Today I finally got into the new production Virginia Red leaf and I was blown away by the super premium product that is available at such a reasonable price.
I've been trying to recreate the Dunhill Elizabethan mixture that I paid $10 for just under 2 ounces for. I really liked it. Nice pure tobacco flavor in the pipe. Sweet tobacco goodness. I tried many different blends, adding this subtracting that, adding water and pressing etc. I was working with the last batch of VA red I got a few years ago, and it was really good but every time I looked under the work bench I saw the box full of bags of meticulously packaged, perfectly cased new batch red leaf and today I just had to try it.
Upon opening up the bag the scent of bright leaf and sweet hay greeted me. The intact leaf was soft and leathery and easy to separate from the midrib. I took two leaves at random and stripped them stacking all four sides on the counter. I took a few pieces of BigB's perique and placed them on the edge of the red leaf and rolled it up into a really tight compressed cigar. Using my cleaver I shaved coins off the cigar until it was all cut up, then cut the coins lengthwise as deluxe Bob suggests. This was packed into an empty, clean 10g WoS tin to see how the scents build up and marry in the airtight container.
The little bit that I couldn't compress into the tiny tin was allowed to air out for a bit then packed into a bowl. Wow the flavor was intense. Pure tobacco goodness, sweet with changing notes of hay and fruit as I burned thru layers of differing VA/Per ratios and was better than the blend I set out to replicate IMO. It's awesome, it's a tobacco flavor that is simple but does not grow tiresome to me. I was trying too many things before and it wasn't quite right. This nailed it and was such a simple blend that needed nothing whatsoever beyond the two tobaccos being wed together.
I'd recommend everyone that smokes a pipe to try this out, I'd especially love to hear our more seasoned pipe smokers take on this blend and ratio of about 5-10% BBP and the remainder new crop VA red. I think it is perfection.
I've been trying to recreate the Dunhill Elizabethan mixture that I paid $10 for just under 2 ounces for. I really liked it. Nice pure tobacco flavor in the pipe. Sweet tobacco goodness. I tried many different blends, adding this subtracting that, adding water and pressing etc. I was working with the last batch of VA red I got a few years ago, and it was really good but every time I looked under the work bench I saw the box full of bags of meticulously packaged, perfectly cased new batch red leaf and today I just had to try it.
Upon opening up the bag the scent of bright leaf and sweet hay greeted me. The intact leaf was soft and leathery and easy to separate from the midrib. I took two leaves at random and stripped them stacking all four sides on the counter. I took a few pieces of BigB's perique and placed them on the edge of the red leaf and rolled it up into a really tight compressed cigar. Using my cleaver I shaved coins off the cigar until it was all cut up, then cut the coins lengthwise as deluxe Bob suggests. This was packed into an empty, clean 10g WoS tin to see how the scents build up and marry in the airtight container.
The little bit that I couldn't compress into the tiny tin was allowed to air out for a bit then packed into a bowl. Wow the flavor was intense. Pure tobacco goodness, sweet with changing notes of hay and fruit as I burned thru layers of differing VA/Per ratios and was better than the blend I set out to replicate IMO. It's awesome, it's a tobacco flavor that is simple but does not grow tiresome to me. I was trying too many things before and it wasn't quite right. This nailed it and was such a simple blend that needed nothing whatsoever beyond the two tobaccos being wed together.
I'd recommend everyone that smokes a pipe to try this out, I'd especially love to hear our more seasoned pipe smokers take on this blend and ratio of about 5-10% BBP and the remainder new crop VA red. I think it is perfection.
