Tobacco Preparation - Long

[--dante--]

The power of prayer!!

...or you could try sacrificing a chicken!

 

[hairvise]

I haven't found that tobacco needs to breathe or anything like that, but I have found that most of the blends I like need to be at a pretty specific moisture level to deliver the best they have to offer. I am not on board with this "dry your Virginia blends until they are crispy" train that I see here often. I think that most tobaccos smoke best a bit short (on the wet side) of crispy.

I will say that some blends aren't as fussy as others in my experience, and I don't just mean easy burning OTC burleys and the like. For example, I've found that if I get GLP Quiet Nights at just the right moisture level I can get a really incense-like note out of it which just brings it to a whole new level, whereas pretty much every bowl of GLP Westminster is equally good (so long as I'm in the right ballpark for moisture levels and bowl packing).

Completely agree with this. I have really been enjoying Watch City's Old Dominion over the last month or so, but this afternoon, I dried it down a bit more than usual. Nowhere near crispy, mind you. And it burned really, really well. But the flavor was definitely lacking. So much so that I put the bowl down half-way through and loaded up another pipe with KBV's Verge Engine OverDrive without drying (and I find that comes pretty moist straight out of the pouch). The flavors are much more pronounced and enjoyable. Of course, this is just a sample size of 1, so YMMV.

 

[jpmcwjr]

He's reframing "you have to dry down the overly humectified goop in the can before you can smoke it properly" in a way that makes you feel sophisticated.

Same applies to non-goopy blends.

LBT:
You can put your location in your Profile—(please!—because people will forget!) That will save questions in the future as to where you live when you later mention local stores, weather, tobacco prices, availability, regulations, location of photos, wildfires, air quality, etc., etc..
Under your avatar, (top right, left most of three symbols) you choose "Account Details", which brings up "My Account". "My Location" is halfway down. Whatever you're comfortable with- town, city, county, state. Just country if you must.