Thank you, and enjoy. Once the nice weather is here to stay, my pipes will begin to gather cobwebs. For now, though, I'm having a lot of fun playing with all of my pipe tobacco ingredients. As I type this, I'm smoking my final bowl of the day: Angry Alligator.
Just a few days ago, I went to Office Max, and had them print 6 pages of new pipe tobacco labels onto heavy card stock. That's 24 labels, added to previously printed labels. Many of those blends were tested in micro-batches--in a Ziplock. Since I like to have 6 or so large batches of differing blends in tins and large jars beside my desk, when one of the "minor" ones (anything but Pearl of Shibam and Edinburgh) runs out, I sit down with my printed color labels, and browse for which blend to replace it with. Then I cut out that label, and attach it to the now empty container, waiting for the time or energy to mix up a large batch of that blend, and taking advantage of that new batch to consider variations in the specific components.
My labels are attached to the container with 6 little segments of rolled packing tape in a star pattern on the back of the card stock. When I move to a new blend, I carefully remove the label, and stick it on the front of my refrigerator for safe storage. The fridge is turning into a curious display.
On the underside of each container is taped the specific blend components used in that batch. When one set of components turns out to be a real winner, I mark that under-label with a star, which reminds me that this is the best.
This is all my version of cabin fever.
Bob
