Powdered flavoring vs wet flavoring...

[aquadoc]

After reading some of the reviews of Wilke Pipe Tobacco and finding that they use powdered "flavoring sources" for their aromatics, a little bit of research found that purchasing ground, powdered maple, honey, sorghum, treacle, etc is fairly inexpensive. Has anyone experimented with making their own aromatic mixes? Have you compared how wet vs dry aromatic flavorings taste in a tobacco blend? Chemically, the powder, dry form seems more stable and less likely to degrade as well as less likely to impact the heat/steam of a burning blend. Thoughts/debate?

 

[aldecaker]

I don't know anything about the art of flavoring tobaccos, but it does sound like a dry flavoring agent would be less likely to make for a "gooper" tobacco. I'm not sure if it would help with the age-old complaint of "this stuff tastes nothing like it smells", though.

 

[mcitinner1]

I read in another thread about making or flavoring your own tobacco that using some type of alcohol as the base, was the preferred method.

 

[aquadoc]

I know this may sound sacrilegious to English purists but Latakia and a touch of maple sounds like a match made in heaven. I may order some powdered maple and try adding it in different amounts to a mild English like EMP to see if it works together. Probably more of a fall smoke but WTH, I am curious now.

 

[aquadoc]

Stan, so you are saying you have to have the flavoring mixed in an alcohol base? Like rum or whisky?

 

[hawky454]

Very interesting, I'm gonna have to look into the powder flavorings... thanks for sharing, I've never heard of this before.

 

[aldecaker]

Oh, I don't know. I never figured I'd like chicken and waffles together until I actually tried it. Latakia and maple sort of tastes like New England fall in my head.

 

[aquadoc]

On Amazon, Frontier sells 1 pound bags of Maple Syrup powder for 20USD. 1.5 pounds of powdered honey is $13 and 1.5 pounds of blackstrap molasses powder is $15. I am willing to split a bag of the Maple is anyone is wanting to experiment or you can wait until I have tried out my experiment. Not sure how far 1 pound will go but I imagine a fair bit....

 

[mcitinner1]

Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure it was Russ O. that mentioned the alcohol base.

 

[anthonyrosenthal74]

Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure it was Russ O. that mentioned the alcohol base.

Alcohol based flavorings. Loranne brand flavorings are alcohol based, for example. But whiskey, rum, cognac, etc., can be used for flavoring as well. I recently flavored a blend using Captain Morgan Black Spiced Rum and it turned out great.
As far as powdered flavors, I've never heard anything about them. But I'm intrigued and I'm hoping someone with more knowledge than myself will chime in on this one. Being in powdered form though, I wonder if they're meant to be added to a carrying agent, in which case alcohol would probably work.

 

[aquadoc]

Anthony, so you and Stan are basically saying use the EtOH as a carrier for the dry flavoring which evaporates, leaving the flavor behind. Yes?

 

[anthonyrosenthal74]

That's what I'm assuming. I've never used dry flavoring before, so I can only guess.

 

[toobfreak]

A dry powder will only coat the tobacco. It needs dissolved in something to carry it through the leaf then evaporate away.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Why would it need to be absorbed by the leaf? A coating would seem to work just fine, if you like that sort of thing.

 

[jndyer]

At first blush a powdered flavoring does not sound appealing; however, I have know way of knowing what would and would not work. I say go for it and let us know how it works.

 

[aquadoc]

I will add that Wilkes use dry or powder natural flavors in their aromatics and get good reviews.

 

[kiel]

You could also try it in reverse. I am smoking some Autumn Evening right now which is a maple flavored aromatic from CD. If I had some blend latakia it would be much easier to mix some in.

 

[pipeman7]

so..you really want to try smoking some flavored powder amazon sells haha :crazy:
edit: hell the tobacco reviews actually make it sound like wilke probably does this. Idk why, I'm all about wet weather, wet pussy & wet tobacco, but if you want to smoke some tang powder in your pipe, go for it! why not

 

[aquadoc]

Pipeman7, surely you jest or maybe you know not of what you speak. Let me see, choose a natural product that has all of the water removed (hence, powdered) or choose one of the flavoring casings used commonly to make aromatics.
For example, let us look at maple and some of the choices of amendments that are commonly used to flavor blends:
Hexanoic acid which gives us a maple but waxy taste with a smooth smoke, or...

Ethyl cyclopentenolone which gives us a sweet maple taste and sweet smoke, or ...

Methyl cyclopentenolone butyrate which gives us a weak fruity, maple taste but little smoky maple aroma or ...

5-Ethyl-3-hydroxy-4-methyl-2(5H)-furanone which gives us a sweet maple taste and a sweet smoke or ...

.....
so, no thanks, I will continue to look for a PG less, no contrived chemical addition method of adding maple or honey flavor to a blend. Which, by the way, does not even come close to being in equivalence with Tang or whatever faux orange ade drink you might think of to fling at me as you snort through your pipe with disdain. Peace!

 

[pipeman7]

And what about the maple flavors used in the Gawith Hoggarth blends?
Hexonic acid, Ethyl cyclopentenolone, Methyl Cyclopentenolone butyrate and 5-Ethyl-3hydroxy-4methyl-2(5h)-furanone all sounds like shit I couldn't possibly want to smoke less