In this article, I talk about ways to re-hydrate pipe tobacco that has become too dried out.
Re-Hydrating Pipe Tobacco
Re-Hydrating Pipe Tobacco
Yes, C&D use only distilled water for moisture in their tobaccos. And they don't use too much of it either. They only use enough to moisten the tobacco to cut down on any chances of mold.Kevin Said: I heard that C&D doesn't like to moisten their tobacco. I think one of the representatives at the Chicago show told me that, and their tobacco does seem to be dryer than others.
What is your experience with that?
Yes, Latakia doesn't age too well unless it is put in an airtight container immediately when you get it. Even then, once you open the container after aging, you need to smoke it fairly quickly before it goes flat and loses a lot of the flavor.Chuckw Said: ...the experiment taught me that latakia does not age well. It had gone completely flat.
I think steam is an adequate substitute for, if not identical to, distilled water. I think this method is superior to either spritzing or the wet towel methods.What I did seemed to work perfectly. I got one of my wife's Tupperware salad bowls -- shallow with a large diameter. I placed a cup of boiling water in the center and spread the tobacco around the cup. I covered the bowl to create a steam bath. A half-hour later [ymmv] I tossed the warm tobacco to evenly distribute the moisture, and put it up in jars. I didn't go over-board on the moisturization for fear of encouraging mold.