I wouldn't use the cigar wrapper and add about 5% for the whole mixture, see if that works.
Using Cigars As Pipe Tobacco
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I think char tobacco smokes best when still wrapped up as a cigar. I haven't cared for any pipe blend heavy with cigar leaf.
I assume some of you have tried the pipe blend "The Haunting," a joint (!) venture of C&D and the Warped cigar producers. It existed before 2020, but they released a 2020 batch limited to 8000 tins around Halloween 2020. I was pulled in by the fact that it was a limited release - the tin wrappers are actually numbered. I bought a tin and thought it was pretty good, and bought a half-dozen more tins, so I've got more than I really need in my cellar.
For someone like me, who almost never smokes cigars, it's a nice change of pace. I'm not sure if they use the wrapper leaf or not though.
For someone like me, who almost never smokes cigars, it's a nice change of pace. I'm not sure if they use the wrapper leaf or not though.
I like to blend a couple of Maduro coins with a flake of Old Dark Fired.
Cigar leaf in its own in a pipe is too harsh for me. I have tried a couple experiments. The goal is to acidify or neutralize the smoke by adding acid or sugar. (Assuming we are not blending with other tobaccos.)
Once, I played with adding citric acid to tame it, and it became smokable, but was fairly strong, and began to taste like lemon which I didn't like.
I recently experimented with grape molasses. Grape molasses isn't really much like actual molasses, except that it's brown and sweet, so I wouldn't bother with real molasses. I used 30g of scrap, and added 12g of the grape molasses, and 15g of a spontaneously fermented cab sauv, which was mostly used to dissolve and distribute the grape molasses. This worked. If I were to do it again, I would ditch the wine and go for vodka or water instead. The grape molasses could probably come down to 8-10g if I kept the wine.
Once, I played with adding citric acid to tame it, and it became smokable, but was fairly strong, and began to taste like lemon which I didn't like.
I recently experimented with grape molasses. Grape molasses isn't really much like actual molasses, except that it's brown and sweet, so I wouldn't bother with real molasses. I used 30g of scrap, and added 12g of the grape molasses, and 15g of a spontaneously fermented cab sauv, which was mostly used to dissolve and distribute the grape molasses. This worked. If I were to do it again, I would ditch the wine and go for vodka or water instead. The grape molasses could probably come down to 8-10g if I kept the wine.
I wouldn’t try to case the cigar leaf, but that’s me. But, I like to blend with either red virginias or burley, with maybe a pinch of either (or both) perique and/or latakia. But, the blend depends on the flavor of the cigar leaf.
It’s just like cooking... taste it, and think (does it need morr salt, hot pepper, or tomatoes?). It’s really not hard. You really can’t ruin it; however, if you start dumping pounds at a time, you may regret it, but not ruin it.
Blending has to start with an open mind. You have to go into it with a sense of serendipity. “I wonder what this is going to taste like?” Whenever I start blending with a preconceived notion, I get disappointment. But, if I just try different things, I’m always surprised. Think of it as an exploration.
But, if I really like a cigar, I’ll try it in a pipe by just cutting a piece of cigar a little longer than the depth of the pipe chamber... if the diameter fits the cigar flushly to the chamber diameter. It’s a different experience from either the whole cigar or just blending with cigar.
It all requires an open mind and being open to the experience. YMMV
It’s just like cooking... taste it, and think (does it need morr salt, hot pepper, or tomatoes?). It’s really not hard. You really can’t ruin it; however, if you start dumping pounds at a time, you may regret it, but not ruin it.
Blending has to start with an open mind. You have to go into it with a sense of serendipity. “I wonder what this is going to taste like?” Whenever I start blending with a preconceived notion, I get disappointment. But, if I just try different things, I’m always surprised. Think of it as an exploration.
But, if I really like a cigar, I’ll try it in a pipe by just cutting a piece of cigar a little longer than the depth of the pipe chamber... if the diameter fits the cigar flushly to the chamber diameter. It’s a different experience from either the whole cigar or just blending with cigar.
It all requires an open mind and being open to the experience. YMMV
I have a jar full of the old Partagás Picadura, made apparently from trimmings of wrapper and intended for the pipe. I ought to revisit it as it's been a few years. I know this was still sold at least as late as the mid nineties, as it was in stock at the Casa del Habano in Buenos Aires (where I was told that Martín Guevara, Che's brother, was the proprietor). This stuff needn't be compared with other conventional pipe tobaccos: it's in a category all its own. It packs a wallop and wasn't intended for the novice. The best comparison I can make is to say that it resembles a strong, rough burley with floral cigar notes, but I think comparisons are unjust. This is a strong tobacco in the Spanish tradition and not to the degree of finesse and sweetness most of us are accustomed to.
Been a cigar smoker for over 15 years and I've never heard that. Do you have a source for the claim that wrapper contributes "most of the flavor?"
Wrapper leaf is a small percentage of the total leaf used in a cigar, and while some filler tobacco may be included more to improve combustion rather than contribute flavor (specifically the volado priming), the majority of a cigar's flavor comes from the seco and ligero primings (if included) in the filler, plus the binder.
If you want to test this theory, get some cigars that are the same blend, but with different wrappers. Fuente 858 is an easy one. Excepting the Rosado (red ribbon), the rest have identical blends, but are available in Cameroon/Natural, Broadleaf/Maduro, Sungrown and Claro (Candela). Each has its own character due to the wrapper leaf, but the cigars are also very similar in their overall profile due to the filler.
I think the deal is that as I roll cigars, I accumulate a ton of scrap. Usually, it ends up in short filler cigars, but if I were to use it all up as a blending component, I would have to have it in every single pipe blend I make in order to use it up. My goal is to be able to smoke it straight.
So I understand your philosophy, and I agree that in an ideal world, I would only have so much scrap that I wouldn't have to resort to casing.
I chop up cigars for blending and smoking in my pipe frequently, I like it a lot. I prefer a nice dark maduro for this purpose. It is important to make sure your chopped up cigar is well blended, as the wrapper is by far the most flavourful part, cigar filler, even in expensive cigars, is kind of bland generally. Smoke the wrapper and filler separately to see for yourself.
I have a jar of chopped up maduro cigars on my desk and I usually add a bit to aros, I find that even a little bit helps amplify the flavours in aromatic blends, probably due to the increased smoke volume. It adds body, a bit of spice, nicotine, and helps cut the goo. All beneficial for aros.
I also like adding a little to English blends, as others have noted, it adds to the full bodied creaminess and strength.
C&D's cigar leaf is pretty mild and easygoing, it would be a good place to start experimenting if one is so inclined. I find that it plays well with bright Virginias and Orientals.
I have a jar of chopped up maduro cigars on my desk and I usually add a bit to aros, I find that even a little bit helps amplify the flavours in aromatic blends, probably due to the increased smoke volume. It adds body, a bit of spice, nicotine, and helps cut the goo. All beneficial for aros.
I also like adding a little to English blends, as others have noted, it adds to the full bodied creaminess and strength.
C&D's cigar leaf is pretty mild and easygoing, it would be a good place to start experimenting if one is so inclined. I find that it plays well with bright Virginias and Orientals.
I lucked out on a cigar blend I really like, recently. 1.5 leaves Dominican Olor ligero, 3 leaves Piloto Cubano seco, double Peru seco binder, and San Andres wrapper. It's almost the same as a Casa Turrent 1973.
I rolled the same cigar with Brazilian Bahia wrapper, and Habano 2000, and they are very different. Although, I usually love the Habano 2000 wrapper, it doesn't work at all, and kind of has an overly sour, salty profile.
The Brazilian is good, but has none of that San Andres profile. It's truly the wrapper that makes it distinctly so.
But I disagree with @cosmicfolklore in the idea that filler doesn't contribute much flavour because it works both ways. I did another version where I used the Brazilian wrapper and took out half a leaf of the ligero, a leaf of the seco, and inserted a leaf of Criollo 98 viso, and it was a different cigar, too.
If someone, say a know it all jack of all trades master of none, happens to be a cigar smoker for just shy of two decades, and happens to be say, incognizant to the notion that the wrapper is the source to which most flavor resides, in a cigar that is, I say huzzah to the idiot.
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If you like dark Kentucky cigars you could also add Cimette di Mastro Tornabuoni to your other tobaccos.
from what I understand the answer is yes but the ones that are either cosmetically damaged or have damage that prevents it from being a good wrapper (one of the reasons cigars are so expensive, a tiny tear and it's no good for what it was grown for.)
if I understand correctly it's where a lot of the price comes from.
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