With a decent assortment of tobacco leaves on hand, I decided to try blending a bit of pipe tobacco. Even though I’d pressed a little block of VA with a few leaves of Samsun in the mix, I’m going to consider this as my first “real” blending attempt.
There are quite a number of recipes available in Bob Goff’s books. He also posted kind of a “Latakia matrix” in the FTT forum, with a number of different blend recipes varying in their percentage of Latakia. I decided to start where he suggested, with one called “Towers of Antioch”. The proportions are the same as “Balkan White”, but the Oriental I have is Samsun, not Xanthi, which has a different flavor profile.
I started out by cutting up enough of each component leaf in 1 gram per part, ending up with about 16 grams of tobacco. I tried some in the pipe and it was OK; not great. A little rough around the edges, not a smooth blend. I could see the potential there, but overall it just “felt like” it needed some time to mature before I could really make a decision about adjusting the ratio of components, or adding something like a touch of Perique or Cavendish or something. I decided to press some and age it a little.
I started that exercise by mixing up another 16 g of the blend and combined it with what I had. I had ordered a noodle press from Amazon, based on recommendations from others who have tried this. The noodle press arrived yesterday, so the timing was perfect. I cut a circle of parchment paper to block the extrusion end of the noodle press, and another for the press follower. I loaded the batch in the press and, over the next several hours, gradually added pressure until it was pretty tight.
This morning I took the resulting puck out of the press, broke it apart into a loose blend, and misted it with some water and then re-loaded the press. I don’t want to repeat the mistake I made last winter with the VA flake, which was pressing it in too dry a condition. I think that would have turned out a lot better had I made sure the lease was in high case before pressing.
As I write this, the blend is back in the press under moderate pressure. I’ll crank the press handle a few times today to get it back under as much pressure as it’s safe to maintain with he noodle press (and its few plastic parts), then let it sit for another 2-3 days before removing it.
What really struck me about this exercise is that, while this bend is not what I’d say is my favorite, it’s close enough to one of the commercially produced English/Balkan blends that I like that I can see the potential for getting it there. I think with some adjustment, maybe switching from Samsun to Yenidje or Xanthi, I may be able to produce a blend that I enjoy as much as or more than my go-to White Knight/Sobranie Match, or one of the others (Father Dempsey, My Mixture 965, Balkan Sobranie) that I have enjoyed so much.
Next up: I have to wonder how difficult it would be to blend up a VA/Per that I like as much as Escudo…