Pure Tobacco Pipe Blends You Can Make

[bbfarmky]

Like a stunning, but fleeting sunset, I've made a magically smooth and rich pipe blend with difficult to replicate components. Mellow, but nicotine rich. Not a nibble of a tongue bite. Burn is excellent.

I had not planned to record or post anything about it. But the first puff this morning made me jump up and photograph it. I don't mean it's just difficult for you to replicate, but it's difficult for me to replicate. And I paid little attention to the proportions. They just seemed right.

• @BigBonner's very old burly red tips (likely about 15+ years old—I recall that it was fairly old when I obtained about 10 pounds of it from him over a decade ago.)
• MD 609
• the last of my fully dried WLT perique (I have more, but it will need to be dried.)
• the last of my Trabzon Cavendish

As you can see, it has no dramatic contrasts in the component coloration, and kind of resembles some of the old, visually boring, Rattray's blends. Since my image file needed a unique name, I've called this Fleeting Sunset.

Bob

I am looking forward to getting to the level of things just feeling right. At the moment I'll be following recipes to a T for the first time and then willing to explore sliding percentages 5% or so at a time.

I am excited about the adventure but also worried. My personality is far too curious, careless, and forgetful for true science. I had better develop a great instinct or I will be a lost ball in high weeds.

 

[deluxestogie]

Pipe blending is entirely subjective. No science involved. Like cooking my own food, where I reached a point where my recipe books just collect dust, I find myself making up batches of pipe tobacco by intuition, and without measuring anything. I roam through my collection of tobacco, and just grab a variety of nice looking things, then shred it, and tumble it together in a gallon Ziploc bag.

Bob