Category: El Cannatorcedor

It’s been a year since I contracted with EH farms to help them launch a cigar product line.    It’s been a fast year and a great learning experience.   I’ve had the opportunity to work on a fulls scale commercial cannabis farm and be involved with every aspect of it – not just my product.    

I have trained their team to make my solid-core blunts and we made enough blunts to last through the holidays.   It’s time for me to shove off and move onto other things.   EH will be focusing on wraps/blunts and budget discount cannabis instead of premium products.  So, for all those who loved Bad Ass Cigars – they are now limited quantity wherever you can find them.   Once sold, these Clear Oil based premium cigars will be gone.   

For EH, it’s a matter of cost vs profitability in the Washington market.   They are a tier 2, very limited budget and penetration.  I’ve spoken with the owner several times to obtain permission to take over marketing of the cigars, but it hasn’t been granted.  Without being able to assist with marketing or driving product demand, its hard to continue.  The price point they are asking for the blunts is not sufficient to grow my company, as was the original plan.   Time to move on.

Happy New Years Cannatorcedores!    

Onward, Upward.  

Reposted from El Cannatorcedor Blog / March 2016

Word (phrase) of the week :   Moment of Inertia.   “Mathematically, the maximum stress a rod or cylindrical object can withstand directly depends on the polar moment of inertia.  Polar moment of inertia is mass times the distance squared from the polar axis. Since all the mass of a hollow shaft is far away from the polar axis it has a higher polar moment of inertia and is much stronger than a solid rod of the same mass”

Whole wet-bud compression mold curing test results. Stamp : FAIL. 

Wet-bud has stuck to the skewer with all 5 of them, very hard to remove and was too tight to smoke (yes even the one I thought would be just right). There are still flaws in using whole-buds that I am not satisfied with. Wet-bud cures, both thai-stick and pressure molded, have a tendency to form cracks and gaps in the body. This is hard to avoid due to the way a solid bud condenses as it dries out. No matter how tight I pack the wet-bud, as it dries, this will happen. I am just not satisfied with that. It will definitely make the smoking experience less predictable. Also – due to the lack of oxygen and moisture, mildew and mold is a possibility that I am not comfortable with. Too much trouble. I have returned my attention solely to the crushed flower cannabis cigar.   Why did I ever leave her you ask?   I didn’t think it was going to work out.   I was wrong.

Luckily, I planned for the event of failure, and so I loaded two tubes in my shaping mold with crushed flower, packed tight. They have been curing at the same time, so I was able to test in the case that the wet flower cure went awry. They came out lovely. 

When I was testing hemp-rope curing – I had no success with ground flower for obvious reasons – so I used a hemp sheath to bind it. It was the only way to keep it solid. This is not true for my new compression molds. They apply even pressure, lots of it – and tighten up the cigar nicely. 

Even more, I realized something very important about the skewer hole. It has a dual function.   When it came time to finish the cigars, I had to remove the skewer and fashion an end cap. I was worried that intense pressure from the finishing mold might have collapsed the ground flower. That was not the case. The donut shape produced by the skewer produces an even more stable body than without.  The finishing mold made it even stronger.   The same self-supporting principle that functions in physics – that a cylinder of equal mass is can handle more stress than a solid rod of the same mass, makes the ground flower stronger than expected.   

Next, my old method of applying leaves would not work for crushed flower, so I had to come up with something new.  The old method was warming up my oil and brush-stroking it on to the surface of a hemp sheath, then applying leaves. That is not ideal for crushed flower using no sheath – too much potential for damage and flaking, pulling away flower with sticky oil on my tools.

So I purchased a cheap hot plate, and a no-stick mat.    It immediately went too hot and vaporized the oil right off of the pad.  Live and learn.  Cheaply made things DO NOT operate at the temperatures they advertise on the box.  With temps lowered, I assume around 90-100 – the oil is malleable and able to spread into a rectangular area, and then I roll the flower mold across it, covering the mold evenly, quickly, and painlessly.   What used to be messy, and take over 20 minutes, is now complete in 30 seconds.   That is a major improvement for production time.

I had experimented with crushed flower before, but not with a compression mold, and I had almost given up.   I found that a single layer of leaves would not suffice, and that a self-reinforcing leaf structural pattern was required to make the cigar solid so that it does not fall apart when it gets warmer and a tad softer when smoking. This likely wont be a problem any more, but I have come to really appreciate the diagonal cross hatch pattern.    The combination of the self-reinforcing hollow shape, and a specially developed leaf application pattern will mean my cigars will stand the test of time. 

I smoked a bit of an Aficionado last night, and it held up well.  Taste is getting there, has a nice weight.  Now I am going to store one of them for a few weeks, subjecting it to average handling and abuse (holding it firmly, rolling in between fingers, bumping it against objects, dropping it on the table, ground, etc).   The end result must be stable, pleasurable, structurally sound, and easy enough to reproduce that I will not need an apprenticeship program to scale my methods. 

Reposted from El Cannatorcedor Blog / May 2016

My task began in January.   Smoke 30 tobacco cigars in 30 days, different varieties, different sizes.  Goal : Absorb cigar culture, marketing, packaging, and delivery.   

Timescale failed.  One cigar a day was too much.    Fast forward 5 months later, I have enjoyed 1-2 cigars per week approx.   My cigar dossier has four pages of entries and my palette has developed a bit.   

My findings : The enjoyment of a cigar is greatly dependent upon the same type of pleasure circuit as the smell of a campfire, burning sage, or hickory / mesquite smoke.   You have to enjoy the scent, the burning smell.   So much richer than cigarette smoke, and thicker.   Cigars are best paired with a drink, and their flavor will be impacted after a meal.     Strong coffee being my choice for pairing with a Maduro, and in social settings like a casino, or any other occasion for a cigar, a nice brandy or jack & coke pairs well with a camaroon or a connecticut.   The natural flavor will be stronger on an empty stomach, without any pairing.   If you want to really taste a cigar, smoke it during a period when you haven’t had food in a few hours.   

I prefer medium body and sweet cigars over strong and intense.   I prefer Connecticut, Nicaraguan, and Cameroon wrappers.   Not so much a fan of the full flavored cigars, the exception being Partagas Black Label.   That is my maduro of choice.   I enjoy a spicy/woody element, I am not very tolerant of strong tobaccos.   Ligero heavy blends tend to be too strong for my taste, overpowering any drink.    

Favorite size : Robusto – 4.5-5″ 52 gauge   

Favorite Sticks : 

1) Acid Kuba Kuba

2) Oliva G Serie Double Robusto

3) Partagas Black Label Bravo

4) Hoyo De Monterrey 

Tobacco is restored back to it’s proper spirit in my experiential spectrum – to taste and relish in the experience and flavor; an experience lacking the quick-fix of cigarettes or even vapes.  Cigars are meant to be savored.  Enjoyed.   Aftertastes explored.   

Cigar marketing and concepts need no change……  Limited edition boxes, seasonal varieties, reserve edition boxes, custom rolled cigar blends for high end clientele, the simple elegance of it all only need to be imported into the cannabis world and tailored for cannabis.  Cannabis has a much wider and richer flavor spectrum.   Fresh buds, terpenes, and oils make for flavor profiles that span from skunky to a hint of fruity bubblegum.   

The difference is that cannabis terpenes mimic scents/flavors in a more pronounced way.   Tobacco cigars will often carry descriptors like “hints of cinnamon” or “cocoa overtones”, etc.   However, in my view, if tobacco has not been specially cured in the presence of cocoa beans or cinnamon – this description is mostly subtle and subjective.  It is not very likely I would smoke a normally cured tobacco stick and detect cocoa, at all.  Cannabis terpenes actually do mimic many brighter flavors, and these flavors pop out.   

I will enjoy a premium tobacco stick now and again, no doubt, but tobacco is not something I will maintain as a regularity.    The time has come to say farewell to weekly testing of tobacco cigars, and focus on my primary goal.   My objective here is complete. I have absorbed enough of the culture.  I have learned a few core methods.  Stocked a few favorites.   

Taste acquired.   Onward.   

Reposted from El Cannatorcedor Blog / May 2016

10 miles.  Steep jagged path.  Mostly worn footpath on roots and rocks.  I brought a cannagar with me in a glass tube.  It was jostled and banged around hard in my cargo pocket for 10 miles on the trail to Mink Lake near the Sol Duc Hot Spring.    I am proud to report that it arrived in perfect shape, smoked well, continued to provide random enjoyment for the next 4 days and is still about 2.5 inches long.   Temperature range : 38 degrees to 60.   Durability : check.   

(creases in cigar in the image below were present before the hike.   It was creased in my first cigar mold without guide rails.)