I have a bunch of raw leaf and want to dial in my tastes. I am thinking to strip, shred, case, all the different types individually, then blend the cased ribbons afterwards. I am just using whisky and molasses to case, should I use a different concoction? I wonder if molasses would be too prominent for my generally “virginia leaning” tastes. Anyone with experience care to chime in? Tobaccos: Canadian lemon V, red V, double cured V, dark V, dark fired, a few orientals, and perique.
Blending from Scratch
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I basically did the same thing without the casings and toppings to dial in what the different strains and varietals tasted like alone to help me identify the different tobaccos in blends as well as decide what so-so blend could use to spruce them up.
I would think the casings and topping might hinder your education?
Go naked first, then dress it up
I would think the casings and topping might hinder your education?
Go naked first, then dress it up
Just to specify, this is whole raw tobacco leaf, not straight blending tobaccos. As far as I know, even these blending tobaccos that are already cut into ribbons are already cased before you get them. It is my understanding that virtually all tobaccos are cased before the are sold, it might just be sugar water, but it is still added to take the rough edges off of raw leaf. In this sense “casing” is not a cherry on top, is is a basic initial process that all pipe tobacco goes through before or during blending. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong if you know better. I’ve bought raw leaf by the pound, stem intact and all. I think many people are under a “all natural tobacco” illusion that leads them to believe that what they are putting in their pipe is purely “unadulterated” leaf. If you have smoked Semois, you know that raw leaf is a far different animal... someone should case that as an experiment! Not me, I am done purchasing manufactured tobacco. As a Canadian, I will not tolerate the tax situation any longer... I have cased and smoked plenty already and it is just dandy... for a tenth of the price, I can put in a little extra effort.
I’ve heard Burleys are cased with cocoa or coffee to bring out nuttiness , VAs are usually cased with sugar, molasses or honey to accentuate the grassy sweetness, GL Pease did a thing on it. Search that on the inter webs
'Could be rough for the first few experiments. I'd run lots of trials of one or two pipe bowls of tobacco before doing anything in quantity. If you have small pipes, those would be the ones to use for trials. At least you will learn why professional blenders earn their keep. I hope you hit that eureka moment!
I've been doing a lot of research on the subject and am waiting for my own order of leaf to come in so I can start experimenting.
Anyway molasses and whiskey can work. Although you may want to try and make some invert sugar syrup to use instead of molasses. Neutral flavour and the inversion of the sugar molecules has less chance of adding tongue bite to your Virginia's, which too much added sugars can easily do. Or honey or maple syrup can work too.
I would only case the Virginia's for now and leave the rest, try some blends with that. Alternately, make up a plain uncased mix of everything in proportions of strength/taste you like and case all of that together.
For application a common process is put your baccy on a tray in the oven at around 200°F (anywhere from 175-250 can be experimented with) and when tobacco is dry then spray with casing. Repeat this spray and dry procedure more times for more flavour. Maybe 3-5 times.
As for sugar to water ratio you'll have to research that. Or I'll let you know when I find a good solution(haha). I think going with a somewhat thicker liquid that can still be sprayable is best as if it's too watery you'll have to spray it over and over too many times. But obviously not too thick as it won't work in a spray bottle effectively.
Anyway molasses and whiskey can work. Although you may want to try and make some invert sugar syrup to use instead of molasses. Neutral flavour and the inversion of the sugar molecules has less chance of adding tongue bite to your Virginia's, which too much added sugars can easily do. Or honey or maple syrup can work too.
I would only case the Virginia's for now and leave the rest, try some blends with that. Alternately, make up a plain uncased mix of everything in proportions of strength/taste you like and case all of that together.
For application a common process is put your baccy on a tray in the oven at around 200°F (anywhere from 175-250 can be experimented with) and when tobacco is dry then spray with casing. Repeat this spray and dry procedure more times for more flavour. Maybe 3-5 times.
As for sugar to water ratio you'll have to research that. Or I'll let you know when I find a good solution(haha). I think going with a somewhat thicker liquid that can still be sprayable is best as if it's too watery you'll have to spray it over and over too many times. But obviously not too thick as it won't work in a spray bottle effectively.
I can believe that. It seems like every burley based blend Ive tried has a noticeable cocoa aroma in the tin note.
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