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Likefine aged cigars but don't want to fork over the cash for an aged import? Niether do I. I'll discuss the basics of cheap cigars, what aging is, and what you need. The list is simple and can be had at any dollar store, most of these item are in your home right now;
- a foam cooler or any platic air tight lidded box of a good size. don't use a paper box
- a sponge
- a small container for the sponge (a soup/soda can, or a small plastic food container is ideal)
- a pair of scissors, a knife, or your hands if you are able.
- cigars (machine made is just fine, and the focus of this lesson)
I encourage the use of Phillies Titan cigars, with are the cheapest by volume cigar (as low as 65 cents on various internet shops)
for a review of most of the machine made cigars on the market (the brands which are nationwide and have/will remain stagnant for decades), please check out the following blog;
http://anotherjackassopinion.blogspot.com/
sorry for the poor pictures.
- a foam cooler or any platic air tight lidded box of a good size. don't use a paper box
- a sponge
- a small container for the sponge (a soup/soda can, or a small plastic food container is ideal)
- a pair of scissors, a knife, or your hands if you are able.
- cigars (machine made is just fine, and the focus of this lesson)
I encourage the use of Phillies Titan cigars, with are the cheapest by volume cigar (as low as 65 cents on various internet shops)
for a review of most of the machine made cigars on the market (the brands which are nationwide and have/will remain stagnant for decades), please check out the following blog;
http://anotherjackassopinion.blogspot.com/
sorry for the poor pictures.
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Signing UpStep 1Machine made cigar basics.
Tobacco leaves have natural oils, chemicals, flavors and scents that if given moisture, heat and time, with produce a darn fine smoke. A lot of people are down on machine made cigars, and it's easy to see why, as most of them (when straight from the cellophane or box) are dry, tasteless, chemical scented and awful. That freshness label is the enemy. Machine made cigars use chopped leaves in a tobacco sheet wrapper. They don't have paper or dirt or fiberglass, regardless or what you may have heard.
The problem with machine made cigars is that the tobacco is sprayed with an incindiary chemical that will help the tobacco burn. This chemical, when inhaled to the mouth, gives the effect of kerosine or rubbing alcohol.
Tobacco leaves naturally contain ammonia and nicotine, which taste horrible. Aging will remove the bad sensations of your cigar and give you a fine smoke. The vast majority of cigar leaf is call "carribean basin tobacco". This is a generic term for Honduran, Costa Rican, Carribean, etc. leaves that are discarded for any number of reasons (veins in leaves, wrong color, odd texture to the fingers).
They are good leaves, but not attractive, and they sometimes burn unevenly so they are not used for handmade expensive cigars. But we don't care about looks, do we? Lets turn some cheapies into goodies.
The problem with machine made cigars is that the tobacco is sprayed with an incindiary chemical that will help the tobacco burn. This chemical, when inhaled to the mouth, gives the effect of kerosine or rubbing alcohol.
Tobacco leaves naturally contain ammonia and nicotine, which taste horrible. Aging will remove the bad sensations of your cigar and give you a fine smoke. The vast majority of cigar leaf is call "carribean basin tobacco". This is a generic term for Honduran, Costa Rican, Carribean, etc. leaves that are discarded for any number of reasons (veins in leaves, wrong color, odd texture to the fingers).
They are good leaves, but not attractive, and they sometimes burn unevenly so they are not used for handmade expensive cigars. But we don't care about looks, do we? Lets turn some cheapies into goodies.
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Nation A has no manufacturing, and the goods they have purchased will not last forever, so Nation A is in a bad way indeed.
The US is Nation A, we make little to nothing here, even the cars of Detriot are basically assembled out of Chinese and Mexican parts. The lack of a manufacturing base is why our nation is in an economic craphole, and has been slipping into one since the later 1970s.
So- by American goods rather than imports, it keeps jobs and money within the United States and say no to imported goods and say no to Walmart. Eventually American manufacturing will rise again. Easy, huh?
ps- google made in america for list sites of manufacturers, such as union shirt supply which has union made t-shirts of american fabric for about 6 bucks. Also consider looking at my instrucable "how to save to American economy.
most likely they come form foreign countries
and stop bagging on walmart its designed to keep people employed so quite
Walmart is designed to deliver goods at low prices, all the while making large profits from it's stock holders and paying it's employees so little that they cannot afford to shop anywhere else but walmart.
They use sweatshop goods and are ruining our economy. ps- I used to work at walmart, I know it's abusive practise first hand. My dad, a machinist and tool and die maker, is loosing work to chinese goods of shoddy quality at a shoddy price.
So- don't buy imports, buy american and encourage export of american goods.
Have a nice day.
It matters not where a cigar is made, as the best cigar in the world can be right next to the worst, in the same box and wearing the same band.
Anyhoo, the folks who wish to use this guide oft cannot afford a 25 dollar cuban, wither way- imports are evil. Buy American.
Happy smoking!
Wax lining on a wooden box, a little costly for my taste. Hope you had the box pre-thought, rather than paying for it.
I used: Candle, 2$ box, 20 cent sponge, a small steel bowl, and some baking soda.
The candle was for making the lining of the woden box so that the wood wont warp. (I rubbed the wax into the wood, and melted it further with a heated steel bowl)
When I assembled the above mentioned materials to make a humidor, I had wet the sponges with hot water (the sponge already inside the steel bowl) for heat, and added some baking soda on the side.
The baking soda helped eliminate any possible formation of mould or fungus. ***Baking soda kills fungii*** and did not affect the flavour of my cigars. Try it!
It did however reduce the overall scent when I opened the box.
The average smoking time is about seven minutes, but one may not leave you feeling satisfied, this has given many Americans in Europe over to the habit of smoking seven cigarillos a day!
The great thing about cigarillos is that they are even easilier to find than full sized cigars at any gas station. Abstain from flavored varieties.
They are wonderful with a cup of creamed fair-trade coffee (which must be roasted at home from green beans, takes four minutes in a skillet, never buy pre roasted or pre-ground coffee in the can, world of difference) and a slice of chocolate cake.
If one day you choose to give full sized cigars some time, try one with Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer- the highest quality macrobrew in America, and a ham and cheese sandwhich. Best evening snack in the world.
coffee roasting is definitely on my To-do list.
I can't drink a Pabst; I'll sub Sam Adams instead with a Royal with Cheese.
Get some old (wooden) cigar boxes from a cigar store and break them into planks and set them into the contraption. If your aging humidor does, in fact, leech out the chemicals, I would imagine that you would have to change the cedar planks regularly.
Exactly how cheap are the cigars? Muniemakers are a good, relatively cheap machine-made brand. If you're doing this to Garcia y Vega, White Owl, Dutch Master, Phillies, etc., you might just be polishing turds.
It's also highly resistant to termites, molding, and decay.
Really, you need a real humidor with an air tight seal to age cigars properly.
i use phillies titans, which are the cheapest by volume cigar i have yet found (do age age dutch masters, they turn yellow and are awful) from jrcigars.com there are 50 count boxes for around 35 dollars.
all machine made cigars are essentially the same (exept flavored and dutches), they are all made with caribbean basin tobacco, but because they contain leaf viens, produce a heavy bodied smoke, much like a cuban maduro. out of the box, these cigars are bad because of the added chemicals and poorly blended flavors, that is why i have made this intructable- to turn crap domestics into import quality.
please look at the google-blog under the name "mazoolo the clown" or the title "machine made cigar reviews" for more info on individual cigars, and what to expect.
After a day you will have a cigar with poor to no flavor, after three days you will have just a lousy smoke. In week you will have a decent cigar, but the methane will be off putting. After two months, you will have a fine cigar. Remember to fill your sponge often, and air out the humidor daily for the first two weeks.
While it is true that sweatshop labor is a paying job, it is a problem that must be subplanted by union labor and localized growth, versus export centered work. Yes, it puts food on the table, but in time sweatshops must be phased out and replaced by local service and semi-manufacturing economies.
Please chec out the blog that has been linked to this instructable. because different makers use different leaf blends, chemicals and flavors are not identical for aged machine stogies. Such as the fact dutch masters turns yellow and puts of tar laiden smoke after aging (a horrible experience). Thanks you for the comment!
another good trick is to just place a glass of water fresh from the micowave into the humidor. this is faster than the hot towel trick, but can breed mold easily.
avoid dutch masters, as they turn yellow and sour. they are made with cigarette tobacco!
black and mild cigars with cavendish pipe tobacco also age and mellow quite well in this arrangment. A three month old black and mild tastes like chocolate, belive it or not!