Cigar leaf blends
drac2485
Professor
in Tobacco Talk
What are your favorite cigar leaf blends and why?
Comments
@mhajec C&D has several blends that contain cigar leaf like Billy Bud and Purple Cow and a few others I can't remember. McClelland has some and Hearth & Home has some. If you go to tobaccoreviews.com you can search for it. Here's the search already to go http://www.tobaccoreviews.com/search?Contents=Cigar+Leaf Some will be listed as just cigar leaf while some companies specifically use maduro leaves or habana leaves
McClellands Dominican Glory + something to rescue it
The tin label says – a satisfying blend of Dominican cigar leaf and Virginias. For me this does not say it at all. It is anything but satisfying. It is a very bland blend indeed. Not enough cigar leaf to do anything for me – no taste of the cigar coming through at all. And not enough Virginia flavour to make it sweet and tangy. I just about pitched this tin awhile back. But on a whim I had an old Romeo Y Julieta Cuban Cigar here that was just a bit dry – to dry to my liking. So I crumbled it up in the tin of McClellands Dominican Glory and viola – Cuban Glory! It is a good smoke. It has been aging for almost a year now. I had forgotten about it. I took it out this afternoon and cracked the sealed Mason Jar. The sweet tang of the Virginias came through with the earthy smell of Cuban cigar just over the top of the other smells. It was the perfect moisture. I packed a bowl and lit it – no charring light necessary at all.
The first smokes in the little Argyle Bulldog were full of flavours. The Virginias came through loud and clear and the cigar leaf was very spicy and earthy throughout the smoke. The flavour seemed to careen from a nice Cuban taste to a good Virginia and back again. Then as the bowl progressed they blended together for a really nice cigary taste. This is really good. I am going to have to get some more and do it again!
Midbowl and to the end the flavours danced back and forth. The residual taste on the lips is a cigar like flavour with just a bit of Virginia Tang coming through. The smoke was good and I was ready to hit the first relight when the bowl seemed light and empty! Smoke over. The ash was a powdery white and gray. Very tasty smoke.
I read somewhere here on This Pipe Life that someone “rubbed out/dismantled” a broken cigar and stuffed it in their pipe (they were NOT impressed). I have tried the same with similar results. I have been thinking about cutting a “bowl size” piece of cigar and stuffing that in a bowl as as short piece of cigar. I have not tried it yet, but I believe the results would still be similar as the outside wrapper would be against the inside of the bowl and would not burn at the rate it should. I have read that the wrapper of a cigar lends a lot of the flavor profile to the cigar and I think this would mostly be lost in a pipe.
I have two old Weber “Smoke-A-Roll” Zulu/Horn pipes and a Century Old Briar (Mastercraft?) “Zepplin/Torpedo” pipe that I thought I would try a cutoff cigar in. The “Smoke-A-Roll” pipes were designed to use pre-formed “plugs/cartridges” of tobacco. From what I have garnered from the information I have found, the “Smoke-A-Roll” was tobacco that was wrapped cigarette style in a (50 ring? or so) paper tube to be inserted into the pipe bowl. It was to facilitate an easy, clean, quickie pipe load. I wish I could get my hands on a package of them, or for that matter just one of the “cartridges” as an example. I think they were made in early 1900’s to 1920/30’s? with/for Velvet tobacco.
The Zepplin’s were kind of the predecessor to Chris Morgan’s “Briar Cigar”. I think Vauen may still make a Zepplin pipe? but they are very few and far between, and somewhat expensive.
Come to think of it, I also have a Swiss made “Pipstar” pipe that might smoke a 3/4”-7/8” long piece of a smaller 38-40 ring cigar.
I have a couple cigar leaf blends C&D “Sansepolcro”, Savinelli “140th Anniversary” both of which contain Italian dark-fired cigar florets and some Tobac Manil “La Brumeuse” pure Semois from Belgium that has a cigar tin-note. It has been so long since I smoked them, I do not remember what any of them were like exactly, but from what I recall none smoked like any cigars I have had🤔
I may have a serious case of TAD (too many tobaccos? I think not.)🤪🤫
https://www.google.com/search?q=“Zepplin/Torpedo”+pipe&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS735US735&oq=“Zepplin/Torpedo”+pipe
https://www.smokingpipes.com/pipe-tobacco/cornell-diehl/Chopped-Cigar-Leaf/product_id/135025/bulk
https://www.smokingpipes.com/pipe-tobacco/warped/The-Haunting-2oz/product_id/340847