Just attempted to smoke my first AJF New World Cameroon. Things started off badly when I had to remove the lower band, which is so close to the foot on the short robusto that you can't leave it on -- it would be on fire in a minute or two -- and it was stuck to the wrapper, so some of the fine-looking Cameroon shredded. Then I made a conservative cut with a sharp guillotine and the whole cap shredded off with it, immediately followed by half the wrapper. Then the head split before I could even light the thing. I thought about just smoking the naked binder, but I was too irritated by that point, so I chucked it at my most ornery cow.
[Storage is not to blame -- this was purchased from a very reliable seller/shipper, and stored at careful rH like all the rest.] So Cameroons. I know they are notoriously delicate to work with, but I've never experienced anything like this with a Fuente, for example.
AJF, on the other hand, whose construction has generally seemed excellent to me, seems to have some issues with certain wrappers -- the Sumatra-wrapped AJF H. Upmann sticks I've smoked have been similarly frail, if not quite as bad -- flying to pieces if you so much as look at them wrong.
I wonder why certain cigar-makers have better luck with certain wrappers. More hardy leaf? Grown in different regions? (I gather the existent Cameroon leaf from Cameroon itself is very small in size). Practice? The technique must be slightly different when the material is so fragile, and maybe AJ's torcedores are more accustomed to Corojo, Habano, etc.
Anyway, kind of wondering, kind of just complaining.
[Storage is not to blame -- this was purchased from a very reliable seller/shipper, and stored at careful rH like all the rest.] So Cameroons. I know they are notoriously delicate to work with, but I've never experienced anything like this with a Fuente, for example.
AJF, on the other hand, whose construction has generally seemed excellent to me, seems to have some issues with certain wrappers -- the Sumatra-wrapped AJF H. Upmann sticks I've smoked have been similarly frail, if not quite as bad -- flying to pieces if you so much as look at them wrong.
I wonder why certain cigar-makers have better luck with certain wrappers. More hardy leaf? Grown in different regions? (I gather the existent Cameroon leaf from Cameroon itself is very small in size). Practice? The technique must be slightly different when the material is so fragile, and maybe AJ's torcedores are more accustomed to Corojo, Habano, etc.
Anyway, kind of wondering, kind of just complaining.
