I was curious how many of us have made our own pipe blends. How did it turn out for you? Did you age it? Did you keep it loose, or turn it into a cake, plug, flake, or rope? Did you add a binder or topping, or just keep the mixture as is?
Home-Made Pipe Blends
- Thread starter Claudel Xerxes
- Start date
I just took 2 brands, Carter House and one other, (I forgot the name now) and mixed them. It was good.
I do 1 purposefully and one not purposefully.
50/50 mix of Captain Black and Prince Albert. Good stuff.
I have a jar with odds and ends of tins that don't have enough for a bowl. The mixture varies on whatever is left over.
I do have straight types, virginia, latakia, perique, turkish, burley etc, that I plan to experiment with but have not set out yet to create a from scratch blend.
50/50 mix of Captain Black and Prince Albert. Good stuff.
I have a jar with odds and ends of tins that don't have enough for a bowl. The mixture varies on whatever is left over.
I do have straight types, virginia, latakia, perique, turkish, burley etc, that I plan to experiment with but have not set out yet to create a from scratch blend.
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I experimented with blending a few years ago, with mixed results. Mostly pressed everything into cakes, and aged everything. (Some of the blends haven't even been opened yet.)
Edit: Found the thread.
www.badgerandblade.com
Edit: Found the thread.
A Tobacco Blending Odyssey.
So, fueled by some discussion over booze & bowls with @jiminyshiznit at the Las Vegas pipe show last weekend, I have been overcome by a sudden mad scientist urge to try my hand at tobacco blending. Fooling around at smokingpipes last night, I somehow ended up with a hefty amount of blending...
www.badgerandblade.com
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Not by design as of yet, beyond combining random remnants. But I have so many different tobaccos, I'm sure I will eventually.
I’ve made a couple blends already. Some was from a blend kit I had received this past Christmas. One was some whole leaf I purchased. My very first one was combining a stout American blend with an aromatic. That’s been sitting in a jar for several years now. The others I’ve pressed into a cake or plug and they’re sitting in jars as well.
I dabbled with the Noodle Press a couple of years ago, several pucks with a blend. One of my favorites was 25% D&R Picayune/75% Newminster Superior Round Slices.
Most recently, a year or so ago, I started playing with some Sutliff blends a few of which I had stocked up on when I returned to the pipe, five years ago. That culminated in my KG Sutliff VaPer 2.0. I like it enough that I ended up using up almost all of my component blends in producing a 7+ pound batch that I now have in mylar bags. The recipe (by weight):
515-RC1 40.00%
507-C 28.00%
507-S 12.00%
T-20 Perique 12.00%
RL Green River Black 8.00%
It is nothing that will supplant the good VaPers from professional blenders, but it is, for me, a solid daily smoke, and it mostly cleared my cellar of individual blends that otherwise would have been ignored for a very long time.
Most recently, a year or so ago, I started playing with some Sutliff blends a few of which I had stocked up on when I returned to the pipe, five years ago. That culminated in my KG Sutliff VaPer 2.0. I like it enough that I ended up using up almost all of my component blends in producing a 7+ pound batch that I now have in mylar bags. The recipe (by weight):
515-RC1 40.00%
507-C 28.00%
507-S 12.00%
T-20 Perique 12.00%
RL Green River Black 8.00%
It is nothing that will supplant the good VaPers from professional blenders, but it is, for me, a solid daily smoke, and it mostly cleared my cellar of individual blends that otherwise would have been ignored for a very long time.
I have mixed a few bowls from remnants of pouches. Some better than others. Nothing that I have systematically done.
I actually enjoyed a bag of Best of the Rest that I got from Pipes and Cigars, so my tastes may be suspect.
I actually enjoyed a bag of Best of the Rest that I got from Pipes and Cigars, so my tastes may be suspect.
I have. I purchased a bulk bag of Cavendish when I was new to a pipe and trying to figure out what I liked. I'm sure some have smoked straight Cavendish, but I don't think that's many people's thing. Plus... keeping the darn bowl lit. Anyway, I didn't know better. I tried it, it was terrible, so I stuffed it in the back of a cabinet. I got into smoking Sir Walter Raleigh, and I liked it (I still do). Eventually, the straight Burley blend got a little boring and I noticed it seemed to smoke fast. I made a mix of about 3:1 SWR and Cavendish and... hey it wasn't half bad. In fact I smoked it exclusively for a while.
Now I like latakia and perique. I wouldn't mind trying my hand at "good tobacco" blending. In fact, I live in the middle of tobacco country in the Carolinas. I'm probably going to grab a few pounds of Virginia to age myself here soon, as it is tobacco barning season.
Now I like latakia and perique. I wouldn't mind trying my hand at "good tobacco" blending. In fact, I live in the middle of tobacco country in the Carolinas. I'm probably going to grab a few pounds of Virginia to age myself here soon, as it is tobacco barning season.
For Christmas last year, I was gifted a fairly robust blending kit. I started out with a simple 1.5oz blend of bright VAs, burley and cavendish. It was pressed into a cake and after the pressing I decided to smoke a bowl. Well, it was pretty underwhelming so I decided to jar it and see what it would do after some age. I kinda forgot about the blend for a bit; however, I thought I’d revisit it for an experiment. Yesterday, I put the jar in an oven for a couple hours to stove. I was in my shop doing some work when probably after about 1-1/2 hours worth of stoving time, I was treated with the extremely pleasant aroma of raisin bread and stewed plums. Now I am looking forward to trying this blend. If it works, there’s other blends I’d like to try this process on, namely Boswell’s Private Stock and 4 Gen’s Twilight. Some before pictures when I did this in January initially. Will post after images in a couple weeks.
50/50 Prince Albert and Gawith dark birdseye. Amps up the PA and calms down the dark Birdseye.
Sir Walter Raleigh and Edward G. Robinson. EGR alone always dries out my throat, but with SWR present it behaves itself!
That's an interesting mix. I generally only mix to get rid of something, but I might try something similar just to see.
Also, your VW has amazing road handling.
Sir Walter Robinson. H.B. Reese would be proud.
AimlessWanderer
Remember to forget me!
I'll occasionally mix in a bowl. Normally if I only have half a bowl of tobacco in a jar.
Aside from that, I have a reject blend. A one litre jar got a load of Latakia blends thrown in it, and then I'll dump on there any other blends I don't like. Maybe eventually, with enough time and dilution, there will be something smokeable in it
Aside from that, I have a reject blend. A one litre jar got a load of Latakia blends thrown in it, and then I'll dump on there any other blends I don't like. Maybe eventually, with enough time and dilution, there will be something smokeable in it
Pressing a New Years blend of some:
Matured Red Virginia, Bright Virginia, White Burley, Dark Fired Kentucky, Stoved Virginia and Perique. Cased with a rum based casing. Will sit in the closet under pressure for about 2 weeks.
Matured Red Virginia, Bright Virginia, White Burley, Dark Fired Kentucky, Stoved Virginia and Perique. Cased with a rum based casing. Will sit in the closet under pressure for about 2 weeks.
I'm impressed with your setup, if I was your neighbor I would be fun to hang out sample what you make.
Hope its a success for you and keep us posted as to how good it is when New Year's rolls around!Larry
Many thanks! Will do.I'm impressed with your setup, if I was your neighbor I would be fun to hang out sample what you make.
Larry
Results of the above batch:
Next batch of Red VA / DFK / Perique / Cav / Stoved VA & some Burley:
That’s a nice hunk of crumble cake
Looks like your press is working out quite nicely for you. I hope it tastes as good as it looks. I will be following this as I’m interested in your results. 
Larry
