what's your favorite cigarette blend

[LostInTheDesert]

For my wife and I, usually mix 37% Virginia Red, 28% Virginia Lemon, 25% Brightleaf and 10% Izmir, topped off with the casing for Flue Cured Tobacco - I started to raise the Red and lower the Lemon and Brightleaf (really like Virginia Red) but at my last order, the Red was out so I had to play around a little but couldn't find something we both liked.

Obviously it's been a while since my last order of tobacco, Is Izmir gone from WLT for the long term or just temporarily? I've searched the forum and didn't come up with anything.

What would be a good alternative/replacement for Izmir? I've tried Turkish/Oriental Prilep instead of Izmir but it doesn't have the same taste, Prilep is light, my favorite mix is already really light compared to what most of you guys blend.

Tried Burley, I'm not sure if I started out putting too much in my early mixes but ended up not using any at all.

 

[johnieferretti]

What blend of Virginia and burley is ideal for newcomers? I am not that strong guy..

 

[Enigmascape]

I'm fairly new to whole leaf tobacco, however I purchased the sampler from WLT to start off with... smoked a couple sticks of each variety by themself just to get a taste for each one. I also bought a few of the WLT blends... I assumed I preferred a more robust smoke, and with that in mind I bought the Euro Halfzware blend from WLT also, but I ended up quite suprized at how much flavor the virgina red leaf had, so I set out to create some blends of my own from the samplers... using the red as the base mostly... after some experimenting I felt I found a blend I really liked... I am not real big on measurements and more of an 'eyeballer'. While I liked the halfzware quite a bit, it was rather strong to me for an everyday smoke, but I found myself going back and forth between my own blend and the euro halfzware and really not sure which I would prefer as an "everyday" smoke... my own virgina dominant blend was (approx) 40% virgina red, 25% lemon, 10% bright leaf, 25% equal parts prelip, maryland 609, dark air, and burley and then cased with the general purpose casing... it has a nice sweet flavor... but I still found myself making several sticks of euro halfzware everyday... Next thing you know I was out of virgina red, lemon and halfzware, so I ordered more of each... Then I decided to make a "cheater" blend using what I now had the majority of... and it has turned out to be my new favorite "everyday smoke"...

What I did was make the euro halfzware according to the directions but use only half the casing... then I make another blend of 60% virgina red and 40% lemon and case with half bottle of the flue cure casing.. then I mix the 2 blends together at 40% euro halfzware and 60% virginia red+lemon blend and then case all f it with the remaining portion of the the general purpose casing that comes with the halfzware kit... it gives me the best of both worlds... sort of a lightly sweet and lightly smokey flavor. I'm calling it the "Amero" I really have no idea what the math would be on it and really not sure whats even in the halfzware blend so that's why its pretty much a "cheater" recipe. I like the idea of not having to buy individual pounds of all the stuff I was putting into my original virginia dominant blend, but it really was yummy, but I've not been able to really recreate it with the new batch I order cuz I dont know exactly what was in it because I just kept adding a dash of this and a dash of that. Oh well... its all good, and way better than any commercial blend I've had. If you happen to have the stuff, give it a whirl.

 

[Enigmascape]

I also orders the Balken Sobranje blend from WLT having no real idea what to expect... I just knew that I smoked camel for 25 years and this was basically "turkish"... Again, I have no idea whats all in it but it had ALOT of turkish in it... so much so that I did not care much for it so it has just been sitting in its jar for a month or so. I decided to add a tad bit to my above blend to see how it tasted, and I am quite happy with it and would say it is similar to an old style camel, and superior to a current one. Having learned a TON and being able to experiment with all these tobaccos, I have found that I do not really prefer that camel or turkish taste as much as I thought, especially having learned how little turkish tobacco is actually even in a camel, But if you do still like that camel taste after experimenting with your own blends, I'd say this is the closest I have gotten yet to a knockoff. Adding this to the mix really change the burn nature of the blend, creating a higher volume of more dispersed smoke (rather than the heavier more curly type smoke) and it really rounded the whole thing out to such a degree that you really cant identify any particular tobacco as any sort of standout. But that makes sense considering this now consists of probably 8-10 (or more) different varieties of tobacco when you combine it all together. I do like it alot, and will deff keep some of this blend on hand as it is very "satisfying", but time will tell if it becomes the everyday blend or not.

Also, I bought some small plastic "canisters" at the 99 cents only store to use for my tobacco and they are working out great. there are 3 canisters in the set (for 99 cents!) and the largest one fits a shredded lb of tobacco perfectly, (I compress it in there fairly tight) with just enough extra room to put a one of those humidifying pouches in there and room and some leeway for probably another 1/8lb... I am a full-time RVer so space is at a premium and these are perfect. I use the middle size one as my 'dipper" to use on a daily basis so I am not opening and closing my main stash jar all the time, and I use the smallest one for blending samples. I bought a dozen of these canister sets so I can stay fully stocked with everything and have a wonderful variety to pick and choose from. I do not yet smoke a pipe, but I plan to start experimenting with that next as I am really enjoying mixing things up and having a variety of tastes to choose from... something I never really thought about doing with cigarettes, but its been wonderful. I am amazed this is not a more popular hobby than it is. When you consider there are not many "hobbies" that SAVE you money, it blows me away that its not more common. I tell family and friends what I been doing with this and not one has ever heard of someone making cigarettes from whole leaf tobacco and didn't even know it was possible. I am 46, and pretty 'informed' about most things I think, but I never heard f it either until I recently stumbled on some youtube video about it. Anyway, I am thrilled, saving money and being able to craft something that i really enjoy at the same time.

 

[burge]

I kind of like a blend of lemon and first priming. I imaginge a little red would make it good too. I am one to switch things up a bit. I like all types of Virginia and have created other blends including a players

 

[ZigZagZeppelin]

I'm totally new to this, the whole leaf and taking care of the process myself. I smoked Newport 100's for years and guessed at tobacco leaf to buy.

Have Don's "Flue Cured Virginia Red Leaf" and "Flue Cured Virginia Lemon" on the way. Have Premier menthol 100 tubes at home, Zen FF 100 tubes for when I crave a non menthol.

Have another order from a different site: American Flue Cured and Canadian Flue Cured.........that North American combo wasn't real descriptive though, so I doubt I'd shop at that place again.

My first attempt will probably be: 30% Virginny Red, 30% American Flue Cured, 30% Canadian Flue Cured and 10% Flue Cured Virginny Lemon

Just bought the el cheapo 0.8mm manual shredder here this morning.......I'll stick with cheap until I get a clue.