Mixing Cigar Leaf With Golden Virginia And Some Perique

[virginialover]

The son of a friend of mine, who's a cigar smoker, wants to offer him a pipe for his 50th birthday. I'll be the one taking care of the tobacco mixture and I want to make Golden Virginia with some Perique and mix either Cuban cigar leaf or Italian Dark Kentucky. What percentage of cigar leaf should I use for the mixture? Thank you all for your replies!

 

[Country Bladesmith]

I think anything you blend from those leafs will be tasty. I think your question will be how sweet the blend should be. I’m assuming that your Virginia will be flue cured and on the sweet side. I’d probably use more with the Habano leaf, to accentuate its natural sweetness, and less with the Italian, so as not to mask its natural dry to semisweet quality. Sansepolcro is a blend that does that dance really well.

 

[Sonorisis]

Warped.

 

[virginialover]

I think anything you blend from those leafs will be tasty. I think your question will be how sweet the blend should be. I’m assuming that your Virginia will be flue cured and on the sweet side. I’d probably use more with the Habano leaf, to accentuate its natural sweetness, and less with the Italian, so as not to mask its natural dry to semisweet quality. Sansepolcro is a blend that does that dance really well.

I wouldn't make it too sweet but I really need to know the percentage to use and would use one leaf or the other but not both. The Balkan Sobranie Virginian No.10 comes to mind.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

Seems like a little bit of cigar leaf goes a long way. While I'm also a cigar smoker, I've not been a fan of most pipe blends with cigar leaf.

 

[Country Bladesmith]

I would make it not too sweet but I really need to know the percentage to use and would use one leaf or the other but not both. The Balkan Sobranie Virginian No. 10 comes to mind.

I couldn’t tell you any percentages, but I’d advise to maybe do some very small batches to try and adjust from there. Get a good food scale if you don’t have one.

 

[mso489]

I haven't juggled proportions enough to help, but it is my impression that cigar leaf is pretty mild, so if you want it to show up in the blend, and not just be a sort of unseen influence, I'd use maybe 30% in the mix. No cigar leaf pipe blend is going to approximate a cigar experience, but it is a fine condiment in its own right, a mellowing factor. I'd keep the Perique in the background; it can add zing without adding a lot, for my taste.

 

[logs]

As far as percentages of leaf and type of leaf it really depends on what you're going for. You need to narrow down your flavor profile quite a bit or you're going to be doing a lot of random testing. If you ask me Warped is making the best cigar mix pipe blends out there. I'd pick one of them as a starting point to try to recreate. There are plenty of other cigar blends out there but Warped are the most unmistakably cigarish of the lot.

 

[virginialover]

I haven't juggled proportions enough to help, but it is my impression that cigar leaf is pretty mild, so if you want it to show up in the blend, and not just be a sort of unseen influence, I'd use maybe 30% in the mix. No cigar leaf pipe blend is going to approximate a cigar experience, but it is a fine condiment in its own right, a mellowing factor. I'd keep the Perique in the background; it can add zing without adding a lot, for my taste.

Cigar leaf is actually prety harsh in my opinion, 30% is way too much, the purpose is to have him enjoy a pipe with some cigar leaf characteristics. I know that pure cigar leaf or the remains of a cigar are a horrid pipe smoke but added to Virginia it gives more bass tones and alkalinity to the smoke. I'm mixing 75 grams of Golden Virginia with about 5% Perique, I just need a percentage for the Cuban cigar leaf. I only have 48 hours.

 

[logs]

Cigar leaf is actually prety harsh in my opinion, 30% is way too much.

I agree. Cigar leaf seems to be hard to work with for pipe blends. If it were easy there probably be a lot more of them out there (given how popular cigars are). Billy Budd is another blend with cigar leaf that works well.

 

[F4RM3R]

Cigar leaf is actually prety harsh in my opinion, 30% is way too much, the purpose is to have him enjoy a pipe with some cigar leaf characteristics. I know that pure cigar leaf or the remains of a cigar are a horrid pipe smoke but added to Virginia it gives more bass tones and alkalinity to the smoke. I'm mixing 75 grams of Golden Virginia with about 5% Perique, I just need a percentage for the Cuban cigar leaf. I only have 48 hours.

Well for a cigar smoker it might not be enough!! Haha. It sounds like you are narrowing it down at least. It depends on their tastes. I would personally up the perique to 10% and put the cigar at 15%. But if you want the perique at 5% I'd do 20% cigar. It all depends. With cigar leaf at 10% and perique at 5% it will still be a tasty smoke but very virginia dominant. I think for someone who smokes cigars you need a bit of body. Their cadence probably won't be the same as a virginia smoker. So something slower burning that is more alkaline might be better.

 

[mso489]

I suspect it depends on the cigar leaf. I'm working with C&D cigar leaf for blending, a condiment, that can also be smoked by itself, and it is not harsh. But since cigars run the gamut of strength, you probably have to evaluate the cigar leaf you have.

 

[canucklehead]

I suspect it depends on the cigar leaf. I'm working with C&D cigar leaf for blending, a condiment, that can also be smoked by itself, and it is not harsh. But since cigars run the gamut of strength, you probably have to evaluate the cigar leaf you have.

I like the C&D cigar leaf, it is mild, a bit sweet, tastes cigarish as it should, and mixes well with a variety of components. I also like using sliced up Brickhouse mighty maduros in pipe blends.

If you want the cigar leaf to be noticable as such, it would need to be at least 20% or more, IMO. Below that ads some depth of flavour, smoke volume, and alkalinity, but not much cigar taste.

I like up to 40% cigar leaf when mixed with aros, and about 20-30% with virgina blends, personally.

 

[virginialover]

Well for a cigar smoker it might not be enough!! Haha. It sounds like you are narrowing it down at least. It depends on their tastes. I would personally up the perique to 10% and put the cigar at 15%. But if you want the perique at 5% I'd do 20% cigar. It all depends. With cigar leaf at 10% and perique at 5% it will still be a tasty smoke but very virginia dominant. I think for someone who smokes cigars you need a bit of body. Their cadence probably won't be the same as a virginia smoker. So something slower burning that is more alkaline might be better.

I don't even know if he'll like pipe smoking, we'll see. Personally I smoke both pipes and cigars and like hoosierpipeguy I know by experience that cigar leaf is best used sparsely in your pipe. Cuban cigar leaf just doesn't belong in a pipe by itself but with the right percentage can do wonders for Virginia. Italian Dark Kentucky fares much better and can be smoked alone, I smoke Cimette di Mastro Tornabuoni and is perfect by itself.

 

[virginialover]

I like the C&D cigar leaf, it is mild, a bit sweet, tastes cigarish as it should, and mixes well with a variety of components. I also like using sliced up Brickhouse mighty maduros in pipe blends.

If you want the cigar leaf to be noticable as such, it would need to be at least 20% or more, IMO. Below that ads some depth of flavour, smoke volume, and alkalinity, but not much cigar taste.

I like up to 40% cigar leaf when mixed with aros, and about 20-30% with virgina blends, personally.

Cuban cigar leaf is just over the top. Picadura Granulata by Partagas is better used as a blender, way to harsh for a pipe smoke alone. I've tried some blending with the Cuban leaf and the success and failure is a matter of a few percentage points. So far I'm unsatisfied with my efforts hence this thread.

 

[virginialover]

Seems like a little bit of cigar leaf goes a long way. While I'm also a cigar smoker, I've not been a fan of most pipe blends with cigar leaf.

I agree with everything you said. Billy Budd works well but is a Latakia mixture. Only Virginian No.10 captured the spirit of a "cigar in a pipe" mixture. They used Sobranie chosen Virginias with H.Upmann cigar leaf.