Naked Cigars?!

[Dave]

Okay, I decided to grab a smoke just an hour ago, so rummaging through my humidor I found the good old CI Legends White (Camacho). I attempted to use my thumb nail to pierce the cap, score it, and flip it off, unfortunately due to my novice hand, I tore the wrapper at the mouth piece, but the band kept the wrapper from peeling off. I went to my front yard to smoke, and smoke I did. Lit it with some wooden matches, and puffed away.

Of course it being winter time and cold, my freshly cigar started to burst at the foot, and the wrapper was torn halfway up, but the binder was still intact. My slobbering also loosened the wrapper at the head as well, so while the wrapper was falling from the head into my mouth. I was getting annoyed at spitting out wrapper pieces, so I just peeled the entire wrapper off and smoked the bunch and binder sin wrapper.

WOW!!! What a surprise. The wrapperless CI Legends White suddenly became creamier, and the trail smoke had a freshly baked buttery cookie aroma to it, something you usually smell in a pattiserie. I reflected to how it tasted when I first smoked one of these sticks and this time it was better than the wrapped one I smoked only 4 weeks ago. I don't believe 4 weeks is enough to improve the taste of this cigar that greatly, which leads me to a conclusion that the wrapper had a taste on its own that restricted the inherent creaminess of the bunch. Needless to say I was impressed. I only took the wrapper off because it was coming off by itself from both ends.

Has anyone else had an experience similar to this, where smoking a wrapperless cigar was better than smoking a wrapped one? Or am I the only novice foolish enough to try this?

 

[Shooter]

Did it once but was to drunk to notice the difference

 

[Ginseng]

Dave,

I can honestly say I've never had that happen. The once or twice I've had wrappers come undone, I can't say that I've noticed that magnitude of transformation. Are you going to try it again intentionally just to double check the observation?

Wilkey

 

[Dave]

Dave,

I can honestly say I've never had that happen. The once or twice I've had wrappers come undone, I can't say that I've noticed that magnitude of transformation. Are you going to try it again intentionally just to double check the observation?

Wilkey

Hmmm, that is a good question. For research I should intentionally try it, however the cigar was made with the wrapper as part of a whole package and taking the wrapper off would alter the original intent Eiroa had for blending and producing the cigar. So yeah, sure. I got a few more sticks left to test out. I'll try it tomorrow morning when my palette is refreshed, one with the wrapper, one without.

 

[Ginseng]

Excellent! I look forward to reading your account of the experience.

Wilkey

 

[Dave]

Well, experiment done.

I smoked a fully wrapped cigar first as was originally intended by the manufacturer. Then I drank some water to clean the taste out, waited an hour or so, and then smoked a wrapperless one.

My findings:

The wrapped cigar had a predominant peppery tingle and a woody flavor to it. The patisserie aroma of the trail smoke is still there, but the oak smell over powered it. Still creamy, and good. The wrapped cigar started tunnelling and more creamy notes came out, the peppery parts subsided and the oak flavor wasn't as strong.

The unwrapped cigar had a predominant creamy flavor to it. Buttery would be a good adjective as well. The oak and peppery hints were still there, but not as strong. And unfortunately, there was a slight smell of amonia coming off the naked cigar, so I couldn't smoke past half of it.

Flavorwise, the naked cigar was better, but the amonia was killing me, and god damn it was fugly. I would rather smoke the wrapped cigar.

This leads me to believe that the wrapper was the cause of the peppery oaky flavor. In hindsight, like any cigar smoker will know, each part plays a crucial role in the overall flavor and enjoyment of a cigar. I come to a better understanding and appreciation of the blending process of the wrapper, binder, and filler.

 

[Ginseng]

Well, experiment done.

I smoked a fully wrapped cigar first as was originally intended by the manufacturer. Then I drank some water to clean the taste out, waited an hour or so, and then smoked a wrapperless one.

My findings:

The wrapped cigar had a predominant peppery tingle and a woody flavor to it. The patisserie aroma of the trail smoke is still there, but the oak smell over powered it. Still creamy, and good. The wrapped cigar started tunnelling and more creamy notes came out, the peppery parts subsided and the oak flavor wasn't as strong.

The unwrapped cigar had a predominant creamy flavor to it. Buttery would be a good adjective as well. The oak and peppery hints were still there, but not as strong. And unfortunately, there was a slight smell of amonia coming off the naked cigar, so I couldn't smoke past half of it.

Flavorwise, the naked cigar was better, but the amonia was killing me, and god damn it was fugly. I would rather smoke the wrapped cigar.

This leads me to believe that the wrapper was the cause of the peppery oaky flavor. In hindsight, like any cigar smoker will know, each part plays a crucial role in the overall flavor and enjoyment of a cigar. I come to a better understanding and appreciation of the blending process of the wrapper, binder, and filler.

Nicely done, Dave. What is the wrapper on that stick. Does the change in profile match what might be expected from deleting the wrapper.

Wilkey

 

[Dave]

Well, experiment done.

I smoked a fully wrapped cigar first as was originally intended by the manufacturer. Then I drank some water to clean the taste out, waited an hour or so, and then smoked a wrapperless one.

My findings:

The wrapped cigar had a predominant peppery tingle and a woody flavor to it. The patisserie aroma of the trail smoke is still there, but the oak smell over powered it. Still creamy, and good. The wrapped cigar started tunnelling and more creamy notes came out, the peppery parts subsided and the oak flavor wasn't as strong.

The unwrapped cigar had a predominant creamy flavor to it. Buttery would be a good adjective as well. The oak and peppery hints were still there, but not as strong. And unfortunately, there was a slight smell of amonia coming off the naked cigar, so I couldn't smoke past half of it.

Flavorwise, the naked cigar was better, but the amonia was killing me, and god damn it was fugly. I would rather smoke the wrapped cigar.

This leads me to believe that the wrapper was the cause of the peppery oaky flavor. In hindsight, like any cigar smoker will know, each part plays a crucial role in the overall flavor and enjoyment of a cigar. I come to a better understanding and appreciation of the blending process of the wrapper, binder, and filler.

Nicely done, Dave. What is the wrapper on that stick. Does the change in profile match what might be expected from deleting the wrapper.

Wilkey

This is from the CI Website:

Legends Camacho - White Label: Perhaps best known for creating dense, full, powerhouse cigars such as Camacho, the Eiroa family again put their considerable blending skills to the test. This rendition of the CI Legends is truly remarkable, a masterful, memorable handmade cigar. Very densely packed without any soft spots to speak of, this puro offers a dark, smooth, vein-free Habano wrapper gracing a healthy portion of earthy, grade 1 Honduran long-fillers. It’s clear at a glance that they’ve done all of us cigar nuts a favor. Upon lighting, you’ll notice an instant hit of peppery flavor that coats your mouth. Moments later, the tingling is tamed by a toasty flavor with dry hints of nuts. In true Camacho form, you notice a slight rush, as the powerful blend takes over. But fear not! The strength subsides, developing beautifully into a mellow, well-rounded smoke with slight hints of vanilla until it peaks at the 2/3 point, the blue-gray smoke feeling almost silky in the mouth. Gradually, just as you’d begin to contemplate nubbing it out, the peppery notes return, building to a crescendo - offering a robust and heady finish to this extraordinarily flavorful cigar.

I have no idea what kinda of flavor a Habano wrapper (the summary defines the wrapper as Habano seed, so I presume 1st generation grown in Hondouras) is known for, but as I was peeling the wrapper off, I could feel the toothy grains. The leaf is thin, so it isn't a maduro, atleast not at all similar to the maduro wrappers found on Anejos nor their Camacho SLR Maduro line. The filler and binder did meet my expectations of smooth and creaminess, or as the CI description says "silky". Their description accurately matches the stick, especially the "hints of vanilla" although I was using "patisserie smells" to describe the aroma. I just didn't expect the wrapper to have such an impact on the peppery and woody flavors, especially on a 54 ring cigar.

On another afterthought, after reading some stuff about amonia smell (due to lack of aging), I can only guess that the binder and filler aren't aged as much as the wrapper. Infact, to further this, the burning wrapper must have been aged well enough to provide more than dominant part of the woody flavors as well as covering up the amonia smell, although slight, but still present. Since the amonia smell didn't engulf my entire nasal passages, I would point to the binder as the underaged part of the cigar, not the filler.

edit - some more hind sight. The one I smoked last night had the wrapper on for half way, then I tore the wrapper off. There must have been enough of the wrapper taste and aroma in me to overpower the latent amonia binder. That's one powerful wrapper!!! :laugh: