What is Stonehaven exactly?

Alright, here's the lineup!



Regular UF



Appearance
Mottled medium and dark brown flake,

Tin note
Mostly neutral tobacco scent, slightly fermented hay and very light fruit note, like plum or blackberry.

Preparation
Fully rubbed out

Char light
Blast of fruit, maybe plum, goes away quickly and is replaced by typical VaBur profile,

Bowl
mild hay notes, some slight nuttiness, every now and then a mild berry or plum note but it's elusive, if i set the pipe down for a minute and then pick it up and puff I'll get a slight hit of berry or plum and then it goes away in favor of the nuttier burley note; don't get a grassy note, but definitely has the Va sweetness coming through a bit. Relighting also provides a short hint of plum or berry, which finished quickly.



Tin baked
7 hours at 160 f



Appearance
Similar to regular. Slightly lighter in color. Definitely a bit dried out. Not overly dried, but I could see tin baking benefitting something that's too wet.

Tin note
Grassy Virginias and nutty burley. Don't detect any fruit

Preparation
Fully rubbed out

Char light
Clean sweet Virginia, nutty burley. Very little fruit, but there's a slight hint of the topping as I puff.

Bowl
Doesn't have quite the same berry/plum flavor; just more of a vague slightly fruity note. Maybe more like apple or currants. Overall flavor is good and tastes cleaner than the regular sample. Tasting the Virginias more on this sample. Has a nice slightly grassy Virginia note. Burley isn't as nutty. I can taste the burley, but it's more of a deep note supporting the Virginias rather than getting any particular flavor from the burley. Nic hits a little harder on this one, but I can't figure out why. May be smoking faster due to being more dried out.


Stoved



Appearance
Considerably darker flake. More of an even dark brown, lighter parts of flake have darkened. Moister than the other two.

Tin note
Sweet, dark fruit. Smells amazing in the jar and has a stronger aroma than either of the previous two.

Preparation
Fully rubbed out

Char light
Plum or berry flavor is more noticeable. Not grassy at all. Stronger fermented hay note, and slight nutty cocoa flavor from the burley.

Bowl
Smokes smoother than the other two. Has a deeper, darker flavor. Berry note stays more present, but still a bit elusive. Definitely tastes more unified, and it's harder to pick out the individual notes from the Va and Bur. I like this quite a bit. Has a nice depth of flavor missing from the other two. Relighting gives a bit of a boost to the berry note. Quite good actually. Throughout the bowl, I get more of a Virginia hit and becomes slightly grassy.


Stonehaven



Appearance
Uniformly dark flake. A few small light brown spots. I picked a jar of 2014 which is the youngest I have open. Didn't think the contest would be fair if I stacked up against the 2008 that's full of sugar crystals.

Tin note
Deep fruity note, almost smells like wine or brandy with some black cherry or berry notes. Intimidating aroma. Much stronger scent than any of the UF samples.

Preparation
Fully rubbed out

Char light
First taste is a blast of deep blackberry followed by rich dark Virginia. Really delicious. As usual.

Bowl
Rich, lots of depth of flavor. The berry note continues throughout and at times is more pronounced and at other times is a little more elusive. But it's always present. The burley lends a lot of support to the Virginias, and there's some cocoa notes coming through. Always delicious.



So, what's the verdict? Well, UF is good in its own right but it's no Stonehaven. It just doesn't have the depth of flavor and consistent topping that Stonehaven has.

Tin baking did change they tobacco. It dried it out a bit, and the topping became way more faint. That smoke had much or of a Virginia taste to it. Didn't bring the depth of flavor I was hoping for.

Stoving is the ticket. It darker the tobacco noticeably and really brought out the topping. The Virginias lost a lot of their grassiness and started to approach the deeper smoother tones of Stonehaven. Did stoving make UF Stonehaven? No. Did it nudge it in the right direction? Absolutely. 10 times closer to Stonehaven. I'd smoke this as a substitute for sure. I bet that aging some UF 3-4 years and then stoving would nudge it even closer. Now, don't get me wrong. This still isn't Stonehaven, so don't think this will fill its place. I do like it a lot through and will set a few more tins of UF down in my cellar for stoving later.

How did you stove? I'd be interested in trying this method on other tobaccos just to see the differences from my stashes of various Virginias.

Put the tobacco in a canning jar and sealed the lid. Put it in a pot with s little rack to lift it off the bottom and filled it with water to just below the lid of the jar. Simmer for 2 hours.

I suspect the better results from stoving are because of the higher temp and the better seal.

Th experiment turned out really fascinating. Did you find a Stonehaven, no and we didn't expect you too. Buuuut you did find a way to enhance your tobaccos with zero investments thanks to your home kitchen. I want to do this to some FVF I have and see how it turns out.

Here's the rack I used


And filled with water, simmering away.

That's brilliant. Small batches would definitely be better than a single quart mason jar. Plus it would allow you to boil a week or two worth of tobacco at a time. What temp and length did it get boiled?

I did it on a simmer for 2 hours. As the water boils off I added more to keep topping it up.

I would've known that had I remembered reading it in the above post 10 min ago. Sheesh. Some days I think I'm losing my mind.

Lol! No worries. We all take turns forgetting and remembering around here.

I actually have 2 tins of UF stashed, and I know now what I'll be doing to them.

Hirsute, thanks for a very interesting read. Not that we have Stonehaven here but I think I can get my grubby little hands on some University Flake at least.

Thanks, Micah, for the in-depth experiment. I read the first two-thirds of your very interesting post, but when I got to "2008 Stonehaven" I drooled on my keyboard and shorted it out.

Haha, Price - come on, we know you probably have some 1990's Stonehaven and Penzance locked up in a vault tighter than Fort Knox!

I wonder if/how this would work with a Sous Vide immersion circulator and what the optimal temperature is for stoving tobacco. Would the vacuum sealing remove too much of the air to prevent oxidation/aging?

Try MacB Old Dark Fired. It's no Stonehaven, but it's right up there.

Awesome testing/tasting/sciencing, Hirsute. As we discussed, I'll donate one of these 10yo samples that were given to me yesterday.. I'll drop one in the mail to you, so you can sample it while this here science of yours is still warm!

Super interesting stuff chaps

Addendum:

Received a sample of 10 yr old UF from [MENTION=48751]jiminyshiznit[/MENTION]. The sample was a little dried out so I rehydrated. Didn't smell like much initially, but after rehydrating and chilling in a jar for a day, the aroma is deeply raisiny.

Char light is a little ashy but settles in nicely. The topping isn't very present as I smoke, but there is a nice smooth rich aged Virginia and nutty burley. Definitely on the spectrum a little closer to Stonehaven. I bet a ten year old tin that was then stoved would be closer still. Still probably wouldn't be Stonehaven but it would be closer and a nice smoke in its own right.

You're making me hungry, man.

So then the next logical question to ask is what happens when you stove stonehaven...