Thank you guys for the welcome. I appreciate it.
I just received a half pound of Izmir Turkish tobacco leaves. Here's how uneducated I am with this: I guess I de-stem (?) this by hand? I've seen tobacco shredders but are way too much money for me to spend. I do not have a problem doing this by hand, but am asking if there is another way.
Also, what other type of tobacco would be good to blend this with? I went with the Turkish because I smoke Camel's. It was suggested that I could get a better flavor experience if I mixed it with something else. I am open to all recommendations.
Thanks again for the welcome, it makes me feel part of. Even though I have nothing to offer.
Mark.
I use Izmir in pipe tobacco without removing the stems, generally. Sometimes I encounter a particularly thick one that I'll remove by hand though.
I think you need some flue cured Virginia bright leaf, and/or red leaf from whole leaf tobacco. I highly doubt camels are more than 20% Turkish. Someone else will know.
I feel like you need a tobacco shredder to deal with the small leaves of the Izmir if that's all you have. I use it one of two ways without a shredder. One is, I'll formulate the blend as whole leaf. I remove the stems from the flue cured tobacco and burley, then I'll roll a big, fat, super tight cigar out of the lot of it, the Turkish leaves being in the center of it, and the larger leaves of the flue cured and burley holding it all together. I then use a thin and sharp knife to slice it into disks which when pulled apart are a nice ribbon. The other method is to make a brick out of the Turkish leaves. The brick can then be sliced and rubbed out into ribbon.