First attempt at making pipe tobacco

[DonH]

Thought I'd bring this to its own thread.

First this from another thread:

Well, I went and did it today. Went out and bought a pipe. I've been fascinated with everyone's descriptions of making flake and Cavendish and whatnot, so I started watching pipe videos on YouTube. So I went to the tobacco shop and got a $5 corn cob pipe just to try it. I was looking around at what pipe tobacco they had and decided to buy some so I would know what it supposed to be like. I don't like aromatics, so I was looking at the English blends. They had tins of Davidoff, so I bought one of Davidoff Flake Medallions because I saw a guy smoke some on YouTube and rave about it. It is a blend of Virginia, Perique, and Cavendish, with the Cavendish as a bulls-eye in the middle of the medallion. Sounded interesting.

When I got home, I stuffed the cob with my shredded cigarette mix, just to test it. Wasn't very good. Was wondering if I would even like pipe smoking. So then I tried the Davidoff Flake. Wow, that was nice!

So I started trying to make a blend with the whole leaf I have, but this time using pipe tobacco techniques, not cigarette shred. I pulled out five Flue Cured Virginia leaves, four Burley, one very large Fire Cured leaf, a few small Dark Air Cured 3rd Priming leaves, a Yellow Twist Bud leaf or two, and a bunch of small Oriental ones. I removed the mid ribs and sprayed them with a honey-water solution and put them in a ziploc. I gotta say, it really smells like pipe tobacco in that bag. Tomorrow I will either press them or roll them tightly and slice medallions, depending on whether I can find the right size boards to use with my C clamp. I am thinking of spraying it with Scotch whiskey as a topping when done.

Then this:

I sprayed a pipe tobacco blend of whole leaves, Virginia FC, Burley, Dark Air Cured, Oriental, and Fire Cured with a 1 to 1 mix of 2 oz honey and 2 oz water until they were very wet. I let them sit in a ziploc for a couple hours, then flattened them one by one and laid them in a pile with the largest Flue Cured on the bottom. Then I rolled it up as tightly as I could like you would roll the binder for a cigar (haven't done that yet). Then I took another Flue Cured leaf and used it like a cigar wrapper and rolled it up. The honey solution made everything stick together nicely. Then I kept rolling it on a cutting board over and over to get it as tight as possible. I let the cigar, which held 3.5 oz of tobacco and looked like a large dinner candle, sit overnight.

The next morning I sliced it into medallions. I put the medallions in a jar with the lid off to dry a bit, then I plan to rub them out, spray them with whiskey and dry to medium case. I tried one medallion's worth in a pipe and it had a bit of a bite. I think I need to make some Black Cavendish to blend and make it smoother. Flavor's good, though.

I think it had much more than a bit of bite. Wasn't very smokable, really. Part of it was because it hadn't dried properly. I read that if the tobacco is too moist it can bite. Once it dried it was better, but still not good enough. I am really amazed at how smooth the expensive store-bought stuff is. And I inhale (not every puff, but four or five times a session) and the store bought stuff is the smoothest smoke I have ever inhaled. You really get the best flavor inhaling. I don't know why most pipe smokers don't inhale.

I bought two more varieties this weekend, Davidoff Royalty, which is a nice English style blend and Mac Baren's Vintage Syrian. I wanted to taste what Latakia and other Orientals are supposed to taste like in pipe tobacco. Very nice.

But what to do with mine? I decided that since mine had untoasted Burley in it I would toast it. I sprayed it with water with Licorice extract and Vanilla extract. The toasting worked, it actually tastes OK now, much smoother. I overdid the Vanilla, though. I will have to cut it maybe with the Cavendish I'm making and more uncased Virginia and see if the vanilla gets toned down. I also ordered some Perique online and plan to pick up some bulk Latakia at my tobacco shop and blend that in two different batches.

 

[SmokesAhoy]

Sounds like you are having fun experimenting! Yeah the expensive tobacco are smooth because not only are they processed via a tried and true method but it also has arguably the most important ingredient of all: time

 

[Jitterbugdude]

Keep in mind too that a Burley will have more impact (throat stinging) than a flue cured/air cured Virginia. This is due to its relative higher pH (less acidic) value. The Virginias have more sugars in them and as you smoke the sugars will burn and lower the pH of the tobacco. It is this lower pH that contributes to the smoothness. The flip side of this is that it is also the reason why you get tongue bite. That's why Burleys and Virginias make a good combo.

 

[DonH]

Thanks, Smokes and JBD. Yes I am having a blast doing this. So time helps, so aging mellows it out, then. That makes sense. Like wine. The wines that age well and improve for many years often taste really harsh when they are young. JBD, I generally like the Burley impact, but I didn't realize it was the same thing as throat stinging when smoking it in a pipe. Makes sense that balance is the key.

The good news is that I nailed my first blend today. I made it to the tobacco store before the hurricane hit and bought two ounces of Latakia. The Latakia was the perfect thing to balance the vanilla. The piney spiciness covers up the too-sweet vanilla/honey combo perfectly. And the Burley, Dark Air, and Fire Cured gives it a good bass range. I am psyched that I have a blend that I want to smoke.

I also made some Cavendish which I am going to test blending in different blends. It came out dark brown, almost but not quite black. I lost patience after about 16 hours. I am thinking maybe a different kind of collander would work better. The one I used had fewer holes in it. I may try a wire mesh one next. That is, if I can be alone in the house for long enough. My wife was not happy. The smell was fine, she just thought I was giving the whole family cancer. Led to another "discussion" about tobacco (she's an ex-smoker turned anti-smoker). She was fine today, though. She suggested I do this outside next time.

As far as the hurricane went, we (so far) are very lucky. It seems to be going about 150 miles to the west of us. We've been getting some strong gusts and some heavy rain, but not as bad as most people in the path, and we still have power!We have some tall Eastern White Pines next to the garage/tobacco barn that we've been meaning to take down. I was picturing one falling on the garage and ruining the tobacco crop, so I frantically pulled down the leaves that were dry and tied them into hands just as the storm hit. The Burley are still hanging, their mid ribs seem to take forever to dry.

 

[DonH]

I found that toasting the Virginia takes away the tongue bite. So I made another batch of Flue Cured VA, Burley, Dark Air, YTB, and Fire Cured (in order of proportion), cased it with water, maple syrup, licorice and a little vanilla, rolled it into a huge cigar (it was 12 oz of tobacco). I cut it into medallions and toasted the medallions (I wanted to keep it in medallion form) in the oven at 250F until completely dry. I removed the medallions from the oven and sprayed them with water.

I came out great! No bite, very smooth and great flavor.

 

[DonH]

Just got the Perique in the mail from SmokingPipes.com. Amazing service considering I ordered on Saturday and it arrived today with the Frankenstorm and everything.

The Perique had a more subtle flavor than I thought it would. I combined it into a couple of my blends in place of Latakia, so I have alternate versions, one with Latakia and one with Perique. Tastes good. Now I'm sitting on over a pound of pipe tobacco.