Theory: hydrating tobacco with whiskey

[Skip48]

Sounds like another good toy for us to play with. Good idea as long as it doesn't take away something from what is already there. I do dip a little Copenhagen and I always add a little Grand Mariner for a little more moisture since it can dry faster than I like and just add more juice. Learned this from a guy I worked with way back in the late 1960's or maybe 1970, just don't remember for sure now. He use to always put some Bourbon in his Skoal.

Skip

 

[bruins]

i've never dipped, but the bourbon part sounds great, skip!

 

[Skip48]

Done a little Skoal and Copenhagen from time to time since that job at the shipyard. It really makes it better. Worst part is getting the lip conditioned so it not just killing you, LOL! It get so sore the first few days I guess it makes more just quit before finding the really good part. The Wintergreen flavors go well with adding some juice to it like that!

Skip

 

[Greenleaf]

Skip, thanks for the tip about Copenhagen. I sometimes like to dip at work, been thinking of switching to chewing tobacco. Tobacco helps a guy work, but conventional wisdom is just lost on management. People are so ignorant.

 

[sand18f]

Gentlemen, Could you provide any udates on the above?

Gentleman Jack and half pound of 2035?

What say yea?

 

[Blackhorse]

I've played with this a little. Once I made up a blend of my own and hydrated with Rum and Whiskey prior to stoving in my giant crock pot. It worked pretty well. The flavors added helped what I was trying to do with the blend.

A couple of thoughts after reading through the various posts here:

1) The level of cost or aging or brand reputation of the spirit in question is, I think, of little merit in this application. You can't transfer the aging (lends smoothness to the spirit, not the pipeweed) and this relates to the cost, etc. as well. What you're transferring to the blend is the FLAVOR of the spirit...so I'd go in THAT direction (unless of course you just want to use your favorite brand, cause that's what you want to do! lol). I used Black Seal Rum (dark and full of flavor). But then I also used Rare Breed (not cheap in my book...but I do love it!).

2) It would seem that the degree to which one hydrated their batch (within reason) could be 'after-adjusted' by simply letting the tobacco sit out a bit more and air dry to the desired level. Of course where I live (Pacific NW USA) the RH is often quite high and the benefit of this varies.

3) It's an untrue urban myth that infusing one's tobacco with potent spirits can make it easier to light. I have this image of some poor sap dumping everclear into a wad of Haddo's and flicking his bic...and what results is something like the giant burst of flaming energy that they show coursing through the 'perfect being' at the end of the film..."The Fifth Element"...or maybe what would happen if the Ghost Busters actually allowed the 'beams' to cross! Whatever. Just be sure to let that alcohol evaporate prior to lighting! lol

Well, enough of that.

 

[Frost]

I have this image of some poor sap dumping everclear into a wad of Haddo's and flicking his bic...and what results is something like the giant burst of flaming energy that they show coursing through the 'perfect being' at the end of the film..."The Fifth Element"..

If anyone tries this, please be sure to document it with video and put it on youtube. For educational purposes only of course, not entertainment. I wouldn't want anyone to think that I would allow myself to stoop so low as to find amusement in the misfortunes of others. :lol:

 

[Wet Dottle]

Soon after the start of this thread, tried it with rum (Captain Morgan) and a burley blend I didn't like and was getting ready to throw away (Old Domestic). Put the tobacco in a large mason jar and placed a shot glass with a little rum on top. The rum never touched the tobacco, flavor was transmitted only through vapor. Had about 3/4 lb of quite dry tobacco and used 1/2 oz of rum. Every other day, the shot glass was carefully removed and the tobacco stirred.

Well, the difference was like night and day. The blend became very pleasant to smoke and with a completely different flavor. The flavor peaked at a certain level of moisture, about three weeks into the experiment, after which the blend started to bite. I then removed the shot glass and the moisture level quickly went down back to the optimal level. There was about 1/4 oz of rum missing from the shot glass.

Also tried GLP Cumberland with rum, and that was a success, too. I recommend people to give it a try, at least with blends they don't like. More experimentation will be done in the future, with burley and scotch, but I'm hesitant to try ir with VAs or other types of blend.

Would also like to hear from others experiments.

 

[Blackhorse]

Now that's a very interesting adaption of the principle. Thanks for sharing that one!

In an unrelated but sort of related experiment I once took a tin of Peterson's Sunset Breeze (And I thought I would like ameretto flavored tobacco! Yeesh!) and put it into a tallish sealable container with about a dozen torpedo cigars (Perdomo's 'The Cigar' was the frontmark I believe). After about 6 months the cigars which were, to me, kinda vile smokers, turned into 'Almond Wonder Smokes'. I don't like flavored cigars or those Drew Estate things (great products for many I know) but the change in those cigars was quite positive. That was 10 years ago, and I still have some, so the change wasn't good enough to make me lust after 'em...but they were better.

I wouldn't do that to any of my Tatuaje Tainos or other good Nicaraguan stogies...esp. the ones with the Equadoran Sumatra or Habano wrappers. Man, they roll some good leaf down there in Esteli. Better than Havana by a long way I'm thinkin'. But that's another issue altogether.

 

[innovador]

Soon after the start of this thread, tried it with rum (Captain Morgan) and a burley blend I didn't like and was getting ready to throw away (Old Domestic). Put the tobacco in a large mason jar and placed a shot glass with a little rum on top. The rum never touched the tobacco, flavor was transmitted only through vapor. Had about 3/4 lb of quite dry tobacco and used 1/2 oz of rum. Every other day, the shot glass was carefully removed and the tobacco stirred.

What I have done is to steam the tobacco with water with some 12 year old Rum. The fragance is exquisite but you actually dont directly affect the tobacco with the rum.