I think I'll open a tin tomorrow night. ?
C&D From Beyond
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Thanks, Cos. All I meant to do was to address your specific @me and then since I was already posting, I took the opportunity to tack on comments about some other things that I had noticed throughout the thread, that I thought I could clarify.
Thanks for the support!
I only support quality, and you guys make great stuff. Thank you for making your art available to us.
First impressions:
This is not a match of Nightcap. It's noticably different unless all Latakia blends taste the same to you.
However, if you like Nightcap you'll like this. Also, if like Balkan Supreme, Artisan's Blend, Penzance, etc you'll like this.
It's a really good mild English blend at it's heart but there is something else in there I can't quite nail down yet. It's a fermented fruit flavor maybe. My guess is it's the perique showing through. Whatever it is I really like it.
Right now I have to suspicions:
1) A year or more of age will make it rather sublime.
2) I probably should have bought another 5-10 tins.
This is not a match of Nightcap. It's noticably different unless all Latakia blends taste the same to you.
However, if you like Nightcap you'll like this. Also, if like Balkan Supreme, Artisan's Blend, Penzance, etc you'll like this.
It's a really good mild English blend at it's heart but there is something else in there I can't quite nail down yet. It's a fermented fruit flavor maybe. My guess is it's the perique showing through. Whatever it is I really like it.
Right now I have to suspicions:
1) A year or more of age will make it rather sublime.
2) I probably should have bought another 5-10 tins.
I have smoked through almost one tin of this blend and for me this is one super blend from Jeremy and C&D. Is this Nightcap ...no ....and who cares we have Nightcap. What it is from my position ,is a blend that brings me back to the old Dunhill blends. Not Peterson, not Murrays, I mean the Made in England stuff. After 50 years of pipe enjoyment and tons of blends that have poured though my pipes, I would rate this in my top 10 of all time. I know that this is a limited run and that is a shame. I hope you are enjoying this blend. I know I am. As a side note I just finished a bowl of "From Beyond" mixed 50/50 with new 965. Jeremy "Thank You"
Some more thoughts on this blend:
1) This is a fun blend to try with various whisk(e)ys. I've tried it with a variety now and it seems to tame the heat a particular drink might have and it fixes (or covers up) flaws such as medicinal taste. Both quality Scotch and Bourbon become a little smoother and sweeter (in a good way) while smoking this blend.
2) Another member used the word caramel in his review of this blend which is a very good term in it's description. It's not sweet and caramel like a candy bar but it does make one think of caramel at times. I noticed if smoked really hot it can get a touch of acrid/cigarette flavor which is exactly what I'd expect from burley. In addition to English blends, if you like a blend like Haunted Bookshop, you'll probably like this one a lot.
I'd definitely encourage C&D to release another batch of this so imma tag @jeremyreeves .
1) This is a fun blend to try with various whisk(e)ys. I've tried it with a variety now and it seems to tame the heat a particular drink might have and it fixes (or covers up) flaws such as medicinal taste. Both quality Scotch and Bourbon become a little smoother and sweeter (in a good way) while smoking this blend.
2) Another member used the word caramel in his review of this blend which is a very good term in it's description. It's not sweet and caramel like a candy bar but it does make one think of caramel at times. I noticed if smoked really hot it can get a touch of acrid/cigarette flavor which is exactly what I'd expect from burley. In addition to English blends, if you like a blend like Haunted Bookshop, you'll probably like this one a lot.
I'd definitely encourage C&D to release another batch of this so imma tag @jeremyreeves .
Has anyone else come across a moldy/plume tin? Taken from a FB group. I myself had a few pieces that I pitched.
not really looking for a plume vs mold debate.
not really looking for a plume vs mold debate.
Surprised no one is talking about the exclusive VaBur C&D made for Cup O Joe's anniversary.
Ya my buddy had some white stuff on some dark leaf. I haven’t cracked my cans yet. I’ll be heart broken if I paid duty on something I can’t smoke ???
Everybody already spent too much on all the other limited editions that just came out ?
The price of the VaBur stayed my hand. Anything over $5/ounce is a no.
I can assure you that this is not mold. Note that it is not fluffy and does not have a smell like rot. The dusting or powder is anti-fungal treatment that did not fully dissolve, and the white edging on the cut Perique is actually carbohydrate deposits that result from the fermentation that leaf goes through.
What exactly is this anti-fungal treatment? Is it completely safe to ingest via smoking in non-dissolved powder form?
You'll have to forgive me - I work in agriculture and the anti-fungals I am familiar with are incredibly toxic to the human body.
The treatments which we use, are used in tobacco commonly and which are also common to baked goods, wines, cheeses, cured meats and other fermented foods.
I recently bought a tin of Pirate Kake that had this whiteness on it. To me, it looked nothing like mold so I just assumed it was plume. Either way, I smoked it and it was delightful.
I haven't cracked mine yet, but I'm not sure that I would be able to tell a difference between the smell of a Balkan or something like NightCap and rot. All of my Stonehenge was as fuzzy as rabbit fur, but all I could smell was the sauce. I will still remove the lid and just look at it from time to time. One day I will have the courage to smoke another bowl.
So, it has plumed that fast? I mean, you did say that you were inspired to make this from an aged tin of NightCap, but damn you must have a time machine. Or, are you blending really old components? I'm not sure how that would work. Maybe your using Lovecraftian hoodoo on these.
So, I should go ahead an open my tins? Is there a chance that aging an aged blend could maybe over extend the shelf life of the tobacco, like could it turn to dust in a few years?
Honestly, I was going to wait till we had at least one cold day, because that is when I enjoy latakia the most, but maybe that is too long.
So, it has plumed that fast? I mean, you did say that you were inspired to make this from an aged tin of NightCap, but damn you must have a time machine. Or, are you blending really old components? I'm not sure how that would work. Maybe your using Lovecraftian hoodoo on these.
So, I should go ahead an open my tins? Is there a chance that aging an aged blend could maybe over extend the shelf life of the tobacco, like could it turn to dust in a few years?
Honestly, I was going to wait till we had at least one cold day, because that is when I enjoy latakia the most, but maybe that is too long.
Cos, there is no one who is more concerned with preventing mold in our products than me. And there is no one who has spent more time researching, working with labs, chemists, and air quality inspectors, industrial hygienists, mycologists, roofers, HVAC folks, etc. to understand what happened with Carolina Red Flake's initial launch in 2016 and how that also affected a handful of other blends during that same time frame. We got lots of tins returned to us for the purpose of inspection, cataloging and testing. I have handled certainly more molded tobacco than I could ever have cared to. The photos here do not depict mold. Mold will not adhere to one piece of tobacco, or one type and not another in a blend. Mold drinks water, and it will spread across pieces of tobacco indiscriminately, in search of more water. Thus you get fuzzy, cottony, orblike mounds, which cover the surface of the whole blend.I haven't cracked mine yet, but I'm not sure that I would be able to tell a difference between the smell of a Balkan or something like NightCap and rot. All of my Stonehenge was as fuzzy as rabbit fur, but all I could smell was the sauce. I will still remove the lid and just look at it from time to time. One day I will have the courage to smoke another bowl.
So, it has plumed that fast? I mean, you did say that you were inspired to make this from an aged tin of NightCap, but damn you must have a time machine. Or, are you blending really old components? I'm not sure how that would work. Maybe your using Lovecraftian hoodoo on these.
So, I should go ahead an open my tins? Is there a chance that aging an aged blend could maybe over extend the shelf life of the tobacco, like could it turn to dust in a few years?
Honestly, I was going to wait till we had at least one cold day, because that is when I enjoy latakia the most, but maybe that is too long.
The images above do not show mold. I am confident that your tins are fine and that whether you open them now, or years from now, they will be good. I would like to point out that while various forum members, online discussion groups in Reddit, Facebook and the YouTube comment sections continue talk about mold, we have been monitoring, and cataloging every confirmed instance of mold on any of our products for years, both before CRF 2016 and after. Whether the report came directly to us in the form of a phone call or email, or whether it was a post on this forum, another forum, Facebook, Instagram, a comment on a Smokingpipes product review, a YouTube video, etc... We keep track not only of incidents of mold but also of things like product being dry, or too wet, something other than tobacco being in the tin, the seal being broken, etc... What I can tell you is that social media can make an issue like mold seem like a huge and overwhelming issue. But even at the height of the issue in 2016, when there was indeed a very real spike in instances of mold, with more than half of the 2,400 tin batch of CRF coming back to us for refund, and with many other instances of mold that affected a number of blends; Even then, the total number of mold instances amounted to less than 1% of our total production for that year.
As of this day, our total number of instances of ANY quality issue, including mold, cut width, cake density, tobacco moisture, foreign object, etc... from 2016 to 2021 amounts to .000239% of our production during that same time frame.
I can attest that you guys take it very seriously. I had the pleasure of talking with Mr. Swearingen back when I was mod'n here, and he gave me the percentages and procedures to report back to these guys concerning the CRF spike in reports a few years ago. Great guy! And, you guys have had the best responses to reports of mold than any other tobacco company that I've seen.
What I love the most is that you don't load your tobaccos with lots of casings and stuff that interferes with the tobacco flavors... on your non-aros anyway. You try your best to give us unadulterated flavor, and I notice this. It would be easier, I would think, to disguise lots of chemicals to prevent mold with a casing. I can taste the casings in Capstan, MacB Virginias, and other European non-aros, but you guys do a great job of balancing just enough mold inhibitors to not have to disguise it with other things, and actually getting enough to inhibit mold. That is where you are heads above the rest in you art.
Ok, so that leaves the question, how are you getting plume on such a young tobacco? Without revealing any secrets... or at least tell us that you have a secret... ha ha. but, that's amazing!!!
The blend is not made with super old tobacco. And there is no way to "speed age" components or blends. Most of the components in From Beyond are used in lots of other products we make. The experiment was to use the components at hand to try and come close to the flavor of the 80's era tin of Nightcap, and that was mostly achieved by proportions. And by the use of Pure St. James Parish Perique. Even when taking the pressure off a barrel of Perique, before the Perique process is completed, you will often see tobacco around the edges of the pressing block that have been exposed to air for several days, and dried out. These dry edges appear white. The reason for this is, as I said, that the buildup of carbohydrates is a side effect of the pressure fermentation. While Acadian Perique also exhibits this whitish color when dry, it is not as pronounced as the St. James leaf, which is overall, thinner, and sweeter than the imported leaf used to produce the Acadian blended Perique.
Awesome!! I've been to La Poche. Of course I wasn't paying attention for this. I definitely remember the black goop. Maybe Mark will have us down again, and I'll check this out.
I will be looking forward to popping a tin of this as the weather cools down. Thank you, Jeremy, for your replies and discussing this art.
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