TL;DR | What you need | How to roll a Backwoods blunt | People also ask
Backwoods blunts have a special place in the heart of the cannabis community. On the face of it, they’re pretty much like any other blunt, but they stand out from the crowd thanks to the unique wrap and exceptional flavor.
With a large, single genuine tobacco leaf as a wrap, they’re a little more difficult to work with than a standard blunt wrap, but the result is much better. Throw in some recommendations from rappers like Mac Dre and a good dose of everyday word of mouth and you start to understand how these old cigars have become so sought-after. Even being able to roll a good one is a mark of pride.
So here’s how to roll a Backwoods blunt.
TL;DR
- You’ll need a pack of Backwoods, your weed and a grinder.
- Start by unrolling the cigar from the thin end, slowly and steadily as not to damage the cigar.
- Dump out the tobacco.
- Grind (or just tear apart) about 2.5-4 grams of cannabis.
- Moisten the cigar wrap and lay it out, so the pointed end is away from your dominant hand.
- Fill the central line of the wrap with weed, tapered into a cone shape if you like.
- Roll the cannabis into a “tube” using an up-and-down motion on the back and front of the wrap.
- Tuck the front edge behind the tube of weed and roll it up, leaving a small strip of wrap along the top.
- Lick the remaining strip of wrap and seal it up. Gently run a flame over the seal to finish.
- Smoke away!
What You Need
Here’s everything you need to roll a Backwoods blunt.
- A pack of Backwoods
- Your weed (about 2.5 to 4 grams)
- A grinder (not necessary but highly recommended)
- Rolling tray (not necessary either but very useful)
- A small knife or razorblade (ideally not needed but you can use it)
How to Roll a Backwoods Blunt (8 Steps)
Time needed: 10 minutes
- Unroll Your Cigar
The most important thing about a Backwoods cigar when it comes to rolling a blunt is that it’s made from a single tobacco leaf, so you want to preserve this for your blunt. This means you have to unroll very carefully.
Take out one of the cigars. You should notice that one end is more tightly wrapped than the other: this is the side you start unrolling from. Find the edge of the leaf and slowly begin to unroll it, keeping a steady hand as you go. The challenge is doing this without ripping or damaging the leaf. Unfortunately there is an unavoidable element of practice here – you might mess up the first time, but you should have more than one cigar on your first try just in case.
The alternative is to cut up the length of the cigar in the same way you would with an ordinary blunt, using a razorblade or small knife. This isn’t the ideal solution, though because you will ruin the leaf and part of the whole appeal of a Backwoods.
- Dump Out the Tobacco
When you have your blunt wrap open, you can dump out the tobacco inside. If you want to make a Backwoods spliff (i.e. a blunt except with tobacco too) you can keep this to one side, or just use it another time. But if you’re not interested in the additional tobacco you can throw it out. This is one stage where having a rolling tray is really useful.
- Grind Up Your Weed
Prepare your cannabis. Generally, grinding it is the best approach, but some people suggest that just breaking it up by hand gives you a smoother smoke, even if it’s a little harder to roll. Whichever approach you decide to use, generally it’s recommended to prepare about 2.5 to 4 grams or more for a good Backwoods.
- Prepare Your Backwoods Wrap
It’s usually helpful to moisten the inside of the Backwoods wrap before you start rolling. This helps loosen the wrap up and make it easier to work with. When you’re done, lay it out flat in front of you, putting the sharper edge away from your dominant hand.
- Fill it With Your Weed
Now you’re ready to fill the blunt wrap with weed. You can curve the blunt wrap slightly with one hand, to help the weed stay in the center. You should aim to spread the weed quite evenly, although the pointed end will become the mouthpiece, so it doesn’t need to be as full as the rest of it. Since the original Backwoods are slightly cone-shaped, you can also fill it a little more towards the rounded end, but this is more a matter of appearances than anything.
- Start to Roll
Now you’re ready to roll the weed inside your blunt into a cylindrical tube. This is pretty easy to do, but a crucial stage: grab the front and back sections of the paper (with the weed between them) and move them up and down, basically working the weed on the inside into a consistent shape. If it’s your first time rolling a Backwood, there may be a bit of a learning curve, but you’ll pick it up as you get used to the process. You can literally feel the weed tube taking shape as you roll.
- Tuck and Roll
The most challenging part of the process is getting the blunt wrap to go around the cannabis. You need to tuck the front edge behind the tube of cannabis in the middle. It helps to use your thumbnails to get this to work properly, since it helps push the edge right in between the back of the wrap and the weed. When this is done properly, you can roll it up into a tube. Again, a cone-shape is ideal, so you can try to produce this shape as you go.
Most sources recommend starting at the rounded end with your dominant hand, and getting this tucked in first, before continuing along the rest of the blunt. If you have some experience rolling, you might be able to keep the whole thing tight without doing this first, but it’s a good tip if you’re a new roller in particular. Stop just before the wrap is completely enclosing the weed – you need to leave a little strip for the next stage. - Seal it Up
When you’re almost rolled up aside from a little strip of the blunt wrap, you can lick the inside of the remaining strip to seal it up. You need to use a fair amount of saliva for this, more than you would on an ordinary joint or even an ordinary blunt. Once it’s good and wet, finish rolling up and press firmly along the seam. You can poke the weed down with a chopstick, pen or anything similarly small if you think it’s too loosely packed, but don’t make it too tight otherwise it will be difficult to smoke.
Get a lighter and finish up by running the flame lightly over the seal line. This dries the tobacco leaf out and sets your seal in place. There may be a little bit of blunt wrap left over at the end, and you can twist this to close off the blunt and prevent anything falling out.
Light it Up
If you’ve made it this far, congratulations! There’s only one thing to do now: grab your lighter and enjoy.
People Also Ask
What are Backwoods?
Backwoods are a type of blunt made with the Backwoods brand of cigars. Unlike many other cigarillo or cigar brands, they use a whole tobacco leaf as a wrap. This makes the brand perfectly suited for blunt rolling, and as a result, they’ve become highly-regarded in the cannabis community.
How are Backwoods blunts made?
Backwoods are made basically like any other blunt, except using the wrap from a Backwoods cigar.
This makes things a little more difficult, particularly when it comes to unrolling and re-rolling the wrap. Focus on the pointed end (the side you inhale from) for unrolling, taking time to ensure the wrap comes off in a single piece. When you re-wrap it, make sure you start with the pointed end away from your dominant hand.
How to seal Backwoods blunt?
Backwoods blunts take a little more saliva to seal than ordinary blunts. However, the process is basically the same as for other blunts: when you roll it up, leave a small amount of the wrap visible so you can lick the inside and press to seal it.
Use more saliva than you would with an ordinary blunt and then dry the seal by running a lighter under it.
Why do Backwoods blunts hit harder?
Backwoods blunts have a lot of nicotine in the wrap, and plenty of bud inside it too. The hit from the nicotine combined with the sheer amount of weed is why Backwoods hit harder. Unless you’re making a very non-standard version, you also don’t have a filter in a Backwoods.
Why are Backwoods so harsh?
Backwoods are harsh because of the tobacco leaf wrap, combined with the lack of a filter. It’s like comparing a regular cigarette with a cigar – the cigar is harsher because nothing filters the smoke and it’s so big.
How much are Backwoods cigars?
You can get a 5-pack of Backwoods for around $5, depending on where you pick it up. They might be a little bit more expensive but you shouldn’t pay more than $1.50 per cigar in any case.
Can you buy just the Backwoods wrap for rolling?
If you want the Backwoods rolling experience without having to deal with the tobacco inside, you can just buy genuine tobacco leaf wraps and use those to roll the blunt.
Purists might insist that it isn’t a true Backwoods, but the experience will be essentially the same. If you want the 100% authentic Backwoods experience, though, you can only do it the old fashioned way.
Backwoods vs. Swishers
Backwoods vs. Swishers is a classic debate between two of the community’s favorite blunt wraps.
On one hand, Backwoods have a stronger tobacco flavor and the inherent appeal of rolling with a pure tobacco leaf. On the other, Swishers have less of a tobacco taste and more of whatever flavor you got it in, and they’re much easier to roll with.
Backwoods are also arguably more popular because they’re associated with hip hop culture. This gives them an air of cool for reasons other than how good they are to smoke with. But as always, it’s a matter of personal preference and you should try both out and see what works best for you.
If you’re new to rolling Swishers are probably better, but it isn’t hard to learn how to roll a Backwoods if you want to.
Backwoods blunt roller: are they worth it?
Rolling machines might attract snobby comments from some people, but if you struggle to roll or don’t want to learn, they can be really useful.
Getting a good one doesn’t cost a lot (for example, this rolling machine costs $25), and they’re dependable and long-lasting. Aside from being ideal for people with disabilities, they also produce very consistent joints in a way most people won’t be able to. This video explains how to roll a Backwoods blunt using a rolling machine.
We would suggest giving rolling a try if you can – it is a fun skill – but if a Backwoods roller helps you get a good blunt, they’re definitely worth it.
Can you split a Backwoods down the middle?
You can split a Backwoods down the middle like you do with most cigarillos or cigars before using them in a blunt, but it isn’t ideal.
Part of the appeal of a Backwoods is that it has a whole tobacco leaf – if you cut it down the middle, it spoils this a little.
If you struggle to pull them apart in a single piece, then you’ll still get the flavor and overall experience if you split it down the middle instead. But if you’re trying to learn it as a skill, try to unravel it before resorting to splitting.
Should you lick the Backwood?
Licking the Backwood is usually recommended because the leaf can get dry and difficult to work with.
If you have a lot of experience rolling them, you might be able to make it work well without this step. For most, though, giving it a little lick – without soaking it – makes things run a lot more smoothly.
What to do if your Backwoods blunt has holes?
If your Backwoods has holes, you may be able to fix it depending on the specific situation. Firstly, if there are a lot of holes, it might not be practical to fix it, so it’s probably easiest to just re-roll with another wrap.
But the bigger issue is that it might be tobacco beetles. These leave pin-hole size holes in the cigar, often with powdery loose tobacco nearby. Chances are, these beetles will have gotten to it before you bought them (or if you’ve had them stored for a while), but it’s worth checking where you store them just in case. The beetles are only a few millimeters long, but you might catch some of them.
If your holes aren’t from beetles, and it’s only one or two holes that are fairly small, you can fix it.
One tip is to rip a little bit of the wrap off before rolling, and use this to patch up any holes that form. This doesn’t work for huge holes and it’s too much work if there are lots of them, but all you have to do is wet the spare wrap material and cover the hole with it. Make sure to specifically dry this section afterwards and it’ll be ready to go.
Conclusion
Your Backwoods blunt skills will improve over time, but if your first attempt was a success (even if after some false starts), you should be proud of yourself. Rolling anything is not an easy skill, and doing it with a Backwoods blunt wrapper is one of the most challenging “everyday” rolls you’ll have to do. And now you have the basic skill down, you can keep practicing and improving, and eventually pass your knowledge on to another stoner friend of yours.