finally out of "kit" tobacco

[Smokin Harley]

so when I bought the WLT Sabroso Medio cigar leaf tobacco kit it said i could expect to get at least 15 ,or 15-20 cigars in the 7 inch by 50 ring gauge size. After running short on the dominican binder a BOTL was so kind enough to help me out and send me his unused stash of the same. I have to say his bag of dominican binder was much bigger and cased better than the bag I had gotten...so anyway , today I had all kinds of time to do whatever around the house. I decided I was going to roll a few sticks and then once I got three fat nubs rolled , I looked at how much I had left in each bag. I had some but not enough to just save for another rolling day so ...I exhausted both (2) filler leaves and wrapper leaf .Just today I was able to roll 8 - the three fat nubs which I'm saying are 4 1/2 inch by 56 , 4 of the perfectos from my mould and one that I decided to make a smaller petite corona in straight dominican(binder leaf) with a small piece of the Habano 2000 wrapper along with some bigger scraps (short filler) I had left. So- all told the number of cigars I rolled out of the kit as bought (with the helper dominican binder leaf) from the first few uglies to today turned out to be more like 25 sticks. Most were in the 5 x 50 if not bigger. I got away from Churchills ,not sure why. I just like a shorter fatter stick(cooler smoke maybe) I liked this blend a lot. Nice starter to get the mechanics of rolling out of the way , still working on perfecting the caps but I think if I stick to a handrolled habano style and leave the mould for when I get better at rolling perfecto wrapper and cap. I'm thinking I should have enough sticks to get me through winter but you know I have the nice sized humi coming for Christmas (actually its here , I just cant have it until Christmas day) and I know I can fill it pretty quick. Wondering if I should order another kit (I'm thinking either Melodioso Cremosa or Azucarodo Oscuro and experiment with a sweeter ,more flavored leaf )when funds come or just wait for my crop next year.

 

[DGBAMA]

My thoughts...... I don't smoke a lot of cigars, so this is what I will be doing: order several of Don's kits, with an eye on diversity of the filler varieties in each. Mix and match for endless possibilities. I will limit my homegrown cigar varieties to binder/wrapper.

Filler uses a lot of leaf and the cost vs quality of what Don sells makes it a superior investment vs the time and effort to produce my own filler. And I don't have to plan 3-5 years in advance to allow for growing and aging to try a new variety. Don's leaf has already been aged that long or more and is a click away at a great price; with zero worry of mold and storage to get it there.

 

[bonehead]

i have a hard time waiting for cigarette tobacco to age never mind cigar tobacco. i seed,transplant,grow,harvest,hang and wait. the next year i start over except i add take down last years tobacco between the outside growing and harvesting. i know i could get it smokable faster but after a couple of years you can be ahead of the game and have a good quality of smoke without a lot of other steps to do. i don't know when my ct. broadleaf and ct. shade will be smokable. a couple of puffs in a corncob said it's got a long way to go.