Popular Post GVan Posted July 8, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted July 8, 2020 I thought several members might enjoy seeing this - experiment. Over the past few weeks I have had my fair share of great young cigars (One was a Boli PC ROTT from these boxes) but, also, have had a few "windpipes". I keep my Humi at 65% rH and typically dry-box young cigars (< 3 years old) for a few days at 58% rH prior to smoking them. I only have a few CC's over 3 years and 300+ NC's that tend to smoke great right out of the Humi. A particular box of HUP Mag 50's that was rested in the Humi for 6 months has produced an awesome cigar, a very good cigar and a terrible tasting windpipe that couldn't be finished. I know it's - Cuba being Cuba - but I started reading everything here and noticed several threads on weighing your cigars. I thought I'd give it a try .... bought a new scale and calibration weights and I'm off .... In the picture below are 3 boxes of Boli PC's all MSU MAY-19's minus 4 cigars that have already been smoked. reFOHrence states that a Boli PC should be about 8.46 g's. You'll notice that the middle of the stack is about 8.8 to 8.9g's with ~ 69% of the CC's actually overfilled - that's a good start. More interesting was the spread -- from 7.0 g's to 11.2 g's. The ~ ten or so just off the paper on the left are 7.7 to 7.9 g's with the 3 far left that were only 7.0 to 7.3 g's. Off the paper to the right was > 10 g's with a few at or just shy of 11 g's. So, no grand conclusion being drawn here yet, I carefully reboxed the cigars with a heavy box 9.7 g's to 11.0 g's (could only fit 24); a "Goldilocks" box of 8.6 g's to 9.7 g's (again, could only fit 24) and the final light box of 7.0 g's to 8.5 g's. They were boxed from left to right with the heaviest on the bottom left and the lightest on the top right. These CC's have already been acclimated for ~ 90 days. My plan is to wait another 3 months and then take one from each box starting with the top right and taste away. It should be an interesting experiment ! For those that already weigh their cigars -- I'm sure they already know what I'll find out. Feel free to suggest any modifications or fill me in on what you already know. Thanks in advance! 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djrey Posted July 8, 2020 Share Posted July 8, 2020 I’m following along for this one. I always prefer a gram + over the published weight. I positively despise wind tunnels. For a while I actually felt Bolivar was the number one brand to underfill cigars. At least that’s my experience. Good luck with the experiment! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SenorPerfecto Posted July 9, 2020 Share Posted July 9, 2020 Very cool! we know the underfilled cigars smoke like wind tunnels; are the 11g cigars plugged? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GVan Posted July 9, 2020 Author Share Posted July 9, 2020 8 minutes ago, SenorPerfecto said: Very cool! we know the underfilled cigars smoke like wind tunnels; are the 11g cigars plugged? Won't know for a while. I would say a very good possibility although they are certainly wider than a normal Boli PC. I intend to give them at least a year or two before trying the very overweight CC's. I am hoping time will let them loosen up a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nubase Posted July 9, 2020 Share Posted July 9, 2020 Started checking the ReFOHrence guide and weighing all of my CC's as well. I also find that the Boli's can vary greatly, mostly favoring overweight, but I'm still letting a lot of them acclimate so I'm not putting a lot of stock in my numbers as of yet. Will be interested to follow this experiment. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GVan Posted July 9, 2020 Author Share Posted July 9, 2020 This is why I started this experiment. May be a little OCD but I'm hoping knowing the weight of my CC's will give me a little more insight into their development and allow me to better pick what I "feel like" smoking that day. From the above original post -- I'd thought I had smoked all 4 of the Boli PC's I took out but, no -- there was one more in the dry box. So, I tried it this morning with tea. Wasted a perfectly good cigar ! It was 9.6 g's, slightly tight draw but acceptable. First few puffs were heaven - then it went mongrel and really strong. Way more than I bargained for as an early morning smoke. Would have been better picking a SCdlH Principe. Fought my way through half of the Boli but really not what I wanted this morning - just too strong. My hope / guess is knowing it was slightly overweight and still very young, I should have been more patient and waited another year or two to let it mellow and loosen-up a bit. Feel like I wasted what would have been a very good CC with a few more years. Lot's to keep learning about Cuban's !!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cigaraholic Posted July 9, 2020 Share Posted July 9, 2020 Bolivar may start with a B but their not for breakfast ? MAY19 BPC’s should be mongrel incorporated....they’re after dinner monsters right now. I believe MSU is the Partagas factory.....Outside of El Laguito I think it’s the best factory for well filled cigars recently. Having only a hand full of lightweights from 3 boxes shows what a good job their doing. Any cigar can be plugged, weight is not a factor. I like a tight draw so 11gr PC’s are no problem for me, they’ll smoke longer? The lightweights will burn up fast and be bland disappointing smokes.....they should be quarantined ? You have 3 boxes of very age worthy beautiful cigars, the nice thing about weighing your cigars is you know where the heartbreakers are. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medzikone Posted July 9, 2020 Share Posted July 9, 2020 What scale did you use? I found robustos which had 15 g but I assumed that my scale can be incorrect because it costs only 15-20 EUR 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GVan Posted July 9, 2020 Author Share Posted July 9, 2020 @medzikone I purchased a relatively cheap scale from Amazon - (Homgeek Digital Milligram Pocket Scale Mini Jewelry Gold Powder Weigh Scales with 50 g Calibration Weight, Tweezers, Weighing Pans, LCD Display). More importantly, I purchased 6 calibration weights from 20 g's to 1 g from a scientific supply store and calibrate the scale before every use. For the 5.0 / 10.0 range it's right on to two decimal places. I have to keep the ceiling fan in the room off or it effects the scales accuracy. For a relatively cheap scale it seems pretty accurate. Over time, I will start checking all of my boxes as they come in looking and tasting for trends. My hope is this just gives me another indicative variable towards picking a very good cigar. If not, it's been fun! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djrey Posted July 9, 2020 Share Posted July 9, 2020 1 hour ago, cigaraholic said: Bolivar may start with a B but their not for breakfast ? MAY19 BPC’s should be mongrel incorporated....they’re after dinner monsters right now. I believe MSU is the Partagas factory.....Outside of El Laguito I think it’s the best factory for well filled cigars recently. Having only a hand full of lightweights from 3 boxes shows what a good job their doing. Any cigar can be plugged, weight is not a factor. I like a tight draw so 11gr PC’s are no problem for me, they’ll smoke longer? The lightweights will burn up fast and be bland disappointing smokes.....they should be quarantined ? You have 3 boxes of very age worthy beautiful cigars, the nice thing about weighing your cigars is you know where the heartbreakers are. I will start buying more MSU. Give me the fat heavy weights! They burn longer and taste better to me. More bang for the buck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GVan Posted July 12, 2020 Author Share Posted July 12, 2020 If you've read my post on Boli Weight Distribution, you know that I have just recently gotten into weighing my cigars as they come in. While the reference weight for a Boli PC is ~ 8.46 g's -over three boxes of MSU MAY-19's the weights varied from ~ 7.0 g's to slightly more than 11 g's. Tonight, I decided to take the lightest one and since I knew it was grossly under-filled at 6.975 g's, I tried the dipping in water trick and sipping it really slowly like a PLMC. 79 deg's F / 87% rH outside or a typical Southern Florida evening -Construction: CC is soft and somewhat spongy, nice medium Colorado brown wrapper, small veins, nice cap that I punch as small as possible and a very loose bunch at the foot. Cold draw has (as expected) a very light and easy draw although I think dipping it has helped. I get a very nice earthy smell that you would expect from a Boli and a light sweetness like graham crackers. I paired this with a Guinness Stout and I'm hoping the natural bitterness of the beer helps the expected harshness from an under-filled CC. First third: I'm not expecting very much from this CC but am pleasantly surprised. Lot's of light grey smoke that has a velvety feel in the mouth much like very good past examples of this CC. The first inch is really smooth, no harshness at all, I get toasted tobacco, a little of that graham cracker taste and every third puff some salt like a salty pretzel (is this an SPNP by mistake?). I'm trying to only take about a puff / sip a minute and consistent with the construction it burns rather wonky and requires several touch-ups (a trend that continues throughout the cigar). The first third ends with me thinking this may be a good but not great CC. Second third: While I would have categorized the first third as medium, the second third slightly ramps up in strength. I'm now getting strong, black French coffee and a mineral flavor that I can't quite place. The salt is now gone and towards the end of the this third I get cut hay. The Guinness is helping but I'm a little drier in the mouth than the first third. Overall, not bad but not great. Final Third: I'm really trying to take this slow so, there are several relights. The CC builds in strength and moves from medium to full. The mineral flavor persists (might be extra moisture from these being young) and the hay flavor becomes the predominant flavor. Overall, more of an average smoke and not as good as past examples - as I expected when I picked an under-filled CC but, the first third was an unexpected treat. Definitely, looses points for construction, gains some for the first third and the cold draw. I expect much more from these Boli PC's and I'm sure that the "Goldilocks" box will be fantastic while the "Heavy-Weights" box will get some additional years to rest until they're ready. It seems as though the under-filled examples ( ~ 10 ) from these three boxes can be smoked but require extra thought and care (for example dipping). Total smoking time was 1 hour and 40 minutes showing how slowly I tried to puff on this PC. 83 points 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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