My friend's wedding

[logan37]

Two Friday's ago I went to a good friends wedding. He had a cigar roller come out for the venetian hour. The dude rolled 150 cigars in a little over an hour. It was pretty impressive to watch. The wrapper is a Connecticut shade leaf, with a Dominican binder, and Honduran filler.

I bought a box of Perdomo Lot 23 to hand out to whoever so I opted to continue smoking those instead. I'm happy I did because the smell of the fresh rolled ones were kind of bitter. I did take home 2 of the fresh rolled sticks and they are now aging in my humi. I'm going to try one in 6 months or so. I'm hoping they just smelled bitter because they weren't aged. I guess I'll find out.

[mrtr33]

If I'm not mistaken, the amount of time tobacco needs to age and the time the cigar is rolled are separate things altogether. Someone in the know want to enlighten us?

I always thought that the tobacco leaves needed aging before rolling, but didn't think that a rolled cigar necessarily had to be aged to taste good.

Now, it might have to do with the quality of tobacco the roller was using, for example, if the leaves hadn't had proper time to age when he brought them, then that might have contributed to the bitterness.

Just a thought.

[logan37]

If I'm not mistaken, the amount of time tobacco needs to age and the time the cigar is rolled are separate things altogether. Someone in the know want to enlighten us?

I always thought that the tobacco leaves needed aging before rolling, but didn't think that a rolled cigar necessarily had to be aged to taste good.

Now, it might have to do with the quality of tobacco the roller was using, for example, if the leaves hadn't had proper time to age when he brought them, then that might have contributed to the bitterness.

Just a thought.

The tobacco used to roll the cigars was aged. The roller works for a company in NY that has their own cigar brand. He was actually a level 5 roller(7 being the highest). The cigars he rolled were done so using the same tobacco as their main line of cigars. Not one of their "special" blends, but quality leaves none-the-less.

I have no doubts that the tobacco used to roll these fresh cigars are less then premium quality. I decided on aging the now rolled cigars because most, if not all cigar manufacturers age their cigars for at least 6 months after they are rolled. This gives time for the flavors of the tobacco blend used to balance out.

I'm even debating whether or not to wrap these cigars in cedar or age them in individual cedar coffins. Hoping that the cedar will give a bit more spice to the cigar. The only thing holding me back is not knowing how spicy the cigars would be regularly. Maybe one in cedar and the other naked...?

[mrtr33]

The only thing holding me back is not knowing how spicy the cigars would be regularly. Maybe one in cedar and the other naked...?

That's what I would do. If, upon smoking the cedar-enhanced cigar, your diaphragm goes ballistic and you start hiccuping uncontrollably, you'll know the other one is just right. It's an experiment; you got them both for free anyway, right?

I'd be interested in the results.

[ashauler]

To my understanding, the fillers are aged individually prior to rolling as is the wrapper and binder. Once rolled, further aging allows the individual tobaccos comprising the blend to marry and produce the final flavor profile of the cigar.

[BigMacFU]

All tobacco leaves are aged in multiple stages before being rolled into cigars. Once rolled, depending on the cigar, they'll sit in another aging room for rolled cigars at the factory. It is rare that cigars are rolled and packaged immediately (most sit at least a day or two in the rolled cigar aging room just because of the time it takes to cello if needed and be banded).

Once a B&M or mail-order place receives them, they sit until someone buys them. At that point, certain cigars will have met their "peak" in flavor, others will only do so after a certain amount of time. It has to do with the oils from the separate leaves "melding" together. For some it doesn't take long, for others it can take a few months to a year or so, maybe even longer in some cases.

Sometimes though, it may not even be a matter of aging if they've been fresh bought, the higher humidity stores tend to keep the cigars can affect flavor quite strongly, so it's always good to let them settle at a lower RH in your own humidor for a week or so.

BTW, the bitterness of fresh rolled varies on the age of the tobacco at the time of rolling and the type used. I find that the fresh rolled from La Casa Grande up at the Arthur Ave. market are best fresh and harsh with a few months on them.