Newfie
Official Lancero Whore
First off, let me say I love the Padron X000 series, and this experience will not change my mind. With all that I’ve smoked so far (and I smoke a lot of em), I’m almost amazed it hasn’t happened before.
This smoke was hard to snip. So hard, I had to check the blades on the Xikar. Predraw was horrible and I thought twice about lighting it, but went ahead anyway. It had several hard spots, one right at the snip, one about 1/2” below the band, and one an inch away from the foot. After some rolling and pinching in these areas, it still had a tight draw and while it toasted nicely, it was hard to draw on to light properly. I puffed slowly and didn’t get much smoke. Cigar warmed and softened a bit, more rolling and pinching, still no easier on the draw. So, after 5 minutes and 10 or a dozen or more decent puffs, I laid it down.
Here’s the stick after it cooled:
Here’s the cigar with the wrapper off and the binder leaves exposed. (Now that’s an interesting wrapper isn’t it? More on that later.) At the foot, I actually had to “saw” through with the razor blade. I was amazed at how hard it was:
Here it is with the binder leaves split open and peeled back a little:
This is a good shot of one of the “plugs”. This was right at the head where I snipped it, and at first felt like a giant stalk, but it did separate into layers. So I’ll assume the Roller just had too much at the head and jammed the mold together, forcing to much tobacco there.
Here’s the filler fully exposed and another “stalky” bunch of tobacco (this was the one below the band). It was quite the same as the first, but not quite as hard.
I don’t profess to be anywhere near an expert on cigar rolling, but this one just didn’t seem right from others (both NC and ISOMs) I’ve dissected. There seemed to be little sections of tobacco everywhere that weren’t part of a long filler.
I like this picture. This is the wrapper backlit to the sky. I remember chuckling to myself and thinking “No wonder it’s F’ed up, it’s a Padron BTL!!!!” Personally (and again, no expert) I’ve never seen a wrapper like this before, but then again, I've never peeled a wrapper off one of these.
All in all, an interesting 10 minutes. Hope you enjoyed it, and should anyone have any questions, I’ll try to answer them.
This smoke was hard to snip. So hard, I had to check the blades on the Xikar. Predraw was horrible and I thought twice about lighting it, but went ahead anyway. It had several hard spots, one right at the snip, one about 1/2” below the band, and one an inch away from the foot. After some rolling and pinching in these areas, it still had a tight draw and while it toasted nicely, it was hard to draw on to light properly. I puffed slowly and didn’t get much smoke. Cigar warmed and softened a bit, more rolling and pinching, still no easier on the draw. So, after 5 minutes and 10 or a dozen or more decent puffs, I laid it down.
Here’s the stick after it cooled:
Here’s the cigar with the wrapper off and the binder leaves exposed. (Now that’s an interesting wrapper isn’t it? More on that later.) At the foot, I actually had to “saw” through with the razor blade. I was amazed at how hard it was:
Here it is with the binder leaves split open and peeled back a little:
This is a good shot of one of the “plugs”. This was right at the head where I snipped it, and at first felt like a giant stalk, but it did separate into layers. So I’ll assume the Roller just had too much at the head and jammed the mold together, forcing to much tobacco there.
Here’s the filler fully exposed and another “stalky” bunch of tobacco (this was the one below the band). It was quite the same as the first, but not quite as hard.
I don’t profess to be anywhere near an expert on cigar rolling, but this one just didn’t seem right from others (both NC and ISOMs) I’ve dissected. There seemed to be little sections of tobacco everywhere that weren’t part of a long filler.
I like this picture. This is the wrapper backlit to the sky. I remember chuckling to myself and thinking “No wonder it’s F’ed up, it’s a Padron BTL!!!!” Personally (and again, no expert) I’ve never seen a wrapper like this before, but then again, I've never peeled a wrapper off one of these.
All in all, an interesting 10 minutes. Hope you enjoyed it, and should anyone have any questions, I’ll try to answer them.
