greenmonster714
Well-Known Member
Don from WLT sent me this blend to try. It certainly was a pleasant surprise to recieve this unexpectedly in my mailbox and I appreciate the kind offering.
The Balkan Sobranidje comes in a two part package. One with the bright leaf and the other with a mixture of tobaccos with Latakia (charcoal black) added in a small sealed package. Each package does have one small bottle of casing that you can mix with water and use it on the blend. However, I did not use these casings. I prefered to use just the leaf alone and that has proven to be a great decision. My goal here is to make two blends with one kit.
I opened the Virgina bright leaf first and prepared them for stem removal by unfolding the leaf. Using a fillet knife I removed the stems. Sure I could have just torn out the stems but hey, I’m having fun here. It is official now. My fillet knife has now filleted more tobacco leaf than fish this year. Sad but true.
Upon getting the bright leaf de-stemmed. I started to wonder what I was going to use to chop this stuff up. The wife suggested I use the Turbo Pro blender we no longer use because it needs new gaskets.
It worked great. I pulsed the blender and the leaf broke down to the right size in seconds. Far better than chopping it up by had. Once I had it chopped down to where I want it. I threw it into a foil roasting pan. At this point the tobacco is pretty dry and with using the high speed blender some powdering took place. I found this not to be a problem. To help the dusty parts stick with the other tobacco I used distilled water and just a dab of PG (Polypropylene glycol). Once the case was added I would toss the tobacco in the pan to evenly distribute the casing. It took a few days of tossing to get the tobacco dry enough to store but the process worked great.
I used the process to make two very different blends. One with the Latakia and the other without. I love the taste of Latakia but wanted to try the blend without it as well. I would imagine the Latakia sent with the package was meant to be used for the whole kit. But, I did not do it that way. Since I like a strong taste of LatakiaI used the whole package in one half of the kit. For some this would probably be to much but for me it worked great.
Now its on to the taste tests. To get a good idea of the taste I had about 5 bowls of each. Both were simply wonderful. My tastes for pipe tobacco have mainly been developed with commercial blend tins or blends from tobacco shops. This whole leaf has been a delight. It not only smells fantastic but its something I’ve not experienced before now. Words like smooth, fresh, tasty, and heavy all pass through my mind as I puff away on both blends. If natural were a flavor its present here..lol. Keeping things lit was not really a problem and the bite was minimal at best.
I would suggest this kit to anyone wanting to make some high quality pipe tobacco. It takes little effort to prepare and the blend of leaf seems to be just right. I have no idea what the mixture of leaf is. Some brightleaf, medium brown, and dark leaf are in the kit. Whatever it is. Its a winning mix of varieties and it makes a lot of pipe tobacco.
A big thank you goes out to Don from Whole Leaf Tobacco for sending this to me for the mear price of a review. He also sent some cigar varieties to try and review. So, there’s more to come.
The Balkan Sobranidje comes in a two part package. One with the bright leaf and the other with a mixture of tobaccos with Latakia (charcoal black) added in a small sealed package. Each package does have one small bottle of casing that you can mix with water and use it on the blend. However, I did not use these casings. I prefered to use just the leaf alone and that has proven to be a great decision. My goal here is to make two blends with one kit.
I opened the Virgina bright leaf first and prepared them for stem removal by unfolding the leaf. Using a fillet knife I removed the stems. Sure I could have just torn out the stems but hey, I’m having fun here. It is official now. My fillet knife has now filleted more tobacco leaf than fish this year. Sad but true.
Upon getting the bright leaf de-stemmed. I started to wonder what I was going to use to chop this stuff up. The wife suggested I use the Turbo Pro blender we no longer use because it needs new gaskets.
It worked great. I pulsed the blender and the leaf broke down to the right size in seconds. Far better than chopping it up by had. Once I had it chopped down to where I want it. I threw it into a foil roasting pan. At this point the tobacco is pretty dry and with using the high speed blender some powdering took place. I found this not to be a problem. To help the dusty parts stick with the other tobacco I used distilled water and just a dab of PG (Polypropylene glycol). Once the case was added I would toss the tobacco in the pan to evenly distribute the casing. It took a few days of tossing to get the tobacco dry enough to store but the process worked great.
I used the process to make two very different blends. One with the Latakia and the other without. I love the taste of Latakia but wanted to try the blend without it as well. I would imagine the Latakia sent with the package was meant to be used for the whole kit. But, I did not do it that way. Since I like a strong taste of LatakiaI used the whole package in one half of the kit. For some this would probably be to much but for me it worked great.
Now its on to the taste tests. To get a good idea of the taste I had about 5 bowls of each. Both were simply wonderful. My tastes for pipe tobacco have mainly been developed with commercial blend tins or blends from tobacco shops. This whole leaf has been a delight. It not only smells fantastic but its something I’ve not experienced before now. Words like smooth, fresh, tasty, and heavy all pass through my mind as I puff away on both blends. If natural were a flavor its present here..lol. Keeping things lit was not really a problem and the bite was minimal at best.
I would suggest this kit to anyone wanting to make some high quality pipe tobacco. It takes little effort to prepare and the blend of leaf seems to be just right. I have no idea what the mixture of leaf is. Some brightleaf, medium brown, and dark leaf are in the kit. Whatever it is. Its a winning mix of varieties and it makes a lot of pipe tobacco.
A big thank you goes out to Don from Whole Leaf Tobacco for sending this to me for the mear price of a review. He also sent some cigar varieties to try and review. So, there’s more to come.
