An experiment. (Lots of pictures)

[MMarsden]

So I was browsing vitolas.net and came across this image of a AF hemingway signature that had been unwrapped and outfitted with an ecuadorian sun grown wrapper. The owner of the box of Hemi signatures had found a former fuente roller willing to do this.

I found this a novel idea, playing with the blend of a cigar to see how it turns out. However, I have no such access to a roller that might be willing to try doing something like this for me. Furthermore, I like to do things myself because it's generally cheaper.

So tonight I took two of the smokes I believe I know the best and decided to switch the wrappers around. How hard could that be, right? Oh how soon I would learn the answer to that question and more.

The cigars I picked in question were the Avo #2, with a US grown Connecticut shade wrapper, and the Padron maduro londres, with a maduro nicaraguan wrapper. Now, you may be thinking that these cigars aren't that close in size and that I really should have chosen, say, the Padron 3000 maduro. Well, this was kind of on a whim, and I happen to be out of the 3000s right now and didn't have time to pop down to the B&M.

Here's a picture of the set-up as I started with a the two cigars, a knife, my dish of pectin, and a spray bottle of distilled water (The same one I use to rehydrate my beads! Did I mention I'm cheap?):



I started taking off the wrapper of the Avo first and learned their torcedors don't cut a seperate piece for the cap, they just have the wrapper leaf prepared in such a way they can fold it over and cap it without the extra hassle. I was very impressed.



This was the easier of the wrappers to take off, as they only glue the tip of the cigar, whereas the padron had pectin running along the edge of the wrapper the entire way through.



Look at that, at it beautiful. Except that random hole in the wrapper. That wasn't my fault, either. Talk about kinda tickin me off.



Now I managed to get the entire wrapper off without too much trouble. See that diagonal slant? That's what I'll be lining the foot of the padron up with to make it wrap correctly. Kind of a cheat sheet.



Now the padron was just more of the same. More glue, especially. Getting the cap off took a lot of time to keep from tearing anything. Also, I mentioned above how they glue along the entire wrapper? Yeah, thanks for making my job hard, random nicaraguan lady.



A comparison shot of the two wrappers. I think the wrapper on the Avo is incredably dark for a shade grown wrapper. This is where I began worrying about just how I was going to fit the maduro wrapper on the Avo.



The wrappers held up to the light. First is the nicaraguan, second is the connecticut.





Now to the fun/hard part: wrapping them back up. Here's the londres being wrapped with the Connecticut shade. One thing I think I heard once about cigar rolling is that you gotta keep a constant tension on the wrapper to keep it tight around the cigar. I interpreted the phrase "constant tension" as "Oh ****, am I too tight? Am I gonna tear this leaf? **** **** ****, no, I'm too loose! **** **** TOO TIGHT!!!"



Here I realized I had no idea how to cap a cigar. I started trying to do a pigtail, failing, cutting off the pigtail (ow!) and slapping on a loose piece of tobacco as a cap. Sadly, it's probably one of the better caps I've seen on the regular padron line.









The final product! It's not beautiful, but at least I can only improve! :sweat:



Then I started rolling the Avo. This one was a bit more difficult because the binder kept wanting to unwrap. I think the color difference in this photo is great, though.



Not having enough wrapper to cover the entire stick, I left the foot exposed. I think it looks cool.



The wrapping on the Avo came out much more succesfully, I think, despite me doing this entirely to have a connecticut shade Padron.



I'm expecting someone to come in this thread flaming me for destroying two great sticks to satisfy some whimsy. I pose this question to all of you, are there any cigars that you've either wondered about or wanted a new wrapper on?

Have you ever seen someone do this before? By a professional roller or a regular joe?

Do you think all this is disrespectful to the original blender and that I should be dragged out of my house and shot?

Thanks for reading, I know it's a bit long.

[z0nar]

Not going to lie, thats pretty unbelievable. I wonder how much of that signature tasty padron flavor will shine into that avoibble:

[thisone326]

awesome! those two great sticks are yours to do what you wish to! i saw Sam Leccia undue some random cigar and an oliva G maduro and had us smoke the G with the maduro and with the other wrapper he added to show the taste diference just in a wrapper.


i think its a great idea and i;ve been wondering what a Brazilia would be like with a Exile Rosado wrapper. adding some flowery flavors to the robust flavors of the Brazilia might be cool! too bad i'm outta exiles!


great experiment. keep us updated on how they taste when you smoke em!

[MMarsden]

Originally Posted by thisone326

great experiment. keep us updated on how they taste when you smoke em!

I will! They'll probably be drying for a day or two, and then I'll let the sit so they blend with their new wrappers. Probably will smoke one in a week or so.

[sseagle]

That my friend, is impressive. I've only cut up cigars that make me mad... nothing constructive like this..

[SmoknTaz]

Sometimes on a whim you just gotta go for it. I take my hat off to you for putting the time in to satisfy your curiousity. Thanks for the pics and let us know the outcome.

[Stogie]

Very interesting. Way to take it to the next level. I like it.

[sseagle]

I'm more impressed on the second read through, I'm sure I would have butchered many wrappers in the process..

[azpostal]

Wow that is cool no way I have the talent for that

[Doogie]

if i tried that i would have tore up both sticks. let us know how they taste

[big04deuce]

That is pretty sweet! Let us know how it smokes.

[happy1]

Hell'va job

[The EVP]

Didn't Sam Leccia also experiment with unwrapping and rewrapping different cigars in different wrappers to see how it affects the taste?

Looks good though! You can always slice up the exposed foot of the Avo and tell people it's the only AVO Shaggy Foot in the world and was rolled specifically for you!

[hayward_tenney]

Good work man, that was an interesting read, and the pictures say a thousand words. I too am curious to know how they taste, so post an update once you've smoked 'em!

[Snapperhead-cl]

Awesome write up with pictures. Really cool idea to put a spin on a couple cigars that you like....Hope they turn out to be a good smoke.......Maybe with more practice you can get hired as a roller.