Do you mix?

[stoopidbaits]

Excellent point. So you would rather go to the grocery store & buy a Betty Crocker cake mix rather than research other recipes AS WELL AS buy a professional blend? Suggestion: go to your favorite spot & lite up & relax.

This is worse than your first analogy. In fact, not even an analogy. You started with cake and ended with tobacco.

That aside, you've either read something into my post that wasn't intended or you are easily offended. Either way, please don't get worked up over something I've said as I can assure you, none of it was meant at a personal attack.

I'll run with your cake analogy.

Blending: Making a cake from scratch.

Mixing: buying a cake mix from a store and supplementing it with extra ingredients.

Screwing up: buying a Betty Crocker cake mix and a Duncan Hines cake mix and then mixing them together to see what happens.

 

[khiddy]

I'm not a gate keeper of tobacco mixing, so certainly do as you wish, but mixing 2 blends is like a child mixing all the sodas at a soda fountain and believing they've discovered something worthwhile.

As it pertains to tobacco, doing so is disrespectful to the blenders who work hard to delicately craft blends to exact specs, and ultimately there is ZERO chance the final result will be anything other than an absolute mess of unintended flavors, much like the aforementioned stairwell symphony.

I will pop in here to say that my experience is quite the opposite of your unfounded claim that there is "ZERO chance" of creating an excellent blend by mixing existing blends. I have not only done so with great success, but at least one of my resulting blends (The Famous Howie Kailin Blend) has been publicly praised by well-experienced pipe smokers both here and on other forums.

 

[Sigmund]

Sorry but to claim that changing a blend it disrespectful to the blender is just nuts. First off blenders are not gods. This is the same kind of goofy thinking that makes it taboo in some restruants to ask for a salt shaker.

Ive paid all the dues I need to pay if I purchase and continue to purchase a blend. Its mine now...if I want to add salt I will. Sorry, but sometimes ammending of blends improves it FOR ME. Im not smoking it to pay homage to a blender or multi million dollar company.

Ive found many alaterations that help me enjoy a blend further. Trying to disuade this is absurd and its basis behind this evil taboo behavior is even more absurd.

And FWIW, adding a few select ingredients to a Betty Crocker mix can easily make an improvment.

 

[stoopidbaits]

Sorry but to claim that changing a blend it disrespectful to the blender is just nuts. First off blenders are not gods. This is the same kind of goofy thinking that makes it taboo in some restruants to ask for a salt shaker.

Ive paid all the dues I need to pay if I purchase and continue to purchase a blend. Its mine now...if I want to add salt I will. Sorry, but sometimes ammending of blends improves it FOR ME. Im not smoking it to pay homage to a blender or multi million dollar company.

Ive found many alaterations that help me enjoy a blend further. Trying to disuade this is absurd and its basis behind this evil taboo behavior is even more absurd.

And FWIW, adding a few select ingredients to a Betty Crocker mix can easily make an improvment.

I should start by saying some of my previous statements came across as less jestful than I intended, I've sent a pm to dejavueagain apologizing to him in the event I offended him.

That said, I have no doubt someone could mix mountain dew with Pepsi, enjoy it for themselves, and even convince others to enjoy it as well. There is truly no accounting for some people's tastes. Is it disrespectful to Pepsi or mountain dew? I don't think so but if you were talking about cutting a craft beer with budwesier then yes, I think that's disrespecting the craft brewer who worked hard to attain what they were specifically trying to achieve.

And i agree about the Betty Crocker cake mix, I add perique to lots of blends. But would you think just blindly mixing it with another cake mix would result in something special or even worth trying?

And if any of this offends you, please remember, I've got Stoopid right in my name. I don't intend to offend, just friendly banter on my end.

 

[Sobrbiker]

…but if you were talking about cutting a craft beer with budwesier then yes, I think that's disrespecting the craft brewer who worked hard to attain what they were specifically trying to achieve.

But if I’m a tightwad with tobacco (I am) and a carefully crafted blend is found by me to be obnoxious, I’ll happily mix some other components (or blends) to make it smokable to me.
I’ve got some Haunted Barbados (Haunted Bookshop/Barbados Plantation) that I enjoy on chilly evenings.

To the main question, I’ve got a couple mixes I make up 8-12oz at a time and are daily smokes.
I’ve also got a few jars that are crap that the sum was way less than the parts (I don’t make many of those anymore).

 

[stoopidbaits]

But if I’m a tightwad with tobacco (I am) and a carefully crafted blend is found by me to be obnoxious, I’ll happily mix some other components (or blends) to make it smokable to me.
I’ve got some Haunted Barbados (Haunted Bookshop/Barbados Plantation) that I enjoy on chilly evenings.

Sounds like you're just making a crap blend slightly less crap so you can tolerate it, and I can appreciate that.

 

[Jwebb90]

I’m currently playing around with my own mix. I have some bulk Pegasus that I’m not too crazy about on its own. I pulled out some Sutliff stoved VA and C&D Yorktown. The mix ratio is Pegasus 50%, Stoved VA 30%, and Yorktown 20%. I jarred today and will check it in a week.

 

[dejavueagain]

Just a heads-up for clarity re the original post:
1. I didn't buy a "professional blend" & alter it...although I have done just that on several other occasions.
2. I had to personally cut & shred the Basma leaf I bought for the experiment.
3. All tobaccos for the experimental mix were purchased bulk for the express (as advertised) purpose of mixing.

And.....
The original post was about a mix featuring Turkish WITHOUT Perique or Latakia that I CHOSE to experiment with. I simply asked AI it's OPINION....as I would another PERSON. ALL opinions are acceptable as opinions & ALL personal choices to experiment are simply personal. And I truly appreciate anyone expressing their opinion, helpful advice, & even helpful criticism. Keep enjoying this great, relaxing pastime & sharing any & all helpful opinions & experiences. Isn't that what this forum is all about? Thanks.

And as jweeb90 mentioned, I have jarred it (& "pressed" it) & am waiting (anxiously) for a couple weeks before lighting.

 

[BingBong]

Dolly Parton cake mix, who would abuse that? No, stop.

 

[CurlingWisps]

Saw a YouTuber put all his packing waste in a tin from multiple blends and then give it to his friends for Christmas. I thought it was a good idea… now I don’t have any friends.

 

[PipePic]

Sorry but to claim that changing a blend it disrespectful to the blender is just nuts. First off blenders are not gods. This is the same kind of goofy thinking that makes it taboo in some restruants to ask for a salt shaker.

Ive paid all the dues I need to pay if I purchase and continue to purchase a blend. Its mine now...if I want to add salt I will. Sorry, but sometimes ammending of blends improves it FOR ME. Im not smoking it to pay homage to a blender or multi million dollar company.

Ive found many alaterations that help me enjoy a blend further. Trying to disuade this is absurd and its basis behind this evil taboo behavior is even more absurd.

And FWIW, adding a few select ingredients to a Betty Crocker mix can easily make an improvment.

so can throwing it into the trash can un opened.

But what needs to consider is..

some aspects of mixing a tobacco takes a small bit of skill, and an idea of what will happen with each addition.

But one can never go wrong with some random acts of mxing. half and half, prince albert. toss a little of each into the last dregs of just about any non aromatic tobacco, and you WONT be crying about the taste. May not win any awards for taste.. but you wont be hung for it.

 

[Copperhead]

To add some levity to this thread....

Some people put their dottle in a jar and then smoke it.

(I'm not one of those people, but I get it)

 

[khiddy]

To add some levity to this thread....

Some people put their dottle in a jar and then smoke it.

(I'm not one of those people, but I get it)

Dottle is a bridge too far for me, but I certainly have a catch-all jar of the tiny amounts left in jars and on my drying paper.

 

[PipePic]

Sorry but to claim that changing a blend it disrespectful to the blender is just nuts. First off blenders are not gods. This is the same kind of goofy thinking that makes it taboo in some restruants to ask for a salt shaker.

Ive paid all the dues I need to pay if I purchase and continue to purchase a blend. Its mine now...if I want to add salt I will. Sorry, but sometimes ammending of blends improves it FOR ME. Im not smoking it to pay homage to a blender or multi million dollar company.

Ive found many alaterations that help me enjoy a blend further. Trying to disuade this is absurd and its basis behind this evil taboo behavior is even more absurd.

And FWIW, adding a few select ingredients to a Betty Crocker mix can easily make an improvment.

so can throwing it into the trash can un opened.

But what needs to consider is..

some aspects of mixing a tobacco takes a small bit of skill, and an idea of what will happen with each addition.

But one can never go wrong with some random acts of mxing. half and half, prince albert. toss a little of each into the last dregs of just about any non aromatic tobacco, and you WONT be crying about the taste. May not win any awards for taste.. but you wont be hung for it.

 

[ThermionicScott]

Sure, I’ve made my own mixes. It was very educational to buy a bunch of 1oz samples of blending tobbacos and see what they were like individually, and in various mixtures, so I highly recommend it. (I’ve even blended craft beers together on occasion!) But I’m also a lazy person, so I don’t want to become dependent on special blends that I have to make myself. Thus I’m ultimately more motivated to just find off-the-shelf blends I love.

 

[dejavueagain]

Well, the experiment has been tested (smoked) & failed. Rather dull & a little weird.

It is the 10th or so happenstance mix I've tried & the only one referencing AI & a virgin mix from the start. All others have been mixes of professional blends altered by my "taste".

I have come to realize that the AI commentary is not an opinion of the taste of the total mix but just a rote description of the nature of the ingredients. Of interest is a news item in today's paper about an MIT study about AI. The key takeaway for me is: "...those essays largely failed to offer personal insights."

But is was worthwhile. How else do you learn?

 

[dejavueagain]

 

[TheDennisBlack]

I just bought 4 oz of blending Latakia to try and add to a bunch of English blends I have that, while perfectly fine, are missing something. There’s a black pepper kind if spice in the tin note of some of my favorite blends and I think it might come from the Latakia?

Other than that, my only experience was a horrible failure of mixing some haunted bookshop with an English. I don’t know why - I think maybe I thought it would add some strength to the English? It was terrible.

 

[InWithBothFeet]

I don't know if you would call this "mixing" but I smoked a half bowl of something, set it on the rack for the week and then topped it off with something else before going out for a smoke. It wasn't bad.