Intoxicating a Plug

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K

klause

Guest
Morning All,
In work and a little bored - alleviating the disinterest by thinking about my stash. A thought just came to me about a post i read in a thread somewhere concerning a fella who was adding Rum to some flakes he was cellaring.
As the mind wanders i was thinking about the possibilities of doing this to a plug. I have about half of a Warrior plug at home (gorgeous tobacco) and i was thinking of cellaring it to see how it ages, but now i'm thinking of topping it up with a spot of whiskey.
Has anyone ever done this? Any thoughts, or ideas? How much whiskey? How often?
What i might do is cut the remaining plug in half and cellar both seperately, adding whiskey to one, then seeing how they age and compare in a year or two.
I'd appreciate any comments on this.
Thanks.
jason.

 

rmbittner

Lifer
Dec 12, 2012
2,759
1,994
Jason:
I know there are guys who enjoy experimenting like this -- and I'm sure you can get some solid advice here about the dos and dont's -- but it's not something I'd personally recommend. But I guess I just don't see the point. There are any number of navy flakes (which traditionally are flavored with rum) and straight-out rum flakes. There are others treated with brandy and bourbon and scotch. What I'm saying is: There are plenty of options out there that have been produced by professional blenders.
Besides, you say that Warrior is a gorgeous tobacco on its own. So I'm wondering why you'd risk tampering with something you already enjoy.
But, of course, you're free to do whatever you want! :) Just be aware that no alcohol is going to evaporate from a sealed and cellared jar of tobacco. So unless you let it air out for a significant amount of time prior to smoking it, I have a feeling you'll get a much more boozy smoke than you're looking for. OTOH, it shouldn't be any trouble keeping lit!
Bob

 

jfox520

Part of the Furniture Now
May 24, 2013
927
0
I am wondering just how much would be absorbed. Plug tobacco is pretty dense from the pressure.

 

rmbittner

Lifer
Dec 12, 2012
2,759
1,994
jofx520: Good point! And some plugs are quite moist as well; there's a limit to how much moisture tobacco can hold.
Bob

 
K

klause

Guest
Bob,
thanks for that. I've been contemplating this pretty much all day. I certainly wouldn't use a whole plug (it's far to expensive :)).
I'm thinking that maybe just a drop or two - let it absorb - then reapeat - just a few times. Then, cellar it - having let it dry out a good bit first. Warrior is a dense plug, but also quite dry - the one I'm working through at the moment is, anyway.
To be honest, I'm just curious as to how much the flavour would change/be enhanced/ruined. I'm thinking of taking 2 equal size lumps from the plug, adulterating one, and then Cellaring both at the same time - then, having a quiet afternoon, late next year doing a comparison.
Warrior certainly is a good smoke, in fact it's absolutely cracker, so it's got to be a good starting point.
Come tomorrow morning I may see the error of my ways, and forget all about it - maybe. ;-)
Really appreciate your thoughts.

 

rmbittner

Lifer
Dec 12, 2012
2,759
1,994
Klause:
I think the fact that you're starting with a high-quality tobacco is a definitely plus in your favor.
Maybe some of my bias here comes from hearing about guys who thought they could turn a cheap and/or poorly made blend into something remarkable by tinkering with it. Even the finest single malt won't be able to make bad tobacco good. But I guess if you keep adding whiskey, you eventually end up not minding so much! ;)

 
K

klause

Guest
Bob,
I'm thinking that maybe I should just smoke the plug and sip the whiskey - seems a better use of resources when I think about it - and, I still get a very pleasant afternoon in the greenhouse!

 

andrew

Lifer
Feb 13, 2013
3,042
400
I'd say go for it, I want to get around to trying it with some luxury bullseye flake as I've read on other forums adding rum to it and aging it makes it amazing, plus I have about 2 pounds of it. I also want to try it with whisky. Another thing to consider is this way you get to try different whisky and rum or scotch as they all have different flavors so it's going to affect how it tastes. Like you can go with dark rum, light rum, etc... And then scotch is such a huge flavor difference I can see it being a really interesting experiment going through the different islays. From what I've read it's a very easy thing to do.

 

rmbittner

Lifer
Dec 12, 2012
2,759
1,994
Thanks for chiming in, Andrew! It was looking like I was talking klause out of the experiment. . . and while I wouldn't do it myself, I just wanted to be one voice among several differing opinions, just so he'd have all sides of the debate to chew on.
In other words, Klause, if you REALLY want to do this, don't let me talk you out of it. I just wanted to mention some things to consider.
My strong personal bias is not to mess with professionally blended tobaccos. You won't find me mixing A with B to "tame" or "improve" a flawed blend. For better or worse, I feel that I need to smoke the tobacco as it was intended by the manufacturer. And if I don't like it that way, then I say that blend's not for me and I move on to another blend. (The few times I actually HAVE tried mixing a blend I didn't like with one I did, I just ended up with a lot of tobacco I didn't want to smoke anymore.) I realize that's not exactly your situation here. You really like the Warrior; you just want to see what happens when you add whiskey. As long as you're willing to end up with some Warrior that's unsmokeable or unappealing, then don't let me talk you out of something you really want to do!
I was actually hoping some folks here would jump in and tell you what their process is for doing what you want to do. But if you don't hear from anyone who does this themselves -- and I'm sure they're here -- then try searching the forums for relevant threads. Here's one I turned up that might be helpful:
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/tobacco-with-a-little-extra-flavor#post-152072
Enjoy your pipes!
Bob

 

andrew

Lifer
Feb 13, 2013
3,042
400
I keep imagining that MM965 infused with canadian rye whiskey would be epic, it's been constantly going through my mind out of nowhere all of a sudden, like a sign from God that this is meant to be......... I'll have to give it a try with a bit and get back to you guys how it is, I just think it would be amazing for some reason.

 

andrew

Lifer
Feb 13, 2013
3,042
400
I say go for it Sherlock! This is supposed to be a "hobby" therefore keep things new and interesting for yourself. I'd love to be adventurous enough to do what you're suggesting, but at $50 for 100gm I'd be a little scared about creating something vile - at least you guys can afford to play & experiment.
Not sure I understand this "respect the leaf" stuff - if it was still grown on ye 'ol family plantations that only operated courtesy of their enslaved workforce, picked by slaves, processed by slaves and true blood, sweat and tears went into it, THEN I could relate to those words, but these days, pfft, give me a break - http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/profile/aussielass

+100 to her, she has wisdom, awesome response in that thread.

 
K

klause

Guest
Bob, Andrew,
I'm going to go for it - but in a small way. I had convinced myself this was madness (isn't it all, anyway), and not to waste some expensive Toby. But, it's a persistent thought - this itch needs a damn good scratching!
So, I'm going to compromise and slice some of that plug into flakes. I'm going to jar equal amounts, about enough for 3-4 bowls, and age 'em. One will be adulterated with some good booze. I will use the one plug, so there can be no differences due to differing batches, if you get my drift.
Aussielass has spoken, and I have listened - though admittedly, it didn't take much convincing..
Andrew, let me know how you get on.
Thanks for all the input, gentlemen - much good thought here!

 

lordnoble

Lifer
Jul 13, 2010
2,677
14
I've done it with blends which didn't do it for me. What I recommend is using high-proof spirits in any experimenting you decide to do. 80 proof whiskey is fine, but it contains too much water for my tastes, so I use 150+ proof liquor. My current favorite is Bacardi 151. I add it to an uninspiring blend by loading up a spray bottle (which I designated for this use only), placing the culprit blend in a large bowl and spraying over the bowl while mixing with my free hand. After the blend is damp (not wet), I leave it out to dry. I come back to it occasionally and stir it up to help dry it out. If it's my first time "embellishing" a blend, I'll smoke a half bowl to see if the flavor/experience has improved. If not, I repeat misting and testing the blend until it works for me. So far I've made a few 'meh' blends better, but by no means does it make them great.
This said, check out Captain Bob's posts on this forum, as he may have some useful info. Try THESE search results.
Good luck!
-Jason

 

andrew

Lifer
Feb 13, 2013
3,042
400
Yeah I don't have any meh blends, I like all the blends I have, I just don't know of any blends that are whisky flavored 965. I've read though from a few people putting rum into Luxury bullseye flake makes it amazing. I like it plain too, just something to try out. Thanks for the imput me lord. Like Klause I just plan on trying it with small amounts. I can't see it working great though on meh blends, as if you don't like it to begin with, I can't see it getting better, it's more of like smothering bad meatloaf in ketchup then or something, it's still bad, it's just all the ketchup makes it more tolerable. I just have this feeling whisky and 965 will create a nice flavor, I'll report the results and what whisky I used, I plan on using shenley's OFC, for LBF I have some Jim Beam black that I think will suit that better.

 

andrew

Lifer
Feb 13, 2013
3,042
400
Well I took some McClellands's Full dark english #5105, dried it out, put a piece of paper towel with some whisky on it and sealed it in a container overnight. This morning it was quite wet, so I let it dry out all day, and am smoking it right now. I must say it's quite pleasant. You can smell the whisky in the room note a bit. I'm smoking it a meershaum. I would say it's a successful experiment. I don't think aging is really required for the whisky part. But I will probably try aging it a bit anyways with a bigger batch. I was also smoking the full dark english in a cheap viscount briar before and found it was getting a weird taste. I will trade in the viscount when I do my next pipe shopping at the second hand store towards another pipe, as they're quite good to me as I've bought quite a few pipes off of them, and before I did a straight trade pipe for pipe at the place. I will have to try LBF with Jim bean black next, the whisky I used for the full dark english was shenley's OFC.

 
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