Tuscorora Shade
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2013 marks the 150th year that FX Smith has been rolling cigars in McSherrystown Pennsylvania. The Summer they began, a bloody battle fought fifteen miles away at Gettysburg turned the tide. You would have heard the cannon from the factory. Today, on jiffy quick century old machines, Tootie and Loretta and crew roll obscure brands like Munimaker, Betsy Ross, Blue Ribbon, Toppers, and Lord Baltimore, which sell in printed pasteboard boxes of fifty for $35. They roll other notable old brands like John Hay, named for Lincoln's secretary, and DeMuth, named for the oldest tobacconist in the USA. You may never have heard of any of these brands, but FX Smith ship 30,000 smokes a day.
In search of a good all American cigar, I jockeyed a nimble old beemer two hours through backwoods Maryland and Pennsylvania to visit the factory. It smells heavenly. The machinery is fascinating. The gals are happy to have one of the few remaining Pennsylvania factory jobs not driven overseas by union wages and government regulations. But the fifth generation owner is convinced our plague of Liberal busybodies will finally drive him out of business this year.
One of the sticks I brought back was a Tuscorora Shade Natural. My experience of FX's other sticks convinced me they needed some age. So I stuck several types away to pull out the next year. This is one.
The PA broadleaf wrapper is coarse, veiny, and mottled. Broadleaf seems to run that way. This wrapper smelled soggy and fermenting when I got it. Now, it smelled like opening a bag of potato chips. It is packed firmly throughout. There's a fair draw through a hole pre-punched by the machine that rolled it. The filler smells Dominican. Unlit draw tasted like straw smells.The stick measured six inches by about 48 gauge.
Tuscorora lit up readily with one match, and put out a mild, natural smoke.Light leather and hay. It didn't require any burn in at all, but started right out burning great. The volume of smoke was scanty -- it seemed as though there might be a leak in the side of it. I found a small beetle bite and tried to plug that with a finger, but that didn't help. This effect went away about halfway through when I burnt past a place where the wrapper lifted off. The wrapper also unraveled in my mouth over the hour I smoked it. I'm thinking for six bits you're not buying top rolling skills. Ash clung on for an inch and a half. Natural mild tobacco, light leather and hay, with some wood in the retro. Nothing special, but very pleasant. I've had much worse for ten times the price.
I was left with a toast and tater chip stink finger. Morning mouth was mild but unpleasant, tasting of ashtray and hay. I got a damp wheeze out of it too.
I rate this two and a half stars. Something like this might make an excellent condidate for a re-wrapped spork. Leave the broadleaf as a binder, roll a tasty wrapper over this mild Dominican filler, age it six months, it would look better and taste better than the original.
I have several other FX Smiths I have been aging. I am eager to try them. Six months makes a tremendous improvement.
Tuscorora, by the way, was an Iroquois tribe, whose name means "hemp harvesters". Apt name for a good home rolled smoke.
In search of a good all American cigar, I jockeyed a nimble old beemer two hours through backwoods Maryland and Pennsylvania to visit the factory. It smells heavenly. The machinery is fascinating. The gals are happy to have one of the few remaining Pennsylvania factory jobs not driven overseas by union wages and government regulations. But the fifth generation owner is convinced our plague of Liberal busybodies will finally drive him out of business this year.
One of the sticks I brought back was a Tuscorora Shade Natural. My experience of FX's other sticks convinced me they needed some age. So I stuck several types away to pull out the next year. This is one.
The PA broadleaf wrapper is coarse, veiny, and mottled. Broadleaf seems to run that way. This wrapper smelled soggy and fermenting when I got it. Now, it smelled like opening a bag of potato chips. It is packed firmly throughout. There's a fair draw through a hole pre-punched by the machine that rolled it. The filler smells Dominican. Unlit draw tasted like straw smells.The stick measured six inches by about 48 gauge.
Tuscorora lit up readily with one match, and put out a mild, natural smoke.Light leather and hay. It didn't require any burn in at all, but started right out burning great. The volume of smoke was scanty -- it seemed as though there might be a leak in the side of it. I found a small beetle bite and tried to plug that with a finger, but that didn't help. This effect went away about halfway through when I burnt past a place where the wrapper lifted off. The wrapper also unraveled in my mouth over the hour I smoked it. I'm thinking for six bits you're not buying top rolling skills. Ash clung on for an inch and a half. Natural mild tobacco, light leather and hay, with some wood in the retro. Nothing special, but very pleasant. I've had much worse for ten times the price.
I was left with a toast and tater chip stink finger. Morning mouth was mild but unpleasant, tasting of ashtray and hay. I got a damp wheeze out of it too.
I rate this two and a half stars. Something like this might make an excellent condidate for a re-wrapped spork. Leave the broadleaf as a binder, roll a tasty wrapper over this mild Dominican filler, age it six months, it would look better and taste better than the original.
I have several other FX Smiths I have been aging. I am eager to try them. Six months makes a tremendous improvement.
Tuscorora, by the way, was an Iroquois tribe, whose name means "hemp harvesters". Apt name for a good home rolled smoke.
“It has been a source of great pain to me to have met with so many among [my] opponents who had not the liberality to distinguish between political and social opposition; who transferred at once to the person, the hatred they bore to his political opinions.” —Thomas Jefferson (1808)
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