sopping wet tobacco

[Zeno Marx]

The older I get, the more I recognize cynicism as a disease. A personal one. A social one. A cultural one. And I have no time for it. In my youth, I had a full fever of it. It never served any good purpose, and it doesn't make you more aware or more in tune or superior in any way.

Having dispensed with all that, I'm going with option 3. I really, really appreciate(d) Daughters & Ryan for this reason. I'd rather have to do a little work and add a couple % humidity than buy water. I'm sorry, but selling unsmokeable tobacco is done for one reason, and only one reason. They might as well make a LB 14oz. Not cool. BOOOOOOOO!

 

[Briar Tuck]

When I have the time, I pre dry excess tobacco, so it's ready to smoke when I'm ready. Sometimes a couple of bowls, sometimes many ounces. I have probably 8 ounces of Carter Hall in an amber glass humidor, with a bad seal. Slowly drying as we go. I don't mess with wet tobacco.

Same here. I live in a very humid environment and have no worries about excessive drying. I keep a couple of bulk aros in glass humidors for convenient accessibility and always keep a good amount of tobacco drying in a dish.

I have to resort to drying on paper towels for some aros because they simply won't dry enough in a dish regardless of time.

 

[Briar Tuck]

The older I get, the more I recognize cynicism as a disease. A personal one. A social one. A cultural one. And I have no time for it. In my youth, I had a full fever of it. It never served any good purpose, and it doesn't make you more aware or more in tune or superior in any way.

Having dispensed with all that, I'm going with option 3. I really, really appreciate(d) Daughters & Ryan for this reason. I'd rather have to do a little work and add a couple % humidity than buy water. I'm sorry, but selling unsmokeable tobacco is done for one reason, and only one reason. They might as well make a LB 14oz. Not cool. BOOOOOOOO!

That seems a little cynical.

I never gave it much thought, but selling by weight certainly incentivizes increasing the moisture content. Even a slight increase would be significant.

 

[anotherbob]

I think we need a gripe thread. Rants, bitching and moaning, complaining, all would be welcome. Who else can we go to with our gripes? My wife isn’t interested nor are my friends or coworkers. We need a place to get the poison out.

some ideas sound great until you see what actually happens. Get into comedy, people think you can't get away with stuff but that's really not true. The thing is you just have to be really funny. Learn to be really funny. Trust me I can get away with rants that are explicitly socially unredeemable and genuinely horrible and as people just won't press you on it if they're laughing.
So bad idea just get really funny. Heck I got out of a fight once by making the guy laugh at the insults I gave him. But a gripe thread is like giving toddlers hand grenades, awesome until you have to clean up.

 

[rmbittner]

I recently ordered a couple of lbs of tobacco from a certain online blender. When it arrived, I noticed that every one of the tobaccos were very damp. Wet cat damp. Beyond anything that I have seen before. Even after 36 hours out on my tray it was still quite soggy. Bear in mind, I live in a low humidity area. I also ordered from another shop at the same time and all their blends were fine. Im hoping that its merely water, but I have a creeping suspicion that there is other junk in there to keep the tobacco from molding, etc.

The two obvious reasons for this excessive moisture seem to me are:
1. To prevent a mixture from drying out.
2. The blender does his work in a high humidity area.
3. Water is cheaper than tobacco.

Although the tobacco is fragrant and as otherwise advertised, its not an experience that I wish to often repeat- as there are plenty of other blenders that I can order from. I wont be emailing the shop about my concerns- because they have been in business for decades and know their business. Their many other customers must be ok with that level of moisture, as the shop enjoys a popular reputation.

In the mean time, I have jarred it and cellared it with a notion that I can dry it, smoke it and enjoy life- as I go.

It sounds like these are all new blends to you, so you don’t have any experience with how they may have appeared in the past, yes? If that’s the case, have you tried smoking them? Because it’s possible that this is the blender’s preferred presentation for each of these “wet” blends.

I’d suggest smoking them and then deciding for yourself whether or not they are too wet.

 

[Zeno Marx]

I never gave it much thought, but selling by weight certainly incentivizes increasing the moisture content. Even a slight increase would be significant.

People who runs businesses based on weight consider all the loopholes and bending of regulations, be they governmental or social, to be smart business. I believe, by law, chicken meat can contain a maximum of 15% or 18% water? Whatever it is, it is a lot. A powerful lobby can achieve that kind of "regulation". Something much more strict and frowned upon in places like Europe and Japan. And you're absolutely right. Every little bit counts on the spreadsheet. There's capitalism, and then there's this kind of capitalism. There's actually a name for this play: shrinkflation. I believe it is safe to consider selling water to be part of this game.

 

[MikeDub]

I got some Wilke's Vermon Maple Cavendish that was extremely moist when I got it. I just gravity filled my pipe and it smoked slow and cool and didn't leave any excess moisture. I always leave my tobacco out for about an hour or so before I smoke and it seems to be fine even though it is still very moist when I pack it.

 

[jpmcwjr]

I'd chalk it up to a mistake made by the vendor. And I would write them.

 

[OzPiper]

I think we need a gripe thread. Rants, bitching and moaning, complaining, all would be welcome. Who else can we go to with our gripes? My wife isn’t interested nor are my friends or coworkers. We need a place to get the poison out.

It's called a Man Shed

 

[anotherbob]

So either it's how these blends are sold and made or something happened. Some aromatics are quite moist and many have humectants to keep them moist. Two things I've found is that one pack wet blends lighter. I gravity fill the few blends I smoke wet and prefer that way (both Sutliff tub blends EGR and Mixture 79 both great by the way) drop the tobacco in the pipe tap the heel of the pipe to level it out and repeat till near the rim. And how a blend retains flavor related to moisture is a variable that mostly applies to aromatics on the better wetter end and less so with others and even less with VA blends. Or long story short try them and see how it goes. But if they refuse to dry it's probably a humectant.

 

[FurCoat]

So either it's how these blends are sold and made or something happened. Some aromatics are quite moist and many have humectants to keep them moist. Two things I've found is that one pack wet blends lighter. I gravity fill the few blends I smoke wet and prefer that way (both Sutliff tub blends EGR and Mixture 79 both great by the way) drop the tobacco in the pipe tap the heel of the pipe to level it out and repeat till near the rim. And how a blend retains flavor related to moisture is a variable that mostly applies to aromatics on the better wetter end and less so with others and even less with VA blends. Or long story short try them and see how it goes. But if they refuse to dry it's probably a humectant.

I tap the heal too. I have a dense foam pad stuck to my desk with double sided tap just for this purpose.

 

[jpmcwjr]

<< Snipped bits out >>

In the mean time, I have jarred it and cellared it with a notion that I can dry it, smoke it and enjoy life- as I go.

I strongly recommend drying first and then jarring it.

 

[jpmcwjr]

I think we need a gripe thread. Rants, bitching and moaning, complaining, all would be welcome. Who else can we go to with our gripes? My wife isn’t interested nor are my friends or coworkers. We need a place to get the poison out.

We have hundreds of "gripe threads"!

 

[Arthur Frayn]

So either it's how these blends are sold and made or something happened. Some aromatics are quite moist and many have humectants to keep them moist. Two things I've found is that one pack wet blends lighter. I gravity fill the few blends I smoke wet and prefer that way (both Sutliff tub blends EGR and Mixture 79 both great by the way) drop the tobacco in the pipe tap the heel of the pipe to level it out and repeat till near the rim. And how a blend retains flavor related to moisture is a variable that mostly applies to aromatics on the better wetter end and less so with others and even less with VA blends. Or long story short try them and see how it goes. But if they refuse to dry it's probably a humectant.

That was helpful info. thx

 

[Sobrbiker]

I just today received 3 different tobaccos (a 4oz bag and a couple 2oz bags) that were “wetter” than my last order from same vendor in Richmond VA. A quick peek at the weather shows it’s been 80% RH in the area this past week.
4oz of the Sutliff 805 is always the same size bag as 2oz of BL/WB though

 

[Pipeoff]

People who runs businesses based on weight consider all the loopholes and bending of regulations, be they governmental or social, to be smart business. I believe, by law, chicken meat can contain a maximum of 15% or 18% water? Whatever it is, it is a lot. A powerful lobby can achieve that kind of "regulation". Something much more strict and frowned upon in places like Europe and Japan. And you're absolutely right. Every little bit counts on the spreadsheet. There's capitalism, and then there's this kind of capitalism. There's actually a name for this play: shrinkflation. I believe it is safe to consider selling water to be part of this game.

When I was a kid the old finger on the scale trick was often used. Now the state weights and measure regulators are in on the take.