Beginners' Pipe Blending

[GreenDragon]

Much better! This is great. The Crooner - not so much.

 

[deluxestogie]

This is great.

What was the final blend?

Bob

 

[GreenDragon]

Final blend for Nestled Pebble is:

Red Va - 5 grams
Dark Air - 4 grams
Maryland - 4 grams
Burley - 7 grams
Lemon Va - 3 grams
Oriental - 3 grams (I used half stacked Basma and half Katerini)
Latakia - 1.5 grams
Perique (aged 1 year in Tomatin Scotch) - 4 grams (wet). (If using regular Perique - 2 grams)
Casing - 1/4 teaspoon homemade vanilla extract + 2 teaspoons Tamdhu Scotch. Misted just enough to make leaf pliable.

I think this blend is a good example of how formulating a new mix is just as much art as science (trial and error). It really needed the slight sweetness and tang of the orientals to lift the blend to the next level. Now I’m very happy with this and will make a bigger batch to age and pull out in a year or three.

Making your own blends is quite fun and actually is a great way to discover your own flavor preferences. And obviously I’m not afraid to fail - that crooner was truly awful! By making small trial batches if something turns out bad the loss is so small it’s not a big deal. So get out there and experiment!

 

[GreenDragon]

A tale of two blends.

I attempted two new blends this weekend; a take on Orlik’s Dark Strong and vanilla aromatic.

Dark Strong
I confess up front that I’ve never had this, but the description sounded great. I’m a big fan of licorice candy and I like strong flavors so I thought I’d give it a try. Made an extract of 50/50 licorice root and star anise with vodka and set aside to steep for a few days. I mixed up the blend then moistened with the extract until slightly damp. Then jarred for a few days. When I opened it today to check, almost all the licorice smell was gone! What type of black magic sorcery is this?? So I finely ground some more star anise into a powder and sprinkled some on for the tin note.

Kentucky Fire cured - 3 grams
Burley - 1 gram
Red Va - 1 gram
Cavendish - 2 grams

Tasting notes: very hard to keep lit. Must need to dry more. Initial licorice taste was noticeable, but died away quickly. Blend tasted a little bland. This might benefit from pressing and some Brightleaf Va to add acidity - had a little throat hit. Also needs more extract.

Vanilla Blend
I was kindly gifted some commercial cavendish to play with so I thought a natural vanilla aro would be a good place to start. I ground about 1/2” of a vanilla bean fine and mixed it in with:

Va bright leaf - 2 grams
Cavendish - 5 grams
Maryland cavendish - 1 gram
Perique - 1 gram

Tasting notes:
This one turned out nice. Slight vanilla flavor and burned well. Not strong, just an easy pleasant smoke.

 

[GreenDragon]

Not every new blend is a winner; I'm still striking out on my Dark Strong blend. The addition of the Va BL and more extract didn't help, so I'm tossing the batch and starting over. I'm going to break down and pick up a tin of the real thing first however to try. That way I'll have a better feel for the target (or I might not even like it and it's really me that's the problem LOL!).

On a more positive note, I did manage a blend this week that I am pleased with. I wanted to try a Balkan blend, and I like HH Whiteknight, so that was my inspiration. The weights appear a little random as I was just selecting nice looking whole leaves, so the ratio's between each component is what those leaves added up to. And I was winging it.

The Squire
Stacked Basma 2.5 g (13%)
Turkish Katerini 3.1 g (16%)
Samsun 3.1 g (16%)
Va. BL 3.0 g (15%)
Dark Fired 1.8 g (9%)
Latakia (homemade w/ Basma) 6.5 g (33%)
Gin Topping to case 1 ml (2 oz gin, 2 cloves, one powdered bead Tears of Chios, 1 small crystal of menthol)

Whole leaves were misted with topping and stacked in alternating layers, then pressed for 2 days. The bar was then cut into slices and a sample rubbed out and set aside for an hour to dry for testing. I really liked this blend. The Orientals shine and I especially picked up on the Katerini. The Katerini was a sample from Don, and it's great stuff. Definitely going to be part of my Black Friday order! Also, I think I will make another batch with WLT Latakia for fun to see how different it is.

 

[vilbertob]

After three days in the vice, I removed the Burley cigar for inspection. The blend was approximately, in decreasing percent order, Virginia (orangie), Burley, and Cavendish (Burley/Virginia/Maryland). I can't give exact amounts because the cats decided to chew up the notepad I was using. No flavorings or toppings were applied to this batch. Only enough rum was used as a casing to make the Burley and Virginia pliable enough to wrap around the Cavendish Core, with the Virginia being the outermost layer. The "cigar" was placed in my box press and pressure applied with a bench vice.

The residual moisture in the Cavendish spread throughout, and the resulting compressed plug is very dense and heavy for it's size. Will need to dry for a few days before storage. Very pleasant aroma; The wife said it smelled like chocolate and fruit, and I think it smells like a fig newton. Sliced off a few coins to let dry overnight and hopefully be able to try tonight.




View attachment 26942

What a beautiful cake!!!! How did you give this perfect shape to the cake????
And the "slices" you Cut??!! ....would like to put them in a sandwich and eat them....

 

[GreenDragon]

What a beautiful cake!!!! How did you give this perfect shape to the cake????
And the "slices" you Cut??!! ....would like to put them in a sandwich and eat them....

Thanks! I put the rolled tobacco in a cigar box press