Our own Resident Royalty, the King of Clay, was recently observed to state a concern over the smokability of his blend. The flakes of the Virginia Gold Lemon leaves that were soaked with lemon peel infused mead are still in the process of carefully drying, currently jarred up to settle. First I took the liberty of opening the jar and taking a whiff. Incredible!!! It smells exactly like a sweet and fluffy lemon cake.
Totally unexpected, just like that intense chocolate aroma that my first aromatized concoction produced.
I rubbed and carefully heated them up. That Virginia hay smell came out and was quite strong for a short while but didn't last. That lemon cake smell proved to be more powerful and took over the reign again.
The Clay King's blend can only be tasted in a clay pipe. If you put it into a briar it would turn into clay.
I can't quite describe the taste of it. It certainly is sweet and all around pleasant. There is this certain taste to it...
Almost like a sweeter Perique?! There is that pepper-y taste but with much more sweetness to it and to be honest I'm a little confused right now.
I want to mix the leftovers with the other ingredients of the Clay King blend to get an idea of what the finished product might be like. I still have to read up on stoving, which I plan to do very soon.
Not only my aromatized tobaccos but also raw leaf, I want to see how raw Burley, Kentucky and Virginia change after stoving.
It's all very exciting to me, the tiniest bit of process seems to have a major influence on the finished product.
And then the pipe material comes into play. And then the style of smoking. And pipe shapes.
Where does it end? Does it ever?