Beginners' Pipe Blending

[Traveling Piper]

Very nice. I am curious about this blend. Please be sure to report on how it smokes. I bet it will be really nice and nuanced come mid-bowl--deeply nutty and savory-sweet? Got a lot going on there.
I, too, want to experiment with adding some cigar leaf. I've never tried any blends that feature it. I plan to grow some Little Dutch this year specifically for said purpose.
What variety cigar did you add?

 

[GreenDragon]

Very nice. I am curious about this blend. Please be sure to report on how it smokes. I bet it will be really nice and nuanced come mid-bowl--deeply nutty and savory-sweet? Got a lot going on there.
I, too, want to experiment with adding some cigar leaf. I've never tried any blends that feature it. I plan to grow some Little Dutch this year specifically for said purpose.
What variety cigar did you add?

A mix of Little Dutch and Havana 263. I've only had a few months playing with some (young ~ 6 months aged) home grown varieties, but so far I've found Little Dutch to be a good all purpose filler.

It looks like we will FINALLY have a nice weekend for a change, so I plan on giving these blends a leisurely smoking session for reviewing, so look for those writeups early next week.

Lately, it's been so unseasonably cold and wet my testing process has been thus:
[It's 35F, raining, with a 20 mph wind. I layer up, and cower under the tiny overhang by the back garage door. It's in a corner, so the best wind screen I have.]
Can I get it to light? Matches - no good. Zippo - nope. Torch - Yes! Does it taste terrible? No! Good, I'm going inside now to thaw.

 

[Traveling Piper]

A mix of Little Dutch and Havana 263. I've only had a few months playing with some (young ~ 6 months aged) home grown varieties, but so far I've found Little Dutch to be a good all purpose filler.

It looks like we will FINALLY have a nice weekend for a change, so I plan on giving these blends a leisurely smoking session for reviewing, so look for those writeups early next week.

Lately, it's been so unseasonably cold and wet my testing process has been thus:
[It's 35F, raining, with a 20 mph wind. I layer up, and cower under the tiny overhang by the back garage door. It's in a corner, so the best wind screen I have.]
Can I get it to light? Matches - no good. Zippo - nope. Torch - Yes! Does it taste terrible? No! Good, I'm going inside now to thaw.

You need a shop! Damn that cold weather.

 

[GreenDragon]

24 hours in the press produced a 3" X 6" cake approximately 1/4" thick. Pressure was about 6 psi. I then took the cake out of the bag, split in half, stacked, and returned to the press for another 12 hours at 12 psi. The second pressing remarkably changed the cake, as it forced the small amount of liquid to distribute evenly throughout the cake, resulting in a more uniform, darker color. I've got it air drying now. Looking forward to trying this one!

 

[GreenDragon]

Life is a journey
Time is a rivee
The door is ajar...

AsbI said in my original post this thread is all about the journey of new blenders, successes and failures. Wel, I’m posting about my first fail.

I smoked a bowl of the new burley blend today, and I have to admit I was very dissapointed. Bland, no real flavor at all, and some throat bite. I think my main error was too much casing with the licorice extract. I applied it fairly heavy hoping to smooth out the strong qualities (supposedly) of the burley. Must have been too enthusiastic as it just wiped out all flavor of the tobaccos added. I could still taste the spice of the oriental, but much else. Very smooth smoke, easy to keep lit. I think I will age it a bit and then use it as an ingredient in other blends for its smoothing/burn qualities.

I will not be defeated and will start a new burley blend tomorrow! Suggestions welcome on the next recipe. The next blend will not have any casings/flavorants added to keep the tobacco flavor “pure”.

 

[GreenDragon]

OK, so posting from an iPhone is not my forte - please forgive all the typos in the above post!

"Time is a river"

"As I said...'"

(What can I say, I'm pretty anal when it comes to grammar and sentence structure - It's genetic)

 

[davek14]

I will not be defeated and will start a new burley blend tomorrow! Suggestions welcome on the next recipe. The next blend will not have any casings/flavorants added to keep the tobacco flavor “pure”.

First, all disclaimers apply. My taste is actually likely an outlier.

I'm always tinkering with Burley and other leaf I have grown/obtained, but I do have a combination I return to a lot.

I like Burley, but by itself it will give alkaline tongue bite. I mellow it with honey and Virginia (Bright Leaf from BBonner). I use honey since it is invert sugar which mellows the alkalinity better than normal sugar. Any sugar will mellow a Burley dramatically, but having used it I see how many commercial blends depend on the taste of burning sugar. It can also make it too bland. Virginia will mellow Burley also because of it's sugar, and I do like a Virginia/Burley mix with a fair amount of Virginia. However, I still prefer a blend forward on the Burley.

So, I add a *little* Honey, and a little Virginia. I add very little honey, press overnight and sample. If it's sticky at all it's probably too much. If it’s too much I’ll add Burley and press again. When you can't taste any honey and the Burley has a nice flavor (and maybe a little bite) I'll add a hefty pinch of Virginia and press for a few days. Set it in the open air to settle a little more and it's usually good. It's pretty much always a work in progress. I rely on pressing the tobacco a lot to meld and usually only let it settle a week or so after it is "finalized". That's more because of fighting mold in the past though, I’m sure aging would make it even better. I’ve made a large mason jar full a perfect blend and had it mold... twice. So, I am mixing up enough for a week or so at a time.

If you want a pure tobacco flavor, which is prolly what I chase myself, you might try taking a little bit of that Burley blend you "over mellowed" and adding some Burley. Get it all in heavy case and press overnight. Keep adding Burley till it tastes good.

Again, my tastes and methods might be a little weird.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

I really like the process you go through. Not necessarily specifically, but the fact that blending is a process for you which takes some time.

 

[deluxestogie]

I agree with ChinaVoodoo. I repeatedly state that my blends, as posted, are merely starting points for your own blending. [Then I crush that invitation to experiment, by providing a pretty, full color label with my own blending proportions carved in stone!]

Tobacco leaf in low case does not mold. In medium case, it usually molds in weeks to months. In high case, tobacco leaf starts to mold in 3 to 5 days. When you add mold food (sugar, honey, molasses, barbecue sauce or whatever), then it may grow mold in weeks to months in low case, and will mold rapidly in medium case.

That is one of the motivations for all commercial blenders to add polypropylene glycol (PPG) to all flavored tobacco blends. PPG, in addition to making tobacco "feel" fresh, serves as an anti-fungal. Unfortunately, it always adds bite and a noticeable, chemical quality to any blend in which it is used.

My point here is that if you decide to add food to the pure tobacco leaf, and don't really want to also add PPG, the blend should be bulk-stored in very low case, or completely dry. For use, just bring a small batch at a time into low case.

Bob

 

[davek14]

I really like the process you go through. Not necessarily specifically, but the fact that blending is a process for you which takes some time.

Thanks. The tinkering is half the fun.

Tobacco leaf in low case does not mold. In medium case, it usually molds in weeks to months. In high case, tobacco leaf starts to mold in 3 to 5 days. When you add mold food (sugar, honey, molasses, barbecue sauce or whatever), then it may grow mold in weeks to months in low case, and will mold rapidly in medium case.

That is one of the motivations for all commercial blenders to add polypropylene glycol (PPG) to all flavored tobacco blends. PPG, in addition to making tobacco "feel" fresh, serves as an anti-fungal. Unfortunately, it always adds bite and a noticeable, chemical quality to any blend in which it is used.

My point here is that if you decide to add food to the pure tobacco leaf, and don't really want to also add PPG, the blend should be bulk-stored in very low case, or completely dry. For use, just bring a small batch at a time into low case.

Bob

Thank you, Bob. You can always be trusted to state things rather precisely. That's been exactly my experience. I do small batches and if I want to save any for a while I leave the jar open until completely dry top to bottom before I seal it up. If there are any "chunks" from pressing they will retain moisture and be mold magnets as well. Shame, since they have superior burn qualities.

It's worth it all since most or all commercial blends do not agree with me giving me tongue bite which builds up over time and actually making me feel ill in some cases. I suspect the PPG this week.

 

[deluxestogie]

Have you ever experienced a leak in the heater core of your car? Ethylene glycol (automotive antifreeze) causes a subtle mist that forms a tenacious film on the interior of your windshield. You have to use Windex to clean it.

A couple of weeks ago, I was sent a supply of un-flavored, commercial Black Cavendish. It was truly black, and squishy. Not a chance of mold, because of the polypropylene glycol (PPG) it contained. It turns out that it is black only because it stays "wet".

I packed a pipe with the black Cavendish, allowed it to "dry" for a few hours, then lit it up. It was mild and pleasant, though a bit uninteresting.

I spread a bunch into a foil pan, then slowly heated it in a toaster over set to "warm". This is about 220°F. At first, I thought some of it had ignited within the toaster over, because of a prolific cloud of smoke that began to pour out of the toaster oven. The "smoke" turned out to be simply the PPG outgassing. I continued this heating for about an hour. The result was a Cavendish that is uniformly, dull brown--just like all of my own Cavendish, once it has fully dried.

After this heating process, I had to use Windex to clean the exterior of my toaster oven of the tenacious film of PPG. (That on the interior was subsequently baked away with a much higher temperature.) Ahh! Like a leaking heater core in a car.

The now brown Cavendish smoked smoother, though still uninteresting on its own. But now I had something to use in blending--an ingredient with far less PPG, though some was still detectable. Of the two blends that I've made with this commercial brown Cavendish, both are rather nice to smoke, but always, always make my pipe gooey, requiring tedious cleaning--as though I had been smoking a commercial aromatic blend. But, I noticed that the presence of a little PPG increases the visible and palpable fullness of the smoke. That is, it produces a fuller cloud.

Another attribute of even this reduced PPG content is that the blend is more hygroscopic. That means that its container needs to keep atmospheric moisture out, rather than keeping it in.

These blends work considerably better in corncobs than in briar.

Bob

 

[GreenDragon]

Thanks guys, a lot of food for thought here. I think I will attempt a two different methods to obtain a Burley blend. I will start mixing in some Burley and Va. to my crumble cake in an attempt to salvage that batch.

Also, to obtain a more "pure" Burley blend, I will make a small batch of one of Bob's Cavendish / Burley blends using the "cigar" method. Or as close as I can get anyway, not having a large variety of pipe tobaccos in my collection (yet). I started last night by making a small batch of Cavendish in the pressure cooker using equal parts Burley, Virginia, and Maryland.

 

[deluxestogie]

My own impression of my home-cooked Cavendish in increasing potency:

• flue-cured Virginia Lemon Cavendish
• kilned burley red tip Cavendish
• kilned Maryland 609 Cavendish

The Maryland Cav is smoother than the burley Cav, but seems to have more nicotine. The other varieties that I cooked into Cavendish were interesting, but I won't make them again.

Bob

 

[GreenDragon]

As promised, I tried to do an objective taste review of the two blends posted here so far. As seen above, my Burley blend was not an initial success. However I was quite pleased with how my English blend turned out. It's based on Bob's "Flight Surgeon Deluxe", but as I couldn't help myself and tweaked it some, I've named my blend Eponymous.

Samsun 15 g
Maryland 7.5 g
Va. Bright Leaf 11.25 g
Cavendish 11.25 g
Perique 7.5 g
Casing made with rum, coffee, and a dash of vanilla extract. Pressed into a cake, then sliced.

Keep in mind that I've only been smoking a pipe for 2 months, so my palette is immature. Anyway, for what it's worth, here were my personal observations:
First 1/3 of bowl: Easy to light, notes of Hay, slight sweetness with caramel, and a light "tobacco" flavor.
Second 1/3: Occasional bursts of vanilla and fruit. Tobacco flavor becoming more prominent.
Final 1/3: Rich tobacco, toast, and caramel.
Overall, I'm quite happy with this and smoked it all the way to the bottom. Pleasant aroma from the pipe (guess you would call this yard note in my situation LOL). Best flavor when smoked as cool as possible without losing the ember.

 

[GreenDragon]

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.

 

[deluxestogie]

No flavorings or toppings were applied to this batch. Only enough rum...

Impressive looking plug.

My own experience is that Cavendish of Burley, Maryland and Virginia are quite different from one another. My having them as individual blend components already makes my brain hurt with the available permutations, but the differences in the final blends are fun to explore.

One more tiny step away from flavorings, and you'll be considered a recovering aromatic smoker.

Bob

 

[GreenDragon]

My own experience is that Cavendish of Burley, Maryland and Virginia are quite different from one another. My having them as individual blend components already makes my brain hurt with the available permutations, but the differences in the final blends are fun to explore.

One more tiny step away from flavorings, and you'll be considered a recovering aromatic smoker.

Bob

Thanks Bob

I was just thinking I should take a step back and make a few micro-batches of the different components so I can get a better appreciation for what each brings to the party. For tasting different types of Cavendish would you recommend smoking them straight or blended with a little Virginia?

 

[deluxestogie]

I've tried Cavendish of more than a 8 or 10 varieties. Smoking each individually was helpful to my understanding of how dominant or potent each can be. But it's remarkable to me how much their character is altered by their blending partners. It's like growing "tomatoes" each year vs. planting a host of tomato varieties. The latter offers so many revelations.

Bob

 

[Traveling Piper]

I've tried Cavendish of more than a 8 or 10 varieties. Smoking each individually was helpful to my understanding of how dominant or potent each can be. But it's remarkable to me how much their character is altered by their blending partners. It's like growing "tomatoes" each year vs. planting a host of tomato varieties. The latter offers so many revelations.

Bob

What is the best cavendish you’ve made?

 

[deluxestogie]

What is the best cavendish you’ve made?

Lemon Virginia Cavendish. That said, Burley Red Tip Cavendish and Maryland 609 Cavendish are rather nice, as well as providing their own unique strengths.

My next Cavendish run, sometime this week, will be a double batch of Lemon Virginia, Virginia Red Tip, and Pennsylvania ligero--in separate jars, of course.

Bob