Master Blending Thread

[Kilroy6644]

I've been interested in blending my own pipe tobacco for a while, but I was a bit daunted when I looked at all the blending tobaccos available, and I didn't know where to start. When C&D came out with their Small Batch blending kit, that gave me my starting point. I've been playing with it all summer and having fun, but I still don't really know what I'm doing.

I've looked around for blending advice and found lots of recipes, but no guidelines. Proportions, for example. What tobaccos play nice together in small proportions, but clash or overwhelm in larger proportions? Something of particular use to me would be matching up homemade recipes with commercial equivalents. If I wanted something that tasted similar to Squadron Leader/Bengal Slices/etc., what should I do?

I've looked for a blending thread here in the Brown Leaf, and didn't find what I wanted. I found individual members' threads about their experiments in blending/casing/pressing/etc., but I'd hate to hijack somebody else's thread to post about my own experiments. I also don't want anyone to feel the same way about posting in my thread. So this isn't my thread. I thought we could use a thread where everybody could share their recipes, tips, and tricks. Cover all aspects: blending, casing, pressing, stoving, toasting, whatever. My one suggestion is to give recipes by percentages instead of exact amounts. That allows us to make as little or as much as we want, using the units of measurement we're most comfortable with.

 

[Kilroy6644]

To start things off, a few recipes:

Dreadnaught
50% Red Virginia
25% Bright Virginia
25% Perique
Wet with rum (how much and what kind is at your discretion).

Canoe (not my recipe; found here)
50% Burley
35% Red Virginia
15% Latakia

Victors Blend (not Victor's; Victors, as in "Hail to the-")
40% Bright Virginia
30% Black Cavendish
20% Turkish
10% Latakia

 

[CWX]

A little blend I have been playing around with is approximately
30% Latakia
30% Turkish
15% Bright Virginia
15% Red Virginia
10% Toasted Burley

Sometimes I'll add a pinch of Black Cavendish if I'm in the mood for something a bit sweeter.

I don't have a name for it yet.

 

[Kilroy6644]

A little blend I have been playing around with is approximately
30% Latakia
30% Turkish
15% Bright Virginia
15% Red Virginia
10% Toasted Burley

Sometimes I'll add a pinch of Black Cavendish if I'm in the mood for something a bit sweeter.

I don't have a name for it yet.

That sounds good.

Here's one I just mixed up:
Vlad's Mixture
40% Turkish
30% Red VA
15% Bright VA
15% Latakia

"Vlad's Mixture" isn't a very original name, but "Nosferatu" was already taken, and "Dracula's" isn't any better than "Vlad's." I've only got one good name, and I'm saving that for a different blend. I wanted something special to smoke in my Peterson Dracula.

 

[Kilroy6644]

Two new ones:

Poet's Pen
50% Bright VA
35% Black Cavendish
15% Turkish
5% Perique
2 drops vanilla flavoring and 2 drops caramel flavoring

The flavoring comes with the C&D kit, so I don't know what you'd use normally. Any suggestions?


Gem of the Huron
50% Burley
35% Red VA
15% Dark-fired Kentucky

This is obviously a reworked version of the "Canoe" recipe above. That one was described as a "Canadianized traditional American blend" (I'm assuming because of the latakia); I wanted to bring it back below the border. I think I went too far; I shouldn't have eliminated the latakia.

 

[Kilroy6644]

One of the upsides to blending your own, besides getting exactly what you want, is that you can figure out what's "wrong" with the commercial blends that don't agree with you. A couple years ago I tried my first few C&D blends and didn't like them at all. They burned my nose pretty bad, and all of them had a horrible acrid taste that left a nasty aftertaste. I finally hit some good ones (even they had the same effect, but to a much lesser degree), and with the kit, I was able to come up with some that didn't taste bad at all. But a couple of my more recent blends (Canoe and Gem of the Huron) had that same old taste. The culprit: burley. Whatever C&D does to their burley (or doesn't do; maybe everybody else does something to theirs ) doesn't agree with me. The next step is to try these recipes again with non-C&D burley.

 

[jmcdaniel0]

Just like me home rolling my own cigars, I will probably move into this at one point. I really like the Idea of using different alcohols in the mixes. Run, port, bourbon, etc.

 

[Kilroy6644]

Just like me home rolling my own cigars, I will probably move into this at one point. I really like the Idea of using different alcohols in the mixes. Run, port, bourbon, etc.

That's something to explore, too. It's not unheard of for people to finish off a cigar by sticking it in a pipe, and I've seen old ads for pipe tobacco cartridges that you just stuffed in your pipe. You could take your cigar experience and apply it to pipe tobacco.

 

[jmcdaniel0]

God you enabling bunch of evil people! Here goes another small fortune!

 

[Kilroy6644]

God you enabling bunch of evil people! Here goes another small fortune!

 

[Price]

I do enjoy a good cigar, but every "cigar blend" of pipe tobacco I've found underwhelming.

Maybe it's just that, when I want a cigar I want a cigar, but I really haven't enjoyed cigar leaf blends, including my own concoctions.

 

[jmcdaniel0]

I do enjoy a good cigar, but every "cigar blend" of pipe tobacco I've found underwhelming.

Maybe it's just that, when I want a cigar I want a cigar, but I really haven't enjoyed cigar leaf blends, including my own concoctions.

I agree wholeheartedly. they are just completely different animals.

 

[Hirsute]

I do enjoy a good cigar, but every "cigar blend" of pipe tobacco I've found underwhelming.

Maybe it's just that, when I want a cigar I want a cigar, but I really haven't enjoyed cigar leaf blends, including my own concoctions.

Something else to bring to Vegas then: Peretti 500 is by far my favorite cigar leaf blend.

 

[Price]

Something else to bring to Vegas then: Peretti 500 is by far my favorite cigar leaf blend.

Ooh, that's cool. I've been looking for an excuse to place an order for more Tashkent anyway.

 

[Hirsute]

Holler if there's anything else from there you want to try and I'll bring it down. I have most of their non-aro blends from a heavy sampling I did.

 

[Kilroy6644]

Today I made an updated Gem of the Huron. I took the Dark-fired Kentucky out and put the latakia back in, then cut the Burley with a bit of Black Cavendish. It's much better now. I just need a new name for the original recipe.

Updated Gem of the Huron
35% Burley
35% Red Virginia
15% Latakia
15% Black Cavendish

 

[Garlisk]

I do enjoy a good cigar, but every "cigar blend" of pipe tobacco I've found underwhelming.

Maybe it's just that, when I want a cigar I want a cigar, but I really haven't enjoyed cigar leaf blends, including my own concoctions.

What about cigars with pipe tobacco in them?

 

[Price]

What about cigars with pipe tobacco in them?

The reverse is true as well. I've yet to come across a "pipe tobacco" cigar that isn't hot garbage. Besides, I've got way too many pipes - if I want to smoke pipe tobacco, I've got that covered.

 

[Argonaut]

The reverse is true as well. I've yet to come across a "pipe tobacco" cigar that isn't hot garbage. Besides, I've got way too many pipes - if I want to smoke pipe tobacco, I've got that covered.

I've been guilty of smoking a cigar in a pipe before, just for the heck of it. Picture a bent churchwarden with a corona sticking out of the bowl, worlds longest/fanciest cigar holder! It worked really well for keeping the cigar smell off the clothes and hands, a little tough on the jaw for clenching though.

 

[Luxem]

Not trying to derail - I have tried those "pipe tobacco cigars" from gas stations, and been less than impressed... I would like to try rolling my own cigars with a mix of cavendish and 1Q or something, but I have no idea where to get the tobacco leaf to attempt making my own cigar! (much less HOW to roll and form it!)