Further down the cigar leaf pipe tobacco rabbit hole.

[joemelon]

Awe man, that is some unfortunate perspective on using cigar leaf in blends. I'd definitely pay more for a blend with specialized leaf in it, though I understand the market for those kind of blends is probably small. I'm already paying more for cigars that use special wrappers, so why not more for pipe tobacco blends that incorporate them?

 

[LIPIPE]

Some guys like myself are pipe smokers who love a cigar. I've ground my own cigar leaf from my favorite cigar and added it to Engine 99 and to Storm Front. When I smoke these blends with the condiment of cigar leaf I'm still smoking a pipe. Tonight, as I often do I smoked a cigar. A rich 6 inch 60 ringer filled with Nicaraguan tobacco and wrapped with spicy maduro leaf. It was an excellent smoke. There is no good reason why a pipe smoker should hesitate to enjoy the pleasure of a fine cigar for exactly what it is, the way it was rolled, and the way it was intended to be smoked. There is no way that my cigar could have been stuffed into a pipe and there is no reason to attempt to do so. Similarly, I never prepare a fine steak and eat it on a hamburger bun. One could put the steak in a grinder and make it into a hamburger but that would be awfully foolish. When I want a hamburger I don't prepare a steak and when I want a cigar I don't smoke a pipe. My advice is to get with the program............

 

[joemelon]

LIPIPE, I don't think you'll find any (many?) disagreeing with you on that point. When I want to smoke a cigar I indeed do smoke a cigar. I'd just like to see how various cigar leaves taste in pipe tobaccos. But I'm in no way itching to sacrifice one of my cigars to find out, I enjoy them as they are.

On the topic of cigars, though, 6x60 was the vitola that's made up a good portion of my everyday smokes so far (but not so much now), and I don't ever remember a time I considered stuffing one into a pipe. Really enjoy the extraordinarily long smokes those things can produce.

 

[Frozenthunderbolt]

any reason you couldn't just cut a cigar in 4-5 bits and smoke it in you pipe - should be easy to find one the right diameter - check the ring size

My Grandpa told me he used to do this. I tried it with my favorite cigars once and determined my grandpa was a dumb---. Never ever ever will I ever do that again. There are quite a few blends with cigar leaf in them and I believe Blackhorse has talked quite a bit about substituting cigar leaf into a few John Patton blends here on the board. You can always call 4noggins and ask them to sub in some cigar leaf like BH does. That's be the route I'd go personally.

Fair enough - thought it was to obvious for someone else not to have done it!

 

[LIPIPE]

Joe, my point was you would not taste the luscious flavor of choice cigar leaf if you expose it to briar and smoke it in a blend mixture. If you are a man who likes a great cigar you should always have stock in a humidor right alongside of your pipe rack. As a condiment cigar leaf will spice up a blend but that's about all. One might opine that doing so is a waste of cigar leaf. A man's body and his mind tells him what he wants. I'm enjoying a large Nording bowl of Penzance now and it's great. Last night's cigar would not be as satisfying for my taste buds at this time and vice-versa. Try what I've done. Cut about an inch of your favorite stick and place it into a coffee grinder for about one or two seconds. You'll be amazed at how much of a leaf shred you will produce, jar it and add it a pinch at a time to your pipe blends to experiment on your own. You will taste a spicier pipe tobacco blend but not a cigar flavor. I'm at the point in my tobacco journey that all I need is Penzance, Engine 99, and a Partagas Black Label Gigante or a Famous 5000 Nicaraguan and I've made my day.

 

[tiltjlp]

Good, unique blends I can definitely see. Storm Front is definitely substantial and I get why one of the descriptors for it is "meaty." What types of blends would you see for a pipe tobacco containing cameroon or corojo cigar leaf, tiltjlp?

It's hard for me to say, since I never was much of a cigar smoker, other than some mid-grade Robustos. Those I did use for a short-lived Rubusto Royale, in which the cigar leaf was added to an English style mixture similar to my Honeymoon. It added spice and darkness to the blend, but being a very small blender, I couldn't locate a source for Robusto leaf that I could afford in the small quantities I needed. For my other cigar leaf blends, I usually used Maduro leaf. I never set out to create blends that tasted like a cigar, but instead, tried to use the cigar leaf to either round out a blend, or add a new twist to a blend's flavor profile.

 

[Kyle Weiss]

There's a Nicaraguan man named Marvin that rolls his own cigars in the neighboring town of Sparks, NV. I've heard he makes awesome cigars and is a really nice guy. I wonder if I can eventually ask for a few whole leaves to experiment with mixing cigar leaf a little... Hmmm...

...I've had steak sandwiches that are a whole sirloin on a bun, they're pretty good. :lol:

8)

 

[PreppyHippy]

At a local B&M I've gone through the small "damaged cigars" bin for good looking oily albiet broken wrapper cigars and used LIPIPE's spice jar whiz on them. Works really well and the damaged cigars are very cheap. (Once I didn't blend the whizzed cigar bits with any pipe tobacco. Must have been a good stick because it tasted very nice. This B&M removeds labels from the damaged cigars so I never know what blend/brand I'm getting.)

 

[joemelon]

LIPIPE, I see what you're getting at and I feel that we agree on the point that if you want a cigar, smoke a cigar. A pipe is not a cigar, but if you want a pipe, smoke a pipe because a cigar is not a pipe. I enjoy my cigars, and I have a humidor full of them and as of late I smoke about one a week, more or less. I don't think using cigar leaf in pipe tobacco is a waste of cigar leaf, I'm not looking for a cigar taste, just what the leaf adds to the blend. It may not taste like it would as used in a cigar, but a corona of a certain cigar line will also taste slightly different than a churchill of the same line. My opinion is, though, that once a cigar has been rolled...I feel it's a shame to cut it up to experiment. I also think if you were to take maduro leaf and add it to just any base tobacco (say McC 5100) it would have a different profile than adding criollo leaf or regular conneticut. That's what I'm curious about, blends that may do this or how the blends change. What I'm not wondering or looking for a pipe tobacco blend to taste like a cigar.

I'll definitely try your suggestion though, next time I have a damage corojo or cameroon wrapped cigar, I'll grind it up in the coffee grinder. I'll be separating the wrapper from the binder though. It doesn't do much good if I have non-specific leaf mixed in if I'm experimenting with certain leaf flavors.

Tiltjlp, it's awesome to hear you use different cigar leaf for different blends. I cant wait to try the others. It's unfortunate that cost seems to be prohibitive with using cigar leaf in pipe blends.

Kyle, that sounds like a great way to pick up plain cigar leaf...I wonder if Finck's in San Antonio would allow someone to purchase plain leaf from them. May have to inquire some day. I'll second the steak sandwich bit, depending on the cut of steak,definitely worse ways to prepare it.

Preppy, I've never seen that in the cigar shops I've been in but that's a really good way to move damaged cigars and not let them go to waste.