Roll/Stuff your own cigs? Let's talk...

First, yes I know smoking is bad for you. And yes, I know I'm addicted to nicotine.. but aside from that, I don't quit because... ready for it? I actually like smoking.

I've been stuffing my own cigs for about a year now. I use Beretta cigarette tubes, Three Sails tobacco from Daughters & Ryan (aka D&R, located in North Carolina) and a Powermatic II electric stuffing machine.

This is premium tobacco with no added chemicals or preservatives, and excellent tubes. The tubes' paper isn't whitened using bleach like everyone else does. The paper is whitened using oxygen. Therefore no foul tastes from the paper of inhaled yucky bleaching chemicals.

My cost for a carton of cigs is now $15.00 instead of $50+ a carton for my old brand which was Camel FF Filter. Plus, as I said, I'm getting much better tobacco and tubes.

Premade cigs (aka Marlboro, Camel, Winston, etc.) are all required now to have that FSC fire safety chemical and strips added to them, meaning more inhaled chemicals not to mention the cigarette going out all the time and ashes falling all over the place. You don't have this problem with tubes because they aren't required by law to be FSC.

So anyone else stuff or roll your own?

 

Bali Shag is no doubt a very fine tobacco. Just too pricey for me for how many cigs you get from a can. I bought 1 can of it and that was it. :happy102

 

Yeah, I've got my manual crank machine too. It's been relegated to backup for when the power is out or the electric machine ever breaks. A good and decent electric machine finally hit the market this past year and I got it about 4 weeks ago, the Powermatic II. You still have to stuff the tobacco chamber but no more cranking, and the hand where the two callous' formed from holding the cranking machine sure do appreciate that fact. :happy102

 

lol! Exactly what I said.. I divert all that cigarette money I used to spend... to vintage razors. My crank machine is a Topomatic T1.

 

Yes, there are several different companies that market a perique blend but all of the perique tobacco in their blends comes from 1 source. Perique tobacco is grown and processd in one place in the whole world (last I heard) and that's in Louisiana. Daughters & Ryan bought the plant down there so they are the sole supplier for the world's perique tobacco. At the time they bought the plant, there was only 1 farm left in Louisiana (therefore the world) that was still growing perique. Now as I understand it, they've gotten several farms there in Louisiana growing it for them again. And like I said, there are different companies that market a perique blend, including Daughters & Ryan themselves - but the perique tobacco in the blends all comes from Daughters & Ryan.

FYI, I've tried the D&R perique blend, called Rimboche' A.P. - it's a blend of flue-cured gold leaf tobacco and perique. Hate it myself. To me, perique stinks something awful. My best friend loves it and won't smoke anything else.

From Wikipedia:
The tobacco plants are manually kept suckerless and pruned to exactly 12 leaves through their early growth. In late June, when the leaves are a dark, rich green and the plants are 24-30 inches (600 to 750 mm) tall, the whole plant is harvested in the late evening and hung to dry in a sideless curing barn. Once the leaves have partially dried but are still supple (usually less than 2 weeks in the barn), any remaining dirt is removed and the leaves are moistened with water and stemmed by hand. The leaves are then rolled into "torquettes" of approximately 1 pound (450 g) and packed into hickory whiskey barrels. The tobacco is kept under pressure using oak blocks and massive screw jacks, forcing nearly all the air out of the still-moist leaves. Approximately once a month the pressure is released, and each of the torquettes is worked by hand to permit a little air back into the tobacco. After a year of this treatment, the perique is ready for consumption, although it may be kept fresh under pressure for many years. Extended exposure to air degrades the particular character of perique. The finished tobacco is dark brown, nearly black, very moist with a fruity, slightly vinegary aroma.

Often considered the truffle of pipe tobaccoes, perique is used as a component of various blended pipe tobaccos, as many people consider it too strong to be smoked pure. At one time, the fresh and moist perique was also chewed, but none is now sold for this purpose.

Here's a very nice article from Pipes Magazine about the plant, with pictures showing the unique process. The Mark Ryan referred to in the article in he of Daughters & Ryan tobacco.

 

I see a site selling 10 bags for 89.99 EUR which comes to about $122 - for 10 bags, $12.20 a bag. Shipping would probably raise that to about $15 a bag.

Old Holborn: http://www.e-tobaccos.com/buy-cigars/old-holborn-50g-bags-p-5044.html

Old Holborn Yellow: http://www.e-tobaccos.com/buy-cigars/old-holborn-yellow-50g-bags-p-10412.html

Edit: Their shipping page shows 22.99 EUR shipping for 10 bags of tobacco to USA so total $154 for 10 bags comes to 15.40 a bag.

 

Not really sure about that. My bags of tobacco come 14 ounces and I get right at 2 cartons, 400 cigs, out of that. That's making sure I don't overstuff my machine and making sure I save what's left in my tray when I'm done.

 

Umm, no.