Home grown VA pressed flake

After harvesting my small 2023 crop of tobacco, I spent some time “flue curing” the leaf in a home made kiln. I kept it at roughly 120-125 degrees with humidity levels of at least 70 percent, though I think it was significantly higher for most of the time. I think I had it in there for 4-5 weeks, maybe longer, before giving up trying to keep the kiln sealed up enough.

Once the leaf was out of there, I made a few ounces of Cavendish in a pressure cooker, and pressed some for a couple of weeks. It’s mostly VA with a little bit of Black Sea Samsun oriental mixed in. I just removed the midrib, stacked the leaf, wrapped it in parchment paper, and squeezed it in a vise between two chunks of particle board. When that was done, I sliced it into flakes (strips, really) and tried some. It was, well, kind of awful. I put it in a jar to age and see if it would improve with age.

I tried it after 3 months, then 6, and now it’s been about 13 months since it went into the jar. I’m smoking some now in a MM corncob, and I have to say that if you’re a fan of straight Virginia, it’s not bad. There seems to be a fair nicotine content; I had to take a break halfway through. I’ll bet this stuff will be pretty darned good in another year.

So tobacco growing is a long term process that requires a fair amount of patience. I’ve often heard that cigar rollers will often age tobacco leaves for several years before rolling the sticks, then let them age for months before they’re ready to smoke.

I have a pound or two of leaf sitting in a Sterilite tub now, aging at 63 percent RH and room temperature. I’ll likely pull some out in the coming weeks and press two more blocks. One will be straight Virginia tobacco leaf, brought into high case with distilled water. The other will be the same, but brought into high case with a spritz of Islay Scotch whisky just to see if that imparts any of the smoky/peaty flavor at all. I’ll probably try about 50 grams of each.

Bayou Morning

Man, if you’re going to smoke this stuff you’d better really love Perique. 25 percent of it is straight out of Louisiana.

I’ve had this stuff sitting in a sealed jar for well over two years now. The first time I tried it, I did so right after half a bowl of Haunted Bookshop. Both of them have a pretty stout nicotine kick, and I spent the next couple of hours fighting the urge to puke. Not a good scene. Anyway, if you’re used to smoking a lightweight aromatic like Lane 1-Q (aka Captain Black), a perique heavy blend like this will kind of punch you in the face. As a result, I’ve shied away from it until now.

Last night I loaded up a corncob with some and dived in. Cautiously. It’s not bad. It is quite strong, but it’s the Perique spice and not the nicotine. It’s honestly more Perique than I’d prefer at this point, but I’m wondering how it would do mixed 50/50 with my own home grown Virginia, now that it’s got a bit over a year of age on it. I’m planning to press another batch of VA flake before long; I’ll probably try some with some Bayou Morning mixed in to make my own VA/Per and see how that works.

Peterson’s My Mixture 965

I decided to try this one based on some reviews and recommendations I’d seen on line. Actually, that was a small part of it. There’s a (sorry for the Facebook link; it’s apparently the only web presence they have) local tobacconist I visit every once in a while; I try to find something to buy when I go in there. His prices on tobacco are quite a bit higher than what I’d pay ordering on line, but I’ve bought several pipes there. His prices on pipes are pretty reasonable. While the shop’s main business is cigars, the owner is a pipe smoker in addition to smoking cigars. I like giving some support to a local shop; these guys have to try to stay in business. Anyway, the last time I was in there I talked myself out of buying a new Savinelli pipe – gorgeous, but not exactly what I wanted – and settled on a tin of tobacco instead.

It’s an English mixture, with a good portion of Latakia complementing the cavendish and oriental tobacco. I find that it’s not quite as complex as my old standby, Sutliff’s Balkan Sobranie Original Mix Match. I don’t know if it’s different Latakia, different orientals, or what. There’s plenty of nice tasty smoky goodness, but like I said – not as complex.

I will give it this, though: there’s plenty of nicotine, enough to get your attention. I find that a small bowl is plenty, and I often take a break midway through. I probably have a fairly low tolerance, as I don’t smoke every day and haven’t smoked cigarettes or cigars in quite some time. In fact, the last time I tried to smoke a cigar I almost ended up losing several consecutive meals over the next day or two. I’ve run into a few pipe blends that hit me pretty hard, and this is one of them. Orlik Golden Slices is another.

I’ve tried this in several pipes, from a well-used Missouri Meerschaum corncob, to a non-Missouri for-real meerschaum, a couple of different briars, and a calabash. It smokes well in all of them, though of course virtually everything seems a little better out of that calabash.

Will I buy more? I don’t know. Never say never, of course, but at this point I see it as kind of duplicative. I have a solid favorite Balkan/English. If I’m going to stray from that for a little change of pace, I’m more likely to load up some Father Dempsey or possibly Early Morning Pipe, another Peterson labeled product that I bought at Ted’s.

Which reminds me… I should probably load up on some bulk Father Dempsey. I don’t know how the current blend compares to that which was made before the Kramer family closed up shop and sold the blends to Smoking Pipes, but I’m afraid eventually it may get changed substantially or dropped altogether. It seems to be not uncommon when I find something I really like.

Balkan Sobranie

The current version, that is. I know that this really isn’t the same as the legendary Balkan Sobranie of the 1970s or whatever. Now, having been around back then, I actually did very much enjoy the occasional tin (yes, actual tin) of Balkan Sobranie cigarettes. They were wonderful, if pricey at about $2 a tin, but not quite as bad as Black Russians at $2.40 a pack. But I digress; I never did try the pipe tobacco since I wasn’t smoking a pipe back then.

I bought a couple tins of the current version at my local tobacconist at a shamefully inflated price, partly to support a local shop and partly because I really wanted to try this and compare it to my Sutliff Sobranie match tobacco.

So this is partly a review on its own merits, and partly a comparison to the “match” blend, which is actually I think supposed to be a match for the older version that I’ve never had.

The presentation is very nice. I do love tinned tobacco just for the old school appeal of the tin. The aroma is, as expected with a Balkan blend, just delicious. It’s like a summer campfire, smoky and rich. It’s a fine ribbon cut, almost a shag, which I do like better than the coarser ribbon/flake of White Knight or BSOMM. It’s also moister, meaning it does need half an hour or so to dry out before it will stay lit decently.

I’m not a professional wine taster nor do I have the palate for a molecular analysis of the individual components of the smoke, so I won’t get into terms like figs or stone fruit or oranges or any of that nonsense. It’s a little lighter than the Sutliff version, I think, with just a little more subtle flavor. Don’t take that to mean there’s not a ton of campfire here; there is. If I were to guess I’d say maybe a touch less Latakia and a touch more Turkish/Oriental. Or maybe the other way around. Either way, there’s a difference. I like both.

The Sobranie doesn’t have the occasional note of anise that I seem to get from the Sutliff “match” blend, and I like that a lot. On the other hand, I do really like the finer ribbon cut. I just had a 2 gram bowl in my Ropp cherrywood, and it went literally all the way to the bottom with no dottle. I honestly attribute this more to the pipe than the tobacco, but it smoked well all the way to the bottom with just a couple of relights (mostly due to my taking breaks to type this).

I have one tin of the Sobranie still unopened. I plan to leave it that way for a few years and enjoy it with some age on it. It really is quite nice; I may pick up more if and when it becomes available again. It’s expensive stuff compared to the bulk blend, but both have a place on my shelf for sure.

Escudo Navy Deluxe

Since I started smoking a pipe again several years ago, I’ve found that my tastes have shifted quite a bit. Like I think most pipe smokers do, I started out with aromatic blends, mostly vanilla topped – think Lane 1Q, Captain Black, that sort of thing. On the plus side, everyone loves the smell! Whether it’s in the pouch or jar, or being smoked, you’ll get constant compliments on how great it smells. I know I did. Even non-smokers or anti-smokers love the smell of a nice aromatic blend like that. They produce luxurious, thick smoke and are overall pretty enjoyable to smoke.

On the downside, they’re often pretty heavily doped with propylene glycol (PG), a humectant that keeps the tobacco from drying out and helps to produce that thick rich white smoke. My experience has been that these blends often require annoyingly frequent relights and tend to leave a lot of moisture in the pipe.

Eventually I tried branching out a little. I tried straight Virginia flake, some VA/Perique, and some English and Balkan blends. Once I learned how to properly smoke Virginia flake I liked it. I just didn’t ever really get into the VA/Per thing.

I do really still live my Balkan and English mixtures. I’ve probably smoked more of that than anything else, and still love it. I have been working a little VA/Per into my rotation, though, just to see if I develop an appreciation for it.

I’ve probably made it halfway through a tin of Escudo and actually have started enjoying it. I had a couple of slices in a Ropp cherrywood sitter that I’m breaking in. It was actually quite nice. It won’t replace my Sobranie match mixture any time soon, but I’m starting to appreciate it.

Maybe one of these days I’ll crack open the jar and try Bayou Morning again.

Bob’s Chocolate Flake

If you’ve been smoking a pipe for a while, you’ve probably heard of Lakeland tobacco blends. These mostly come from either Gawith & Hogarth or Samuel Gawith, and include things like Grousemoor, Ennerdale, and this one – Bob’s Chocolate Flake.

Lakelands get a bad rap from some people, and I suspect that’s mostly from people who have smelled a tin of a Lakeland but not actually smoked it. Ennerdale, for example, has a very distinctive and fairly strong floral note n the tin. Comparing to “old lady perfume“ is not entirely unreasonable, and some people assume the stuff will forever “ghost” a pipe. I’ve found this to be a baseless fear; I’m on my second tin of it and it’s fine. It doesn’t smoke like it smells.

I’d wanted to try Bob’s for a while, and finally scored an ounce of it. It’s a dense flake, which doesn’t easily crumble like some. I’d expected a strong chocolate note from the bag, but it’s more of a subtle undertone.

I’m not one of those people that describes tobacco in wine tasting terms. Maybe my palate isn’t sufficiently refined, but picking out “notes of dried fruit, sweet grassy almond” whatever just doesn’t happen for me. Bob’s does have a somewhat unique taste; not overpowering and not unpleasant. It’s definitely a more aromatic smoke, but doesn’t seem overly “flavored” as some are. I’m thinking of Lane 1Q / Captain Black’s vanilla, for example.

BCF smokes fine, given a bit of a rub out and 20-30 minutes to dry a bit. It lights evenly and seems to smoke without requiring much in the way of relights, just the occasional light tamp. I like it, but I don’t love it. Will I buy more? I can’t say at this point. I’m about halfway through the ounce of flakes I bought. One of the things I’ve learned about tobacco is that it seems to take a while, at least an ounce or two smoked over several months under different conditions and in different pipes, for me to decide whether I like a particular blend or not.

My tastes are also evolving as time passes and I get exposed to more blends. Where I used to love aromatics like 1Q, I now find them to have a displeasing chemical taste from what seems like a rather heavy-handed dousing with propylene glycol (PG), a humectant used to keep it from drying out. I’ve gotten more accustomed to VA/Perique blends, though my tolerance varies on those. About the only constant is my taste for English and Balkan blends; I’ve become a real fan of Latakia.

Anyway. Bob’s is a decent enough tobacco, but so far I haven’t really developed a love for it. We’ll see if and how that changes over time as I finish off what I have.

Peterson’s My Mixture 965

Picked up a tin of this at Ted’s Tobacco yesterday, and have been trying it out. Flavor wise, it’s a pretty good Latakia-forward English mixture. It needs half an hour or so out of the tin to dry out before lighting, but burns evenly. It doesn’t seem to need a lot of relights, and doesn’t get wet quickly.

I’m on my second bowl of it. The first one was yesterday in a newly purchased estate pipe that turned out to need some serious cleaning… it had some truly nasty tasting stuff inside and on the stem that I’ve since cleaned out. Today I’ve got it in my Jobey 450 paneled billiard. I have to say, this stuff is plenty strong. The taste is good; plenty of flavor and all, but the nicotine content is enough that I had to lay the pipe down halfway through. I can see this being a good candidate for smaller pipes and quicker smokes. I’m really glad I didn’t load up the Savinelli 320KS with a big pile of this! I’d probably be on the floor by now.

So will I buy it again? It’s too soon to say. I do like it, but at this point I’m thinking the Sutliff Balkan Sobranie match is more my speed. A bit milder and a lot less nicotine. I’ll smoke more of this, obviously, since I’m only maybe 5 grams into the 50g tin. if I can get past the nic buzz, it’s pretty good stuff.

Borkum Riff Bourbon Whiskey, yet again

I did a review of this about a year ago. I almost never – OK, never – throw out tobacco. Even if I don’t like it, I’ll stick it in a jar and let it sit. Sometimes I find that my tastes or my technique change, and I like it better later on. Sometimes I find that some age really improves the blend. And honestly, some I tried early on I just didn’t really know how to smoke yet. So last night I broke out the jar of Borkum Riff and tried it again.

Once again, it started out innocuously enough. As I’ve changed my smoking habits quite a bit, I took it easier this time around and paid attention to keeping it burning relatively cool and slow. I’m still not a fan. I checked tobaccoreviews.com to see what’s in this blend; they say Virginia and Cavendish, but it used to contain Burley as well. I would believe that. I’m really finding that I’m not a big fan of Burley, and this seems to have some in it. I don’t know. What I do know is why it scores less than 2 stars on that site, and about the same on smokingpipes.com. It really isn’t very good. I’m down to the last 3/4 ounce or so. It may just get dumped into the scraps jar, or I may try mixing it with some VA flake or something to see if it’s got anything at all to offer.

Overall, I think it may at its core just be some fairly decent tobacco ruined by heavy-handed topping.

Tobacco harvest, 2023

Yesterday (10/6/23) I harvested all of my remaining tobacco plants, as there were frost warnings for overnight and this morning. I cut most of the VA leaves off the stalks and bundled them until I can get my curing kiln finished and get them in there. I leaf harvested some of the Turkish, then stalk harvested the rest – whether I hang the stalks or cut the leaves ff remains to be seen. I am keeping the VA and Samsun separate, though I haven’t kept the bright VA separate from the TN Red Leaf or Ontario Bold.

Hearth & Home White Knight

This has become one of my favorite tobaccos. It’s a Balkan of substance; not overpowering with Latakia or Oriental, but a good blend that just ticks all the boxes for me. It’s got that unique flavor from the Oriental tobacco that I find I really enjoy. The tin note is a delight as well, at least if you’re into smoky, English and Balkan style mixtures..

It’s very close in its flavor to Sutliff’s Balkan Sobranie Original Mix Match. The differences between the two are subtle but do exist. I’ll digress for just a moment and talk about both of these. White Knight is a tinned tobacco, sold under the Hearth & Home brand. It’s a consistent, high quality ribbon cut product that is perfect (other than needing a bit of drying time) right out of the tin.

The bulk product (which I’ll refer to as BSOMM from here out, just to save a few electrons) is sold by Sutliff. Sutliff also makes Hearth & Home blends. The two tobaccos come from the same manufacturer. It’s been argued that BSOMM and White Knight are one and the same; I disagree. While the two have very similar flavor profiles, White Knight seems to be a little higher quality product. It’s usually cut better and more consistently, and its flavor is more fully developed. BSOMM seems e bit less carefully produced; the last bag I opened had a huge clump of uncut leaf in it. I’ve found chunks of stem (well, OK, not a stem; more likely a chunk of vein or midrib) and other inconsistencies that I don’t find nearly as often in White Knight. The flavor is also just a little bit milder; it may do well after a couple of months in a jar.

As I write this, I’ve been working my way through a couple ounces of BSOMM and a tin of White Knight, both received a couple of months back from Smokingpipes.com. I’ve been alternating the two for comparison. Why do that? Well, in the quantities I would order for long term use, White Knight costs roughly three times as much per ounce. The question is whether the savings is worth the differences between the two. Honestly, I can find so little difference between them that I’ll probably keep a jar full of BSOMM on hand after the White Knight is gone.