[dox47]

I actually did a little research before starting this experiment, including looking up the reasons behind using Spanish cedar for humis, checking out cigars with individual cedar wrappers, and a whole lot of sniffing of various boxes, cedar tubes, etc. From what I understand, Spanish cedar is used both for it's humidity regulating properties, and because it's aroma is considered beneficial to cigar aging. Since I'm using humigel to control the humidity, all I'm concerned with is the affect of the aroma on the sticks, and since the oil is nothing but a concentrated version of that aroma, I wanted to see the effect of increasing the cedar concentration, and if there is a point at which there is too much cedar.

After ascertaining that the cedar tubes from a 5 Vegas series A, the cedar sheets that came in my box of Diablo Picantes, and my cedar oil all smelled nearly identical, I decided to see if I could speed up the proccess of adding a very light cedar aroma to my inexpensive sticks to improve their flavor in a subtle way. I think of this as being similar to running cheap vodka through a Brita a few times to try to make it smoother, with a little more thought behind it. I don't know if the extra cedar will help with mellowing a harsh stick the way standard aging will, but I'm hoping that it will add some extra flavor and dimension to a bland one. I chose to try the experiment on panatellas because of their small ring gauge, since the wrapper contributes more to the flavor I believe that any changes will be easier to detect in the modified sticks.

This is pretty typical of me, I'm that guy that never leaves well enough alone, and am always looking to strike out into uncharted waters with my hobbies.