A tale of two wrappers

[El Presidente]

There are good wrappers and there are bad wrappers. That goes equally for light and dark wrappers. However some people are under the illusion that all dark wrappers are good. Be a fly on the wall in a retail shop and watch time and time again where purchasers will naturally gravitate to a dark wrapper.

I came across a brilliant mastercase of Monte Petit Edmundo yesterday. It held predominantly perfect cigars such as this. Great sheen, right dark shade for a fantastic Monte experience.

 

But it also held some crap dark boxes. It provided an opportunity for a direct comparison. 

When it comes to dark wrappers you need to avoid thick, dry to touch with a sandpaper texture. 

You need to avoid dark wrapper that look and feel like this :

Let's take a closer look. 

Ideally what you want is

 

[Hotboxx]

Thx Pres , stuff like this makes foh so great. Much appreciated you taking the time.   

[JLinz]

Thanks Pres.  Looks like Monte's inconsistency problems are alive and well unfortunately. 

[Capt. Corona]

31 minutes ago, El Presidente said:

 

 

Sign me up for a box of door number 1 please. 

[mt1]

Definitely like the smoother wrappers but have also have some toothy wrapper cigars that turned out quite wonderful.

[Sandman]

Unbelievable. What a disgrace. 

[Corylax18]

 

Looks like they had some wrappers left over from the Monte Dantes 2016 EL. 

[El Presidente]

34 minutes ago, mt1 said:

Definitely like the smoother wrappers but have also have some toothy wrapper cigars that turned out quite wonderful.

Absolutely. There are no 100% outcomes.. 

However. If you have a choice of boxes, your likelihood of a better experience is multiplied by not choosing dark, thick, sandpaper wrappers. 

[Ry27]

Thanks @El Presidente this is great stuff, this is exactly why FoH is so great

[Smoke6]

I've got some Quintero Favoritos that look like that second one!  That i expect, but Montecristos?  

 

[prodigy]

A fun test to this theory would be to send out some of the dark, thick, sand paper wrappers as one of the blind tasting cigars. See how many people have a bad experience and how many have a good one.

Personally I have had some with great wrappers that smoked horribly, and ones with really bad wrappers that smoked amazing.

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[El Presidente]

1 hour ago, prodigy said:

Personally I have had some with great wrappers that smoked horribly, and ones with really bad wrappers that smoked amazing.
 

Agreed. 

However if I offered you a free box of LE Monte Dante and you had a choice of two boxes....one with rough/sheenless/thick wrappers ad one with glistening thin wrappers, which one would you take?

[prodigy]

Agreed. 
However if I offered you a free box of LE Monte Dante and you had a choice of two boxes....one with rough/sheenless/thick wrappers ad one with glistening thin wrappers, which one would you take?

I agree, the pretty ones are always what I would pick. I'm just saying that I've had ugly ones that smoked great too.

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[El Presidente]

2 minutes ago, prodigy said:

I agree, the pretty ones are always what I would pick.

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That's a shame. otherwise I would have a selection of stock for you 

[prodigy]

That's a shame. otherwise I would have a selection of stock for you 

I dont mind being a Guinea pig to sample some rough looking sticks. If the rough ones ended up smoking good, I'd have to change my approach to purchasing haha! Monte PE is one of my favorites

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[El Presidente]

Just now, prodigy said:

I dont mind being a Guinea pig to sample some rough looking sticks. If the rough ones ended up smoking good, I'd have to change my approach to purchasing haha! Monte PE is one of my favorites

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PE is a long way above this standard. These would be seconds. 

The deck crew smokes seconds every Friday afternoon (cheap arse bastards ). There have been some cracking cigars in the plain jane seconds draw. Now seconds could be torn wrapper, cracked heads, underfilled, overfilled, gnarly thick dark wrappers such as these, ghost yellow dry thin wrappers, green wrappers. The ones they avoid most are the gnarly thick dark wrappers and the reason is two fold: bitterness and burn.  Not all but enough to make everyone wary.  

 

[KavalanWhisky]

Thanks for the advice, I'm happy to admit I used to gravitate to the darker wrapper believing them to be a better cigar but now I'm looking for sheen and oily wrappers and not caring about the darkness of them.

Out of interest regarding grading both of these boxes does this mean the nice wrappers are PSP and the toothier ones are Clearance? Or would you not even sell the toothier box?

[El Presidente]

23 minutes ago, KavalanWhisky said:

Out of interest regarding grading both of these boxes does this mean the nice wrappers are PSP and the toothier ones are Clearance? Or would you not even sell the toothier box?

PSP is a touch more than wrapper. construction and aroma at cold come into play. 

"Toothy" wrapper is not necessarily bad at all.  Thick tooth and dry is bad.  This box I would classify as second. 

[Capt. Corona]

7 hours ago, El Presidente said:

PSP is a touch more than wrapper. construction and aroma at cold come into play. 

"Toothy" wrapper is not necessarily bad at all.  Thick tooth and dry is bad.  This box I would classify as second. 

Can you expand on this a bit.  One thing I've noticed is (in some of mine) a box can have that examplatary, fresh squeezed,  aroma when first opened at an early age and some, but not all it seems, can dissipate from this after a longer period of time.  Is that just luck of the draw?

[duabley]

Great stuff Pres! 

It's a shame those ducks get thrown in with the rest. Does shopping by box codes, months, years,  truly make a difference or does it just improve the odds of receiving a decent box? 

[prodigy]

These might give me dreams tonight...

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[Bri Fi]

On 9/5/2019 at 5:23 AM, prodigy said:

These might give me dreams tonight...

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Those are wet dreams 

[OldEasy]

Any thoughts on velvet like wrappers? I’ve noticed that I’ve gotten a few fantastic examples of cigars I often smoke with a soft, velvet like, almost hairy wrapper texture. There was definitely some oil content to them, but they tended not to be as shiny as the thinner smoother wrappered examples that I often see pictures as ‘dream boxes’. Across the board, compared to other examples of the same cigars, I found them sweeter, richer, and better balanced and melded in flavor. I’ve noticed this on both Cuban and non-Cuban cigars and have found that with a few Padrons and Olivas in particular these velvety wrappered cigars stood head and shoulders above the rest, but I’ve also found that many of my favorite LGC’s have had a similar texture.

Has anyone had a similar experience or is this perhaps more of a fluke or something specific to certain cigars. Or is it perhaps just the beginnings of mold and indicative that I may be getting older cigars than I usually do? Interestingly I have never had a super recent box code of Cubans with wrappers like these, and since I’m usually not aware of the box age of NC’s it seems like this could be a possibility. I haven’t been aging my own cigars long enough to have an idea of whether this is a wrapper characteristic that can develop over time on an already rolled cigar or if it is more inherent to the actual leaf used.

Thanks for the help!

[prodigy]

Any thoughts on velvet like wrappers? I’ve noticed that I’ve gotten a few fantastic examples of cigars I often smoke with a soft, velvet like, almost hairy wrapper texture. There was definitely some oil content to them, but they tended not to be as shiny as the thinner smoother wrappered examples that I often see pictures as ‘dream boxes’. Across the board, compared to other examples of the same cigars, I found them sweeter, richer, and better balanced and melded in flavor. I’ve noticed this on both Cuban and non-Cuban cigars and have found that with a few Padrons and Olivas in particular these velvety wrappered cigars stood head and shoulders above the rest, but I’ve also found that many of my favorite LGC’s have had a similar texture.
Has anyone had a similar experience or is this perhaps more of a fluke or something specific to certain cigars. Or is it perhaps just the beginnings of mold and indicative that I may be getting older cigars than I usually do? Interestingly I have never had a super recent box code of Cubans with wrappers like these, and since I’m usually not aware of the box age of NC’s it seems like this could be a possibility. I haven’t been aging my own cigars long enough to have an idea of whether this is a wrapper characteristic that can develop over time on an already rolled cigar or if it is more inherent to the actual leaf used.
Thanks for the help!

I had a 6 pack of parti e2 like that and they were some of the best I've ever had.

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[El Presidente]

4 hours ago, duabley said:

Great stuff Pres! 

It's a shame those ducks get thrown in with the rest. Does shopping by box codes, months, years,  truly make a difference or does it just improve the odds of receiving a decent box? 

They were both the same box code