Pure Tobacco Pipe Blends You Can Make

[deluxestogie]

Never mind about Maracaibo. Here is a shot from Mudanya, Turkey two days ago.

Bob

 

[Homegrowngoodnes]

Wow, Thor must be angry!

 

[deluxestogie]

Photo: Julian Stratenschulte

In Germany, a farmer discovered that a wild boar piglet had been separated from its mother, probably when crossing a stream. But the farmer's cows happily adopted the piglet. [Aw! It's just a baby.] Nobody knows how this will turn out in the end. My guess is that both of them will eventually end up served on a platter.

The story inspired me with a quest for a truly unlikely pair for a pipe blend. What resulted is a dark, cow-brown leaf of WLT's Habano Oscuro wrapper, paired with a 5 year aged Virginia Bright flue-cured, from my 2017 grow. Part of the fun of this pairing is that I just took a similarly large leaf of each variety, stemmed them, then rolled them into a cigar. After flattening the cigar with my hand (to make it easier to slice), I sliced it into coins, then split the coins to shorten the shred length. Once rubbed out, it's ready to smoke.

The real wild boar in this blend is that cow-brown leaf of Habano Oscuro. This is a full nicotine blend. Since the Habano Oscuro is a ligero leaf (thick and potent), its burn rate is modest. The flue-cured Bright leaf burns like a demon, so the resulting blend burns nicely. (My initial thought was to pair the Habano Oscuro with an Oriental, but most Orientals are notable for their sluggish burn.)

A surprising result of this unlikely pair is that the pipe blend does not at all remind me of the intense cigar aroma of the Habano Oscuro. The bright leaf transforms the blend into a different aroma profile. There is nothing subtle here, but it is enjoyable at those moments when I desire a strong blend.

Unlikely Pair

• WLT Habano Oscuro Wrapper 50%
• Virginia Bright Flue-Cured 50%

Predictable Pair

• Cigar Leaf ligero 50%
• Virginia Flue-Cured 50%

Download 3½" hi-res label for Unlikely Pair as pdf.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Photo: Daniel Blumstein, UCLA

Being yellow bellied doesn't necessarily mean that you are a coward. These yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventris) boldly go where none have bothered to go—living above 6500 feet (1981 m), in rock piles. But they are impartial grazers, living the American dream (e.g. working like a dog to maintain a home, and obtain groceries). My own neighborly marmot (Marmota monax), named Seymore, and living below my shed, actually preferred eating assorted weeds to eating garden vegetables, but he'd take whatever he stumbled into. Every 6 to 10 seconds, he interrupted his grazing to lift up his head to scan the horizon for potential dangers. He lifted his head to see more. Then resumed his random grocery shopping. [My neighbor shot him dead. So I won't see more of Seymore.]

This pipe blend is moderate-to-full in nicotine (depending on your choice of Maryland and Burley varieties), and mildly mannered in its taste and aroma. Nothing about it will swoop down from the sky to startle you. I used Maryland 609, Basma and NB-11 burley.

Mild Mannered Marmot

• Maryland 75% (12 parts per 16)
• Oriental 12.5% (2 parts per 16)
• Burley 12.5% (2 parts per 16)

Download 3½" hi-res label for Mild Mannered Marmot as pdf.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

By Auguste Raffet - Famille tsigane en voyage en Moldavie, 1837, Public Domain

When I think of the Roma people, my mind often goes to the Balkans. Perhaps this is because of the depictions on a number of famous, Balkan-style pipe blends. While it is true that the Romani have been in the Balkans for centuries, they are also dispersed throughout the world. It turns out that both genetic research as well as linguistic research have pointed to today's western, central India as the likely origin of their migrations. [That is a region just south of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's maternal ancestral home.] The Romani are mostly of south Asian heritage. Still today, the Romani remain a primarily itinerate culture. Animal powered wagons have given way to RVs and campers.

For this blend, I went with the Balkans. It lights easily, and burns well. The Oriental blend of a Basma type (Krumovgrad) and a Samsun type (Katerini) lends a soft, mixed, floral note, while the Maryland (I used MD 609) gives it body. Although the perique aroma is noticeable in the pouch aroma, it's role in the overall blend is to completely eliminate the tongue bite that would otherwise accompany such a high Oriental percentage. Nicotine is mild-to-moderate.

For substituting differrent Orientals, the Krumovgrad variety can be replaced with Prilep or any other Basma type (Xanthi, Basma, Yenidje, Izmir, etc.), and the Katerini can be replaced with Samsun, Bafra, Trabzon, or other petiolate Oriental. If you use home-made perique, then just fiddle with its proportion, to balance the pH.

Romani

• Maryland 25%
• Krumovgrad 25%
• Katerini 25%
• Perique 25%

Romani Sleight of Hand

• Maryland 25%
• Basma type Oriental 25%
• Samsun type Oriental 25%
• Perique 25%

Download the 3½" hi-res label for Romani as a pdf.

Bob

 

[Controlled Chaos]

Dark fired forward but not at full throttle, this recipe is a good start for the morning. Named for its appearance and it being mild enough for a morning smoke, it tastes mostly of the dark fired despite containing so little of it which is nice if you're not looking for something strong in nicotine. It was surprising how much the dark fired shined through and I almost refused to believe how little was going to be needed in comparison to the stoved (cavendish?) flue cured red VA, which is substantially less than another blend I'm working on that uses flue cured red VA. Mild bodied but not too mild in flavor.

The flue cured red VA went straight from the bag into a jar with a small amount of filtered water added before sitting through 4 cycles on high in an Instant Pot so it's very dark, I'll put up a picture later today.

 

[Controlled Chaos]

Mmmm, dark and delicious. The jar is the flue cured red VA that is literally night and day between what it started as and what it is now after the cooking process, the plate is what's left of the small batch I made. This rainy weather has me wanting to sit out back with this jar, a cob pipe, some matches and a book

 

[deluxestogie]

Dixie Valley Toad. Photo: Matt Maples

This blend is pure southern, though it is named after the critically endangered, Dixie Valley Toad, which is only found in a small group of vegetated spring-fed marshlands in Dixie Valley, one of the hottest and most geothermally active systems in Churchill County, Nevada. The Dixie Valley Toad is threatened by plans to construct a geo-thermal power plant in the area.

Red Virginia, burley red tip, and a Cavendish cooked from a One Sucker dark air-cured variety. It's not a fancy blend. The nicotine punch is full. I see it as a late-in-the-day pipe blend, smoked in a modest-sized bowl. Its pouch aroma suggests a typical Virginia/Burley blend, but the One Sucker Cavendish both broadens the aroma profile, while fortifying the nicotine load.

Dixie Valley

• Flue-cured Virginia Red 56.25% (9 parts per 16)
• Burley Red Tip 31.25% (5 parts per 16)
• One Sucker CAVENDISH 12.5% (2 parts per 16)

Download 3½" hi-res label for Dixie Valley as pdf.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Photo: Martim Melo

The little guy on the label is an endangered, Principe Scops Owl (Otus bikegila) found only on the Príncipe Island of São Tomé and Príncipe, 180 miles off the coast of Gabon. Something about his diminutive, raggedy appearance, and middle of nowhere location was suggestive of this blend.

This curious pipe blend lights easily, and burns well. It presents a broad though subtle aroma profile, and a medium nicotine. An any-time-of-day smoke. Despite my choice of blend name, these two Cavendish ingredients play well together, bringing out soft, unique aromas that neither of them seems to have when smoked separately. Similar Oriental substitutes for the Trabzon Cavendish would be Cavendish made from other petiolate varieties, such as Samsun, Bafra or Katerini.

If your MD 609 is home-grown, you can adjust the nicotine level by cooking the Cavendish with leaves selected from lower or higher on the stalk (lower or higher nicotine, respectively). Then adjust the MD : Trabzon ratio to rebalance the pH.

Owly Cavendish

• Trabzon CAVENDISH 50%
• MD 609 CAVENDISH 50%

Cranky Cavendish

• Oriental CAVENDISH 50%
• Maryland CAVENDISH 50%

Download 3½" hi-res label for Owly Cavendish as pdf.

Bob

 

[HillDweller]

He's a cute little fellow.

 

[deluxestogie]

Pay no attention to the fragmenting, Chicxulub asteroid plummeting in the background.

The 2021 gift from Grandma. It's no longer in style:

Grandma has knitted T. Rex a new, ugly Christmas sweater, again with a dino motif. ["I saw Dino eating Santa Clause, underneath the mistletoe last night."]

The ingredients for this year's Christmas 2023 blend are relatively generic. The Izmir can be replaced with any Basma type Oriental. You could even replace the Perique with more dark air-cured. As of this writing, all of the ingredients are in stock at WLT. I'm posting this in late November, so there will be plenty of time to order the leaf, and have it blended and ready for Christmas and New Year gatherings.

Christmas 2023

• Izmir 43.75% (7 parts per 16)
• VA Bright 18.75% (3 parts per 16)
• Dark Air-Cured 12.5% (2 parts per 16)
• Maryland 18.75% (3 parts per 16)
• Perique 6.25% (1 part per 16)

Download the 3½" full-color label for Christmas 2023 as a pdf.

Bob

 

[CaptainAubrey]

While some varieties of tobacco can be enjoyable when smoked straight in a pipe, the flavor horizon can be broadened by simple blending of contrasting varieties and cure-methods. My goal in this thread is to present some pipe blends that do not use casing of any kind. [Practically all commercial pipe tobacco, even the highly regarded English-style blends of G.L. Pease, contain flavorings, humectants and mold suppressants.]

There is nothing sacred about the recipes shown here. You can regard them as a starting point for creating your own blends. All of the ingredients can be produced at home. Of the ingredients shown, nearly all of them can be purchased at www.wholeleaftobacco.com. Unfortunately, Perique that has been pressure-cured is considered by the tax folks to be a tobacco product. But you can make Perique easily at home (http://fairtradetobacco.com/threads/2873-Really-Easy-Perique-Press) with any tobacco variety.

deluxestogie's Jewel of Macedonia (an English mixture), hand-shredded from rollcake of each ingredient:
-VA Red flue-cured: ~40% [from WLT]
-Prilep 66-9/7 flue-cured: ~20% [my own] <--This specific variety, either flue-cured or sun-cured, really makes a difference.
-Cyprian Latakia: ~25% [from WLT]
-Pressure-cured Perique: ~10% [my own]
-Dark Cavendish-processed (Bolivia Criollo Black): ~5% [my own]


deluxestogie's Simplified Jewel of Macedonia:
-Virginia bright-cured: 40%
-Oriental (as aromatic as available): 20%
-Latakia: 25%
-Perique pressure-cured: 10%
-Black Cavendish: 5%

**************************


deluxestogie's Warspur (an English Mixture)

-Virginia air-cured: 30%
-Oriental: 30%
-Latakia: 35%
-Black Cavendish or Dark Air: 5% (optional, to add body)

**************************


deluxestogie's Rich Creek (Burley & Latakia)

-lighter burley: 20%
-darker burley: 20%
-Oriental: 30%
-Latakia: 30%

**************************


deluxestogie's Pearl of Shibam (an English mixture)

-Virginia bright-cured: 31%
-Perique pressure-cured: 19%
-Latakia: 25%
-Oriental (typically, Izmir): 25%
[I've had this blend made up by Cornell & Diehl, and can be ordered by name (maybe: they've recently been sold to a large tobacco marketing company). It's just as easy to make at home, if you have the ingredients.]

**************************

I usually make up a batch by rolling a crude, low-case cigar of each ingredient, judging the quantity by size of the roll-cake, then hand shred them with my kulu. The shredded ingredients are then tossed into a 1 gallon Zip Lock. I inflate the bag, seal it, then pinch one corner, while shaking the opposite corner. After blending, I expel the air, and compress the blend by rolling the bag tightly. While most of the ingredients don't change much with time, a blend that includes Latakia exhibits noticeable change after a couple of days rest. A rest period will also tend to equalize the moisture content.

I allow pipe blends to dry to low case: not crumbly-dry, but pretty dry nonetheless. If you keep it at a moisture content that "feels" like commercial pipe tobacco (the stuff with humectants, etc.), it will mold.

Bob

Hey Bob,
What is a kulu? Is it like an Ulu? The Ulu is a knife I find real handy for shredding and cutting up kava root, etc.

I am a greenhorn piper so don't have any idea about English mixture, actually for none of the above.

On the Pearl of Shibam how is the VA bright cured?

Thanks,
John

 

[deluxestogie]

Kuhn Rikon offered a kulu blade about a decade ago:

but it is no longer available. Last I checked, Kuhn Rikon still offers their smooth-edged mezzaluna:

which I now use for all my pipe shredding and plug cutting. A typical ulu blade positions the handle higher above the blade, so the leverage is not as convenient for the rocking motion I use in shredding.

So called "English" blends were traditionally non-aromatic (so casings or flavorants added). These are in contrast to aromatic blends (which appear in a different thread).

Any recipe that I've posted with "Virginia", "VA Bright", "VA Red", etc. are flue-cured, unless otherwise stated.

Bob

EDIT: Check our Index of Key Forum Threads for the two downloadable pipe blending books—free.

 

[Homegrowngoodnes]

I bought a curvy knife with a wood handle with a small wood block stand from walmart for $10. It works great on the rolling bench!

 

[CaptainAubrey]

While some varieties of tobacco can be enjoyable when smoked straight in a pipe, the flavor horizon can be broadened by simple blending of contrasting varieties and cure-methods. My goal in this thread is to present some pipe blends that do not use casing of any kind. [Practically all commercial pipe tobacco, even the highly regarded English-style blends of G.L. Pease, contain flavorings, humectants and mold suppressants.]

There is nothing sacred about the recipes shown here. You can regard them as a starting point for creating your own blends. All of the ingredients can be produced at home. Of the ingredients shown, nearly all of them can be purchased at www.wholeleaftobacco.com. Unfortunately, Perique that has been pressure-cured is considered by the tax folks to be a tobacco product. But you can make Perique easily at home (http://fairtradetobacco.com/threads/2873-Really-Easy-Perique-Press) with any tobacco variety.

deluxestogie's Jewel of Macedonia (an English mixture), hand-shredded from rollcake of each ingredient:
-VA Red flue-cured: ~40% [from WLT]
-Prilep 66-9/7 flue-cured: ~20% [my own] <--This specific variety, either flue-cured or sun-cured, really makes a difference.
-Cyprian Latakia: ~25% [from WLT]
-Pressure-cured Perique: ~10% [my own]
-Dark Cavendish-processed (Bolivia Criollo Black): ~5% [my own]


deluxestogie's Simplified Jewel of Macedonia:
-Virginia bright-cured: 40%
-Oriental (as aromatic as available): 20%
-Latakia: 25%
-Perique pressure-cured: 10%
-Black Cavendish: 5%

**************************


deluxestogie's Warspur (an English Mixture)

-Virginia air-cured: 30%
-Oriental: 30%
-Latakia: 35%
-Black Cavendish or Dark Air: 5% (optional, to add body)

**************************


deluxestogie's Rich Creek (Burley & Latakia)

-lighter burley: 20%
-darker burley: 20%
-Oriental: 30%
-Latakia: 30%

**************************


deluxestogie's Pearl of Shibam (an English mixture)

-Virginia bright-cured: 31%
-Perique pressure-cured: 19%
-Latakia: 25%
-Oriental (typically, Izmir): 25%
[I've had this blend made up by Cornell & Diehl, and can be ordered by name (maybe: they've recently been sold to a large tobacco marketing company). It's just as easy to make at home, if you have the ingredients.]

**************************

I usually make up a batch by rolling a crude, low-case cigar of each ingredient, judging the quantity by size of the roll-cake, then hand shred them with my kulu. The shredded ingredients are then tossed into a 1 gallon Zip Lock. I inflate the bag, seal it, then pinch one corner, while shaking the opposite corner. After blending, I expel the air, and compress the blend by rolling the bag tightly. While most of the ingredients don't change much with time, a blend that includes Latakia exhibits noticeable change after a couple of days rest. A rest period will also tend to equalize the moisture content.

I allow pipe blends to dry to low case: not crumbly-dry, but pretty dry nonetheless. If you keep it at a moisture content that "feels" like commercial pipe tobacco (the stuff with humectants, etc.), it will mold.

Bob

Hey Bob,
Have you had suppliers make up a batch of Jewel of Macedonia or any others lately?

Thanks,
John

 

[deluxestogie]

That post was from 9 years ago. Since then, every tobacco blend coming from pipe tobacco suppliers now contains humectants (at least). I used to be enamored with the non-aromatic blends of Cornell & Diehl. Now, I no longer order any of their blends. The commercial blend that contains the least humectants/flavorants that I have recently sampled is the "Natural Virginia and Burley", by Low Country. Even that contains some humectant and some flavorant (vague non-tobacco aroma, and slightly goopy bottom of the bowl).

Your best bet is to order whole leaf ingredients from WLT, and blend them yourself.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Photo: Matthijs Hollanders

Fleay's barred frog (Mixophyes fleayi) grows up to 9 centimeters long (~3½"), and lives near gravelly streams in the rainforests of northern New South Wales and southeast Queensland. Currently it is an endangered species.

More importantly, this frog just looks like a tobacco blend. I can almost smell tobacco when I look at the photo.

This blend was born from Black Belly (made with cigar scrap Cavendish and Ainaro—coming soon), which has no sweetness, and minimal pouch aroma, though it is an enjoyable smoke. The pinch of Basma added to Barred Frog wakes it up, like lightly sprinkling salt on a tomato. Adjustments to the ratio between Ainaro and cigar leaf CAVENDISH may be needed, depending on your own choice of cigar leaf.

After carefully considering the specific cigar leaf CAVENDISH to use in my test batch, I selected the only one that I already had made up over a year ago (maybe two or three years ago): WLT Pennsylvania ligero Cigar Leaf CAVENDISH, eagerly awaiting its true calling in life.

The pouch aroma is dominated by the deep and woody aroma of the cigar leaf CAVENDISH. It lights easily, and burns well. Surprisingly, the pH balance is pretty good. There is no cigar aroma. Instead, the aroma more closely resembles the Cavendish of a dark air-cured variety—rich and heady. I would guess that the nicotine ranks in the "rather full" category, though my batch of Barred Frog did not cause me to croak. Big flavors, big aromas and a likely horrid room note (though I can't really say).

Barred Frog

• Ainaro 50% (8 parts per 16)
• Cigar Leaf CAVENDISH 43.75% (7 parts per 16)
• Basma 6.25% (1 part per 16)

Bard Frog

• Baritone Timor-Leste Dark Sun-Cured 50% (8 parts per 16)
• Bass Cigar Leaf CAVENDISH 43.75% (7 parts per 16)
• Tenor Oriental 6.25% (1 part per 16)

Download 3½" hi-res label for Barred Frog as pdf.

Bob

EDIT: Compare this blend to Black Belly:
https://fairtradetobacco.com/threads/pure-tobacco-pipe-blends-you-can-make.3926/page-47#post-216385

 

[deluxestogie]

Silly, though Artificially Intelligent, Blend Label Graphics

The artwork in these four labels was generated by artificial intelligence (AI). Their themes are not exactly suggestive of pipe blends (though Merchant Frog might barely pass).

Bob

 

[brooklynpiper]

What I’ve been smoking:

I smoke very little, especially during the busy time leading up to the holidays. I also move up and down the Latakia scale a lot. Because of that, I’ve been blending a base to add Latakia to:

VA: 10
Izmir: 4
Dark-Air Cav: 2



Then for each bowl I add Latakia pending on my feeling. The base needs some amount of Latakia to even it out imo.



Happy holidays, all!

 

[deluxestogie]

Photo: Ian Souza-Cole

This is a simple blend with medium nicotine. Depending on your specific ingredients, adjust the pH by adding or subtracting the Maryland Cavendish component. For my version, the burley is a Canadian variety. The Harrow Velvet has been aged for about 8 years, whereas the MD 609 has aged about 18 months, prior to cooking into Cavendish. My Virginia Bright was primed from mid-stalk of Virginia Bright Leaf variety, and flue-cured 5 years ago.

Whip-poor-will

• Harrow Velvet burley 50% (8 parts per 16)
• Virginia Bright 40.625% (6½ parts per 16)
• MD 609 Cavendish 9.375% (1½ parts per 16)

Poor Ol' Will

• Burley 50% (8 parts per 16)
• Flue-cured Virginia 40.625% (6½ parts per 16)
• Maryland Cavendish 9.375% (1½ parts per 16)

Download 3½" hi-res label for Whip-poor-will as pdf.

Bob