Pressed a Va-Bur-Cav Plug with Restaurant Pans

[tech49]

Just popped a couple plugs out of my restaurant 1/9 pan pressing system.

The blend is whole leaf organic air-cured burley (35%), lemon Virginia (20%), red Virginia (15%), and shredded black Cavendish (30%).

Leaves were cased with corn whiskey, vanilla and a few drops of LorAnn Banana Cream PG flavoring. I stacked the leaves, rolled them up tight like sushi, wrapped it in parchment and pressed them in the pans.

 

[chilllucky]

Why bother with the PG? In a small batch for home consumption, I would think you'd have enough control over storage humidity to not require it.

 

[davek]

Good idea. For a while, I just pressed between thin cinderblocks in the basement. I put a 5 gallon bucket of water on the top one.

 

[canucklehead]

Looks great, how does it taste? Is the banana very noticeable in the smoke?

 

[tech49]

Why bother with the PG? In a small batch for home consumption, I would think you'd have enough control over storage humidity to not require it.

I didn't add PG.

LorAnn provides oils in alcohol, other flavors in PG. I was just being specific to the actual product I used in case others wanted to try it.

All my blends using whole leaf are dried down after cutting to prevent mold.

 

[tech49]

Looks great, how does it taste? Is the banana very noticeable in the smoke?

The banana doesn't come through as banana really, it seems to do more mellowing and smoothing to me. I've also used licorice and butterscotch flavorings in the past, but I use them in such small we quantities they just add almost imperceptible hints of texture.

The corn whiskey seemed to do a better job than the Bushmill's I used on the last batch. The overall impression is a rounder, sweeter smoke, although I upped the burley a little in this blend.

I guess if I had a desert island blend, I'd really be happy smoking this the rest of my life. If I had to.

 

[tech49]

Looks great, how does it taste? Is the banana very noticeable in the smoke?

Initially sweet, then the nutty burley kicks in, and the whole thing balances nocely. I think I have a good pH balance between the Virginias and the burley- it's very creamy and smooth, without a mid-palate tingle.

The tin note is plummy, bready, with a hint of molasses. I didn't use any of those flavorings so a chemical change must have been going on in there.

 

[CoffeeAndBourbon]

very nice!