Pics of your sticks!! 2025-2026

[Damanadaplaya]

 

[MadFarmer]

 

[Damanadaplaya]

View attachment 58445

This is home grown, air cured and fermented, Criolo 98 and Havana 608 with a habano 2000 wrapper I bought from whole leaf

 

[MadFarmer]

This is home grown, air cured and fermented, Criolo 98 and Havana 608 with a habano 2000 wrapper I bought from whole leaf

I'm planning on growing Criollo 98 this season. Did it have a particularly long resting time after kilning before it was ready, or am I confusing it with another variety.

 

[Fleabag]

I have been growing that mix too and it makes some good sticks! After I kilned mine for about 6 weeks I rolled a couple after the leaves had dried a bit. They were quite enjoyable. The few others I kept my hands off and left in the humidor for a few months were really good. No rawness, just good cigar flavour. I can't tell a huge difference from those and the ones I roll now but I don't have a super refined sense of flavour.
Havana 608/Habano2000/Criollo 98 filler with thin rangi Havana binder and a nice tasty Criollo wrapper. Was still a bit damp but was good.

 

[WillQuantrill]

I have been growing that mix too and it makes some good sticks! After I kilned mine for about 6 weeks I rolled a couple after the leaves had dried a bit. They were quite enjoyable. The few others I kept my hands off and left in the humidor for a few months were really good. No rawness, just good cigar flavour. I can't tell a huge difference from those and the ones I roll now but I don't have a super refined sense of flavour.
Havana 608/Habano2000/Criollo 98 filler with thin rangi Havana binder and a nice tasty Criollo wrapper. Was still a bit damp but was good.
View attachment 58563
View attachment 58562

You should call it Cigardashian for the size of that ash! Ha

 

[Damanadaplaya]

I have been growing that mix too and it makes some good sticks! After I kilned mine for about 6 weeks I rolled a couple after the leaves had dried a bit. They were quite enjoyable. The few others I kept my hands off and left in the humidor for a few months were really good. No rawness, just good cigar flavour. I can't tell a huge difference from those and the ones I roll now but I don't have a super refined sense of flavour.
Havana 608/Habano2000/Criollo 98 filler with thin rangi Havana binder and a nice tasty Criollo wrapper. Was still a bit damp

I'm planning on growing Criollo 98 this season. Did it have a particularly long resting time after kilning before it was ready, or am I confusing it with another variety.

The Criollo 98 was kind of a taller plant with smaller leaves. So I did not get as much yield as the Havana 608, those leaves had some size to them. It’s a mild cigar, the habano 2000 wrapper helped it. My fermentation was for 2 months carefully watching humidity and temp ( see my blog this year). I’ll grow tomatoes this year in my beds, but next year I will blood meal my soil and get it nitrogen rich. I think that’s the trick, high nitrogen, but within the levels. I also think my kiln should have produced a better product.

 

[Fleabag]

I like them dark with a big ash that sags a bit

 

[Damanadaplaya]

I like them dark with a big ash that sags a bit
View attachment 58606

Is that your wrapper?

 

[Fleabag]

Is that your wrapper?

Yeah. Nothing special, just a leaf that wasn't wrecked and was nice and dark. We can't easily import whole leaf anymore, need all sorts of permits. I usually use Criollo for the wrapper since I ended up with more than any of the other varieties and I like the flavour. I quite like the Habano 2000 as a wrapper too. A lot ended up splotchy and terrible like this.

 

[The Haroo ln]

This one is criollo98 and corojo 99. It still tastes very smooth and very sweet even after a few months rest after kilning. I think i know where i went wrong- i kilned all my leaves before the main stem fully dried thats why theres no 'punch' to them. Oh well lesson learnt for this years grow. They still taste and smoke nice!

 

[Damanadaplaya]

This one is criollo98 and corojo 99. It still tastes very smooth and very sweet even after a few months rest after kilning. I think i know where i went wrong- i kilned all my leaves before the main stem fully dried thats why theres no 'punch' to them. Oh well lesson learnt for this years grow. They still taste and smoke nice!

I have not heard stems need to be fully dry before kilning. Mine air cured for almost 2 months. It’s a very smooth but very mild cigar. That is interesting

 

[MadFarmer]

theres no 'punch' to them.

Learning to be patient and letting them ripen in the field a bit longer every year also gives them punch. My 2023 crop was much stronger than my 2020 crop.

 

[The Haroo ln]

I have not heard stems need to be fully dry before kilning. Mine air cured for almost 2 months. It’s a very smooth but very mild cigar. That is interesting

Yeah the entire leaf and main stem should be conpletely dry before kilning them. I believe i saw that from one of Bobs @deluxestogie Posts somewhere on the forum.

 

[deluxestogie]

Since most of us have no way to utilize laboratory testing to determine if the color-curing processes in the leaf have run to completion, we can simply await stem drying as a reliable marker of leaf death. For white-stem burley varieties, waiting a few extra weeks is prudent, since the leaf metabolism differs from their visual clues.

Bob

 

[FrostD]

Latest blend I rolled up. Conceptually sounds like a strong & tasty smoke. We will see! Dry boxed for about 5-7 days. Slowly adding humidity back to em. Initially thought they would be 56 ring gauge, but found them to be too soft. Tossed em into a 54 ring gauge mold and they tightened up pretty nicely with less give.

Wrappers (L to R) = Pennsylvania Broadleaf, Connecticut Broadleaf, Ecuadorian Maduro

Binder= Columbian Seco

Fillers= Dominican CV Corojo Ligero
Nicaraguan Esteli Ligero
Dominican PA (Imported) Viso
Nicaraguan Orinoco #2 Viso
Connecticut Broadleaf Viso
Honduran Jamastran Seco

 

[Madmountain]

Here are some of my recently rolled cigars. I’ve rolled maybe 80 sticks so far. (When I get into something I go for efficiency and volume.)
These are my current go-to blend.
Also shown is my humidor, finished last September. I scored a 100 YO clock casing on Facebook and converted it.
I also am grateful to @adamziegler for his molds. I’ve printed a half dozen of them.
Alex

View attachment 58429

Latest blend is going in to age.

 

[BarG]

My first home grown cigar in 4 years, delicious.

 

[BarG]

I'm doing more prep work before my next cigars and digging through my home grown stash and store bought from whole leaf. Mainly looking for good wrapper leaves. I have beaucoup amount of filler.
I read Bob's post on prep work and am going to take a lot more care in that department.

 

[BarG]

I like them dark with a big ash that sags a bit
View attachment 58606

Ha ha, funny, that's pretty good