How to Adjust a Blend
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Kevin Godbee - Jan 2, 2011
- 5 min read
By Russ Ouellette
Some people will say "That car is red." while others will say that it’s scarlet, maroon, candy-apple metallic. What’s this got to do with adjusting a tobacco blend? Well, one of the common requests I get is to make a blend sweeter. That helps, but not as much as you might believe. What kind of sweet does the person want? The stinging sweetness of a lemon Virginia? The warm, brown-sugar sweetness of a toasted black Cavendish? The candy-like sweetness of an aromatic? This is why the technical end of adjusting a blend can be difficult.
What I’ll try to do is to give you some basic ideas on how to work with your tobaccos to arrive at something closer to your wishes.
Let’s look at my Louisiana Red. It’s a Virginia/Perique blend made of two different red Virginias. One is pretty straight-forward, while the other is processed and matured to give it a sweet and sour tang and then it’s fortified with Perique.
The result is a medium-strength tobacco with a bit of fruitiness about it, and a little fig-like bass note.
If you want to accentuate the fruit-like aspect, yellow Virginia will give you a sharp and somewhat acidic sweetness.
If you’d like to mellow the blend while maintaining the sugariness, a toasted (unflavored) black Cavendish will do so nicely.
If you’d like a hint of chocolate or cherry along with additional sweetness, then the use of a flavored aromatic will do the job.
If you’d like to lighten the blend, more of the regular red Virginia will do that, or you could use some white Burley, but that will add a bit of nuttiness (like a walnut) as well.
Dark Burley will add a spicy note and maybe a touch of a cigar-like flavor along with an additional nicotine wallop.
More Perique will maintain the flavor, but will add more depth and will add some dried fruit to the mix. Latakia will add a smokiness and will slow the burn down a bit.
Orientals could make it sweeter, more floral or add a musty hint.
So, to recap–
- Virginias– Yellow will add a citrusy, acidic sweetness. Red will add a bread or yeast-like toastiness and brown adds a mildly sweet earthiness.
- Burley– White Burley is rather neutral will a little nutty note, while the darker strains are tangy, spicy and cigar-like and contain a fair amount of vitamin N.
- Orientals– These vary the most in terms of flavor. Some are sweet and floral or deep and musty. Due to their more pronounced flavor, in many cases, a little can go a long way.
- Latakia– Adds a smoky, leathery flavor and aroma while helping cool the smoke down a bit. Used lightly in the background, it can add depth.
- Perique– Has sweet elements (like dried fruit) and a hint of pepper, so it can add spice. Another remarkably cool-smoking tobacco, it can help slow down the burn rate of a blend.
- Aromatics– Flavored tobaccos will add whatever flavorings have been used, but sometimes these tobaccos, when combined with straight blending components, will produce unexpected results. I tried a vanilla-type flavor to top a Perique blend and it wound up smelling and tasting like cinnamon.
Beside using other tobaccos to change an existing blend, the following can have an impact on the smoking characteristics of a blend-
- Aging– Aging Virginia-based blends will help develop their natural sweetness, especially if kept in air-tight storage with a bit of air in the container. Latakia blends will benefit only if you find the flavor harsh or overpowering. Time has a way of mellowing the strength of Latakia.
- Pressure– Most people think that pressing tobacco is something that only a manufacturer can do, but the truth is, if you have access to a vacuum sealer, you can do a pretty good job of making a cake. Put the tobacco in a sealer bag and heat it for a minute or so in a microwave and then vacuum seal it while pressing down on the bag. Give it 24 hours or so before opening and slicing into strips. Pressure has the effect of marrying flavors more rapidly and completely while bringing out more depth, and in some cases, sweetness.
When talking about adjusting a blend, the keyword to me is light-handed. Always start by adding the smallest amount of the new tobacco that will have an impact, since you can always add more later on, but you can’t remove what you’ve already added.
From the time we were children, there have been authority figures in our lives who have said to us, "If you don’t know, ask." If you’re not sure what move to make, there’s a wealth of information in books, magazines and online to refer to. And don’t forget one of your best resources- your tobacconist. Whether you’re dealing with your local B&M proprietor or with an e-tailer, you have the right to expect assistance from them when you’re trying to tweak your blend. After all, they’re probably going to be the ones selling you the components, so asking for some input is reasonable.
I routinely field a couple of dozen phone calls and double that number of emails each week asking for this kind of help. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I like answering these questions as it gives me a chance to stretch my problem-solving chops. If you can’t seem to find a solution, use the contact info at the end of this article to get in touch with me, and I’ll be glad to see what I can do. I may not have all the answers, but I have a good idea of who might know, and I’ll track down the info, if possible.
Also, work in the smallest batches you realistically can. This way you waste a bare minimum of tobacco if the batch turns out to be a disappointment.
Whatever you do, have fun with it. And, remember that the only person you have to satisfy is yourself.
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Russ Ouellette is the blender/creator of the Hearth & Home series of tobaccos for Habana Premium Cigar Shoppe and www.pipesandcigars.com in Albany, NY. He has been a pipe smoker and blender for over 30 years, and enjoys feedback from the pipe smoking public. You can reach Russ at russo@pipesandcigars.com or by calling 1-800-494-9144 on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 9 am to 5 pm and Friday from 1 pm to 5 pm. |
Written by Kevin Godbee
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Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 634! Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Warren Ertle. Warren is an extremely accomplished musician with a PhD in music. He started early as a percussionist in sixth grade. Later his grandmother got him a cheap Casio keyboard which he taught himself to play. He started playing in blues bands in high school, and has been a pianist with jazz big bands for years. Even though he was already a professional musician, he took his first real piano lesson when he enrolled in college with his studies in classical music. He is of course a pipe smoker. At the top of the show we will have an Ask the Tobacco Blender segment with Jeremy Reeves. Jeremy is the Head Blender at Cornell & Diehl, which is one of the most popular boutique pipe tobacco companies in the USA.
Soon now, supposedly, our neighborhoods will shift from grinning pumpkins, skeletons in various assortments, and zombies dashing about to pretty reindeer, angels, and flashing lights illuminating homes with sparkling stars and laughing, scurrying Santas. But, lest we forget, there is the turkey season, fancy pie aromas wafting from kitchens, and a national pardon of a big Tom Turkey. Remember, now, that only one of these holiday personalities is a pipe smoker. And that is the hefty, bearded fellow in a bright red suit sitting in a sleigh with a herd of deer hitched up and ready to streak across the globe, bringing tidings of joy and many presents. Ok, the scene is set for the next couple of months, right? So, before we get too far off the beaten path, let’s just take a deep breath of fresh autumn air, shall we? Ahh. That’s better, isn’t it? What’s got the Pundit in a snit is not all the Halloween spooks who came a-jostling for candy. Or the wild turkeys gobbling in the backwoods or all the fuss and feathers over the big one—Christmas. No, it is that we might need to take note of all the little things that mean so much to us. Like a good sunrise (seriously, Pundit has not gone all Pollyanna.) Mayhaps we need to appreciate more of what we have than what we have not. Or something like that. Like, a good pipe in the morning with coffee as the dawn brings us coolish weather now that we have flipped the calendar to autumn. But it also brings beautiful leaves that have become a spectacle of technicolor in the wind. It is the little things. The rereading of an enjoyable book and finding something you did not see or learn in the first go-round. Or a stunning phrase you commit to memory with the re-read, while smoking that favorite pipe. And you notice a superior puff that just seems to be different. It’s in the air and the seasons of meaningful little things. It’s aromatic! 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Maybe especially with the help of their pipes in the art of thinking and philosophy. Recall the words of Mr. E=MC2 when he said, “I believe that pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgment in all human affairs.” Amen and amen! Dealing with world-rattling events takes a calm and objective view of things, to the Pundit’s way of summing it up. You just don’t go messing around with quantum physics without a calm and objective approach, methinks. Or as the extraordinary physicist Robert Oppenheimer said after he and a team in the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos Labs developed a way to split atoms into bombs during World War II. “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds,” said Oppenheimer referring to the development of the first nuclear bombs dropped on Japan. It must be pointed out that Oppenheimer was more of a cigarette smoker than a pipe smoker. Nonetheless, pipes were part of his personality. Now, if you have read some of the great authors of the past and present, their pipes were always nearby. Reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle can be a three-pipe problem at times. S. Lewis and Jean-Paul Sartre require time with your pipes to reflect on the existential problems and solutions these authors provide in learned novels and other narratives. Or take Edwin Hubble and Bertrand Russell, philosophers of another world. Pipes are required for reading. The quantum lode of ideas Pundit is attempting to sort out is that our pipes are relaxing and stimulate our thoughts and creativity. Especially in these last months of the year. Many times Pundit has had that light bulb flick on while smoking my beloved pipes. And friends in Pipedom, it ain’t easy to turn on the lights in Pundit’s rock pit head. Now it’s time for a quote from a Pipe Smoker of the Past. Shelby Foote was born Nov. 17, 1916, in Greenville, Miss., and died June 27, 2005, in Memphis, Tenn. A fact is not a truth until you love it—Shelby Foote. A parting thought: It is said that famed Southern author William Faulkner carried a packed pipe in a coat pocket wherever he went. That’s one effective way to deal with workday conflicts and confusion. A calm and objective judgment in our everyday human affairs, as the quantum man said.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 633. Our featured guest tonight is Jon David Cole. JD is the Owner/Tobacconist at The Country Squire in Jackson, MS, and the accompanying online store. We’ll have JD and Brian talking about what’s new at the store and in the business in general. At the top of the show, Brian will discuss tobacco growing, what happens to the leaf, and provide updated information on where tobacco is being gown today. Tobacco production originated in the United States and we were once the #1 producer. It’s quite different now.
Well there’s nothing like a touch of the plague to usher in the changing season. Leaving the airport just when the first advertisements for all things pumpkin spice began to appear—lattes, muffins, shampoos, trash bags, and myriad other concoctions—so, too, my ability to breathe freely disappeared. The unfortunate side effect of losing one’s sense of taste and smell for weeks is the utter inability to enjoy tobacco. Not that I consider myself an expert on anything but my own tastes, but be forewarned that this review was made with mildly impugned sensory equipment. Just when a comforting pipe was most needed, its comfort was denied. Be that as it may, the road to recovery found me limping along on one lung this past month, trying to wrest the particulars of two blends on offer from Sutliff: the latest 175th Anniversary blend, Silver Quarter, as well as their spooky seasonal Maple Shadows II. Silver Quarter is a new style on offer from Sutliff, their first coin-cut blend. 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The tin notes are, forgive the pun, on the nose for a good VaPer blend: mild tart sweetness peeking out from behind dried hay and slight chocolate undertones, with a lightly tannic finish of weathered oak. It is always a joy to prepare a coin cut, my preference being to put a few in my palm and vigorously warm my hands together to fully break them apart. These well-formed discs pack and light easily, and smoke with little prodding to the end of the bowl. For technical points it scores well—it smokes light, and it’s easy to tend the ember. While it gets sharp after a few quick bowls, pacing should be heeded to easily smoke down to the heel without inviting bite. Of the flavor, though, I am left a bit wanting. There are tart and high notes aplenty, but very little of the lemony citrus I would anticipate, as well as scant midtones; they tend more toward the red wine-vinegary and sour. 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With a sweet coffee or tea to accompany, the aftertaste of the maple is reinvigorated on the palate […]
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Vegas Baby The show started out strong on the 14th floor hospitality suites hosted by the Vegas Pipe Show and Smoking Pipes as well as room hopping to carvers, estate sellers, and vendors to pre-game for the festivities. If you’re interested in what that looks like I’ll refer you to last years pipe show round up. I circled with Brian Levine to get the totals in comparison to last year: This year’s show numbers: 108 Exhibitor tables, 445 attendees, 3,250 Raffle Tickets, 100ish dinners, 172 Rooms in the Hotel. Last year, by comparison, 107 exhibitor tables, 425 attendees, 2,200 raffle tickets, 104 dinners, and 175 rooms on Friday and Saturday nights. We were at capacity, basically, when it came to vendor tables and the dinner, so there is no physical room for growth at this point except for attendees. That said, we filled that smoking lounge to the brim. New Carvers Spotlight Garret Woo (Pipes by Woo) How long have you been carving? Garret: I’ve been carving since 2021, and I’m guessing your next question is probably how’d you get started carving? James: Yes. Garret: In 2021 I took a break from my full time job – that included machining and assembly work and I thought maybe it was time I made something that I would like and I started looking at youtube and Instagram and putting together my shop. I did struggle on the stems to start and there was a lot of failure at the beginning. James: How many pipes have you made so far? Garret: I number my pipes, so I just finished up 186. James: What is your favorite shape you’ve been making? Garret: I really dig Canadians and pipes with longer shanks and lovat Canadian blends. I like to play with different shapes of stems on the longer shanked pipes. The billiard would be my go-to shape but I want to learn more techniques on freehanded shapes. I like to put brass and copper adornments on my pipes with my machining background it helps. James: What is the craziest thing you’ve seen at this show? Garret: The first thing that comes to mind is the table over there with C-Pipes with the shapes and the size and petiteness and the intricate details they did. You can check out what Garret is working on by going to his Instagram. Stefan Cashwell James: how long have you been carving? Stefan: about 3 years. James: What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen at the show? Stefan: The Adam Davidson pipe with the clear shape and the bamboo—I don’t know if it’s 3D printed or what, but it’s amazing. James: What’s your favorite shape to do? Stefan: That’s a tough question. I think they’re all the same shape, but what’s fascinating is that Dublin, volcano, and blowfish are all the same depending on how you turn them. Playing with that, with all its variations, is a lot of fun. My favorite accent to use is also horn; it’s finicky, but it’s a great accent on pipes. You can check out Stefan’s work on his Instagram. Science: Meet Pipes I chatted with Chris from the San Diego Pipe Club; he started off doing stem replacements for estate pipes but also improved the airflow. James: How are you doing 3d printing? What is the thought process? Chris: It’s a 3D-printed pipe with a briar insert. The design is a calabash meets a Peterson system meets a metal Falcon/Kirsten radiator style. It is a bottom draft smoking bowl like a radiator like those metal pipes. The inside chamber is a calabash. The stummel and accent rings in the stems are all 3d printed. The insert is briar, olive wood, or I have the potential to use meerschaum as well. This idea came about through the San Diego Pipe Club, wanting to see if we could 3D print a pipe and being curious about the technology; I have a printer and design ability, so here we are. James: What’s the type of plastic you’re using? Chris: It’s all PLA plastic, a renewable potato starch plastic that is food-safe. The stummels are printed with a plastic that has wood in it 40% wood fiber, bamboo, rosewood, ebony, redwood, and walnut are the woods I’m printing. For the accent rings I just got a new material that I’m printing that has 40% copper, so its real metal that you can sand, and polish the same as wood filament. The stems are 3d printed as well. The concept is renewable and cheap from a production standpoint, with the ability to make a very high quality smoking pipe based on the experience. By combining the calabash system pipe and bottom draft hole and using 3d simulations to see airflow, I can see where I’m having eddies and ripples in my current, and see where my moisture and all the particles are dropping back out from a vapor to a liquid. Most people who have tried these say the stems are clean, and they don’t even have to run a pipe cleaner afterward because everything collects at the bottom. Chris has also been experimenting with color-changing plastics so you can see the hotspots. Chris said he was able to use this to slow down his cadence, which, of course, could mean you could get a slow-smoke training pipe to teach yourself to perform better. If you’re interested in learning more or want to check one out, you can contact him on Instagram: Copper Beard Pipe Works The Negative Space The show was buzzing about one specific pipe, which had everyone guessing how it was made. I chatted with Adam Davidson briefly about it. James: How did this idea come to fruition? Adam Davidson: Smokingpipes.com had an expo back in August open to all of the makers they carry. The theme was to make a pipe utilizing bamboo. Given that the last time we had the expo I made a smooth Almond with three bamboo shanks, […]
Russ, I recently infused some of your fantastic Egg Nog with 18 year old Flor de Cana rum. I just left a small bowl of this rum which has a pervasively sweet aroma inside a container with the tobacco for two or three days, with the lid on of course. Then I transferred the tobacco to a mason jar and left it there for about five days or more. The result is incredible. It seems the more aged the rum the better this type of minimalist infusion works. This process was suggested by my good friend Rob who, like me, is a great fan of your H&H blends.
This i a great example of what can be done at home with minimal equipment. This method of flavoring is often referred to as infusing. If you want, do the same thing with the rum heated up a bit, or with the container in a warm place. It helps release the fumes.
Thanks for the nice comments about H&H, and we’ll have some interesting news to announce soon!
Russ
Thanks for the insight into the various characteristics of component tobaccos. I’m sure this article will be a boon to the DIY’ers in our hobby. I may try a little tweaking myself, just as soon as I’ve sampled all the professionally blended tobaccos already available. 🙂
You’re very welcome on the comments; just a statement of objective reality facts really. And thank you for the warm rum tip. Will be attentive to developments in the interesting news department. Best regards to you Russ.
Very enlightening Russ. Particularly enjoyed the nuances by the tobaccos in the same catagories, lemon Va, etc. My tweaking is usually adding PA to lighten up a blend. have had great results adding PA to Palladin Black cherry, Wine berry, etc. Don’t want to mess up my “good” blends.
Russ, I’ve been trying a 50-50 mix of your Anniversary Kake and Trout Stream. The result is a more sweet and sour version of Luxury Bullseye or Davidoff Flake. I’ve found that both of these benefit from being quite “fresh” the less dried out, the better.