Are You Over-Drying Your Tobacco?

[HawkeyeLinus]

Does rehydrating over dry tobaccos bring back flavor, or once it's gone it's gone?

I’m guessing some will answer if haven’t yet. No idea here. When I’ve had some that seems too dried out from forgetting about some I put out to dry I’ll just mix it in with some moist of the same and off we go. I’ve occasionally gotten some old tins that were rectangular (really old and not trying to take issue with a brand) and when there has been that really too dry aspect they hit the trash bin, didn’t seem worth the effort and lesson learned. Not worth the risk or expense buying them and I’ve found the current version of those is just fine.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

To rehydrate, IF I think that a little added moisture will help a blend, I will load my pipe with dry tobacco, and then put my lips over the rim of the pipe and blow into the bowl out through the stem. When my wife sees me doing this she has an obligatory joke where she says, "hey stupid, you're smoking your pipe backwards."

But, just a few puffs through the bowl is enough to add a touch of moisture if needed.

 

[Andriko]

I tend not to bother drying any of it. Some tobacco has dried naturally because I left it in a pouch, or just had it a while or whatever, and I did an experiment for a few weeks of leaving the flakes out in the morning before smoking them. Never really noticed much difference, though I tend towards the wetter the better if I was forced to choose.

Frankly, I think all this 'dry time' is more a result of a bunch of blokes making their past-time much more complicated and 'specialist' than it needs to be cf. audiophiles and record players. The masculine temperament tends to be discerning and fussy, needing everything to be neat and ordered. In pastimes and favored activities this can get out of hand, and then we all stand around telling each other we're not doing it right. Just smoke the damn thing and relax!

 

[peteguy]

meh, I disagree. I can't recall having read a post telling someone to dry tobacco just for some sort of drying ritual. Brand, cut, etc. are the factors involved when deciding to dry and for how long. You weigh the factors and do your best to dry it to your liking.

 

[EvertonFC]

In a recent PMRS, Jeremy Reeves mentioned drying tobacco during a conversation about something else, and he mentioned drying for 5-10 minutes and how flavors can disappear from a blend that is no longer at its optimal humidity.

While I would willingly admit, Jeremy's knowledge of blending tobaccos likely dwarfs that of the combined knowledge of this forum, barring a few exceptions. However, his preferences as a smoker are the preferences of a single individual. Perhaps he's able to pull more flavor out of wet tobacco than dry. However, from what I've observed, he's in the minority.

 

[Peterson314]

I like my tobacco with enough moisture to be springy, and I try to keep my jars ready to go that way. I will rehydrate crunchy tobacco because otherwise, I burn it too fast and hot. I think it's like everything else in the pipe-smoking world--smoke what you like.

 

[anotherbob]

Does rehydrating over dry tobaccos bring back flavor, or once it's gone it's gone?

Nope. Once it loses the oils you can't replace those. And some of the flavors might come back but to me when trying that it tastes flat and there is always an additional flavor that actually reminds me of stale cardamom no matter the tabacco. Like how it would taste if you took the blandest tobacco and left it near a room with a lot of cardamom. Like not that it's been added but this hint and frankly it's gross to me. But some people swear by it but after reading tobacco reviews I wonder why someone with a dead tongue would bother smoking in the first place .

 

[anotherbob]

I agree. Especially if it has Red Virginia in it.

Dried out tobacco may work very well for some people, but I often wonder if the "dried out" thing is really a symptom of hobbiest fixation on group think. A little goes a long way. What is dry? Personally, dry for me is when I can keep the tobacco lit after one or two false starts. Rope and plug tobacco are often difficult to get going if there is too much moisture. But I've seen some pipe smokers dry the hell out of their tobacco.

I am glad to hear there are those amongst us that enjoy some moisture in the leaf.

I certainly see a bit of group think and group semi hypnosis in forums like this. However my journey to dry is better went against everything I had heard. I literally forgot a tin in a closest for a long while and thought well this tobacco is dead but hey if it's not good I can dump it and smoke something else. Instead of what I expected I thought wow this is a weird tobacco it taste better dry. And then slowly started noticing I liked dry tobacco much better. I found it tasted richer and more nuanced and too me much more importantly it smoked in a much easier and more agreeable way. Though some blends do not work like that. EGR I smoke right out of the tin and maybe a few hours of dry and same with mixture 79. Weirdly I think one of my all time favorites loses a lot when dried which would be GLPease Key Largo.

 

[woodsroad]

In a recent PMRS, Jeremy Reeves mentioned drying tobacco during a conversation about something else, and he mentioned drying for 5-10 minutes and how flavors can disappear from a blend that is no longer at its optimal humidity.

A lot of variables are being ignored in that statement, to the point of just being a meaningless thing to say.

What is the percentage of water in the blend to start with?

How is it being dried?

Drying temperature?

Air movement/velocity:exchange?

Relative humidity of the air being used to dry?

Tobacco volume/depth/density?

You can’t just say “dry for ten minutes”.

 

[bullet08]

I tend not to bother drying any of it. Some tobacco has dried naturally because I left it in a pouch, or just had it a while or whatever, and I did an experiment for a few weeks of leaving the flakes out in the morning before smoking them. Never really noticed much difference, though I tend towards the wetter the better if I was forced to choose.

Frankly, I think all this 'dry time' is more a result of a bunch of blokes making their past-time much more complicated and 'specialist' than it needs to be cf. audiophiles and record players. The masculine temperament tends to be discerning and fussy, needing everything to be neat and ordered. In pastimes and favored activities this can get out of hand, and then we all stand around telling each other we're not doing it right. Just smoke the damn thing and relax!

Drying does help in number of situations. And it does help greatly for the beginners who are frustrated with tongue bites and blends that will not stay lit. Of course, once they go through the beginning stage, I hope they will find right dryness for their own smoking pleasure. Or learn to adjust to different dryness through their techniques. But it seems a lot of people do prefer dry tobacco, and as with everything in pipe smoking, there's nothing wrong with that.

 

[woodsroad]

FWIW, moisture content in tobacco is not measured by relative humidity.
Relative humidly is the amount of water in a gas (air, in this case) relative to the temperature.

Moisture content in a solid can also be expressed as a percentage (or weight, or ratio) but the measurement equipment is entirely different.

Measuring Moisture Content & Water Activity

www.ift.org

 

[rmbittner]

A lot of variables are being ignored in that statement, to the point of just being a meaningless thing to say.

What is the percentage of water in the blend to start with?

How is it being dried?

Drying temperature?

Air movement/velocity:exchange?

Relative humidity of the air being used to dry?

Tobacco volume/depth/density?

You can’t just say “dry for ten minutes”.

My point simply was that Reeves was talking about drying in terms of minutes—not hours or days, which were being suggested as benchmarks.

 

[woodsroad]

My point simply was that Reeves was talking about drying in terms of minutes—not hours or days, which were being suggested as benchmarks.

Minutes in a microwave? In an oven? On the dining room table? In an open tin? Spread out on a paper towel?
What is the humidity in the room? In much of the US, the relative humidity in the summer is so high that tobacco will actually absorb MORE water if left out, not dry. I've left tins open for days with no appreciable change in moisture content. Of course, the opposite is true in the winter. Humidity levels can drop to the single digits when the heat is on.

I hope that Reeves is a bit more knowledgeable about such things than his quick quip would imply.