alPol05
Well-Known Member
“A little bit of this, a little bit of that, and you are a master blender.” - Bob (deluxestogie)
It was there, staring at me, in the context of frustrations expressed by some about the difficulties they have with making their blends.
I am not for public self-flogging for mistakes I make, but it is important for me to put my thoughts into words to clearly understand what happened. This type of post can also be beneficial for those who are new to tobacco blending. This post will be a long one, but I want to write down as much as I remember about the whole experience.
I never had any illusion that blending tobacco for pipe smoking is an easy task. I read whatever I could find online, but there is not much of a real in-depth material out there on the topic.
Jamming myself in a pickle
Some time at the end of January I began experimenting with a blend by expending two groups of tobacco. One was Virginias, and the other was Orientals. The idea came from reading many descriptions of blends found on commercial websites like this: “… This blend starts with golden and red flue-cured tobaccos which are matured under pressure while heat is applied, deepening the flavor.” It sounded interesting, and I decided to try it myself.
I started with a blend recipe offered by Bob (deluxestogie). He posted it a while back (in 2014). Here is the original formula:
deluxestogie's Warspur (an English Mixture)
1. Virginia air-cured: 30%
2. Oriental: 30%
3. Latakia: 35%
4. Black Cavendish or Dark Air: 5% (optional, to add body)
I remember the day I wrote this formula in my blending log document - it was January 23 rd. Here is the bad part: I didn’t have a clue what the Virginia Air-cured is, and I was too uncomfortable to post a question on this forum. I also didn’t know what the hell the Dark Air is, and chose to use Black Cavendish and not to bother with asking.
I made my first mixture of tobaccos I had on hand. I had to substitute Virginia air-cured with something, so I made a choice to use Red Virginia and Bright Virginia mix. All components were commercial blending tobaccos. Here is my first mixture:
WarSpur No.1 – Eng. Mix - 01/23/2018
1. Virginia Red 20% 12g
2. Virginia Bright (Lane) 10% 6g
3. Oriental-Turkish 20% 12g
4. Smyrna 10% 6g
5. Latakia: 35% 21g
6. Black Cav. 5% 3g
7. Perique 3g
Since I already diverted from the original recipe, I also used two different Oriental tobaccos. To make it more complicated, my Cavendish was Lane BCA, which is aromatic tobacco with vanilla flavoring. For some reason, I also added a little bit of Perique. I guess I sounded interesting and it didn’t bother me that my percentage column didn’t add up to 100%. I also didn’t understand exactly how to manage percentages and real weight and assigned a 6g arbitrarily as being 10%.
As I look at this combination now, it is obvious that I didn’t have a clue what am I doing. Although smoking this mixture was an OK experience, but by the end of January I learned several other things about blending tobacco, and I realized that I have to make changes to this mixture.
First, I needed to eliminate Vanilla flavor, and second, I wanted to include Perique in my percentage calculations. Here is the mixture I concocted on 02/09/2018:
WarSpur No.2 – Eng. Mix - 02/09/2018
1. Virginia - red 20% 12g
2. Virginia Bright (Lane) 10% 6g
3. Turkish Ribbon Cut 0% 6g
4. Izmir 10% 6g
5. Smyrna 10% 6g
6. Latakia: 30% 18g
7. Perique : 5% 3g
8. Dark Fired Kentucky 5% 3g
I still didn't have Black Cavendish, so I substituted it with Dark Fired Kentucky. I also expended my combination of Orientals and added Izmir. As I write this, I smoke a bowl of this blend. It is two months plus old by now, and it has some merits. The impact of Perique is evident. The blend is sweeter than the previous one, and it does have a pleasant aroma.
During that time (January – February) I read many descriptions of commercial blends, and one thing that struck me was a mention of combinations of different Virginias used in some of these blends. The idea was appealing, and I took it even further. I also expended the combination of Orientals. As I look at this venture now, I realize that I was running more on excitement than knowledge.
By the end of February, I had five different Virginias and four different Orientals in the mix. Virginias included three WLT tobaccos and two commercial brands. Orientals block included three commercial brands and one, a Krumovgrad I purchased from the LeafOnly website. I was on a mixture No. 7.
At this point, things became a bit dicey. I start feeling that it is a strong blend and, I thought, I am consuming too much nicotine. I start having really strong buzz, and my cheeks were red and hot after test-smoking the mixture.
I decided to eliminate Perique and Dark Fired Kentucky. At the same time, I expended my Orientals block to five different components. They were Turkish mixture, Izmir, Smyrna – all commercial origin, Krumovgrad - LeafOnly, and Basma - WLT.
I was on mixture No. 8, and it was not much better. The feeling of too much nicotine persisted, and I felt I am getting sick after every test. I didn’t sleep well and was getting more and more tired.
For next two mixtures, I focused on lowering percentage of Latakia since I remembered reading that Latakia and Perique are “strong condiment tobaccos.” Since there was no detailed explanation of this statement, I understood this as containing large doses of nicotine.
After mixture No. 11 I decided to take a break. I was sick, tired and frustrated. I hit a wall!
After a few days of rest, my brain returned to much-needed functionality. First, I decided to leave emotions and zealousness outside of the process. Second, I reviewed my recipes and found them to be a mess with no logic or justification. Third, I went back to a recipe before the introduction of Krumovgrad into the mix. That mixture was OK, although nothing to be proud of, but I didn’t have a buzz effect I was experiencing by the end of this venture.
Aha…! The small load of Krumovgrad was in a pipe, and I was puffing on the culprit. Here were the symptoms: the lining of my mouth became sore and irritated, and I could taste very strong bitterness. The soreness appeared on the inside of my lips and inside lining of my cheeks. There was no tongue bite, at least that’s what I thought, or any other unpleasant sensations except bitterness that I could taste on the further part of my tongue and throat. I felt like I just took a good dose of black pepper in my mouth. It was shocking.
I posted this description in the thread in another thread.
Bob stated that: “I have no idea why one Basma-type tobacco would be unusually bitter. Sometimes leaf gets fumigated in a warehouse. Bitter is usually associated with alkaline pH, while sun-cured Orientals tend to be slightly acidic. Most of them, however, are not particularly sweet.” He suggested to “Smoke some. Then mist it with lemon juice. After it dries down, smoke some more. There are some sources of bitter that will be unaffected by lowering the pH.”
Jitterbugdude made a point: “Wiktor, I think maybe the description of "provides a sweet, pleasant flavor" is just something that each vendor cuts-n-pastes from someones else's description. I doubt the vendor you bought it from has even smoked it.”
Garlisk suggested the following: “Wiktor, I cannot give you too much specific information, but I can say that humans can have odd reactions to some things based on genetics.”
I took all suggestions as important pointers. First, the description of Krumovgrad was not accurate. There is no sweetness in this leaf. Second, the lemon juice treatment did the job. The bitterness was almost gone, although there was still soreness in the lining of my mouth. It was, however, manageable and not as severe as after the initial test. I could register the aroma of Middle East incense, and taste of unidentified spices, etc.; something I expected from Orientals.
As to “odd reactions to some things based on genetics,” there was no way for me to test this theory. I knew one thing – I am old Polish stock, I have no allergies to anything, I can eat and drink almost anything. Well, maybe not exactly true – I do have an allergic reaction to the thought of my former wife. As to eating and drinking – at 70, I have to keep things in moderation. However, I am not dismissing this suggestion, and I might be reacting negatively to this specific tobacco.
So, where do I go from here?
Testing my Orientals. I created a scale from 1 to 10 to illustrate the bitterness, where 10 represents soreness and bitterness of Krumovgrad.
a. Turkish - 3
b. Smyrna – 4
c. Izmir – 5
d. Samsun-WLT - 1
e. Basma-WLT - 2
f. Krumovgrad-LeafOnly - 10
Checking all my vendors. Not one describes Orientals as a sweet leaf except LeafOnly for Krumovgrad. Most of them emphasize aroma and spiciness of Oriental tobaccos. All descriptions point to the interplay of Orientals with Latakia without details on what that interplay is or suppose to be.
So, what happened?
Here is what happened.
1. Whatever I learned so far about tobacco is not enough to feel comfortable with the process of blending at this point.
2. My choice of the recipe for this experiment was not good. Not only I didn’t have proper ingredients; I substituted them with wrong choices.
3. My excitement excided the knowledge I have. It represents itself in mixing different tobaccos from a particular group (Virginias and Orientals) without a clear understanding of how they will impact each other and the whole blend.
I started this thread with a statement by Bob (deluxestogie): “A little bit of this, a little bit of that, and you are a master blender.”
It seems like a clear warning. However, I read it as a message about accurate measurement only. There is more to it: Know the impact of one tobacco on another and the whole blend.
Blending tobacco is often compared to cooking. I am not an expert in neither of these disciplines. However, when it comes to cooking, we are exposed to the effects of it from the first day of our lives. By experience, we learned what will salt do to our meal. The same for pepper, onion, garlic, etc. When the dish is described as too salty, we instantly recall that taste in our mind without even touching that salty dish.
With tobacco, it is not that obvious. Although the verbiage describing tobacco borrows terms from a culinary discipline, the terminology appears to be not settled or consistent.
There is a void in literature for an explanation of an interplay between different tobaccos in a blend, how they impact each other, and the whole blend. Here is an example:
“Oriental, often called Turkish, is a variety of sun-cured tobacco with an exotic flavor and an aromatic aroma. It's sort of a catch-all term for sun-cured tobacco, as there are many different sub-types, such as Izmir, Katerini, Samsun, Sokhoum, Smyrna, Drama, Yenidje, and many more. When used in a blend, these sun-cured tobaccos can offer essences of tea and lemon but also a bit of spice, earthiness, and nuttiness as well. They're often used in English blends to play off the similarly exotic, smoky notes of Latakia.” Jeremy Reeves of Cornell & Diehl made this comment in one of his videos.
I use this quote to show how little the statement in bold means to a newbie like me.
Although I consider this “blend” a failure, I did learn a lot from this experience. I hope to apply what I learned to my next attempt off making a blend.
It was there, staring at me, in the context of frustrations expressed by some about the difficulties they have with making their blends.
I am not for public self-flogging for mistakes I make, but it is important for me to put my thoughts into words to clearly understand what happened. This type of post can also be beneficial for those who are new to tobacco blending. This post will be a long one, but I want to write down as much as I remember about the whole experience.
I never had any illusion that blending tobacco for pipe smoking is an easy task. I read whatever I could find online, but there is not much of a real in-depth material out there on the topic.
Jamming myself in a pickle
Some time at the end of January I began experimenting with a blend by expending two groups of tobacco. One was Virginias, and the other was Orientals. The idea came from reading many descriptions of blends found on commercial websites like this: “… This blend starts with golden and red flue-cured tobaccos which are matured under pressure while heat is applied, deepening the flavor.” It sounded interesting, and I decided to try it myself.
I started with a blend recipe offered by Bob (deluxestogie). He posted it a while back (in 2014). Here is the original formula:
deluxestogie's Warspur (an English Mixture)
1. Virginia air-cured: 30%
2. Oriental: 30%
3. Latakia: 35%
4. Black Cavendish or Dark Air: 5% (optional, to add body)
I remember the day I wrote this formula in my blending log document - it was January 23 rd. Here is the bad part: I didn’t have a clue what the Virginia Air-cured is, and I was too uncomfortable to post a question on this forum. I also didn’t know what the hell the Dark Air is, and chose to use Black Cavendish and not to bother with asking.
I made my first mixture of tobaccos I had on hand. I had to substitute Virginia air-cured with something, so I made a choice to use Red Virginia and Bright Virginia mix. All components were commercial blending tobaccos. Here is my first mixture:
WarSpur No.1 – Eng. Mix - 01/23/2018
1. Virginia Red 20% 12g
2. Virginia Bright (Lane) 10% 6g
3. Oriental-Turkish 20% 12g
4. Smyrna 10% 6g
5. Latakia: 35% 21g
6. Black Cav. 5% 3g
7. Perique 3g
Since I already diverted from the original recipe, I also used two different Oriental tobaccos. To make it more complicated, my Cavendish was Lane BCA, which is aromatic tobacco with vanilla flavoring. For some reason, I also added a little bit of Perique. I guess I sounded interesting and it didn’t bother me that my percentage column didn’t add up to 100%. I also didn’t understand exactly how to manage percentages and real weight and assigned a 6g arbitrarily as being 10%.
As I look at this combination now, it is obvious that I didn’t have a clue what am I doing. Although smoking this mixture was an OK experience, but by the end of January I learned several other things about blending tobacco, and I realized that I have to make changes to this mixture.
First, I needed to eliminate Vanilla flavor, and second, I wanted to include Perique in my percentage calculations. Here is the mixture I concocted on 02/09/2018:
WarSpur No.2 – Eng. Mix - 02/09/2018
1. Virginia - red 20% 12g
2. Virginia Bright (Lane) 10% 6g
3. Turkish Ribbon Cut 0% 6g
4. Izmir 10% 6g
5. Smyrna 10% 6g
6. Latakia: 30% 18g
7. Perique : 5% 3g
8. Dark Fired Kentucky 5% 3g
I still didn't have Black Cavendish, so I substituted it with Dark Fired Kentucky. I also expended my combination of Orientals and added Izmir. As I write this, I smoke a bowl of this blend. It is two months plus old by now, and it has some merits. The impact of Perique is evident. The blend is sweeter than the previous one, and it does have a pleasant aroma.
During that time (January – February) I read many descriptions of commercial blends, and one thing that struck me was a mention of combinations of different Virginias used in some of these blends. The idea was appealing, and I took it even further. I also expended the combination of Orientals. As I look at this venture now, I realize that I was running more on excitement than knowledge.
By the end of February, I had five different Virginias and four different Orientals in the mix. Virginias included three WLT tobaccos and two commercial brands. Orientals block included three commercial brands and one, a Krumovgrad I purchased from the LeafOnly website. I was on a mixture No. 7.
At this point, things became a bit dicey. I start feeling that it is a strong blend and, I thought, I am consuming too much nicotine. I start having really strong buzz, and my cheeks were red and hot after test-smoking the mixture.
I decided to eliminate Perique and Dark Fired Kentucky. At the same time, I expended my Orientals block to five different components. They were Turkish mixture, Izmir, Smyrna – all commercial origin, Krumovgrad - LeafOnly, and Basma - WLT.
I was on mixture No. 8, and it was not much better. The feeling of too much nicotine persisted, and I felt I am getting sick after every test. I didn’t sleep well and was getting more and more tired.
For next two mixtures, I focused on lowering percentage of Latakia since I remembered reading that Latakia and Perique are “strong condiment tobaccos.” Since there was no detailed explanation of this statement, I understood this as containing large doses of nicotine.
After mixture No. 11 I decided to take a break. I was sick, tired and frustrated. I hit a wall!
After a few days of rest, my brain returned to much-needed functionality. First, I decided to leave emotions and zealousness outside of the process. Second, I reviewed my recipes and found them to be a mess with no logic or justification. Third, I went back to a recipe before the introduction of Krumovgrad into the mix. That mixture was OK, although nothing to be proud of, but I didn’t have a buzz effect I was experiencing by the end of this venture.
Aha…! The small load of Krumovgrad was in a pipe, and I was puffing on the culprit. Here were the symptoms: the lining of my mouth became sore and irritated, and I could taste very strong bitterness. The soreness appeared on the inside of my lips and inside lining of my cheeks. There was no tongue bite, at least that’s what I thought, or any other unpleasant sensations except bitterness that I could taste on the further part of my tongue and throat. I felt like I just took a good dose of black pepper in my mouth. It was shocking.
I posted this description in the thread in another thread.
Bob stated that: “I have no idea why one Basma-type tobacco would be unusually bitter. Sometimes leaf gets fumigated in a warehouse. Bitter is usually associated with alkaline pH, while sun-cured Orientals tend to be slightly acidic. Most of them, however, are not particularly sweet.” He suggested to “Smoke some. Then mist it with lemon juice. After it dries down, smoke some more. There are some sources of bitter that will be unaffected by lowering the pH.”
Jitterbugdude made a point: “Wiktor, I think maybe the description of "provides a sweet, pleasant flavor" is just something that each vendor cuts-n-pastes from someones else's description. I doubt the vendor you bought it from has even smoked it.”
Garlisk suggested the following: “Wiktor, I cannot give you too much specific information, but I can say that humans can have odd reactions to some things based on genetics.”
I took all suggestions as important pointers. First, the description of Krumovgrad was not accurate. There is no sweetness in this leaf. Second, the lemon juice treatment did the job. The bitterness was almost gone, although there was still soreness in the lining of my mouth. It was, however, manageable and not as severe as after the initial test. I could register the aroma of Middle East incense, and taste of unidentified spices, etc.; something I expected from Orientals.
As to “odd reactions to some things based on genetics,” there was no way for me to test this theory. I knew one thing – I am old Polish stock, I have no allergies to anything, I can eat and drink almost anything. Well, maybe not exactly true – I do have an allergic reaction to the thought of my former wife. As to eating and drinking – at 70, I have to keep things in moderation. However, I am not dismissing this suggestion, and I might be reacting negatively to this specific tobacco.
So, where do I go from here?
Testing my Orientals. I created a scale from 1 to 10 to illustrate the bitterness, where 10 represents soreness and bitterness of Krumovgrad.
a. Turkish - 3
b. Smyrna – 4
c. Izmir – 5
d. Samsun-WLT - 1
e. Basma-WLT - 2
f. Krumovgrad-LeafOnly - 10
Checking all my vendors. Not one describes Orientals as a sweet leaf except LeafOnly for Krumovgrad. Most of them emphasize aroma and spiciness of Oriental tobaccos. All descriptions point to the interplay of Orientals with Latakia without details on what that interplay is or suppose to be.
So, what happened?
Here is what happened.
1. Whatever I learned so far about tobacco is not enough to feel comfortable with the process of blending at this point.
2. My choice of the recipe for this experiment was not good. Not only I didn’t have proper ingredients; I substituted them with wrong choices.
3. My excitement excided the knowledge I have. It represents itself in mixing different tobaccos from a particular group (Virginias and Orientals) without a clear understanding of how they will impact each other and the whole blend.
I started this thread with a statement by Bob (deluxestogie): “A little bit of this, a little bit of that, and you are a master blender.”
It seems like a clear warning. However, I read it as a message about accurate measurement only. There is more to it: Know the impact of one tobacco on another and the whole blend.
Blending tobacco is often compared to cooking. I am not an expert in neither of these disciplines. However, when it comes to cooking, we are exposed to the effects of it from the first day of our lives. By experience, we learned what will salt do to our meal. The same for pepper, onion, garlic, etc. When the dish is described as too salty, we instantly recall that taste in our mind without even touching that salty dish.
With tobacco, it is not that obvious. Although the verbiage describing tobacco borrows terms from a culinary discipline, the terminology appears to be not settled or consistent.
There is a void in literature for an explanation of an interplay between different tobaccos in a blend, how they impact each other, and the whole blend. Here is an example:
“Oriental, often called Turkish, is a variety of sun-cured tobacco with an exotic flavor and an aromatic aroma. It's sort of a catch-all term for sun-cured tobacco, as there are many different sub-types, such as Izmir, Katerini, Samsun, Sokhoum, Smyrna, Drama, Yenidje, and many more. When used in a blend, these sun-cured tobaccos can offer essences of tea and lemon but also a bit of spice, earthiness, and nuttiness as well. They're often used in English blends to play off the similarly exotic, smoky notes of Latakia.” Jeremy Reeves of Cornell & Diehl made this comment in one of his videos.
I use this quote to show how little the statement in bold means to a newbie like me.
Although I consider this “blend” a failure, I did learn a lot from this experience. I hope to apply what I learned to my next attempt off making a blend.