Haphazard blending from your armchair. Post your successes and disasters.

[Gimlet]

I'm sure we've all done it. Mixed different blends together, either when tipping the remnants of one tin into another to use up the bits or in an attempt to make an unsatisfactory purchase more palatable.

Tell us about your happy accidents and your abject failures.

What did you mix together, in what proportion and how did it turn out?


I'll start.
I recently bought a couple of ounces of GH westmorland slices never having tried it before. It wasn't a great success. Too strong and firy with nicotine for me. I liked the leathery, cigar-like dark-fired taste with that bit of Kendal sweetness over the top but it was too throaty, so I thought I'd try mixing it with Ennerdale flake - for no other reason than I happened to have some - and I believe I've struck gold.

One part Ennerdale to one part Westmorland, rubbed out together and well mixed in is absolutely delicious. The pungent, savoury and earthy Westmorland is in the driving seat but the power is tempered by the breezy, grassy Ennerdale with its floral, citrus notes drifting over the top. It works big time for me.

What have you concocted that's really worked?

 

[lraisch]

This is something I've tried several times with mediocre results.

Currently I have some bulk Stokkebye's English Oriental which I've enjoyed before, but this time it seems hot and tasteless. I have tried mixing some with White Knight or Balkan Supreme which helps but isn't great.

I guess tobacco blending is more of an art than you might think.

 

[fireground_piper]

I mixed a bowl of English Chocolate and Vanilla cream once. All it did was make me wish I was either smoking English Chocolate or Vanilla cream. Never mixed blends together again.

 

[Sigmund]

I do it a lot and on purpose.

St bernard flake laced with salty dogs and a sprinkle of lat. works with other VaPer bases too

2/3 wallace flake, 1/3 hh latakia flake. Sweet and tasty

Marlin flake with a little lat

Hu Makhuwa with a little blending lat or hh lat flake

Directors cut with a little salty dogs is a nice treat

Ive done a few that just didn’t work but I dont remember the specifics. I should have written down what didnt work.

 

[Scottmi]

Like @Sigmund , I do this often and on purpose. Like @Gimlet I oftenn try a blend and it may be not quite right for me (too much nic, too dry, too bland...whatever). I consider what I would want to amend it with and try it. Less successful when mixing a complex blend with another complex blend, but lots of success when mixing in a straight virginia to add sweetness/reduce nic, or a flavored wettish cavendish (like C&D mocha) to round out, add depth to something, or even DFK to strengthen and add depth to an aro. Have a couple that are now standards for me. Good discussion of these in the home blending thread(s).

 

[Gimlet]

Start taking notes gents. I think the best ones are the the casual ones you didn't think about too much - and so can't remember.

I started off smoking mild GH American aros. American Black and Brown was one of my first. It quickly became bland as I got used to it, but adding a pinch of pure Lat with a dash of black cavendish made a very decent smoke.

 

[Gimlet]

Today I mixed 50/50 Solani aged burley with Petersons Elizabethan. Because I have a pipe dedicated to the Solani with me and fancied some Elizabethan but didn't want to ghost it.
It worked very well indeed. The sweet bready burley was still there (dominant even) and I could get the virginia and the seasoning of perique coming through as well.

 

[El Capitán]

50/50 Half and Half and Peter Stokkebye Vanilla No. 6 was a win for me. Done it on a whim. Now all I need is some cola tobacco.

 

[krizzose]

I like C&D Crooner, but it has a bit too much of their cube cut burley for my tastes, so I cut it with something milder like Peretti BPC.

A sliver of Mac Baren Vanilla Cream Flake with HH Burley Flake

I often mix up Peretti BPC or Stokkebye 702 burley with a big pinch of an aromatic. About an 80/20 mix

 

[dburrows]

A few times. Mostly depending on what I have left and open at the time.

Recently had about a half a bowls worth of Quiet Nights left and wasn't planning on opening a new tin soon. So I mixed it with about a half a bowls worth of Charing Cross.

I thought it came out great. I love both blends dearly but always thought Charing Cross could use just a smidge more latakia. Not something I'd do on the regular but if given the same circumstance, I wouldn't hesitate.

 

[RustiePyles CPG]

My favorite DIY codger blend is a tub of granger smoked down about 1/3 with a handful of Sutliff golden cav and a handful of Lane BCA tossed in shake it up real good and let it marry for a few weeks.

 

[Lumbridge]

A few years ago, I tried making a blend that was equal parts perique, DFK, and latakia. It was not good. Every now and then I'll amend an existing blend by adding latakia or DFK in a measured way just to see if it's any good, but that's about the extent of it.

 

[Bbailey324]

About 1oz of Granger and 30 drops of Bourbon. Seal it up and let it sit for a few weeks. Its a winner.

Lane 1Q and C&D Latakia roughly 50:50. Saw that referenced here somewhere. Not sure I would do it again but give it a try. Not terrible.

Sutliff Rum and Maple and Spiced Rum 60:40. Pretty good, picks up the rum note in Rum and Maple.

Sutliff Black Cordial and 507C Va Flake rubbed out about 60:40. Adds a nice bright Va flavor.

Peterson Navy Rolls with Stokkebye 4th Gen Evening Flake roughly 50:50, both rubbed out. Done at the end of a tin of Navy Rolls to make a full pipe. Okay but tastes kind of odd.

That's what I remember at the moment.

 

[proteus]

Equal parts Boswell Northwoods and Railroad Station. They are in the same vein so I get a bit stronger Northwoods or a bit weaker Railroad Station.

In the Oriental department

Regents Flake and Peretti D9407
Bijou and Ori Silk
Voriental and Temple Bar

Aros
Sut Spiced Rum and Queen Anne Revenge.
RLP6 and 7 Seas Black

 

[bent1]

3/4 Haunted Bookshop & 1/4 part McClelland 5100.let sit for 2 yrs, wowza, it’s so good. Just like Big Red chewing gum.

 

[WerewolfOfLondon]

Bright CR Flake with some GH American Vanilla. I decided to mix them because the former just felt like thin, flavourless, hot air. I was hoping the later would add body, and coax out some flavours out of the sellotape tasting virginia of the CR. It wasn't good, it just became sickeningly sweet. Tobacco is like food to me, I know what tastes good to me, but I could never break down the constituent flavours and then build them back up to a whole.

 

[bent1]

Bright CR Flake with some GH American Vanilla. I decided to mix them because the former just felt like thin, flavourless, hot air. I was hoping the later would add body, and coax out some flavours out of the sellotape tasting virginia of the CR. It wasn't good, it just became sickeningly sweet. Tobacco is like food to me, I know what tastes good to me, but I could never break down the constituent flavours and then build them back up to a whole.

Same here, my concoction above was solely by accident.