PCF Cigars (17 Viewers)

FestiveKnight said:
Two things to consider:

1) Many say that ~70% of the flavor in a cigar comes from the wrapper, meaning that a smaller ring gauge cigar of the same blend will have a very different flavor from a larger ring gauge because you will get an even more exaggerated impact from the flavor of the wrapper (which makes up more of the tobacco %-wise in a narrower stick).

2) Longer sticks are harder to make because of having larger wrapper-quality leaves and thinner cigars are considered much harder as well.

Put those things together and many (myself included) consider a lancero or londsdale both tastier, a better representation of the code flavor of the blend, and a great representation of the craft being done well.

The best case I’ve personally experienced with this is the Trinidad Fundadores vs Trinidad Topes. Where the former is one of the best sticks I’ve had and the latter was a rather mild let down. Given that the blend are very similar, I attribute this mostly to the vitola.
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You nailed it!
 
Some folks use the cedar wrapper to light their cigars.

My buddy who was quite drunk and we still tease him about it, forgot to take off the cedar wrapper and smoked it until someone finally asked him if he was going to take off the wrapper. He was wondering why the cigar tasted like shit, but did not have the ability to assess the situation. :ROFL: :ROFLMAO:

Speaking of Oscar, has anybody tried The Woody? It's at least a 4 hr smoke, cost is $50.

 
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@CRAW

This was recommended to me by the owner of my local cigar shop, I suggest you give a go

I put it up there with if nit better than the Perdomo Champagne stick

It was great from first puff to the last
Great smoke
Great burn
Lots of smoke and flavor

20210923_180346.jpg
 
This stick is pissing me off, and I was so excited to try it too.

646DB99E-83E7-4F82-8B86-41EE6E8FCCFB.jpeg


Admittedly, I don’t have lighting a cigar down to a science, but it’s burning uneven and I really have to pull off it to get a draw. Maybe it’s waited too tightly? Is that a thing?

Disappointed.
 
CRAW said:
This stick is pissing me off, and I was so excited to try it too.



Admittedly, I don’t have lighting a cigar down to a science, but it’s burning uneven and I really have to pull off it to get a draw. Maybe it’s waited too tightly? Is that a thing?

Disappointed.
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It happens. It may just be a fluke, or it may be a bad batch. Cigars can definitely get packed too tight and be very hard to draw. Uneven burning is almost as annoying at tight rolls. I try to rotate them to keep the uneven long side "up" to help it burn a little faster. IT sometimes helps, a little.
 
CRAW said:
This stick is pissing me off, and I was so excited to try it too.

View attachment 785147

Admittedly, I don’t have lighting a cigar down to a science, but it’s burning uneven and I really have to pull off it to get a draw. Maybe it’s waited too tightly? Is that a thing?

Disappointed.
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A few things:

1) a cigar that’s too humid can have draw issues. Many stores/retailers have their walk in humidors relatively humid because of doors opening and closing or things shipping out that need to stay humid until arrival. How recently did you buy this? What RH was it stored at?

To resolve this, many people “dry box” a cigar before smoking it. 12-24 hours before you want to smoke a stick put it in a box on its own with now humidity source. It won’t dry out too much to have a negative effect but many people swear it makes stick smoke better (I’m usually too lazy for this and maintain a very stable 65% RH but….)

2) some sticks are just wrapped too tightly or made badly. You can buy a PerfecdrawC a toothpick-like tool that can pull some tobacco out of the foot of a cigar and open up the air flow.

3) Are you torching the foot of your cigar before lighting? This won’t help the draw much but I notice that you have a very uneven burn on that stick.

4) When a stick is burning unevenly, I’ve seen two camps of people A) use a lighter to torch the part that’s not burning as quickly. You only need to do this a tiny bit and then keep smoking and it will often even out. Or B) lick their finger and rub it along the part of the stick ahead of where the faster burning part is going to burn next. I will often try method 2 to avoid adding heat but if it’s really bad method 1 is usually your only hope.

6) how large you cut the opening in the stick can effect air flow. This is why many people prefer a v-cut in a torpedo.

5) lastly, especially on a long and thing stick, if you draw too hard and too frequently early on, you risk warming up the oil on the tobacco leaves, pulling it far up the stick, and then letting it cool where it’s far from the lit end. This can create a build up or “tar” and can restrict air flow and negatively impact taste.
 
FestiveKnight said:
A few things:

1) a cigar that’s too humid can have draw issues. Many stores/retailers have their walk in humidors relatively humid because of doors opening and closing or things shipping out that need to stay humid until arrival. How recently did you buy this? What RH was it stored at?

To resolve this, many people “dry box” a cigar before smoking it. 12-24 hours before you want to smoke a stick put it in a box on its own with now humidity source. It won’t dry out too much to have a negative effect but many people swear it makes stick smoke better (I’m usually too lazy for this and maintain a very stable 65% RH but….)

2) some sticks are just wrapped too tightly or made badly. You can buy a PerfecdrawC a toothpick-like tool that can pull some tobacco out of the foot of a cigar and open up the air flow.

3) Are you torching the foot of your cigar before lighting? This won’t help the draw much but I notice that you have a very uneven burn on that stick.

4) When a stick is burning unevenly, I’ve seen two camps of people A) use a lighter to torch the part that’s not burning as quickly. You only need to do this a tiny bit and then keep smoking and it will often even out. Or B) lick their finger and rub it along the part of the stick ahead of where the faster burning part is going to burn next. I will often try method 2 to avoid adding heat but if it’s really bad method 1 is usually your only hope.

6) how large you cut the opening in the stick can effect air flow. This is why many people prefer a v-cut in a torpedo.

5) lastly, especially on a long and thing stick, if you draw too hard and too frequently early on, you risk warming up the oil on the tobacco leaves, pulling it far up the stick, and then letting it cool where it’s far from the lit end. This can create a build up or “tar” and can restrict air flow and negatively impact taste.
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You know, I might have my RH a bit high on my little humidor. That’s something I hadn’t thought about.

Yes, I’m roasting the foot before smoking my cigars (like the Perdomo video), but that leads me to another question. What’s a good (but cheap’ish) butane lighter I can try? I have a double torch butane Zippo and I’m filling this thing like every other cigar I light. Like it’s too small to hold enough fuel.
 
CRAW said:
You know, I might have my RH a bit high on my little humidor. That’s something I hadn’t thought about.

Yes, I’m roasting the foot before smoking my cigars (like the Perdomo video), but that leads me to another question. What’s a good (but cheap’ish) butane lighter I can try? I have a double torch butane Zippo and I’m filling this thing like every other cigar I light. Like it’s too small to hold enough fuel.
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I use one of these. Nothing fancy but it gets the job done and it’s compact. $11.99 I believe I paid and have had no issues.
9AFE0A77-B909-46A6-A8D4-F2F9D8B57C20.jpeg
 
CRAW said:
You know, I might have my RH a bit high on my little humidor. That’s something I hadn’t thought about.

Yes, I’m roasting the foot before smoking my cigars (like the Perdomo video), but that leads me to another question. What’s a good (but cheap’ish) butane lighter I can try? I have a double torch butane Zippo and I’m filling this thing like every other cigar I light. Like it’s too small to hold enough fuel.
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I know you said cheapish but I’ve listed here what I use and after years of trying to get by with cheap accessories (more money for sticks!) I discovered that my enjoyment of the cigars and the smoking process went up tremendously with the right tools and if you can buy 10 cigars you can buy 5 instead and a better cutter.

My kit includes:

-Xicar Turrim $35 on sale. This is the lighter I toss in a coat pocket before a day out. It’s got a big fuel reserve, lights very easily, and the flame size is very adjustable so it’s easy to keep it small for cigarillos.

-S. T. Dupont Defi Extreme $$$. Treated myself to this earlier in the year using the justification below and I’ve been loving it. Great, consistent, concentrated flame, though the reserve could be bigger.

- S. T. Dupont Ligne 2 - this was a birthday present to myself some years ago, it was refurbished but still ran me about $300. Definitely an incredible soft flame lighter but the aesthetics not the performance justify the price.

-Xicar ultra slim cutter - this is the only cutter I’ll use since I got it about a year ago. Sharp, very small and light weight, very smooth cutting action.

-Extra long cigar matches.

These days unless I’m out smoking cigarillos and using the turrim, I torch with the defi extreme and then finish the light with the ligne 2 or the matches. Mostly matches because keeping the ligne 2 topped off is annoying because of needing an adaptor on the butane.


Justification:
I like buying things (I mean, who here doesn’t) and now that most sticks I smoke are ~$10-15 and with amortizing the cost over a lot of sessions, I figure it’s pretty easy to justify more expense cigar accoutrements and since getting them I’ve really appreciated the ease and satisfaction of well made lighters and cutters.
 
Jonesey07 said:
So I’m going to be in Nassau in two weeks on a cruise. Where should I go to pick up some smokes?
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700 Wines and Spirits is the only vendor listed on the Habanos websites that I can find. There is no LCDH in the Bahamas - so I'd probably just bring my own. Any Cuban's you find are likely to be fake.
 
CraigT78 said:
700 Wines and Spirits is the only vendor listed on the Habanos websites that I can find. There is no LCDH in the Bahamas - so I'd probably just bring my own. Any Cuban's you find are likely to be fake.
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Nassau is pretty much all fakes. Actually anything near a port other than LCDH will be fake.
 
I’m going to the cigar shop over my lunch hour… Any other sticks you guys would recommend to me?

I tried a late night Oliva Serie V the other night. It was good and had a maduro (?) wrapper I believe (am I starting to understand the terminology yet - ha!) and I liked that as compared to all the light colored wrapped sticks I’ve been smoking (Claro/Connecticut?).

F9223DE7-ACF8-4408-B66E-836BAA51669A.jpeg
 
Went busto and reloaded for upcoming OBX trip with the fellas. I think 7 boxes should do it.

7boxes.PNG


The UPS and Fedex trucks came within 10 minutes of each other. Luckily my wife left to go out of town after the UPS truck had come. 1 out of 2 ain't bad.
 
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21A2598F-DD19-42DA-9AF0-B43FD3C22003.jpeg

Padrón Family Reserve 1964 - 50th anniversary. Tried both the Connecticut and maduro wrapper versions last night. Connecticut was smooth as silk, fairly open draw, good amount of smoke - very nice. The maduro was an ideal draw with lots of smoke. It was my first maduro and was definitely heavier but not oppressive, just a fuller, earthier flavor. Probably preferred the Connecticut on this one but intrigued by maduros and will try more.
 
Wait until you see our whiskey table
BNM said:
View attachment 787591
Padrón Family Reserve 1964 - 50th anniversary. Tried both the Connecticut and maduro wrapper versions last night. Connecticut was smooth as silk, fairly open draw, good amount of smoke - very nice. The maduro was an ideal draw with lots of smoke. It was my first maduro and was definitely heavier but not oppressive, just a fuller, earthier flavor. Probably preferred the Connecticut on this one but intrigued by maduros and will try more.
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Great sticks! The one on the left is actually a Nicaraguan wrapper (a.k.a Natural). It's not a Connecticut. The 1926 is offered in both Sun Grown Natural and San Andres wrappers. Great too, I just can't afford to smoke them.

I got into Maduros fast, but really mix it up these days. Sometimes closer to a medium has great flavors. I cannot smoke Connecticuts, expect for Broadleafs. They are too weak and don't have any flavor to me.
 

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