Blow Dryers

[jonesing]

Not a typical post title on this forum eh?
Here's the deal. y'all will likely laugh me out of town. But I have recently found that some of my best smokes come when I take a blow dryer to the tobacco to speed drying.
It doesn't seem to be just due to the drying. When I leave a blend to dry on it's own things are fine but not as good as when I accelerate things a bit with the blow dryer.
I'm thinking the heat has something to do with it. I did it one day when in a hurry to smoke some Bob's Chocloate Flake that was too wet for my tastes, I rubbed it out in a tupperware type bowl and then hit it with my wife's the blow dryer for maybe 60 seconds or a little more. If you hold the dryer a foot or so away it doesn't blow it all over and it stays in the bowl.
It's pretty cool the full aroma of the tobacco rises as it heats up and it gets nicely dried but oily and pliable.
Anyway, I now found a travel blow dryer in her cabinet and appropriated it for my use. I've been blow drying just about every flake I smoke and it really works slick. Better than just regular air drying. Plus it doesn't' take nearly as long.
Makes me think someone should make a drying chamber thingy for preparing pipe tobacco. Covered container with a warm air blower of some kind. Stick the tobacco in. Snap on the lid hit a switch and there you go.
I'm gonna invent this and get rich. OK I'm not really. But someone less lazy should. I'll buy one.

 

[surfmac211]

You think that would work with a whole flake or just the rubbed out flake. I don't rub it out so just curious. Might just be one of those I'll have to try out myself though.

 

[cortezattic]

Nice tip to keep in mind for the coming Summer when humidities are too high to air-dry the leaf.

 

[igloo]

Uh that thingy Jonesing is called a convection microwave .:]

 

[jonesing]

Surf: I think it depends on how you load the flake. If you like to roll it or fold it so it stays pretty much in one piece, I don't think it would work well. But I've done it to whole flakes and then sort of rolled them and let them come a part into sort of a bundle about the size of the bowl if that makes any sense. Then throw the crumbs on top.
Cortez: No warranty express or implied. I'm not sure this is a "tip" so much as a WTF? It took me awhile to accept the correlation; but I find the "pipegasms" seem to happen more often (and fairly regularly) when using the old blow dryer. The "WOW! this is a friggin' awesome smoke" moments as opposed to the "This is pretty good".
But I don't really know why. Don't look a gift horse int he mouth I guess.
Phil: Hair is overrated. I have regular hair...albeit more salt than pepper every day. But go through phases of sheering it with the no guard for extended periods. However, right now I am hairy. Regular old hair. But it does not require blow drying. Do you know what that will do to your ends? I mean come on. Instead I wrap my head in a towel turbin and let it dry naturally while I do my toes and put on lotion.

 

[python]

My guess on the slight flavor change would be from the heat of the dryer. I would guess that the heat is causing a slight stoving affect to the tobacco.
By stoving tobacco, it intensifies the flavor and mellows out the natural sugars a bit. It is kind of like a quick way of aging, but not; if that makes any sense.
I doubt that the drying is heating the tobacco so much that actual stoving is occurring, but it might be hot enough to touch on it a bit.

 

[raftergtex]

Interesting. I do the majority of my pipesmoking while driving to and from work, a LONG way away, and frequently am ready to head out the door with no tobacco ready to smoke. So far, the best method I have found for an "instant" drying out process is ... uhhh ... hate to admit this ... a microwave on about 10-12 seconds. Sometimes works great but is inconsistent at best.
By the way, in my workshop I have an inexpensive heat gun that is basically a hair dryer but it will get hotter if you want and also there is a dial on there to set the heat at just the right temp (once you figure out what that is). That may be the way to go. Any excuse to buy another tool ...