I registered sometime back but forgot my password and user name. Finally got it figured out somehow. A few of you I recognize from previous forums I have visited in the past. I am from North Carolina about 30 miles north of Charlotte in what used to be a small sleepy town called Mooresville, NC. We are the home to most Nascar Racing teams and some idiot here decided to re-name it Race City! What a joke.
Anyway I began to roll cigars when I had no idea what a cigar was. I thought all cigars were pretty much the same and you bought them in the drugstore back in the day. I am a cigarette smoker initially and smoke the hell out of them. I would smoke a cigar once in a while (machine made) but I did not know the difference between a machine made and a hand rolled. I just had no idea. A cigar was a cigar to me at that time. I think there are a lot of folks out there today that think the same thing. All cigars are a like.
Then for some strange reason I found this fellow...some of you might know him..Dan Di Francisco up in PA in Lancaster county and he had videos about how to roll cigars. He always admitted that this wasn't the professional way but just how he rolled his cigars.
I was intrigued by his videos and ordered tobacco seed from him and a few years later, I ordered Whole leaf from him. He always had good leaf and appreciate his giving the tie and making the videos to teach a novice like me who knew Nothing.
Time has past..fast forward a bit.
I decided I was going to get cigarette seed and grow my own tobacco because obama had decided to tax the hell out of tobacco even as he claimed to protect the lower income people as he made it so expensive for them to smoke.
I got my seed and grew my cigarette tobacco and had a hell of a crop just in my small backyard. Next year, I did it again. Then the next year I got interested in growing some cigar tobacco so I did. But these turned out to be 3 ft plants when my cigarette plants were over 7 feet in height so I thought I had done something wrong. I had no idea about the difference between cigar and cigarette tobacco.
One thing I did learn...was that growing tobacco and dealing with the heat and the aphids and grasshoppers was beyond what I wanted to do. I bow Down to the Tobacco Growers where-ever they may be. This is so intense and so labor intensive business that after 3 years of growing, I gave it up. Decided to buy from others instead.
Then I ran across this guy from Idaho named Erv or Pakidaho and we became friends immediately. My wife almost died due to a brain aneurysm and somehow Erv and I connected during that time. I forget really how that went. Now Erv grows different varieties and has done a hell of a job growing cigar tobacco. His strength is deciding on which tobacco to grow and he grows some damn fine tobacco especially with his short growing season. My strength is figuring out cigar blends and copying cigar blends or what have you. The Montecristo's elude me a bit. I do pride myself on figuring out the blends but I do not have enough money to afford all the tobacco needed to do every cigar. Some New Entry Cigars are just all Hype and no substnce
Wow!
I bet this is the longest introduction you have ever seen.
I just love cigars now. Yeah, I am still addicted to ciggies that I roll myself.
I am so sorry to linger for so long but it is nice to meet others with the same passion I have for a good cigar. Just nothing like it.
Thanks Dan-Thanks Erv. Thanks guys for allowing me to be so long winded. If I spell things wrong...forgive me. I am on a Mac and for some reason if I ever go back and correct anything..I send multiple posts.
Anyway..Do we Love Cigars or Not?
Thanks fellow Cigar Lovers.