Greetings from New Zealand! @vorno

[vorno]

Hi everyone,

I live in Northland, New Zealand and am very early in my journey regarding Tobacco & cigars.

I stopped smoking cigars about ~10 years ago due to the ever increasing price in New Zealand (on average the price has increased ~10% every year due to taxes increasing).
For example, you basically can't get a proper-sized cigar for under $50 NZD (~$30 USD). To put it into perspective our NZ Customs charge NZD $1,774.20 ($1,093 USD) per kg of tobacco.

Recently, I discovered that it is actually legal to grow your own Tobacco in New Zealand, so I have since bought the lovely Cigar book from this website, joined several groups on Facebook relating to Tobacco / Cigars and am going to do my best to make them myself!

I have purchased 5 different varieties that I plan to use:

1. Black Mammoth (wrapper / binder)
2. Cuban Piloto Cubano (filler)
3. Cuban Hubano 2000 (filler)
4. Cuban Corojo 99 (wrapper / binder)
5. Hauraki Gold [AKA Riverhead Gold] (a local variety that I believe is similar to Golden Virginia) - low nicotine content and in hindsight probably not suitable for cigars

Why those varieties?
No reason in particular, I basically tried to make my best judgement at the time, especially since you "should" make a cigar out of several varieties!

From memory I've probably smoked only 10-20 cigars in total, with the memorial ones being Romeo & Juliette and Montecristo that I would enjoy over good conversation and a finely aged Whiskey / Rum.
My hope is to ultimately make something that will be similar in quality.

I have a heck of a lot to learn, and will see how things go - I'm about to plant the seeds soon for #1-4.

I look forward to learning a lot from this site and perhaps make a few acquaintances!
Thank you.

 

[Knucklehead]

Welcome. Thank you for joining us.

 

[deluxestogie]

Welcome to the forum. You may wish to read the New Growers' FAQ, and scan through the topics in our Index of Key Forum Threads. Both are linked in the menu bar.

Rolling cigars requires about 10 or so cigars (roll one; smoke one) to get a sense of making a good draw. Don't rush it by rolling multiples at a time. Maybe another 10 or 20 to make them appear marginally presentable. Like athletics, it's about acquiring the physical skill by regular practice. As for which varieties belong in a cigar, that is up to you. I've rolled "pipe blend" cigars and "cigarette blend" cigars, along with a gazillion variety and stalk-level variations of probably 200 different tobacco varieties. Each is different; each is enjoyable. Today, we mostly consider Caribbean-style cigars as examples of what they should be like. That is only true for commercial cigars today. Cigars can be any blend you enjoy.

Have a fun time. Worry about the functionality of your cigars before you fuss over their beauty.

Bob

 

[WillQuantrill]

New Zealand smoke sounds fun! Welcome to the forum!

 

[Alpine]

Welcome to FTT

pier

 

[Old Gasman]

Hello and welcome from the UK, whatever you want to know about tobacco is here.