Shenandoah cigars

[Kevin the grey]

Did anyone see James Stewart roll/make his cigar in "Shenandoah" ?

Aside from being a great movie in general the cigar rolling scene stood out in particular.
It was how simple it seemed and how well it turned out that struck me. That and how bejesus sharp that curved cutter must have been.

Digressing but on the same subject. I saw an advertisement in a poor part of town. This was painted on a brick wall. While evidently hand painted it was an official advertisement. The part of town this was in is filled with shack/houses originally made for railroad employees.

The advert was for "Stonewall Jackson" cigars. I may not be exact in the description. As you can imagine this painting was faded and worn. It did say there was a full length ribbon in every cigar. Could anyone tell me what that meant?

It was neat to see. There are very few of these handcrafted gems left. I only know of one other and I think even that one has been painted over.

 

[the possum]

I'll offer some speculation here, though somebody else will probably know better. I smoke a pipe more than cigars, but cigar companies keep sending me catalogs to thumb through, so I've picked up a tip or two.

When they say "ribbon", I believe they're just describing the tobacco leaf. Long and crinkly. It's also used in names of pipe tobacco, such as "Havanna Ribbon" etc. The full length is mentioned because some cigars are made with coarsely shredded tobacco leaves within the wrapper. Others use long or full length leaf filler from one end to the other. I get the impression that long fillers are more expensive (harder to make?) and more desireable. I imagine they'd burn more evenly without worrying about the "cherry" falling off the end as on shredded filler type cigars. I'm guessing the cigars in the ad were priced competitively with other brands that use shredded fillers, but had a long piece of leaf in the middle to keep everything burning and together.

Then again, ????

 

[Morgane]

I enjoy a good cigar every so often, but Mrs. Z is the expert in the family.
Long filler is easier to hand roll, but is more expensive because there are only so many long chunks of leaf that survive drying. The long filler ensures a long lasting smoke, like over an hour for a medium sized cigar. Mixed filler has bigger chunks of leaf, and short filler is tasty, but lasts only 10-15 minutes.