Pure Tobacco Pipe Blends You Can Make

[deluxestogie]

Many options:

• color-cure; kiln; leave unpressed
• color-cure; press
• color-cure; cook some into Cavendish
• color-cure; press under liquid to make perique
• mix any combination of the above; press

Bob

 

[Faltown]

Many options:

• color-cure; kiln; leave unpressed
• color-cure; press
• color-cure; cook some into Cavendish
• color-cure; press under liquid to make perique
• mix any combination of the above; press

Bob

Cheers Bob, nicotine lover, so I'm gonna start my thinking from 1,2, possibly 3!

 

[GreenDragon]

YTB is a Burley so you definitely want to kiln it after color curing. After that I would take some and make cavendish out of it, and toast another portion. Blend the plain kilned, the cavendish, and the toasted with some rum or Scotch and press for a few weeks. Slice, dry, and enjoy your own unique and personal blend.

 

[burge]

YTB is a Burley so you definitely want to kiln it after color curing. After that I would take some and make cavendish out of it, and toast another portion. Blend the plain kilned, the cavendish, and the toasted with some rum or Scotch and press for a few weeks. Slice, dry, and enjoy your own unique and personal blend.

Thinking if you could find some old liquor barrels but the tobacco in that

 

[FosmicCilth]

I am growing a few different oriental tobacco varieties to try and I found a good mix that really seems to complement oriental types of tobacco:

-5 parts lemon virginia, kilned
-3 parts oriental, I've really liked Izmir and Krumovgrad, both kilned
-1 part perique
-1 part toasted burley red tips

Using dark air cured cavendish instead of burley gives it more body and stronger virginias work too but I find that the lemon virginia/toasted burley red tip combination really brings out the flavors of the light oriental varieties without fatiguing my palate.

I am thinking of pressing this just long enough to hold shape and cutting it to a shag cut.

 

[FosmicCilth]

My experiment from my previous post led me to make a 25g noodle press plug out of:

8g Thin leaf virginia
8g Bright virginia
4g Ripe virginia
3g Red virginia
2g Burley red tip

All components were kilned at 122°F and 69% humidity for 3 weeks and no casing of any kind. I have 2 noodle presses, 1 seems to acheive higher pressure so I use that for things like individual varieties of virginia, the other press is slightly larger in diameter and seems to be better at pressing without rupturing cell walls. I used the larger press and got a really good, dry plug from it.

I've found this to be great on it's own but it is really good for testing the flavor of condimental components. The Ripe virginia seems very necessary to making this flavor profile work.

This plug cut into a shag with about 1:6 kilned basma and 1:6 perique also shag cut was like a natural form of the flavor of Stokkebye Norwegian shag.

 

[crasch]

Sharing my current House Blend. It started just before Thanksgiving as mostly Burley Red Tips with some Red and Brown Virginias and a small measure of Basma (along the lines of "Artifact"). As I've been smoking through this, I added different tobaccos to the tin from time to time. Instead of starting over fresh, I just added to the pot whatever I thought would move the blend into a direction I was looking for. Each time, I noted the weight of what was left of the previous iteration, as well as my new additions.
Lately I've been quite pleased with the blend, and so today I went through notes from the last seven iterations to figure out what the current blend actually is. After rounding 1-2 percentage points up or down, the result turned out to be very even proportions! I've now added some more of exactly those proportions to keep the blend steady as standard house blend.

In parts per 16:
3 Burley Red Tips (kilned)
3 Maryland
3 Red VA
3 Brown VA
2 Perique
2 Orientals (mostly Samsun at this point, but also some Basma and Krumovgrad)

 

[KroBar]

It was. It was ribbon cut, and then cased to about what the Perique comes out of the bag like.
I had it sitting under pressure (under 3 reel to reel tape decks) for a few weeks.
Pulled it out, crumbled it up, let it dry.
It smelled great, real chocolately, but I couldn't discern the perique anymore, and it had some serious tongue bite.
Maybe I'll give it another try in a month or 2. It's just a simple 4:1 Burley : Perique Blend.

A few months later, it had dried out well and regained the Perique Stinky butt smell. I guess it just really needs to be dry.

 

[KroBar]

Got a new blend. Delicious.
Still smoking my BurPer blend as my daily driver, but that's heavy and strong.
Sometimes it's nice to switch it up with something a little lighter / sweeter.
2 Pts. VA (I tend to use 1 pt Ripe + 1 pt Lemon, Ripe for flavor, and Lemon for combustibility but I'm no VA connoisseur. Whatever I have close at hand works fine. Doesn't make much difference.)
2 Pts Cameroon (Besuki or Sumatra would probably work just as well, just a stronger, Heavier Oriental Flavor)
2 Pts Samsun
2 Pts Burley (more or less to taste)
2 Pts Perique
1 Pt Light Fire Cured ( DFC would work great as well, just adjust for spiciness. I like the LFC because I can add a little more without altering blend characteristics, and kick up the Nic)
1 Pt Toasted DAC (for sweetness and Nic)
It likes to be nice and dry.

 

[KroBar]

I've adjusted it a little bit. Too much Perique
2 pts VA
2 Pts Cameroon
2 Pts Samsun
2 Pts Burley
1 Pt Perique
1 Pt Light Fire Cured
1 Pt Toasted DAC

 

[abemillett]

I'm recently back into pipe smoking after a hiatus. @deluxestogie I've really enjoyed reading through your blend books! I've tried a handful, and made some modifications to get a feel for how how different tobaccos interact.

One I really liked was American Cream (13 VA Lemon 3 Dark Air Cured).

I tried adding some oriental to change it up, I went with this:

12 VA Lemon
2 Dark Air Cured
2 Oriental

(I think I used Samsun; I also have Izmir on hand and I think both would work about the same)

To me, it tastes much horsier than American Cream, and also more English, so I'm calling it Suffolk Punch.

 

[deluxestogie]

Welcome to the forum, @abemillett. Feel free to introduce yourself in the Introduce Yourself forum.

I appreciate the kind words. The real joy of blending pure tobacco is experimentation.

Bob

 

[FosmicCilth]

I have been experimenting with a blend where my goal is to highlight the floral sweetness of oriental varieties. Krumovgrad has been a great starting point because it is a good middle-ground in the spectrum of flavors achieved with these varieties, it is very balanced.

My preferred blend type is Va/Per/Or/bur as I feel that this combination, when in the correct proportions, is almost dialable using smoking cadence to highlight the components. I also just enjoy these flavors together complimentarily.

Uncased, this blend works, it is very nice if you're into having your nostrils reamed out. I am, so I do enjoy it like this, but I am going to break a rule here and say that if the virginias are cased and all other tobaccos uncased, it is much more refined.

I also kiln almost all of my tobacco from raw at 122 F for six weeks excluding perique. Don't kiln perique, it becomes another thing entirely and I am not a huge fan so far, it seems to take the fermentation too far and you lose the aspect of perique that we mostly all love.

Va: 70%
-Red, bright, other grades depending on your preference (majority is equal parts Red and Bright for my palette, other grades in much smaller proportions)
-Perique: 10%
-Burley (light, not red tips): 10%
-Oriental (Krumovgrad, next I am trying an equal mixture of kilned Krumovgrad, Basma, and Izmir but this may likely change as I am growing several different varieties): 10%

I pressed this for 4 days relatively dry but with enough moisture to be cohesive like a C&D broken flake.

This worked for highlighting the floral sweetness of fhe Krumovgrad without any component being overpowering or in the forefront.

Next I need to figure out how to get that flavor while still blowing out my palette with red virginia and perique.

Enjoy your blending experiements!

 

[GreenDragon]

I find that Krumovgrad tends to dominate other Orientals in a blend. Try a 50/50 mix of just Basma and Izmir if you want a different flavor profile.