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toobfreak

Lifer
Dec 19, 2016
1,365
7
I find these days I seldom smoke a blend straight from the tin or jar tiring of the same taste all the time, I more often either mix 2-3 blends together in some fashion to create a taste I want or layer 2-3 tobaccos bottom to top in the bowl. Am I pretty alone in this habit or do many others here do that as well and why?

 

jpmcwjr

Moderator
Staff member
May 12, 2015
24,565
27,065
Carmel Valley, CA
I do that often when I am at home, never when on the road. Sometimes it's because I have some fairly dry tobacco that I want on the bottom, and just right stuff for the top. Other times it's to get a change in taste, sometimes it's an expensive tobacco on top and a cheaper one in the heel. So far, never more than two.

 

nukesimi

Starting to Get Obsessed
Dec 25, 2016
135
48
The parfait! I did that often when I began smoking but stopped when I found blends that I appreciated for their own idiosyncracies.

 

Chasing Embers

Captain of the Black Frigate
Nov 12, 2014
43,248
108,340
Indeed, the Parfait! I do that sometimes with the top two thirds being Virginias, and the bottom layer with Pirate Kake to get a major Latakia blast at the bottom of the bowl.

 

akfilm

Can't Leave
Mar 2, 2016
309
1
Sometimes I have a little left over in the can, and I'll combine the similar styles together to smoke.

 

mayfair70

Lifer
Sep 14, 2015
1,968
2
I started doing it randomly when I first started, but it's a daily occurrence now. Tasty.

 

alexnorth

Part of the Furniture Now
Apr 7, 2015
603
3
Never tried it but now I will! Any specific types that you find complement one another particularly well?

 

toobfreak

Lifer
Dec 19, 2016
1,365
7
Lots of different combinations work for different reasons, sometimes with stuff you'd never think would go together. You just have to try stuff and see. Last night I took about a third each of St. James Woods, Cult BRM and Sutliff Strawberry Delight and set them out to dry a bit, cut the Woods up into smaller pieces and mixed them well and stuffed all into a meer, then set it aside to marry while I ate dinner. The after dinner results were grand! Far more depth than any one of them alone.
I've used up to four in a bowl, one for the very bottom to take all of the tar and to be more or less thrown away, and one for just on top to take the charring light, and two in the middle 80% for the real smoke. Sometimes it is just to use up bits and pieces of a smoke that I don't otherwise care for or to use a more flavorful tobacco to spruce up something with less flavor. On another thread someone just found that out mixing 10 Russians with Pirate Kake.
But if you think about it, many commercial blends have many tobaccos in them and I've made up my own blends too that had scraps of many old complimentary tobaccos I was trying to use up, so what is the difference? But I enjoy the layers for how each tobacco's different cut compliments the next and how the flavoring changes as you burn down through the bowl.

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
For folks who don't know the word, a parfait is a dessert that is layered with different flavors and colors in a tall usually stemmed glass. I've tried these, but find that mixing the tobacco and smoking it in a wide-bowled pipe develops more interesting interactions. But a parfait is definitely worth a try, especially with distinctly different tobaccos.

 

akfilm

Can't Leave
Mar 2, 2016
309
1
I did a parfait a couple days ago with midnight rider base, early morning pipe middle, and vintage syrian top.

 

bryguysc

Can't Leave
Feb 4, 2015
355
20
I'll occasionally layer.

I often add a kick of blending latakia or perique to a flat blend.

I have two "shelf blends." A vaper and an English. Instead of tossing the extra left from packing a bowl back in the original tin, I toss in in it's respective shelf blend jar. The vaper jar is actually amazing!

 

ophiuchus

Lifer
Mar 25, 2016
1,557
2,052
I mix, layer, or insert more often than not anymore. I've surprised myself with slow, nearly imperceptible transitions. I had a nice surprise over the weekend pushing Orlik Golden Sliced rubbings onto an underloaded bowl of Frog Morton Cellar. Sometimes I like to put a blob of something into something, like a blob of a cherry aro wrapped in a Kentucky/Virginia. Coins of rope embedded in a small pile from the "Franken-blend" jar ...
:puffy:

 

jvnshr

Moderator
Staff member
Sep 4, 2015
4,616
3,868
Baku, Azerbaijan
Indeed, the Parfait! I do that sometimes with the top two thirds being Virginias, and the bottom layer with Pirate Kake to get a major Latakia blast at the bottom of the bowl.
I was going to ask if someone has tried this. Thanks for the info, now I have to try it :)

 
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