Anyone have issues with the Liga No.9?

[T.G]

Originally Posted by Brlesq

That was a question, not an assertion. But I'm not sure it would make the cigar "bad" if they did. I'm a big fan of all things Liga Privada, and JD and Steve Saka have always struck me as stand-up guys. No insult meant by that question, so I'm sorry if it came out the wrong way.

Understood.

It would totally change the flavor, there are 5 distinctly different leaves in the filler, removing one would be leaving out a component of that flavor.

DE uses a slightly non-standard folding system for the filler when rolling, they have some extra folds in there to create additional air passages through the filler. In order for the extra folds & passages to work though, they have to use a bit less tobacco in the filler than if they were to roll it with the more traditional methods. IIRC, Jon said it was like 15%. Now, if you significantly short that by making all the leaves smaller, then you're going to have so much draw through there, the cigar isn't going to burn even remotely evenly, and the ratio from wrapper & binder vs filler will change enough that the wrapper, if it will even burn at that point, will be overwhelmingly noticeable.

The other thing is that even if they were to short all the filler by trimming the leaves a bit smaller, it wouldn't be enough to make another LP out of. Without doing it, there's already enough trimming that doesn't get used in the LP to make the Papas Fritas and still leave a pile of scrap for picadura, adding to the LP scrap won't get them more PFs, it'll just make a bigger pile of picadura and a bunch of LPs with the draw of a paper towel roll tube. Neither of which are worth a whole lot.

If I had to guess, what happened to Dunkel's cigar was that possibly the filler bunch was cut/torn a bit small - enough to open it up a tiny bit, but yet not enough to cause the bundle to weigh light when QC puts the finished wheel of cigars on the scale. If a tiny amount less filler causes a cigar to draw like that, then imagine what a significant removal would be like...