Cue the Steve Martin video…
I ended up ordering a few different types of tobacco leaf from WLT, and it all arrived today. I’m looking forward to mixing up a small batches of different blends and trying them out, until I find the combinations I like. I find that I enjoy different types of tobacco depending on the day and my mood. Some days nothing but a nice Latakia-infused English or Balkan blend will do. Other days I really like a straight Virginia flake, or a Virginia/Perique (or VA/Per, as it’s often called). My own pressed VA that I made has some Turkish Black Sea Samsun in it, and in my opinion needs something else – like Perique or Latakia. So, I’ll be doing a lot of experimenting over the coming weeks and months, I think.
Right now I’m thinking I’ll start by trying a pinch of each of the leaf varieties I have, on their own, one at a time to get a better idea of what they’re like. I have some Lemon VA, Dark Air Cured, Perique, Latakia, and they were nice enough to throw in a small sample of Light Fire Cured.
It’s going to be bitter, deep cold for the next couple of weeks, so I won’t be distracted by any maple sap collection. I’ll update this post as I try each of the leaf varieties on their own.
- I decided to start with some Dark Air Cured (DAC). The bag note is like a box of cigars or high end cigarettes. The leaf is in medium case, easily handled and stretchy. I shredded a little over 4 grams, or s small piece about half a hand size torn from one leaf, and loaded up about half of that in a briar. Wow. Strong stuff!! I would have bought a smaller quantity of this stuff, because the blends I want to try only have very small quantities of it. I understand why. It lights easily and burns well, but the strength and nicotine content is well above what I’d want to smoke on its own. I only made it a few minutes into that pipe before I had to set it down and take a break. This stuff is most definitely not for the faint of heart. I was left dizzy and a little nauseous for a couple of hours afterward. I fought it with some dark chocolate and a little food, but in hindsight a better approach would have been trying s very small amount after a full meal.
- Next up: Lemon Virginia from Canada. This gets its name from the color; the leaves are indeed a light lemon yellow, unlike the medium browns tending to reddish-brown of my own home grown VA (which is why I bought it; a lot of blend recipes call for it and I haven’t grown any). The bag note is… light and quite frankly uninspiring. Not bad, just not that delicious “tobacco” smell. I shredded all of one small leaf of this. As expected, the flavor and nicotine are quite a bit milder than the DAC. The taste is fairly mild; I have a hard time describing flavors but I’d call this rather a classic Virginia, a little woody more than grassy. No overpowering nicotine hit from this stuff. I didn’t notice a lot of spice in the nose, but it does make its presence felt in the back of the mouth and tongue. Overall quite smokable, but one-dimensional and in need of other flavors to give it some complexity. I was tempted to mix in about 5-10% dark air cured just to see how it would taste, but decided to wait. I still have Perique and Latakia to sample.
- Next up: St. James Perique. The bag note of this stuff is unmistakable. Earthy, with a hint of what others and I have called “barnyard”. Think horse barn, not cattle feed lot. There’s more to it; maybe a little hint of pepper or something there as well. Darling Wife said she smelled candied fruits. Some have said the Perique from Whole Leaf Tobacco arrives “soggy”; I’d just say it’s just high to very high case, pretty moist. Probably a good thing, given the amount of handling that would required to flatten the leaves out. The leaves seem to be fairly small compared to other varieties, more like an Oriental size. They’re pretty well wadded up from their time in the fermentation process. I unfurled one leaf completely and shredded it, putting the contents into a snack size Ziplock bag like I did with the others. It needs a bit of drying time before it’s ready to light. Having learned a valuable lesson with he DAC, I very cautiously tried a small amount in the bottom of the bowl of the briar pipe I’m using for sampling. It’s got a definite Perique taste to it; not overpowering, and the nicotine wasn’t immediately overpowering (but as I said,I’m being very cautious). More telling was that, just before I tried it on its own, I sprinkled a few little strands on top of some half-smoked Lemon VA and re-lit that. The resulting smoke was, unlike the VA on its own, quite interesting — I got a hint of almost a soapy taste, in a good way, like all sorts or Sen-Sen. Not strong, just a hint.
- Last up: Latakia. As expected, this had a strong, pungent smell of smoldering campfire as soon as the bag was opened. Actually, a little before — I think it actually permeated the rather thick poly heat sealed bag, to be honest. On reflection, the aroma isn’t exactly “smoldering campfire”; it’s closer to “smoldering ashes of last night’s campfire”. The tobacco isn’t large leaves bundled or laid together as with he VA or DAC; at least the stuff at the end of the bag I opened is broken and crumbled pieces of leaf. I pulled out some pieces and chopped them into small strands and chunks to load up a little snack Ziplock for tasting and test blending. This tobacco, opposite of the Perique, is fairly dry – I’d say a bit below medium case. I dropped a bit into the pipe and lit it. Honestly, this is one I think I could probably smoke straight. It’s not overpoweringly strong, there doesn’t seem to be too much nicotine, and it’s a quite nice smoke with kind of a floral undertone to it. I’m eager to see how well it plays with some VA and maybe a bit of Perique, just for a little more depth and complexity.
I’ve been accustomed to smoking Sutliff’s Balkan Sobranie Original Mix Match, later renamed “Balkan S Match”. Unfortunately, Sutliff was swallowed up by Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG), and STG promptly drove a stake through the heart of Sutliff. Their factory was shut down and most of their tobacco blends discontinued without notice, including BSOMM. It looks like I can still buy its nearly identical tinned version, Hearth & Home White Knight, but I’ll hold off and see how much success I have in blending something that I like as much. One potential obstacle is that the Match & White Knight use Yenidje as part of the blend, and I have none. My Oriental is all Samsun, but I can order some Yenidje seeds and grow it myself. WLT also sells Izmir, which I’ve been told has a much more “floral” taste than Samsun. I may have to try some of that, though again the smallest quantity I can buy is a full pound.
If nothing else, this growing and blending of pipe tobacco is teaching me patience. The Virginia I grew in 2023 is just now beginning to show its potential, about a year and a half after harvesting. It will be next winter before I would have some Yenidje available to try out. I think it’s worth the wait.