Is there anyone out there?

Recipes and techniques for blending tobacco - wether home-grown or otherwise.
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taharris
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Is there anyone out there?

Post by taharris »

Is there anyone out there that makes their own blends?

I have read through this topic and am disappointed at the lack of participation from this forum.

I think it would be great fun to mix up my own blends and find one that suites me the best.

I have very limited knowledge of this topic and would love to learn more.

Can anyone suggest a good resource for me to use to learn?

There are sites that describe each type of tobacco, but I want to learn more about stoving, pressing, and curing.

Can anyone help? Does anyone have any simple recipes that I can try? I picked up a little bit of bulls eye Virginia, perique, oriental, and latakia during a recent excursion.

I am cuyrrently pressing two trials:

2 parts Bulls Eye Virginia
1 part Oriental
1 part perique


2 parts Bulls Eye Virginia
1 part Oriental
1 part latakia

We'll see what they taste like after a couple of days (probably too short to truly marry the flavors, but maybe it will give me a hint).

Any other suggestions?

What about stoving. Is this only done with Virginia or is it sometimes done after blending?

Anyone ever tried adding cinnamon? (ya, it kind of crazy, but it works great in coffee...)

I'm looking forward to your thoughts.

Todd
e Markle
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Re: Is there anyone out there?

Post by e Markle »

I'm sure someone will disagree with me, but I consider "blending" to be considerably more involved than mixing various tins of tobacco together. If you're interested in pursuing that, you might just want to contact Russ Ouellette or Greg Pease (I know they're pretty accessible). If not them, I would imagine Mike McNeil or one of the Tarlers would be willing to help as well.
Archer
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Re: Is there anyone out there?

Post by Archer »

Maybe this will help wake it up a little...

Currently I have four base tobaccos I smoke depending on my mood...

Regular Black Cavendish = straight and I mix it with others...
Carter Hall = straight and mixed
Dunhill Nightcap = I Never mix this
Gawith Christmas Blend 2007 = straight and mixed
Some kind of vanilla blend in a gold pack...Im at work and cant get the name right now...but its vanilla.... = straight and mixed

So a statistician can look and see the number of possible varieties here...

Of those I have my own two blends so far that I have had fairly reasonable success and much smoking pleasure.

1 part black cav + 1 part xmas blend = my blend called black xmas...mellow with a hint of sweet spice, not much bite for me...nice aroma...maybe I'll try mixing the vanilla and xmas and call it white xmas...lol

1 part black cav + 1 part vanilla + 1part carter = my blend I call Black vanilla hall...sweet at first with a hint of cav at the end, and a bit of a mild bite from the hall...great aroma, the hall imparts a rich cigarish smell to it...

These account for the 6 sealed humidors on my shelf...

My mixing may offend some purists, if I so I apologize...otheriwse I just have fun with it! I use my mini food chopper and initially chop all tobaccos into a finer blend...which for me makes an easier longer lasting smoke...I dunno...

I keep them all in sealed glass candy type jars from wally world...

Anyway...hopefully somebody will take this and run...

Good smoking!
Archer
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Re: Is there anyone out there?

Post by Archer »

e Markle wrote:I'm sure someone will disagree with me, but I consider "blending" to be considerably more involved than mixing various tins of tobacco together. If you're interested in pursuing that, you might just want to contact Russ Ouellette or Greg Pease (I know they're pretty accessible). If not them, I would imagine Mike McNeil or one of the Tarlers would be willing to help as well.
LOL, you and I must have been typing at the same time, I didnt see your reply when I hit "reply"...

I agree...there is probably an art to the whole blending thing...but heres the thing...between full time government job, full time college, wife and 3 kids, plus woodworking in general...now hobbiest pipemaking too...knowing that Im not the only nut who is this busy, mixing tins is prob as close as a lot of "regular joes" will want to get...Im sure this will rile some folks who believe pipe smoking goes beyond simple aromas and nice flavors but transcends into a state of spiritual oneness with Nicotiana tabacum...lol... :lol:
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Blinkyrocket
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Re: Is there anyone out there?

Post by Blinkyrocket »

What about simply blending various types of organic tobacco like from this website: https://www.leafonly.com/pipe-tobacco-l ... bacco-leaf

There's not much organic options. I'll probably find out that the combo I had in mind (simply Burley and Brightleaf) isn't the best stuff in the world.
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sethile
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Re: Is there anyone out there?

Post by sethile »

Timely topic! I'm about to harvest my first tobacco crop! Unfortunately, that only consists of 3 Burly plants, and 3 Dark Kentucky plants, so I'm going to have to get some other base tobaccos to blend with them. I've got some straight latakia that will no doubt figure in. Haven't figured out exactly what I'm going to do with them yet. First step will be letting them cure for a bit in my attic, which should approximate the climate of one our local Western KY tobacco barns. Then I'll try to set up something to fire the Dark Kentucky, but have not worked that out yet. Might try using a modified smoker of some kind... And I was thinking I would likely experiment with some sort of subtle whiskey casing or topping with the Burley. Then start playing around with blending them with some base tobaccos that I can get my hands on. And ideas how best to do that? I've bumped into a few links that were interesting, but nothing that seemed all that well thought out...

I have one blend consisting of two other bends I love:
1 part Peter Heinrichs Dark Strong, to 1 part Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. Bob's Chocolate Flake. It's best after it sits compressed in a jar for a couple of months or more. Adam Davidson turned me onto this a few years ago, and I smoke it a lot these days, especially when I have a hankering for something a little sweeter than my usual latakia heavy English blends...
Scott E. Thile
Collector, smoker, and aspiring pipemaker.
http://sethilepipes.com
Sysop: http://pipedia.org
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pipeguy
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Re: Is there anyone out there?

Post by pipeguy »

I THIink some of us don't blend(my opinion) is that great blenders are very much like
Great chemists (Heisenberg) the only way to get good is to constantly blend.Trial and error
Like pipemaking the learning curve can be very expensive in the form of wasted tobacco
It's very hard to serve two masters.
"I never knew how empty was my soul untill it was filled" Arthur
http://www.clarkpipes.com
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