BigBonner's Perique... another winner

[Smokin Harley]

Finally got a Round Tuit . hahaha. After almost 4 months ,I finally got to pressing and slicing up BigBonner's Perique sample. I'm not sure what I was waiting for . I suppose I wanted to guinea pig my leaf first to make sure I was doing it correctly.
So, I had this cake of perique pressed up overnight. This morning after my errands I decided to sit down and have the little Partagas Havana on the porch then it hit me, to get to cutting this perique so I can test it by mixing a little (one or two bowl pinch sample) with my unflavored cavendish ...and soon. I get the cake laid out on the board and with chaveta in hand I cut it lengthwise once, then ribbon cut the rest short way as thin as possible .Ends up about 1/8" more or less. The whole time I'm working at it , I get the aroma of it . Its strange , weird and then after trying to place the aroma I come up with this (keep in mind my olfactory isn't normal) I get the strange aroma of salty venison , wild game MEAT ! I know ,I know , its weird, I'm weird. I can totally understand now even though I haven't lit any up yet but it gives the "salt and savory(aka- umami)" to at least to my nose. I've smelled many things that came up either sour(acidic) salty, sweet, bitter ...but this, savory ...in tobacco?
It actually made my mouth water while I was hovered over it while cutting it up . The smell brought back memories of butchering after successful deer hunts .
BigBonner, again I apologize that its taken me so long to get to this point but thank you again for it because I realize how labor intensive it had to be plus time waiting for it to get done. As soon as it becomes smoking case, I will surely give it an honest test session.

 

[SmokesAhoy]

Yeah it's good stuff, I found his stinky one to be reminiscent of a strong cheese, and his second batch a sweet savory scent. I've got some of the second batch pressing with some flue cured in single bowl size batches. 0%,5%,10%, etc up to 25%. Just the 2 ingredients so I can figure it out. It's really good but my first batches were all over the board so I'm trying to nail it down.
Someone described it as salt, too much for your taste no good, too little, no good. Gotta find the just right place.

 

[Matty]

I've tried Bigbonner's perique recently as well. It's only the second perique I've ever had but very similar to the first. Kinda smelly but so was the first perique, almost exactly the same smell, I could say cheese but for me it's more like a feet smell, in a tobacco way of course. Tried it with some flue cured and a bit of burley. Mostly it rounds out the flavor profile almost completely correcting the rawness of the other 2 tobaccos. At some point I'm going to make a pipe plug using some BigB perique, of course, because I like it that way.

 

[Smokin Harley]

ok , well those descriptions tell me my nose isn't too far out of whack.

 

[dondford]

Many of the comments concerning Larry's excellent Perique are from the Pipe guys. I have been using his Perique as a favoring tobacco in several of my cigar blends, sorta like I would use ligero. I like it very much and love that funky, barnyard'ish smell. Give it a try.

D

 

[Smokin Harley]

I'm trying my cavendish right now .
Unflavored is great - light and pleasant taste of light cocoa and coffee , no bite.
the peach flavoring gave a minute of room note but not much change in pipe taste . Going back to add the rest of my flavor additive and let it soak a day or so before I dry it .
I'll try adding a pinch of the perique to a small sample and see what that adds to the unflavored cav. I'm adding 10% (by weight, I have a small digital scale )

 

[Planter]

Was this the one with Whisky?

 

[Planter]

Kinda smelly, I could say cheese but for me it's more like a feet smell, in a tobacco way of course.

A cheesy smell I also had in a batch of my own - fresh and wet it actually smelled a bit like a dead mouse, but the fragrance improved to cheesy and slightly fruity while it was drying. The cold smell of Perique doesn't seem to translate into the smoke aroma.

 

[webmost]

Many of the comments concerning Larry's excellent Perique are from the Pipe guys. I have been using his Perique as a favoring tobacco in several of my cigar blends, sorta like I would use ligero. I like it very much and love that funky, barnyard'ish smell. Give it a try.

D

I agree. I rolled up a fistful of small habano perfectos, each with a shred of Bonner's perique in it. Having a hell of a hard time keeping my hands off them until they age right, cause the first one I tried was super tasty. It does have that high cheese aroma to it.

 

[Smokin Harley]

Was this the one with Whisky?

The peach one yes. I went ahead and added the entire sauce amount I made which was about 2 ounces . I let it "marinate" all afternoon, I just took the lid off so it can start drying out again. I'll fluff the shred ( thats kinda like "pump up the jam" only in tobaccoese) then try it again.

 

[Smokin Harley]

Had a very sad moment just a few minutes ago. Went in my tobacco room to move stuff around so I can get to wrapping gifts for tomorrow. Decided to peek on my tobacco. After being in bag (unsealed) for almost a month without issue , some decided to mold. Tossed out a few handfuls of leaf . Even had to toss out my entire batch of unflavored cavendish in the glass apothecary jar ( lid covering it but not sealed) I removed the lid and the faint odor of mushroom hit me. Not happy. (huge unpleased sigh) I guess I'll just have to steam up more leaf when I can and start all over hoping to make the same blend ...I'll be drying it out much more next time. Very sad, that was a tasty shred too.

 

[Smokin Harley]

Next batch I'll probably give the pressure cooker and canning jars method. the stuff JBD sent me to try were very good done that way.

 

[mwaller]

I received my first order from BigBonner a few weeks ago, and just got around to shredding a few samples to try in my pipe. When I ordered a pound of perique from Larry, it came with the caveat that he didn't know how it compares with other commercial perique. Let me clear up the confusion - it is excellent and compares favorably with the tinned stuff I've tried. I unscientifically mixed a pinch of BigBonner bright leaf and a shy pinch of BigBonner perique (perhaps 60/40). The result was a superb VaPer that had the best qualities of the commercial VaPers I've tried, but with none of the burning challenges or weird casings.

On a related topic, I also shredded and tried BigBonner's burley red tips a la carte. The smoke is nutty, slightly sweet, and strong. This is how burley should be! Another winner. Thanks, Larry!

BigBonner sent me some Perique a few weeks ago. I shredded it in the awesome Polish shredder( with the 1.6 mm ribbon cut) then made a VaPer with 30% BigB Perique and 70% WLT Virginia Brightleaf.

This stuff is fantastic. I've been smoking it everyday for a week.

 

[BigBonner]

Thanks Mika for the review . It is great to know how my tobacco compares to others .

If this weather breaks up to where I can handle some of my new tobacco . I will have some of those samples to give out .
Penn Red
Crojo 99, Black Mam , and lots more .