell what you like until you have tried them a couple of times, because one box may be great and a few months later, (so there not from the same batch) they are nasty. Funny thing is my first favorite cigar was a brand named Carbonell, and buy all accounts they were the Marlboro of the Dominican republic, and for about a year they were great. Then something funny happened, a brand so popular changed their label, no big deal I thought, boy was I wrong, completely different and not for the better. I was so glad that I had bought all of the boxes with the yellow label and had them tucked away in my big humidor, where two boxes still reside, waiting for my son's to get married. The new ones
(Which have a green label) went over like the bombing of Pearl harbor. Gone and almost completely scrubbed from the internet. I can't find anything about either one. But we're way off track here, it you like your system don't mess with it, but consider this, after a few days you can turn the bottle, my wife thinks there called a canning jar, but doesn't know, upside down, so the vapers have to go up through the stogies imparting more flavor. It really does work, I tried it with two different jars using Grand marnier and the difference was noticeable. If you like just respond to this and I'll post a picture. The nice thing is that you can change flavors, infused with different tastes. I never thought I would like the LaDiva cigars and now believe it or not, are collector items, I found one cigar on Etsy, and it said not for smoking. I'm not sure why as there sealed in glass tubes, so they should be fine to smoke. I have one left and now I can't smoke it because of guilt.
Have a good smoke.
Griz

I'm going to look into this. Like I said this is an interesting concept. There are only 3 cigars from Finck's that I'll smoke - Lamb's Club classic, Lamb's Club classic Cubano (Dominican Republic), and their Puritano's (Nicaragua). They have been consistent for a number of years and are modestly priced (about $5.00 a stick) so they within my budget and I do like the taste. Full body with lots of flavor!

Originally Posted by dimab

Montecristo Petit No. 2 - as great as their classic torpedo, but for when you only have an hour Attachment 315173

That's a very nice looking vitola. I have to try making something like that. I was thinking something like a Fuente Hemmingway Short Story, just a little fatter, but that looks very nice.

So I smoked up the last of the batch I rolled, and the next day I rolled up a few more, with a new awareness of what I have to do to make a cigar that not only tastes good, burns good, but also draws good. I just finished smoking one and it was superb. All viso filler this time, same wrapper and binder, but I built a bunching machine and messed around with it, modifying it and testing it. I apply a preliminary binder in the machine, then roll a mano in an outer binder before rolling in the wrapper.









Smoked great, and even the couple of unruly veins didn't hurt the burn. Only two re-lights, even though the cigar was still fairly wet. Left alone in a humidor, the cigar alone sent the hygrometer up to 75% rel. humidity. Very tasty, just a faint hint of pepper and berry, went nicely with my glass of port. I came up with a new finish for the head that works great for keeping it together even after a long smoke.

I prepped the remaining wrapper and binder leaves, and have about 6 or 7 of each left, plenty of filler. I just got my order of Connecticut shade wrappers in, along with more binder, some Sumatra seco, and a little ligero. Looking forward to digging into the new stuff when I finish rolling what I already got prepped. I really like shade grown wrapper. It looks nice and smokes divinely and I believe that, and the increased variety in my fillers will improve my stogies quite a bit.

I think rolling my own is going to be a permanent thing now.

I thought you were supposed roll cigars om your naked thigh.

Originally Posted by STF

I thought you were supposed roll cigars om your naked thigh.

Not quite correct. The thigh is supposed to belong to a beautiful dusky Cuban maiden. We don't have any of those at our house. If I used my thigh, there would be the odd hair or two to get rolled up into the cigar, and burning hair would ruin the flavor and aroma. The wife shaves her legs but she won't let me teach her to roll out of concern that she would then have to roll all of my cigars. I just built myself a nice 16' long workbench in the detached garage in the new house and that's where I roll. My tableta is a 24"x24" piece of 1/4" acrylic sheet. Apparently, rolling on the bench is the latest fashion in all the great Cuban factories. They must be running short of beautiful dusky maidens there, as well.

not rolled with my naked thigh,