My Christmas Present to Myself, and my morning smoke, a homemade cigar stuffed with Sir Walter Raleigh. He was crying to get out, so I lit him! Story below pictures if you so wish to read it.
Okay - my buddy Stu popped over a few nights ago, and he's the guy who had me try Sherlock Holmes and Plum Pudding. He also brought over his cigar making (actually cigarette making) machine and a few of his products including a few little cigars loaded with Plum Pudding and Sherlock Holmes. Of course, I lusted after the toy and bought one forthwith. Amazon got it to me in two days with the tubes.
Selling point was that he taught me to stuff the tubes, and I loaded up (under his excellent instruction) several brands of tobacco I had out that evening as well. As is often happens, Mike dropped by (he only lives a few blocks away) and we had pipes and some of my attempts at homemade little cigars. In addition to Stu's cigars, I made four or five each of Sir Walter, Sunday Picnic, Captain Black Cherry and a few others. They use a shade less tobacco than in my miniature pipes, but I get a full 20 minutes or so out of one of these little suckers, for less tobacco than a 12 to 14 minute smoke on the miniature pipes. Burning rate depends on the tobacco of course.
So the three of us smoked our brains out that night.
I got good buddies . . . another one, Ryan, has a 3D printer and has manufactured me a half dozen of the tip holders. He knows I like the tips because I smoke Colts outdoors at the range, and I like the way that little cigars smoke with tips - you can kind of treat it like a pipe, using slow smoking techniques, and it's easy on the tongue and lips. Win win.
So there it is. A new tool in my arsenal. I'll comment on the qualities of the tobaccos used as I smoke them At this point, SWR and Capt Black Cherry Cavendish are outstanding . . . .shut your eyes and they taste just like they're coming out of a pipe!
To be continued . . . . .