Why isn't home blending more popular?

[Brunello]

G’day mate, letting you know I didn’t case anything in that recipe but I did let it sit and meld in the jar for a month or so. Smoking the last of it right now and thinking I’ll need to make another batch as it is yum.

Let me know when your after more info on the ingredients.

Okay, I'm ready for the big reveal!   :bounce:

Now on my third variation I'm probably getting further away from the HH Acadian match idea, and since I don't have any more of that I'm relying on memory, and none seem that close to what I remember. On my third trial I adjusted ratios slightly because I though 10% Perique was a bit much. Also, went with my weakest Latakia because the others were too strong.
 
Perique               10%      (5% C&D Perique + 5% Russ Ouellette Acadian Gold fermented Virginia)
Lemon Virginia    25%       (10% Sutliff 707, 15% Ashton Gold)
Red Virginia        40%       (20% Sutliff 517, 10% McClelland, 10% McConnell)
Orientals             20%       (Krumovgrad Basma)
Latakia                  5%       (Aylesbury Latakia Blend)

 

[RSteve]

I went fishing around on the shelves where I have jars of blends (most of which I never noted the components) and found this one.
It's similar to the blend I posted above, but there's both a subtraction and addition, plus one change.

P.S. 313 Black latakia   12 oz.
P.S. 311 Perique 2 oz.
P.S. 312 Toasted Burley 2 oz.
Nicotiana Rustica 2 oz.
Sutliff 515 RC-1 Red Virginia 4 oz.
P.S. 84 Turkish 2 oz.
P.S. 313 Oriental 2 oz.

I deleted the Kentucky dark fired and added nicotiana rustica. The nicotiana rustica, while very potent as a carrier of nicotine, seems to mellow, rather than strengthen the flavor of the blend. I also used Sutliff 515 RC-1 Red Virginia instead of the Sutliff Red Ribbon. You'll note that by eliminating the Kentucky dark fired and reducing the percentage of latakia from 50% to 46% the smokiness of the blend is somewhat reduced and the room note is slightly improved.

 

[arkansaspiper]

Hey fellas what's up to answer the question it can be extremely difficult but then again depends what you like I've thrown some blens together that were halfway decent and I made a halfway decent Navy flake I'm growing about a hundred plants this year and I'm going to see what I can come up with

 

[Brunello]

I went fishing around on the shelves where I have jars of blends (most of which I never noted the components) and found this one.
It's similar to the blend I posted above, but there's both a subtraction and addition, plus one change.

P.S. 313 Black latakia   12 oz.
P.S. 311 Perique 2 oz.
P.S. 312 Toasted Burley 2 oz.
Nicotiana Rustica 2 oz.
Sutliff 515 RC-1 Red Virginia 4 oz.
P.S. 84 Turkish 2 oz.
P.S. 313 Oriental 2 oz.

I deleted the Kentucky dark fired and added nicotiana rustica. The nicotiana rustica, while very potent as a carrier of nicotine, seems to mellow, rather than strengthen the flavor of the blend. I also used Sutliff 515 RC-1 Red Virginia instead of the Sutliff Red Ribbon. You'll note that by eliminating the Kentucky dark fired and reducing the percentage of latakia from 50% to 46% the smokiness of the blend is somewhat reduced and the room note is slightly improved.

Now that's my kind of fishing! I don't have the patience for the other kind. :lol!:

Between you and Timbo I've been busy this last week trying all these recipes. I still have two more tweaks of your original post to try but whichever one turns out best will surely be among my top 10 blends. That's why I'm a big fan of sharing ideas between us DIY blenders. I have developed lots of tasty blends but I never considered adding both Perique and dark-fired Kentucky to Latakia. Just assumed that would be piling on too many condiment ingredients. But your recipe is the best full-bodied English I've ever tried.

Next I'll have a go on this new one, but might cut the Rusticana in half. The only time I ever had a reaction to Nicotine was when I was toying around with this stuff - then again, it was 86 degrees and I was walking through a meadow, so maybe heat stroke or dehydration played a role. Anyway, for just mellowing the blend without a high dose of N wouldn't something like PS 702 Burley accomplish the same goal?

I'll report back when I have an impression of the new blend. Thanks for the ideas! :lol:

 

[Brunello]

I've thrown a few mixes together now and then.

They serve me.

Good candidate for Understatement of the Year.

I heard your favorite creation is actually half Mixture 79 and half Captain Black Grape, then you throw in a few discarded baccy stems from your own homegrown just for added nuance. I'm sure its good, but how does it age? :lol!:

 

[Brunello]

Hey fellas what's up to answer the question it can be extremely difficult but then again depends what you like I've thrown some blens together that were halfway decent and I made a halfway decent Navy flake I'm growing about a hundred plants this year and I'm going to see what I can come up with

A hundred plants ... that's an awful lot of baccy to process. I hope you have help or a lot of time on your hands! Navy flake is always good, I like mine with a dash of rum! :lol:

 

[Timbo]

G’day mate, letting you know I didn’t case anything in that recipe but I did let it sit and meld in the jar for a month or so. Smoking the last of it right now and thinking I’ll need to make another batch as it is yum.

Let me know when your after more info on the ingredients.

Okay, I'm ready for the big reveal!   :bounce:

Now on my third variation I'm probably getting further away from the HH Acadian match idea, and since I don't have any more of that I'm relying on memory, and none seem that close to what I remember. On my third trial I adjusted ratios slightly because I though 10% Perique was a bit much. Also, went with my weakest Latakia because the others were too strong.
 
Perique               10%      (5% C&D Perique + 5% Russ Ouellette Acadian Gold fermented Virginia)
Lemon Virginia    25%       (10% Sutliff 707, 15% Ashton Gold)
Red Virginia        40%       (20% Sutliff 517, 10% McClelland, 10% McConnell)
Orientals             20%       (Krumovgrad Basma)
Latakia                  5%       (Aylesbury Latakia Blend)

I used every thing from the range of C&D blending tobaccos except the yellow is PS long cut Virginia.

I did say it was an attempt at a match. I think I got close but it was no match. It was however, delicious.

Cheers

Tim

 

[Brunello]

I used every thing from the range of C&D blending tobaccos except the yellow is PS long cut Virginia.

I did say it was an attempt at a match. I think I got close but it was no match. It was however, delicious.

Thanks. I have everything except the Stokkebye, but it's time to resupply anyway. Having most ingredients from one house also means they will probably play well together. My results were good and interesting but just shy of the "delicious" goal, so when I have the PS VA I'll try again exactly as you posted and report back. :sunny:

 

[user 2027]

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[BriarPipeNYC]

Why?  Too expensive to waste specialized tobaccos. Results unpredictable, or disappointing. I think.


In the past, I've tried making my own customized blends, but instead of starting with individual tobaccos (too expensive), I started with commercially available, bulk mixtures that were formulated and balanced by the professionals.  Why should I reinvent the wheel?  I let the professionals do all the hard work, and do all the sourcing of tobaccos.  I just customize their efforts to suit my own tastes.  Results, were surprisingly good.

Commercial mixtures, like Prince Albert, Carter Hall, and others, are much more consistent from year to year, and available from many sources.  Individual, specially prepared and processed tobaccos, exotic Latakia, rare Periques, might not be available if the growers/processors go out of business, like e.g...McClelland.  Let's say you experimented and formulated a special mixture using McClelland's unique Virginia tobaccos...you're now out of luck!  MC is now out-of-business.

So, my best successes at hybrid-blending were based on using available mixtures as my main base component, and then I just tweaked these mixtures by adding small amounts of additional tobaccos.  Adding some cigar-leaf to many of the common, bulk blends that have been around for years can lead to a happy ending.  

The fun is in the trying and smoking the experiments.  Be bold!  Do it and then, smoke it.

Who could have predicted that 1 part: PS Luxury Bullseye Flake, and 1 part: Wilke's "High Hat" ....would ever lead to a great-smoking mixture?  I called it: "BENEDICTION"

 

[Brunello]

I do 5 blends now.  I don't try to match any particular blend.  Blends include

• Virginia
• Virginia/Perique
• Virginia/Perique/Oriental
• Virginia/Oriental
• Virginia/Burley/

I agree on the essential fruitlessness of attempting match blends. Of the categories you list I have a special fondness for Virginia-Orientals. On the one hand I'm curious as to what you've come up with, on the other hand, I've already got my hands full trying some of the recipes that have already been posted here. But this brings up a point: would it be worthwhile to start another thread or sticky called "BoB's Best Home Blends" where we can post our favorite recipes to be accessed in one convenient place? I have a feeling that once this thread dies down some of these great ideas will be forever lost in the archival labyrinth. Any thoughts on that?

 

[user 2027]

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[Brunello]

Why?  Too expensive to waste specialized tobaccos. Results unpredictable, or disappointing.  I think.


In the past, I've tried making my own customized blends, but instead of starting with individual tobaccos (too expensive), I started with commercially available, bulk mixtures that were formulated and balanced by the professionals.  Why should I reinvent the wheel?  I let the professionals do all the hard work, and do all the sourcing of tobaccos.  I just customize their efforts to suit my own tastes.  Results, were surprisingly good.

Commercial mixtures, like Prince Albert, Carter Hall, and others, are much more consistent from year to year, and available from many sources.  Individual, specially prepared and processed tobaccos, exotic Latakia, rare Periques, might not be available if the growers/processors go out of business, like e.g...McClelland.  Let's say you experimented and formulated a special mixture using McClelland's unique Virginia tobaccos...you're now out of luck!  MC is now out-of-business.

So, my best successes at hybrid-blending were based on using available mixtures as my main base component, and then I just tweaked these mixtures by adding small amounts of additional tobaccos.  Adding some cigar-leaf to many of the common, bulk blends that have been around for years can lead to a happy ending.  

The fun is in the trying and smoking the experiments.  Be bold!  Do it and then, smoke it.

Who could have predicted that 1 part: PS Luxury Bullseye Flake, and 1 part: Wilke's "High Hat" ....would ever lead to a great-smoking mixture?  I called it: "BENEDICTION"

Yes, you bring up some valid points. There are many definitions of what constitutes home blending, from simple tweaks (or what you call customizing), to mixing bulk blending tobaccos in different proportions to suit one's own taste, to really obsessive tinkering like shredding or chopping unprocessed leaf and applying your own casing. Each will follow his own path depending on whether they find it fun or educational, or simply a way to salvage a commercial blend that just didn't hit the spot.

For me, trying all various unprocessed Turkish varietals like Basma, Izmir, Samsun, and Yenidje has been a real education that helps me understand exactly what these leafs contribute to a blend. That may be a bridge too far for many, but for me, I don't want to leave it to the professionals, because as I said at the start, nobody knows my palate better than I do. As for McClelland or other discontinued tobaccos, if they are sitting in a jar gathering dust I'm going to use them. When they are gone they are gone. But so is the bottle of 1990 Latour which I'm glad I got to try.

In terms of sharing ideas I'm glad RSteve posted his full-English recipe because it's the best I've tried in that category, possibly my "discovery" of the year! And now I have your "Benediction" to try. Looks good!

 

[Zeno Marx]

Anyone have a blend that incorporates Daughters & Ryan Picayune? I like it more than fine by itself, but I have a hunch it could be a nice taste note in another blend.

 

[Brunello]

Anyone have a blend that incorporates Daughters & Ryan Picayune?  I like it more than fine by itself, but I have a hunch it could be a nice taste note in another blend.

Can't help you out on that since I've never had it, and frankly it looks a bit scary - but I would be most interested to see anybody's tweaks involving D&R blends.

A couple years back I bought five of their blends to try - Don Giovanni, London Dock, Ramback, Ryback, and Vengeur -  and didn't care for any of them. I was never a cigarette smoker so I never developed a nostalgia for that kind of RYO taste. Ryback was probably the worst tasting tobacco I've ever tried. :shock:

I did experiment with London Dock, trying to tone down the really sweet spiced rum topping. I came up with half London Dock, and a quarter each Lane cubed white Burley, and coarse chopped Basma leaf (uncased). I figured the raw, uncased Basma might counterbalance the sweetness of the London Dock. In small doses, in my smallest meer, it wasn't a bad summer smoke.

I guess the lesson I learned from my D&R experience is that sometimes a challenge can be an education, and sometimes it's just beating your head against the wall! :|  

Whenever we get our Trading Post back and going after this Covid business (if ever) my jarred supply of D&R will be looking for a new home!

 

[Brunello]

Just a further note on what BriarPipeNYC said. My first response was more of a reaction than a proper response to the main points he was making. I'm not beating myself up about it because we all do it: picking and choosing what we want to respond to, ignoring things that don't resonate with us.

But he is not the first in this thread to mention expense, and there are probably a lot of folks where this would also be a concern. I've allocated almost my entire hobby money in the last few years trying to catch up on years of fun stuff that I missed out on over the years. So, yeah, I complain about having to put limits on my TAD, but my threshold may be different than somebody else. Sometimes it not even a matter of money, because there are those who will buy hi-end artisan pipes who out of sense of propriety would recoil at the thought of tobacco going to waste if forays into home blending produce unpredictable or disappointing results.

His approach may serve as good advice for those just starting out: don't feel obligated to buy expensive specialty tobaccos for the purpose of making blends from scratch. Start with simply combining two blends that you already have on hand and enjoy, that you think might work together to create something new and different to enjoy. It doesn't have to be any more difficult than that (unlike my explanation!). :lol:

 

[Zeno Marx]

Anyone have a blend that incorporates Daughters & Ryan Picayune?  I like it more than fine by itself, but I have a hunch it could be a nice taste note in another blend.

Can't help you out on that since I've never had it, and frankly it looks a bit scary - but I would be most interested to see anybody's tweaks involving D&R blends.

A couple years back I bought five of their blends to try - Don Giovanni, London Dock, Ramback, Ryback, and Vengeur -  and didn't care for any of them. I was never a cigarette smoker so I never developed a nostalgia for that kind of RYO taste. Ryback was probably the worst tasting tobacco I've ever tried. :shock:

I did experiment with London Dock, trying to tone down the really sweet spiced rum topping. I came up with half London Dock, and a quarter each Lane cubed white Burley, and coarse chopped Basma leaf (uncased). I figured the raw, uncased Basma might counterbalance the sweetness of the London Dock. In small doses, in my smallest meer, it wasn't a bad summer smoke.

I guess the lesson I learned from my D&R experience is that sometimes a challenge can be an education, and sometimes it's just beating your head against the wall! :|  

Whenever we get our Trading Post back and going after this Covid business (if ever) my jarred supply of D&R will be looking for a new home!

Picayune is unique in the D&R roster, or at least from the many I've tried. If you search the forum, I started a thread about it. Some use it to roll little cigars. Some roll it into cigarette form, but don't inhale it, which I guess is the same as a little cigar, but I don't know what people are using for wrapper leaf when they say they make little cigars with it. It's a very robust tobacco that has a very olde tyme feel to the experience. This isn't accurate, but when I see articles written on how they make perique and you see the barrels under pressure and getting squished juicy, I think of how Picayune tastes. For me, it tastes how that looks. It smokes wonderfully in a cob. It's not a spicey or sweet perique sensation. I don't want to try to sell it. I was surprised with how much I enjoyed it.

 

[RSteve]

As for McClelland or other discontinued tobaccos, if they are sitting in a jar gathering dust I'm going to use them. When they are gone they are gone.

I wish that I had the intestinal fortitude to do that. About two years ago, I put together a blend, after much experimentation in small quantity, that resonates perfectly with my sense of an ideal Balkan blend. The Virginia component was exclusively McClelland. The blend is 55% Gawith Hoggarth Latakia. I am totally content with the fact that I can't find the blending notes, because without the McClelland Virginia, the blend would not be the same. I made up eight pounds and am, somewhat, rationing it to myself, hoping that I can make it last a few years.

 

[RSteve]

I'm mentally putting together another blend, but debating whether to purchase the components:

Sutliff TS20 Louisiana Perique  2 oz.

Sutliff TS24 Blended Turkish   2 oz.

Sutliff 507-S Stoved Virginia  2 oz.

Sutliff 515 RC-1 Red Virginia  2 oz.

Peter Stokkebye PS 310 Black latakia 6 oz.

Sutliff B20 Black Cavendish 3 oz.

$42.00 experiment.

The Sutliff B20 is steamed Green River burley. One vendor says it's top dressed, another just steamed? I've never used it and am not an aromatic smoker, but at 17% of the blend, it may just be enough aromatic to calm the room note.


added 7/6/2020...More than $42.00 with shipping and multiple taxes Subtotal $41.91
Shipping $6.99
MN STATE TAX - MINNESOTA $3.37
MN COUNTY TAX - RAMSEY $0.23
MN CITY TAX - SAINT PAUL $0.23

But I pulled the trigger and will report when the blend is completed. I should add that I have a few ounces of Sutliff 515 RC-1 Red Virginia on hand, if needed to "finish" the blend.

 

[RSteve]

For whatever reasons, the majority of P.S. blending tobaccos, I've used previously, are, for the most part, no longer available at smokingpipes.com, 4noggins.com, pipesandcigars.com, or tobaccopipes.com. On the recent blend, I've moved, with some trepidation to primarily Sutliff. Trepidation, because I've rarely used Sutliff component tobaccos.