First post: how to properly hydrate leafs?

Hello everyone!
It’s my first post here! And I just start to roll my cigars, got few questions. Hope you guys could help me with it

How do you properly hydrate your leafs?
How do you guys store your leafs?
What to do after I roll one to make it smokable?

Thank you all!

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Bob

Welcome to FTT

pier

Welcome!

I'm not a cigar but a cigarette smoker and not as experienced as many here, but i personally store my leaves very dry in a large zip-lock bag and when i need to shred them i put them in a 20 gallon tub and mist them with one of those hand pump garden sprayer/misters

I live in the UK where it rains practically every day, to bring my leaves into case I only have to spread them out on the workbench in my garage for a couple of days.

Tommmmm said:

What to do after I roll one to make it smokable?

Click to expand...

Age it for as long as your patience can hold out.

1. I use distilled water in spray bottles. Filler needs to have just enough moisture that it won't shatter during bunching. If Filler has excessive moisture it will take longer rest period once finished to have a smokable stick. Binder should be high case especially if you intend on using a mold. I always leave the sticks in a mold for atleast 6 hours before they are rotated 90* astounding minimize any seams left by the mold. So you want the binder to still be "workable" at this step as to not rip. Wrapper is medium to high case. At medium case you will be able to sense elasticity threshold better but high offers the advantage of being able to stick the leaf to a flat surface making it easier to get a tight wrapper without so many variables to mitigate at one time. Also high case tends to put a "shine" on the wrapper which is attractive. The downside to high case wrapper is elasticity is more difficult to feel out making it easier to cause tears while pulling tight.
2. Much information to be had on this site regarding leaf storage. I keep mine in vapor proof bags inside waterproof storage totes to maintain humidity inside.
3. This is purely my own preference but my cigars go into a dry-box (empty cigar box" for a couple weeks to rest and then go into a humidor to stabilize for Ideally 6 months at the least. The attributes of a blend change vastly in the beginning and then seem to stabilize after enough time and become much more enjoyable with age.

Just my .02