Blending Your Own Cigar: Judgment Day.

Cigars took about eight weeks to arrive.

Some months ago, I participated in the Cigar.com Blend Your Own Cigar program.  At that time, my friend Bernie and I tested 17 cigar leaf samples provided in the Custom Blending Kit, jotting down our opinions of each one as we smoked.  Using the guidelines provided in the Blending Kit, we then tabulated our results, and created a custom cigar blend.  With a call to Andrew at Cigar.com, our first box of custom blended cigars was in the works.  (We were asked to give the blend a name, so we chose Arber, a contraction of Arthur and Bernie).  Well, after waiting two months, the Arber cigars finally arrived.  I was both nervous and excited to see what we had created.  Was it my “dream” cigar, or a nightmarish blend of conflicting flavors?  What I found was neither awful nor wonderful.  The best way to describe the outcome was…unexpected.

Not much to look at.

The first thing I noticed was the rough appearance of the sticks.  Having chosen the Ecuadorian Conn. Shade wrapper, I was expecting the Arber to have a smooth, golden (claro) skin.  After all, the Perdomo Champagne and Alec Bradley American Classic have similar wrappers, and are beautifully smooth.  But the Arbers were mottled, lumpy, and a little crooked.  Had G.A.R. Deli in Miami forgotten the binder, or had our choice for that crucial cigar component been misguided?  I’m thinking the latter.  A cigar MUST have a binder.  It’s the foundation on which the wrapper is applied.  Plus, it’s impossible to mold a cigar unless it is bunched within a binder.  But I have seen lumpy cigars before.  The Padron Thousand series comes to mind.  So, although our cigars wouldn’t win any beauty contests, ultimately the flavor would determine its true worth.

Heavenly scent.

It’s true that you can only make a first impression once, and this relationship had a rocky start.  But it is also true that pheromones play a crucial part in attraction, and the aroma coming off the Arber cigars was intoxicating.  It was like perfume on a fine lady.  This was very promising indeed.  Bernie and I had made our tobacco choices largely based on aroma.  We wanted to blend the most aromatic cigar imaginable.

Wrapper was mottled, not like other Conn. seed, shade grown cigars.

Rushing into a relationship.

I know from visiting many cigar factories in Esteli, Nic., and Santiago DR that newly rolled cigars need to sit a few months before being smoked.  They are usually stored at the factory long before being shipped for sale.  Some cigars sit longer than others; depending on how fast they “ripen”.  So, theoretically, I should not even touch them until November of this year.  Like THAT was going to happen!  However, I did wait one full day before smoking my first Arber, and that was a mistake.

My first impression was one of shock.  They tasted so mild that it was like smoking paper.  Perhaps the flavor would build as I continued to smoke.  And that is exactly what happened.  But the flavors that started to emerge were overly aromatic.  The stick developed an almost gummy quality, with little richness.  It would appear that basing our tobacco choices solely on one quality was a mistake.  In hindsight (always 20/20), we could now see that a good cigar blend needs to be a balance of disparate elements, not the accumulation of similar flavors.  But in all fairness, this was way too early to judge the qualities of the Arber blend.  I needed to give them more time.

A second chance.

Now I’m a fairly patient person, and am good at delaying gratification…to a point.  But when it comes to cigars, all that goes right out the window.  I smoked my second Arber about a week after the first.  By now I had overcome my initial shock and disappointment.  I was ready to approach things less emotionally.

This time around, the Arber had improved.  This was encouraging.  Less gummy and smoother, the flavor was very pleasant.  But the construction was questionable.  The cigars all seemed soft and squishy.  And judging from its easy draw, I think these sticks are under-filled.  If I could, I’d add one more half leaf of a higher priming.  That would give the Arber much needed intensity and body.  As is, they are the mildest cigars I’ve ever smoked.

Burn was uneven, but cigar was tasty to the nub.

The latest tasting.

This morning I have just finished my third Arber cigar.  It’s been about a two months since they arrived.  Flavor wise they are definitely getting better.  It was super smooth, and actually very tasty.  Gone was the gummy quality, and with flavors of cappuccino, herbs, and a great aroma, I am encouraged that each month they will get progressively tastier.  I smoked this one to the nub, and I never got bored.  But I fear that no matter how long I wait, it will never be anything more than a breakfast cigar.  It is simply too mild to hold its own in a full day of cigar smoking.

What I’ve learned.

Although I thoroughly enjoyed this morning’s cigar, if I were to judge it objectively, as if it were a store bought stick, it would not score well.  Here’s how it would go:

Construction: Poor…under filled with soft spots.

Appearance: Poor…mottled and lumpy.  Conn. Shade wrapper should be smooth and blemish free.

Burn: Uneven…consistently needs touching up.

Flavor: Very floral, perhaps too much so.  Lacking body and richness.

Aroma: Off the charts.  This cigar has it in spades.

Strength: Way too mild.

Price: $8.00

BUT…

These are cigars I blended myself, making them unique.  To judge them against established cigar brands misses the point.  For me, it’s as much about the experience of blending as how the cigar tastes.  I’ve learned more about this process from doing it myself, than I would have ever learned second hand.  Sure, it would have been great to create a killer blend, but if cigar blending was so easy, every cigar ever made would be great.

At this point I could try to tweak the blend, and add what I think is lacking in the Arber.  But that would cost me another $200.  If Cigar.com had a less expensive option for blending, say, a five pack, then I would consider continuing this process.  But having a full box requirement makes this largely a one-time thing.  Of course, if the Arber blend had been magical, I would have gladly ordered another box.  But cigar blending requires so much trial and error, that doing it a box at a time is simply too expensive.  Yet I’m glad I participated in this program.  Now when I smoke a cigar, I can taste the individual components of the blend.  This makes every cigar I smoke even more of an adventure.

This Blend Your Own Cigar project has enhanced my cigar smoking experience, and taken me closer to that elusive status of connoisseur.  But as I have learned, cigar blending should be left to those with the resources on hand, and generations of cigar making in their blood.  And that’s what I’ll do going forward.  Those guys are the REAL connoisseurs, and true cigar artists.

Thanks for listening,

Joe