Help needed - perique tabac smells like poop.

[seraphimchews]

I ordered perique - a sample - because I have heard so much about it, and I am a native of Louisiana, through I am far from St. James parish. It smells awful - like dog or other mammalian poop. Did it somehow "go bad" or does this smell have some redeeming value in chew or other use of tobacco.

Thanks for your help.

 

[deluxestogie]

Allow it to dry down to low case. Once blended with other tobaccos, like flue-cured Virginia, it takes on a completely different character as a pipe blend. Good starting ratios:

• Lemon VA: perique 5:3
• Red VA: perique 2:1

It completely removes the tongue bite of flue-cured tobacco.

Bob

 

[stdly]

Ya I ordered some and the same thing cow poop.
I let it dry to a low case, shredded it, still poop.
When I was shedding it my wife though one of us had tracked in some dog poop.
I mixed it with VA at a very low percentage and still poop, the pipe I used smells bad and needs a real good cleaning.
It tastes as bad as it smells I won't be smoking this tobacco.

Steve

 

[deluxestogie]

"We vacuum seal this tobacco to preserve freshness and prevent oxidation and mold growth."
Perique from WholeLeafTobacco.com

Were your samples vacuum sealed? Or was there air in the bag when you received it?

Bob

 

[CobGuy]

My wife thinks it smells like "poop" as well but I get more of a dirty-socks and brownie combo. LOL

~Darin

 

[stdly]

Actually I bought a pound of this, not sure why I had never tried it.
Mine came in a vacuum packed bag no air and no mould.
I processed half a pound.
It has been about three weeks since I opened the jar it is changing the poop smell has depleted quite a bit.
I asked the wife to smell it and she said it smells way better not really like poop anymore, not sure why.
It still has a slight poop smell I can't really explain the smell maybe fermented, spicy it tickles my nose, not sure if more aging will transform it even more.
I would consider trying it again now.

Am I safe keeping the other unopened half in the fridge or leave it out?

 

[deluxestogie]

I leave the unopened bags of perique at room temp. Once I open a bag, it stays in the fridge, as I gradually remove some leaf (8 or 10 at a time) to dry-down and shred. It is definitely stinky while drying. Once dried adequately, I store it just like any other pipe blending ingredient.

Decades ago, the tin aroma of pure, bone-dry, St. James Parish perique included a subdued barnyard hint. I have never noticed a barnyard scent in any of my perique pipe blends.

As for stinky pipe bowls, if I smoke any Caribbean-type cigar leaf or most (even lightly) cased commercial blends, then the bowl is noticeably stinky afterwards. That doesn't seem to happen with Little Dutch, Ohio Dutch, PA Red, Long Red or any of the PA Broadleaf/Seedleaf cigar leaf varieties.

Bob

 

[stdly]

I leave the unopened bags of perique at room temp. Once I open a bag, it stays in the fridge, as I gradually remove some leaf (8 or 10 at a time) to dry-down and shred. It is definitely stinky while drying. Once dried adequately, I store it just like any other pipe blending ingredient.

Decades ago, the tin aroma of pure, bone-dry, St. James Parish perique included a subdued barnyard hint. I have never noticed a barnyard scent in any of my perique pipe blends.

As for stinky pipe bowls, if I smoke any Caribbean-type cigar leaf or most (even lightly) cased commercial blends, then the bowl is noticeably stinky afterwards. That doesn't seem to happen with Little Dutch, Ohio Dutch, PA Red, Long Red or any of the PA Broadleaf/Seedleaf cigar leaf varieties.

Bob

Thanks for the info.
Maybe I will dedicate a couple of pipes for these tobaccos until I get it right.

 

[plantdude]

Damn! I'm getting more and more tempted to try some of that

 

[tullius]

never picked up dog poop in perique, not once. And I HATE the smell of dog poop, so I'd notice that.

dark cherry/sweet fermented plum/raisin/tangy fig newton/white pepper, maybe a little funky hay, that's what i get. Smells delicious, unlike canine crap.

Just went and opened my newest very recent bag of WLT vacuum sealed perique (marked St. James), yeah, definitely no dog poop. Have another year older open nearly full bag from WLT (thought I didn't have any, bought another, found the old one): same exact profile.

so, don't know what's going on. Was your sample from WLT? maybe peoples noses are that different?

 

[Brown Thumb]

Perique can smell like crap. As it ages it starts to smell better.

 

[seraphimchews]

Wow, you all are a great resource! Answering your questions; 1. It WAS vacuum sealed with no air or mold apparent; 2. It was from WLT - the other things I have purchased there are wonderful; and 3.
"dark cherry/sweet fermented plum/raisin/tangy fig newton/white pepper" - nothing as pleasant as any of that.

So, Bob, what is "drying down to low case." I am a rank noob. I opened the pack but put it in a zip-lock because it smelled so bad. Does it need to be open to air?

Thanks very much, to all of you.

Tony

 

[deluxestogie]

When I'm ready to use some of the perique, I remove 10 or 12 of the wet leaves from the previously opened bag in the fridge. I then untangle them and spread them out on a cutting board, where they usually require at least 24 hours (longer if the ambient humidity is up) to dry until they have a supple, dry, leathery feel--still flexible. Sometimes I have to do the spreading in stages, several hours apart, since slightly drier leaf is easier to separate. The drying process is stinky. It should rustle a bit when handled. I stem the leaf, then put the low-case leaf loosely into a 1 gallon Ziploc for storage at room temp. It should not feel at all damp. This perique is ready to be shredded and blended.

Since the drying process is stinky, I usually do enough to last me through at least a couple of months of pipe blending.

Bob

EDIT: Most commercial pipe blenders use what they call "granular" perique. This saves them a lot of labor ($$), since they just shove the tangled up perique into an industrial shredder, which produces little chunks. I much prefer properly shredded perique for blending. Each of the blend components will mix best if they are in a similar size and shape (i.e. typical shred). So I go to the trouble of returning it to relatively flat leaf that can be shredded.

 

[plantdude]

 

[stdly]

Ya ok poop was the word so I kept using it.
It is more of a barnyard smell, a barnyard that cows have bowel movements in.
When I was young three of my friends had farms, one had a chicken farm one had a pig farm and one had a cattle farm.
The chickens smelled the worst then the pigs and then the cows that's why I used cow barnyard above way better than chicken shite.

 

[seraphimchews]

An update. After the vacuum bag has been opened for 4-5 days, though in another zip plastic bag at 72ish degrees, the fecal smell is less evident and a hint, but only a hint, of fruity, raisin, etc is coming through. This might actually work. I pulled half of the bag out to dry for the day. About half of what I got out was in leaf form and the other half was more like a tobacco paste.

Tony

 

[FmGrowit]

Actually I bought a pound of this, not sure why I had never tried it.
Mine came in a vacuum packed bag no air and no mould.
I processed half a pound.
It has been about three weeks since I opened the jar it is changing the poop smell has depleted quite a bit.
I asked the wife to smell it and she said it smells way better not really like poop anymore, not sure why.
It still has a slight poop smell I can't really explain the smell maybe fermented, spicy it tickles my nose, not sure if more aging will transform it even more.
I would consider trying it again now.

Am I safe keeping the other unopened half in the fridge or leave it out?

I'm sitting here laughing. This reminds me of the funniest thing I've ever heard.
Q: What's the difference between men and women?
A: When a woman tells you to smell something, it usually smells good.

 

[Knucklehead]

I'm sitting here laughing. This reminds me of the funniest thing I've ever heard.
Q: What's the difference between men and women?
A: When a woman tells you to smell something, it usually smells good.

So true. I don‘t recall any woman ever pulling the old “here, pull my finger” routine on me. Lol.

 

[tullius]

Each of the blend components will mix best if they are in a similar size and shape (i.e. typical shred). So I go to the trouble of returning it to relatively flat leaf that can be shredded.

This is superlative advice. I'm still trying to combat pieces of latakia concentrating at the bottom of the mixing vessel. Maybe it's the nature of that beast. Kind of off topic I know, but if anyone has some ideas I'll start another thread. Bob's words above are excellent though.

 

[tullius]

OK, I just started another thread: https://fairtradetobacco.com/threads/keeping-latakia-in-suspension.9730/

Apologies for the distraction: back to perique