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Blending

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ArizonaDave

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One of my goals in ryo, and now whole leaf, was to get away from additives. If I want to change flavor, I will alter my blend. I do want to try making Cavendish and perique to use as flavor blenders as these are just processing methods and not based on additives.

Yeah, me too. The only one I've used is rum/vanilla until someone didn't like it. The natural flavors from http://www.WholeLeafTobacco.com are the best out there!
 

jwit76

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You all do have a good point, part of the mentality of moving over to whole leaf is abandoning the commercial additives. I also agree that making things more complicated is not always advantageous. I'd rather taste quality tobacco in my smoke, vs manufactured taste. For now, I'll probably stick with the casings.
 

holyRYO

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Sometimes I get so caught up in blending, I forget how great the virginias are all by themselves. Enjoying just Bright this morning. The 1st Priming is a great blender, but I like it best by it's lonesome. The Red shines best straight up for me as well. Sometimes less is more.
 

CT Tobaccoman

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I gotta say, the other day I got my first pound of VA Red. I made a cigarette of only that to see what it was like, and, it made a damm good cigarette all by itself.
 

jwit76

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I took the remainder of the Yedi-Turkish blend last night, whipped up a mixture of sucanat (cane sugar), vanilla and cocoa in a spray bottle, applied liberally, baked in the oven for 10 minutes to dry, sprayed again, mixed in a plastic bag, then let dry before putting it back in the mason jar. Interesting effect, seems to have increased the body of the smoke noticeably so, bumped up the flavor a few notches, and smoothed it out. Experimenting is fun indeed. If I could engineer any characteristics moving forward with my whole leaf, it would be to mellow out the impact/throat hit a little, and create a more consistent nic delivery verses a spike. From reading forum advice, I understand most everything can be improved with proper blending.

I appreciate all the insight. After understanding the success many of you have experienced with your blending, my next purchase will be some VA red, Maryland and some Prilep for starters. I was going to try another one of Don's blends, but this forum's given me some confidence to jump right into the individual leaf types.
 

Knucklehead

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I appreciate all the insight. After understanding the success many of you have experienced with your blending, my next purchase will be some VA red, Maryland and some Prilep for starters. I was going to try another one of Don's blends, but this forum's given me some confidence to jump right into the individual leaf types.

Finding your own perfect blend is half the fun. During experimentation, document what your trying by weight or volume. There's nothing more frustrating than finding your perfect blend only to find you cannot duplicate it again.
 

CT Tobaccoman

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I took the remainder of the Yedi-Turkish blend last night, whipped up a mixture of sucanat (cane sugar), vanilla and cocoa in a spray bottle, applied liberally, baked in the oven for 10 minutes to dry, sprayed again, mixed in a plastic bag, then let dry before putting it back in the mason jar. Interesting effect, seems to have increased the body of the smoke noticeably so, bumped up the flavor a few notches, and smoothed it out. Experimenting is fun indeed. If I could engineer any characteristics moving forward with my whole leaf, it would be to mellow out the impact/throat hit a little, and create a more consistent nic delivery verses a spike. From reading forum advice, I understand most everything can be improved with proper blending.

I have the same problem of harshness. Did the casing that you used on your tobacco impart any non-tobacco sweet taste? Or did it simply improve the tobacco taste and reduce the throat harshness? I haven't tried casings yet but am considering it.

CT
 

holyRYO

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I have the same problem of harshness.

My remedy for harhness; leave out the burley or toast the hell out of it if you can't live without, toast the maryland a good long time or leave out, add some or more Prilep to the blend.
 

jwit76

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I would say the experimental casing did add some sweetness to the taste and did indeed mellow out the throat impact a little, I'm pleased to say. Knuckleheads advise is something I need to keep in mind moving forward, making an organized journal of adjustments. Since I was working with one of Don's blends, I'll be interested in what inexperience with the individual leaves. Holyryo and others have me looking forward to trying out that flue cured red Virginia.
 

jwit76

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End of week + single malt scotch + whole leaf cig = complete satisfaction. Shabbat shalom.
 

FmGrowit

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My warehouse crew works about half of the time they're on the clock. Much of the rest of the time, they are messing around with blends. They're always kind enough to bring me one of their newest concoctions to test and critique. Just yesterday, we realized we've been overlooking the obvious...again.

Whether intentional or not, Adam (warehouse worker) decided to case some Dark Air with the casing number 2 (for Air Cured types) and case some Lemon with casing number 1 (for Flue Cured types). He then created a blend and the results were quite impressive.

I know this sounds like I'm just trying to sell casing, so if anyone orders casing, I'll give you a second casing of your choice. Just put a note in the special instructions about the free casing for FTT members and I'll send it to you.

I'm going to tweak some of the Air Cured with a couple secret ingredients to see if I can improve i or create another casing.
 

CT Tobaccoman

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My remedy for harhness; leave out the burley or toast the hell out of it if you can't live without, toast the maryland a good long time or leave out, add some or more Prilep to the blend.

Interesting. Actually, I did end up "toasting" those tobaccos to dry them out--90% humidity here last few days. That WLT Red Virginia, I really like. It smokes great all by itself. Maybe I should use less burley.

Someone else adds more maryland to cut harshness. Well, back to the drawing board. Do you think that Prilep is milder than Izmir?
 

jwit76

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Yes indeed, I might need to try the recommended toasted Maryland, 300 degrees for 90 minutes, sounds extreme but worth a go. Looking forward to trying the red.

Secret ingredients, New casings, sounds intriguing.
 

jwit76

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Still like to pick up a pack of commercial cigs on the weekend to compare to my WLT efforts, just hauled a marlboro red I had laying around, consider it to be at the top of the food chain due to its renown, simply inferior in every way to WLT.
 

BarG

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Still like to pick up a pack of commercial cigs on the weekend to compare to my WLT efforts, just hauled a marlboro red I had laying around, consider it to be at the top of the food chain due to its renown, simply inferior in every way to WLT.

The effects and benefits of growing, curing and processesing your own are not 100% noticable for perhaps a year, maybe 2. My smoking cut in half on packs per day within about 2 yrs. My cost went from X [$35-60.00 --off brands versus name brands,] amount per carton to $2.50 a carton after shipping for tubes. And I never run out of smokes. I smoked marlboro and they taste like shit now. I am not into blending as such to be repetitive at it. I use several varieties either grown or purchased to mix . It varies regularly on purpose.
 
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holyRYO

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Someone else adds more maryland to cut harshness. Well, back to the drawing board.

Test each tobacco on its own first for harshness. Maryland is less harsh than the Burley, so adding it to a Burley blend will reduce the harshness. All the Flue Cured is less harsh than the Maryland, so leaving out the Maryland will reduce the harshness. Well toasted Maryland is about the same as the Flue Cured in harshness. 1st Primings is the least harsh Flue Cured. All the Turkish is less harsh than all the Flue Cured. It's a game of relativity.
 

holyRYO

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Yes indeed, I might need to try the recommended toasted Maryland, 300 degrees for 90 minutes, sounds extreme but worth a go.

I have not heard of anyone else trying it. Try it, you will like it. I would not buy the Maryland if I did not toast it. I do it for 80 minutes, 300 F.
 

holyRYO

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For harshness, when all else fails, I add some Prince Albert. It's a flavored burley, but complete opposite to the whole leaf burley, it actually has a soothing effect. (It's not whole leaf, consider it a flavoring)
 
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