“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)
“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)
A curious fact about jet lag is how it is magnified tenfold when flying east. Sports teams often attest to this. Football teams travelling east will arrive two days earlier to allow time to recover. Vacationers to Hawaii will report they felt fine on arrival, but disoriented and worn out on return. Man in all his volkerwanderungs has especially thrived when wandering west. Desynchronosis is what the white coats call it. Disrupted circadian rhythms.
I never knew jet lag applied to packages as well.
I sent a bomb in January -- no, scratch that; Don Carey, proprietor of Whole Leaf Tobacco, and affable host at Fair Trade forum, was good enough to send a bomb for me to South Africa early in January. It returned to Akron a week ago marked "unclaimed". I sent a package with the contest goodies to Ben Brand and another to Big Dog two months ago. They each took over six weeks to arrive, travelling east. Ben's package got disoriented and had to rest in the post office eleven days before he was notified. So when Big Dog and Ben Brand sent their contest entries back this way with less than two weeks to go, I was resigned to the idea the entries from these two worthy FTT forum members would never make it here in time.
No problem. Arrived yesterday. In excellent order, about ten days.
Not a bad entry at all. The exemplar is above Big Dog's rocket for comparison. A bit long. Not so plump in the middle as the exemplar. No flare at the foot. On the other hand, look at that most difficult cap on the tapered end. No one else has mastered that cap so well as the Big Dog.
The odor of this stick is rich and entrancing and mysterious. I am dying to know what's in it. The wrapper has a real velvety feel to it, and smells like dark chocolate and something else. It's that something else that's elusive. Not even Bearswatter's delicate nose can decipher it. Smells to me either like damp leaf mould on a deciduous forest floor, or else scat of an herbivore. Can't make up my mind.
Here's what Big Dog reports:
"For some reason that I can not explain, South Africans can not be bothered to get to know their tobacco. As far as I could find out, the baccy that I used is LD02; an air cured pipe tobacco that I fermented myself using an electric blanket."
“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)
Just a perfect day. The hurricane passed at sea just giving us enough rain and wind to refresh the air. Who would believe a sixty degree morning on July Fourth weekend. I'm off astride Biffy Bullfrog to visit a farmer in Abbottstown PA. He grew a thousand tobacco plants last year on a lark, got an Amish fellow to show him how, baled the leaves, brought a bale to FX Smiths Sons to roll them up. We are going to sit on the porch and burn a couple. The local grown thing fascinates me. Like going to the roadside produce stand. There's a produce stand at Fair Hill crossroads has local honey all thick and creamy. Put that on home made bread. The local grown cigar is like that. Perfect day for a two hour ride each way through the countryside, with home grown at the other end. Here's Biffy Bullfrog...
“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)
“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)
I don't know; you old timers tell me: Has anyone ever held a contest here which dragged on longer than this one? Seems like it's gone way past the point where anyone gives a crap. Things like the lottery go on month after month; but each lottery wraps up in a week, whereas this is one single event has dragged on continuously for two months. The world we live in is such short attention span theater these days that I ought to have put more thought into how to cut this short.
... and yet, here we are, just two days left, when the second entry from a South African FTT forum member barely squeaks it under the wire. My starter package to Ben Brand required five weeks to arrive in Africa, then another two weeks before anyone at the post office bothered to tell him it was behind their counter. By that time, Ben had already sent his contest entry in a day or two earlier. Yup, sent it before he ever got a chance to scope out the example. It crept across the ocean for two weeks. Yesterday, I found this in my box:
Had to laugh at "prescription glasses" written on the odd shaped parcel. I wasn't fooled. This thing was so taped up it took me twenty minutes to peel the covering back:
Inside this spectacle case, I found a very worthy contest entry:
Ironically, out of all entries, this one comes closest to the right length. Hoe that happened when Ben never saw the original, that's a mystery. It's stuffed hard throughout, wrapped smoothly, skillfully stuffed, the right color... a lot going for it. The head is not rounded and capped. The taper is not so pronounced as the original. But allowances have to be made for a guy who never got to see a drumstick in the flesh.. I'll have to lay out all the entries Tuesday and select three finalists. This may be one of them.
p.s. A couple of odd little riders accompanied Ben's entry. They have bands advertising them as "The Fat Dutchman" and "Blend # 13B". Anyone ever heard of Fat Dutchman cigars?
“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)
I don't know about the other contrstants, but I can't wait till you srart sparking these badboys up! And, BTW, just lit that Smithdale maduro you sent... Very nice stick!!
"When I have found intense pain relieved, a weary brain soothed, and calm, refreshing sleep obtained by a cigar, I have felt grateful to God, and have blessed His name." - Charles Haddon Spurgeon
I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm still interested in this and thoroughly enjoying each post! Only wish I'd had the time and nerve to participate.
“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)
Gotta give me some time. I got lotsa typin an picture takin to do.
“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)
I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm still interested in this and thoroughly enjoying each post! Only wish I'd had the time and nerve to participate.
Got to agree, even while I was lurking, this was very interesting to watch. Also, I happen to really like the Punch Champion so I am curious to hear what Davis thinks after he's smoked these!
You guys are getting side-tracked on that no interest thing. That wasn't a boo-hoo; that was a rhetorical trick, intended to contrast with Ben Brand sneaking past the door at the last minute.
Right now, tho, I just checked in to say I have to run to a server farm to kick a dead machine and see if it wakes up. Thing is old as the hills, running reliably for like 20 years now. So chances are it's just DOA. But my point is I am going to be tied up ...
... and not in a good way
“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)
Cut loose from my dead server duties long enough for this:
==================================
I like a long term project is what. Good thing; cause this contest was every inch of long term.
The contest was this: whoever could best roll up a cigar in the shape of a Punch Champion wins a resplendent prize. To get started, every participant received an example Champ, a WebMost Uppowoc perfecto, an FX Smith Smithdale Maduro, and, jeepers, I even forget what the fourth stick was, right now. I picked the Champ because of its difficult drumstick shape. Here is a pic:
What ho! ... and now you see what Bearswatter got me for my birthday today! I have been admiring these sandstonescapes from Utah for some time now. Better get used to it, cause all my cigar pics prolly be on the sandstone slab for a while. Love it.
Anyhoo... back to the subj ... where was I?
Right. I sent out six sample drumsticks to the first six volunteers at FairTradeTobacco. They have a real international crew over there, from Oz to Turkey and back again the long way round. I knew there had to be time for long distance mail to travel. Week or two later I turned to cigar.com, where I sent out six more such example packages, but this time including bags of leaves to roll. A kit containing filler, binder and wrapper leaves.
Over the weeks, contest entries slowly trickled in. Yesterday, I rifled through all the entries each contestant sent, and picked out the best single effort from each package:
Going left to right...
These first six drumsticks were rolled by:
Mad Oshea, burning his brain pan in that red hot Albuquerque NM
Ben Brand, starting a brand new job this month in Vaalwater South Africa
Indianamac, out of that bustling downtown Mooresville IN
Buck, enjoying every bit of his cool and clammy Vancouver BC
BigDog, truck driver from Zuurfontein South Africa
ArizonaDave, from the land of **** toads Chandler AZ
Next is the real Punch Champion, set there for comparison. Each contestant received one of these to use as a model. Ben Brand's model arrived after he had sent his entry; so he was working from pictures.
Starting just right of the Punch Champion example, you see the handiwork of the four from cigar.com who returned an entry:
Walt Basil stepping out of El Paso TX
Roland, rolling in from Malvern AR
Morgan Geo, splashing round Brandon MS
PuffDougie, thirsty denizen of a strong city famous for weak beer, Latrobe PA
ShadowInTheMoon and EChambers did not return contest entries.
==================================
Now, we don't need but a glance at this layout of all entries side by side to see how the four to the right of the real champ don't hold a candle to those to the left of the real champ. This is no more than we would expect. After all, those on the left are made by golden hands guys who roll their own sticks all the time; while those on the right are four guys may never have rolled more than a shopping cart before this. Well, after just a couple entries came in, I could see there would have to be not one, but two prizes; one for the practised rollers and another for the first timers. Furthermore, the prize could not be awarded on the merit of the stick entered, cause none of the first time cigars they rolled bore enough resemblance to the champ to make that the basis of an award. For the most part, these sticks would need to be taken apart and re-rolled before they could even be burnt. So what I've done is entirely arbitrary; but I am the arbiter, so:
First prize for first timers goes to MorganGeo just because he gets it. Enjoyed the process. Loved the stinkfinger. Praised the aroma. Here's his entry:
Okay; well; he tried. Prize is, Morgan gets more opportunity to get it, if he will put it to good use. Don Carey, owner of Whole Leaf Tobacco, donated a pair of complete cigar leaf blend packages. Each package includes filler, binder, and wrapper in proportion. One is named Oscuro y Rico, dark and rich. The other is named Melodioso y Cremosa, roughly translated as smooth and creamy. Each package also includes a tiny packet of powdered Xanthan and a tiny bottle of pre-mixed cellulose. You may use either of these for cigar glue. A package like this should be enough to roll up 25 or 30 coronas. I recently rolled 24 of my perfectos from a similar package; but I have a bad tendency to roll way too tight, as those of you who have sampled an Uppowoc will have noticed. So. Morgan, choose which flavor profile you would prefer. I will throw in an ulu so that you have a capable cigar leaf knife. I actually scored a nice chavetta to send you; but when I tried it out, I thought the ulu was way easier to use, so I'll send that, and I'll get me another ulu. All you need to add, Morgan, is a beer, a smoke, a cutting board, and some hours of enjoyment. Creamy Smooth blend includes Ecuador Shade Wrapper, Sumatra Cigar Binder, Dominican Seco [3 parts], and Dominican Ligero [1 part]. Dark and Rich blend includes Ecuador Maduro Wrapper, Sumatra Cigar Binder, Corojo 99 Seco [3 parts], and Nicaragua Habano Viso [1 part]. Whichever appeals to you you can have. Roll them small. Roll robustos or coronas; not fat jawbreakers. You'll get a much better, firmer job, and have a better blend, cause the proportion of wrapper and binder to filler goes way out of whack if you roll fatties. Watch some videos. There's plenty instruction at fairtradetobacco.com. This leaf is the real deal. Good stuff. Roll five or six in a batch; then sit back and contemplate and go at it again another day. Don't roll more than what you can complete while smoking one cigar. Here's the key idea: The first ten or so you roll may be ugly; but the last batch will be presentable. It doesn't take that long to catch on. Smooth side outward, veins long wise, you'll get good at it. That would be my advice.
Whichever blend you do NOT choose, Morgan, I'm ready to give away to some other worthy BOTL. If some other BOTL who did not enter the contest wants to try rolling cigars, and fancies he owns golden hands, shoot me a PM, pledge to follow through, add your address, and wait by the mailbox. Send back one you make, if you want. That would be fun.
===================================
Now to the original business at hand.
Laying them all out on the white board beside the original champ, the three best immediately jumped out:
Third place on the left, Ben Brand.
Second place on the right, Big Dog.
First place in the center, Buck.
Other than the cap is a much lighter color, this entry has the taper, the bulb, the round head, and the flair. Feels firm and smokable. Soon as the weather breaks enough to find out, I'll tote it to the garage and report back.
Your prize:
Black Pearl figurados of each blend. I like these things; tho I've never had this shape.
Buck, get hold of me, we need to come up with a strategy how to get a package carrying twenty cigars to British Columbia without setting off your Canadian tax maggots.
This was fun. But the best fun is just beginning. I'm gonna smoke a raft of sticks which are the handiwork of my interwebular friends. That's the fun I've been looking forward to.
“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)
Congrats Morgan. I had a blast trying to roll these, even though they suck lol. Web, thanks for the contest. Whoever gets the new package to try and roll, just remember, patience pays off.
PuffDougie, thirsty denizen of a strong city famous for weak beer, Latrobe PA
Haha! That's awesome... Think I'll put that on a T-shirt!
First off... A Happy Birthday and a HUGE Thank You, Davis, for this contest! It is a true BOTL who gives everyone else a present to celebrate HIS Birthday. This deal was the most fun I've had in a long time, and I appreciate the opportunity to try the fine art of cigar rolling... even if it turned out more like kindergarten craft corner.
Big Congrats to Morgan and Buck!
I hope you will be updating us with your impressions of the smokability of these creations. I'm anxious to know if my big bertha's were actually consumable.
Enjoy your Birthday and many happy returns, brother!
"When I have found intense pain relieved, a weary brain soothed, and calm, refreshing sleep obtained by a cigar, I have felt grateful to God, and have blessed His name." - Charles Haddon Spurgeon
I hope you will be updating us with your impressions of the smokability of these creations. I'm anxious to know if my big bertha's were actually consumable.
Enjoy your Birthday and many happy returns, brother!
Makes me want to go pull out some leaf and roll a few.
“I come in peace. I didn’t bring artillery. But I’m pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you f@$# with me, I’ll kill you all.” -Gen. James Mattis, USMC
“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)
Comments
I never knew jet lag applied to packages as well.
I sent a bomb in January -- no, scratch that; Don Carey, proprietor of Whole Leaf Tobacco, and affable host at Fair Trade forum, was good enough to send a bomb for me to South Africa early in January. It returned to Akron a week ago marked "unclaimed". I sent a package with the contest goodies to Ben Brand and another to Big Dog two months ago. They each took over six weeks to arrive, travelling east. Ben's package got disoriented and had to rest in the post office eleven days before he was notified. So when Big Dog and Ben Brand sent their contest entries back this way with less than two weeks to go, I was resigned to the idea the entries from these two worthy FTT forum members would never make it here in time.
No problem. Arrived yesterday. In excellent order, about ten days.
Not a bad entry at all. The exemplar is above Big Dog's rocket for comparison. A bit long. Not so plump in the middle as the exemplar. No flare at the foot. On the other hand, look at that most difficult cap on the tapered end. No one else has mastered that cap so well as the Big Dog.
The odor of this stick is rich and entrancing and mysterious. I am dying to know what's in it. The wrapper has a real velvety feel to it, and smells like dark chocolate and something else. It's that something else that's elusive. Not even Bearswatter's delicate nose can decipher it. Smells to me either like damp leaf mould on a deciduous forest floor, or else scat of an herbivore. Can't make up my mind.
Here's what Big Dog reports:
"For some reason that I can not explain, South Africans can not be bothered to get to know their tobacco. As far as I could find out, the baccy that I used is LD02; an air cured pipe tobacco that I fermented myself using an electric blanket."
Just a perfect day. The hurricane passed at sea just giving us enough rain and wind to refresh the air. Who would believe a sixty degree morning on July Fourth weekend. I'm off astride Biffy Bullfrog to visit a farmer in Abbottstown PA. He grew a thousand tobacco plants last year on a lark, got an Amish fellow to show him how, baled the leaves, brought a bale to FX Smiths Sons to roll them up. We are going to sit on the porch and burn a couple. The local grown thing fascinates me. Like going to the roadside produce stand. There's a produce stand at Fair Hill crossroads has local honey all thick and creamy. Put that on home made bread. The local grown cigar is like that. Perfect day for a two hour ride each way through the countryside, with home grown at the other end. Here's Biffy Bullfrog...
... and yet, here we are, just two days left, when the second entry from a South African FTT forum member barely squeaks it under the wire. My starter package to Ben Brand required five weeks to arrive in Africa, then another two weeks before anyone at the post office bothered to tell him it was behind their counter. By that time, Ben had already sent his contest entry in a day or two earlier. Yup, sent it before he ever got a chance to scope out the example. It crept across the ocean for two weeks. Yesterday, I found this in my box:
Had to laugh at "prescription glasses" written on the odd shaped parcel. I wasn't fooled. This thing was so taped up it took me twenty minutes to peel the covering back:
Inside this spectacle case, I found a very worthy contest entry:
Ironically, out of all entries, this one comes closest to the right length. Hoe that happened when Ben never saw the original, that's a mystery. It's stuffed hard throughout, wrapped smoothly, skillfully stuffed, the right color... a lot going for it. The head is not rounded and capped. The taper is not so pronounced as the original. But allowances have to be made for a guy who never got to see a drumstick in the flesh.. I'll have to lay out all the entries Tuesday and select three finalists. This may be one of them.
p.s. A couple of odd little riders accompanied Ben's entry. They have bands advertising them as "The Fat Dutchman" and "Blend # 13B". Anyone ever heard of Fat Dutchman cigars?
Gotta give me some time. I got lotsa typin an picture takin to do.
Right now, tho, I just checked in to say I have to run to a server farm to kick a dead machine and see if it wakes up. Thing is old as the hills, running reliably for like 20 years now. So chances are it's just DOA. But my point is I am going to be tied up ...
... and not in a good way
==================================
I like a long term project is what. Good thing; cause this contest was every inch of long term.
The contest was this: whoever could best roll up a cigar in the shape of a Punch Champion wins a resplendent prize. To get started, every participant received an example Champ, a WebMost Uppowoc perfecto, an FX Smith Smithdale Maduro, and, jeepers, I even forget what the fourth stick was, right now. I picked the Champ because of its difficult drumstick shape. Here is a pic:
What ho! ... and now you see what Bearswatter got me for my birthday today! I have been admiring these sandstonescapes from Utah for some time now. Better get used to it, cause all my cigar pics prolly be on the sandstone slab for a while. Love it.
Anyhoo... back to the subj ... where was I?
Right. I sent out six sample drumsticks to the first six volunteers at FairTradeTobacco. They have a real international crew over there, from Oz to Turkey and back again the long way round. I knew there had to be time for long distance mail to travel. Week or two later I turned to cigar.com, where I sent out six more such example packages, but this time including bags of leaves to roll. A kit containing filler, binder and wrapper leaves.
Over the weeks, contest entries slowly trickled in. Yesterday, I rifled through all the entries each contestant sent, and picked out the best single effort from each package:
Going left to right...
These first six drumsticks were rolled by:
Mad Oshea, burning his brain pan in that red hot Albuquerque NM
Ben Brand, starting a brand new job this month in Vaalwater South Africa
Indianamac, out of that bustling downtown Mooresville IN
Buck, enjoying every bit of his cool and clammy Vancouver BC
BigDog, truck driver from Zuurfontein South Africa
ArizonaDave, from the land of **** toads Chandler AZ
Next is the real Punch Champion, set there for comparison. Each contestant received one of these to use as a model. Ben Brand's model arrived after he had sent his entry; so he was working from pictures.
Starting just right of the Punch Champion example, you see the handiwork of the four from cigar.com who returned an entry:
Walt Basil stepping out of El Paso TX
Roland, rolling in from Malvern AR
Morgan Geo, splashing round Brandon MS
PuffDougie, thirsty denizen of a strong city famous for weak beer, Latrobe PA
ShadowInTheMoon and EChambers did not return contest entries.
==================================
Now, we don't need but a glance at this layout of all entries side by side to see how the four to the right of the real champ don't hold a candle to those to the left of the real champ. This is no more than we would expect. After all, those on the left are made by golden hands guys who roll their own sticks all the time; while those on the right are four guys may never have rolled more than a shopping cart before this. Well, after just a couple entries came in, I could see there would have to be not one, but two prizes; one for the practised rollers and another for the first timers. Furthermore, the prize could not be awarded on the merit of the stick entered, cause none of the first time cigars they rolled bore enough resemblance to the champ to make that the basis of an award. For the most part, these sticks would need to be taken apart and re-rolled before they could even be burnt. So what I've done is entirely arbitrary; but I am the arbiter, so:
First prize for first timers goes to MorganGeo just because he gets it. Enjoyed the process. Loved the stinkfinger. Praised the aroma. Here's his entry:
Okay; well; he tried. Prize is, Morgan gets more opportunity to get it, if he will put it to good use. Don Carey, owner of Whole Leaf Tobacco, donated a pair of complete cigar leaf blend packages. Each package includes filler, binder, and wrapper in proportion. One is named Oscuro y Rico, dark and rich. The other is named Melodioso y Cremosa, roughly translated as smooth and creamy. Each package also includes a tiny packet of powdered Xanthan and a tiny bottle of pre-mixed cellulose. You may use either of these for cigar glue. A package like this should be enough to roll up 25 or 30 coronas. I recently rolled 24 of my perfectos from a similar package; but I have a bad tendency to roll way too tight, as those of you who have sampled an Uppowoc will have noticed. So. Morgan, choose which flavor profile you would prefer. I will throw in an ulu so that you have a capable cigar leaf knife. I actually scored a nice chavetta to send you; but when I tried it out, I thought the ulu was way easier to use, so I'll send that, and I'll get me another ulu. All you need to add, Morgan, is a beer, a smoke, a cutting board, and some hours of enjoyment. Creamy Smooth blend includes Ecuador Shade Wrapper, Sumatra Cigar Binder, Dominican Seco [3 parts], and Dominican Ligero [1 part]. Dark and Rich blend includes Ecuador Maduro Wrapper, Sumatra Cigar Binder, Corojo 99 Seco [3 parts], and Nicaragua Habano Viso [1 part]. Whichever appeals to you you can have. Roll them small. Roll robustos or coronas; not fat jawbreakers. You'll get a much better, firmer job, and have a better blend, cause the proportion of wrapper and binder to filler goes way out of whack if you roll fatties. Watch some videos. There's plenty instruction at fairtradetobacco.com. This leaf is the real deal. Good stuff. Roll five or six in a batch; then sit back and contemplate and go at it again another day. Don't roll more than what you can complete while smoking one cigar. Here's the key idea: The first ten or so you roll may be ugly; but the last batch will be presentable. It doesn't take that long to catch on. Smooth side outward, veins long wise, you'll get good at it. That would be my advice.
Whichever blend you do NOT choose, Morgan, I'm ready to give away to some other worthy BOTL. If some other BOTL who did not enter the contest wants to try rolling cigars, and fancies he owns golden hands, shoot me a PM, pledge to follow through, add your address, and wait by the mailbox. Send back one you make, if you want. That would be fun.
===================================
Now to the original business at hand.
Laying them all out on the white board beside the original champ, the three best immediately jumped out:
Third place on the left, Ben Brand.
Second place on the right, Big Dog.
First place in the center, Buck.
Other than the cap is a much lighter color, this entry has the taper, the bulb, the round head, and the flair. Feels firm and smokable. Soon as the weather breaks enough to find out, I'll tote it to the garage and report back.
Your prize:
Black Pearl figurados of each blend. I like these things; tho I've never had this shape.
Buck, get hold of me, we need to come up with a strategy how to get a package carrying twenty cigars to British Columbia without setting off your Canadian tax maggots.
This was fun. But the best fun is just beginning. I'm gonna smoke a raft of sticks which are the handiwork of my interwebular friends. That's the fun I've been looking forward to.
Web, thanks for the contest. Whoever gets the new package to try and roll, just remember, patience pays off.
First off... A Happy Birthday and a HUGE Thank You, Davis, for this contest! It is a true BOTL who gives everyone else a present to celebrate HIS Birthday. This deal was the most fun I've had in a long time, and I appreciate the opportunity to try the fine art of cigar rolling... even if it turned out more like kindergarten craft corner.
Big Congrats to Morgan and Buck!
I hope you will be updating us with your impressions of the smokability of these creations. I'm anxious to know if my big bertha's were actually consumable.
Enjoy your Birthday and many happy returns, brother!
“I come in peace. I didn’t bring artillery. But I’m pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you f@$# with me, I’ll kill you all.” -Gen. James Mattis, USMC