Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men. Looks like fishing season is over and it just started. Heavy snow this morning and either snow or heavy rain tomorrow. And I was just starting to look forward to it. So in lieu of all this, I'm going to do some floor washing and cleanup tomorrow, post a few interesting smokes, and leave y'all with this post on a new tobacco mix of mine that has drawn rave reviews from my admittedly small group of smoking friends. I posted this in the regular forum two days ago, and as usual, I then repost it in this thread a couple of days later. So, without further delay, I offer you this Tuesday evening:
A NEW HOMEMIX FROM GORD
My usual hangout is Jimi's "What Are You Smoking Today?" but I do make the occasional foray into the fray of general pipe or tobacco discussions when I have something that I think will be of general interest.
Those of you who know me know that I hunt and fish, which are my main recreations especially since retirement. I also have had a lot of fun with home mixes and learning about different tobaccos, and that I've usually posted in the general forum on these subjects before I present the same post in "what Are You Smoking Today." That's the case with this post.
You also know me as being fairly verbose, and I'm going to start off in this manner with a general statement that I'll simply present, and back off . . . this is my opinion and I'm not going to argue or defend it.
The info on the new mix is what this post is really about.
General Statement: As a guy who hunts and fishes a lot (taken over 60 head of big game and then stopped counting), I firmly believe that pipes and cigars have absolutely no place in the hunting field. Forest fires is the obvious biggy, and in a place of excitement, ANYBODY can get careless. The highly developed sense of smell of big game animals is the main reason. In my callow youth I had moose, deer and bear suddenly vamoose when they winded me. Imagine what they'd do if they winded your pipe. 'Nuff said.
My answer to this is when I want Vitamin N in the field or stream, I chew tobacco. I discovered a few years back, that Sir Walter Raleigh pipe tobacco tastes as good or better than any snoose I've ever bought, and have used it for a long long time. Still do. Which brings me to the meat of this argument, pun intended.
Before I post the info, I'll also state that yes, I do have a pipe or cigar when fishing, but always at the picnic table or a safe area at break time. Never in the boat. Guess I'm simple minded but I can only concentrate on one thing at a time. So, here ya go:
I developed a "chew" based on three readily available, and fine tobacoos in their own right:
Equal parts of
Smoker's Pride Black Cavendish, which has a very noticeable chocolate flavouring,
Smoker's Pride Whiskey Tobacco, which is all burley with a sweet Bourbon flavouring, and
Sir Walter Raleigh regular Pipe Tobacco, which is all burley with a very sweet anise flavour.
All of these tobaccos are excellent chews all by themselves, but in this combination, they are dynamite. I vary the chew that I take with me on trips to balance what I want to experience on the outing. If I like a chocolate overtone, I mix 3:2:2 with a bit more SP Black, and if I want the sweetness to predominate, I go 2:2:3 with the dominance of the delightful SWR leading the mix. I put the chew in a plastic 35mm film container in my pocket, which easily lasts the day in the field.
Now here is the crux of this post: A number of my hunting/fishing buddies chided me a bit for this stuff, and just said that chewing is for animals. Yup. Guilty as charged.
Then one of them, at a reverie at my home, the stalwart Mike, said that if he couldn't smoke it, he didn't want it. So I tossed a container over to him and said, "Go ahead."
He did, and said, " . . . uh, Gord . . . . this is your best mix ever." Others present then tried it and agreed completely. So, after that day, I put a jar of what is now called (Mike named it, btw, not me,) "Gord's Snuff'n'Puff." It's a go-to for my guests now.
And, there it is. Give it a try. Cheap, easy to mix and quite an excellent home mix aro. Yup. I smoke it quite a bit myself. Pictured with my at present favourite aro-biased pipe, my recently aquired Peterson Rhodesian Tavern Pipe. A real gem of a pipe if there ever was one.
You're Welcome.
Oh, yeah, I've been growing my own tobacco the past year and a half, and am preparing a post on Izmere Oriental (sp?) growing, mixing and pressing, for making your own Balkans. Post will be ready and I'll post it here in about two weeks. Promise I'll spel it rite then lol.