I have a beginner level question and respect your input very much.
A friend gave me a vintage tinfoil wrapped 50 gram cube of super crispy dry Captain's blend from 1974-83 made in Leningrad as a curiosity. I smoked it dry as it came. It was overly warm in my nose, overheated my briar, and burned up in about 10 minutes. Typically reviewers who try this blend say that it smokes a lot better rehydrated.
A local B & M shopkeeper told me that the ideal way to rehydrate such an old dry packet is to do it gradually over months in a glass jar using a Boveda packets or a water pillow. Does this advice sound correct to you?
I know of much faster methods like putting a shot glass of distilled water in a covered bowl with the tobacco, or putting a wet towel over a bowl with the tobacco inside.
Following the shopkeeper's advice I put 5 to 6 tablespoons of the dry blend in a 1 cup sized mason jar, filling 1/3 of the jar. Next I put in a 72% RH 8 gram Boveda pack that I got from the shopkeeper.
The 72% RH 8 gram packet was sitting in a big Boveda brand jar with other little Boveda packets and came unsealed without a plastic cover. The packet was small like the size of a sugar packet. It was thin, rubbery, and alittle flexible. According to the B & M store, the 72% RH packets are supposed to be thin like that and are only expired when they are hard and clumpy.
One pipe smoker told me that 1 tiny Boveda packet was much too small for rehydrating all 5 tablespoons of dry tobacco. He said that the dry tobacco would suck out the water from the Boveda packets and you would then need to rehydrate the exhausted Boveda packets or water pillows to rehydrate the tobacco enough.
Online information says that you should get your tobacco to a 50 to 70% RH level. One piper told me that 50% humidity worked best for his pipe blends and another one preferred 72% humidity for pipe blends. Which do you think is better?
I don't have a humidity meter but could shop around for one. I can also try estimating whether the blend gets humid enough based on looking at and touching the blend.
I have another two blue "Water Pillow" brand packets that I kept in in other jars, besides the tiny Boveda packet. Both jars ghosted the water pillows with English or Aromatic notes. Is it normal to move ghosted water pillows between jars, or will the ghosting affect the smell of the jar that you move the water pillows to?
A friend gave me a vintage tinfoil wrapped 50 gram cube of super crispy dry Captain's blend from 1974-83 made in Leningrad as a curiosity. I smoked it dry as it came. It was overly warm in my nose, overheated my briar, and burned up in about 10 minutes. Typically reviewers who try this blend say that it smokes a lot better rehydrated.
A local B & M shopkeeper told me that the ideal way to rehydrate such an old dry packet is to do it gradually over months in a glass jar using a Boveda packets or a water pillow. Does this advice sound correct to you?
I know of much faster methods like putting a shot glass of distilled water in a covered bowl with the tobacco, or putting a wet towel over a bowl with the tobacco inside.
Following the shopkeeper's advice I put 5 to 6 tablespoons of the dry blend in a 1 cup sized mason jar, filling 1/3 of the jar. Next I put in a 72% RH 8 gram Boveda pack that I got from the shopkeeper.
The 72% RH 8 gram packet was sitting in a big Boveda brand jar with other little Boveda packets and came unsealed without a plastic cover. The packet was small like the size of a sugar packet. It was thin, rubbery, and alittle flexible. According to the B & M store, the 72% RH packets are supposed to be thin like that and are only expired when they are hard and clumpy.
One pipe smoker told me that 1 tiny Boveda packet was much too small for rehydrating all 5 tablespoons of dry tobacco. He said that the dry tobacco would suck out the water from the Boveda packets and you would then need to rehydrate the exhausted Boveda packets or water pillows to rehydrate the tobacco enough.
Online information says that you should get your tobacco to a 50 to 70% RH level. One piper told me that 50% humidity worked best for his pipe blends and another one preferred 72% humidity for pipe blends. Which do you think is better?
I don't have a humidity meter but could shop around for one. I can also try estimating whether the blend gets humid enough based on looking at and touching the blend.
I have another two blue "Water Pillow" brand packets that I kept in in other jars, besides the tiny Boveda packet. Both jars ghosted the water pillows with English or Aromatic notes. Is it normal to move ghosted water pillows between jars, or will the ghosting affect the smell of the jar that you move the water pillows to?
