Best Methods For Tobacco Drying

[michaelmirza]

Anybody ever use a hair dryer? I think I'd prefer that over the microwave for a quick fix. Is there any major advantage to the long (many hours+) drying methods over the fast ones? I've never dried my tobacco before... always seemed like a hassle that would contradict the relaxing nature of the smoking. I'm coming around to the idea now though... for the sake of better burns and because it sounds like the wait can be worth it.

 

[earthbound]

I've microwaved with good results, however I'm convinced that it alters the taste a bit. I'm a fan of semi sweet Virginia flakes and I look for that subtle sweetness in my smoke. The sugars molecules in your baccy will be excited by the electromagnetic waves in a microwave, thus altering their structure and taste. Maybe all of this is a placebo affect. Engineering school can make one overthink many things- including pipe smoking.

 

[lordofthepiperings]

Russ spoke about this at the West Coast Show. I do recall he said if you use heat to dry the tobacco you'll lose flavor. I also remember he said if it's a heavily cased/topped aro just leaving it out won't do much good because the humectants used are designed to pull moisture from the air.
I usually just leave the tin open for a while. Occasionally I'll work the tobacco over so the bottom is at the top and it gets a more even amount of air time.
He also said that overly moist tobacco stems from a lack of metal for tins post WWII. Instead they used hermetically sealed pouches. To preserve the tobacco as long as a tin they doused it with the typical PG and what not claiming that moist tobacco equaled fresh tobacco.
I think we're seeing a trend away from this. Most H&H blends and C&D blends come ready to go out of the tin. I recall Pease's Union Square was in that state as well.

 

[perdurabo]

Lay it out on a small dish, then it's trial and error. How do you like your smoke? Now Gawith tobaccos, 24 hours of more air dry time.

 

[shawnofthedead]

Do not use hairdryer, I've tried that once, even with the lowest setting, I ended up with tobacco all over the floor. A way around this: wrap your tobacco in cheese cloth so they can't be blown away, then blow dry them for a few seconds.

 

[peckinpahhombre]

Peteguy - Ouch!
I do use the microwave for some hard to dry flakes, as detailed here: http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/prepping-fvf

 

[bonehed]

Has anyone noticed recent tins from Gawith seem to have thinner flakes? Lately I'm getting very thin cuts instead of the usual beef jerky thick... much easier to dry.

Maybe it's just the particular stock I'm buying.

 

[pinem]

I just got two 250g packages of FVF in the mail from Smoking Pipes (they had just got a new shipment in) and the cut was much thinner than the previous tin I had. One package was fairly wet but not crazy, the other was practically saturated. It was sad to see how much tobacco I had lost by volume in the saturated one, comparing both packages side by side.

 

[jpmcwjr]

I don't think you've lost any tobacco, as it's sold by weight, not volume. And, yes, you did lose some in the original packaging as wet tobacco weighs more per volume, but by very small amounts. (Does that make sense?)