A Somewhat Different Blend Help Request

[Knucklehead]

In my usual knuckleheaded fashion, I decided to bring my tobacco back into case and mentally started noticing that my variety numbers were starting to pile up just a little bit. I know what to do with the cigarette varieties, shred, blend, smoke. But...I have a couple cigar varieties that are overwhelming me in terms of where to start? Do any of you fellow cigar enthusiasts that have grown these varieties have any blend suggestions? I haven’t rolled a cigar in about four years so this stuff just keeps piling up. Here is my current stash of fillers: Zimmer Spanish, Comstock Spanish, Vuelta Abajo, Lancaster Seedleaf, Burley Red Tips, Remedios from Cuba, Coroja from Cuba, Swarr, Little Cuba from Cuba, Hacienda del Cura, PA Broadleaf, PI 404935 from Cuba, La Palma Havana, Little Dutch, Glessnor, PI 404951 from Cuba, Criollo, Colombian Garcia, Amarillo Parado, #6055 from Cuba, Olor...binders: Mass CK-1, Havana 503 B...wrappers, Florida Sumatra, Machu Picchu, Bezuki, AST, No. 3666 Deli, 0-40, Timor from Java, Brasil Dunkel. OK fire away.
A photo of some leaf I’m trying to bring back into case.

 

[deluxestogie]

1. Generally Havana Type
   • Zimmer Spanish
   • Comstock Spanish
   • Vuelta Abajo
   • Coroja from Cuba
   • Hacienda del Cura
   • La Palma Havana
   • Criollo
   • Havana 503 B
   • Machu Picchu
2. Dutch / Red Cigar Type
   • Little Dutch
3. PA Broadleaf / Seedleaf
   • Lancaster Seedleaf
   • Swarr
   • Glessnor
   • PA Broadleaf
4. Unique Cigar Filler
   • Olor
5. Sumatra Deli Wrapper Types
   • Florida Sumatra
   • No. 3666 Deli
   • Bezuki
   • Timor from Java
6. CT Shade Wrapper Type
   • AST
7. Dark Cigar ?
   • Brasil Dunkel
8. Primitive
   • PI 404935 from Cuba
   • Little Cuba from Cuba
9. Burley Type
   • Burley Red Tips
10. I Can't Help
    • Remedios from Cuba
    • PI 404951 from Cuba (?filler)
    • Colombian Garcia (supposedly cigar filler)
    • Amarillo Parado (supposedly cigar filler)
    • #6055 from Cuba (?Oriental)
    • Mass CK-1
    • 0-40

I would suggest just considering the groups as a single category, since you don't have a lot of leaf from any single variety. Any cigar class might provide wrappers and binders and filler.

Bob

 

[Knucklehead]

That’s helpful, thanks. So for an American cigar anything from groups 3, 6, and 9?
I thought I remembered you growing Colombian Garcia beside your house one year? Along the white wall? Maybe not.

The ones that just say Cuba beside them were from the 8 seed accessions GRIN had from Cuba, incl. Coroja, Criollo, and Vuelta Abajo. They had no filler, wrapper,etc. designations. I believe from the ‘50’s?

edit: correction: they were classed as oriental or primitive but definitely grew like Havana types.

 

[deluxestogie]

Groups 2, 3, 6 and 9, for "American" style cigars. My group #2 might include Little Dutch, Dutch Ohio, Pennsylvania Red and Long Red.

Colombia Garcia (which I grew for several years) is cigar leaf, but sometimes has an off aroma of mystery terpene. The more vigorously it grows, the stranger it tastes.

For cigar leaf types, most home-growers and home-rollers just ignore the wrapper, binder, filler classes, and simply grade the individual leaves themselves, whether from an entire plant, or even from a bag of WLT leaf designated as something else. Those designations are often historic, and relate to the most common market for those leaves during the late 19th century. ARS-GRIN just followed that pattern, and classed new accessions by the degree to which each variety resembled the historic use classes. From a commercial standpoint, cigar factories want pre-graded leaf of specific varieties. With varieties for which there is no designation of use class, just try what seems reasonable.

Bob

 

[Knucklehead]

I should have gone back and read my grow blogs. Jessica provided a good explanation of the classes in my blog.

 

[GreenDragon]

All the fun is in the experimentation. Their our know rules!

 

[tullius]

I think Bob's groups lend necessary structure to a fairly wide list, and are thus very helpful.

Working with what I've had from what you've got, I would try bunching various filler combinations of coro, Criollo and vuelta abajo using all the priming levels, bind with olor, and wrap with either ast (light) or any of the Sumatra wrapper types (less light). If you sort some coro suitable for wrapper or binder, try that first.