I've just recently decided to re-enter the world of DIY whole leaf tobacco processing again. I have experience with whole leaf through cigar rolling, but I've never really given pipe tobaccos a full shot. Just ordered 4 lbs of leaf; red va, maryland, katerini, and va bright leaf, with a bottle of casing/flavoring. With the 2 noodle presses I have (which help make lackluster custom blends pretty decent) I should be able to make my own plugs/flakes, with fairly minimal time and effort. I already make my own crumble cakes in the presses, so I have a good idea of the process. It will take longer if I tried to brew up some of my own casing and flavoring, I imagine, but from what I can see, if I use the flavoring's offered by WLT this shouldn't be that difficult, and certainly not as time consuming as prepping cigar tobacco and rolling cigars.
If I get the hang of this, and my plugs/flakes actually taste good, then it's my tentative opinion that this would be a very good way to prepare for the possible tobacco apocalypse/August 8th situation. Even with the time put in to mixing and pressing blends, this whole leaf is generally 4-5x cheaper by weight than buying tinned commercial tobaccos. I will certainly still buy some of my favorite blends, but buying the CRF recently and learning about why it doesn't taste good yet got me thinking that I could do some of this myself. I understand that a lot of people have no need to DIY it like this, and can just buy tins, and as I said I will still be purchasing some of my favorites. But in your opinion, does this sound like a promising approach to cellaring? I've spoken with @F4RM3R about this, and I've seen that @cosmicfolklore grows and cures his own, and I imagine presses it too, but is anyone else experienced with this? How do you feel about this idea?
If I get the hang of this, and my plugs/flakes actually taste good, then it's my tentative opinion that this would be a very good way to prepare for the possible tobacco apocalypse/August 8th situation. Even with the time put in to mixing and pressing blends, this whole leaf is generally 4-5x cheaper by weight than buying tinned commercial tobaccos. I will certainly still buy some of my favorite blends, but buying the CRF recently and learning about why it doesn't taste good yet got me thinking that I could do some of this myself. I understand that a lot of people have no need to DIY it like this, and can just buy tins, and as I said I will still be purchasing some of my favorites. But in your opinion, does this sound like a promising approach to cellaring? I've spoken with @F4RM3R about this, and I've seen that @cosmicfolklore grows and cures his own, and I imagine presses it too, but is anyone else experienced with this? How do you feel about this idea?