kjkeller84 wrote:Long story short, I've got a couple of sticks sitting around that I just can't bring myself to smoke. I'm thinking about infusing them with some bourbon, and I'm wondering if anyone can help me figure out the best way to do this. I've searched around, but there's a lot of conflicting info about whether to dip them, roll, them, just age them separartely, etc. Has anyone tried this with some cheap sticks? I'm not normally an infused cigar smoker, but my dad likes 'em, so I thought I'd give this a shot.
I did this several years back, made a air-tight infusing chamber out of tupperware (or the like), and used brandy as the infusing agent. No dipping, just letting the cigars take in the flavor via evaporation and exposure.
They come out wet. Very, very wet. You'll need to keep them seperated, and then dryboxed for several days before trying one. I used brandy.
From my experiment, I discovered that some wrappers infuse better than others. Claro Claro (Candela) infuses the best, and will give you the strongest infused flavor. Your run-of-the-mill Connecticut Shade is the next best, alons with Sumatra.
Darker wrappers like maduro, habano, rosado and so on do not infuse as well. There is too much flavor in the wrapper itself, and it generally drowns out the infused flavor.
I used "They Who Shall Not Be Named" offering of Mr. B's bundles as I can get them in Claro Claro and Conneticut. They are a decent cheap stick for a real good price, and the claro claros are probably some of the better green sticks out there.
Comacho has Candela cigars, but they are VERY oaky, woodsy. I prefer more of an herbal flavor.