Blend for 175g plug * 24.5% Latakia (43g) * 20% Basma (35g) * 20% Izmir (35.g) * 35.5% Red Virginia (cased with Tonka) (62g) Stoved while under pressure in the truck cab (about 130F) for a few days. Update: 8/8/24 Sliced off a flake and smoking in the 1974
Monkel's Best is basically a bright Virginia with two different casings. I strip 2 lbs of bright and half I case with blackberry casing and the other half with tonka bean casing. I have found it to age well after stoving under pressure for 4 hours at 200F
The Virginia experiment continues and several months later the Bright Virginia plug that is cased half with Tonka Bean and half Blackberry just keeps getting better and better. I wonder what Tonka would do for red Virginia leaf. Well here we are. De-stemmed a pound of red Virginia and cased
After doing the Virginia tonka experiment I thought, "Man, I bet this will match perfect with Grateful Plug!" Well say no more! It is done! Tonka/molasses version of 200g Grateful Plug stoved for 7 hours at 200 F This is a blend of 100g Bright Virginia cased
Had some left over bright Virginia cased with plum so I blended 65g Virginia with 35g black Cavendish that Whole Leaf Tobacco had sent with my order. The Cavendish was granular so when I slice this up it will be more like a broken flake. Had it pressed for 7
So found out I can get tonka beans on Amazon and thought let's give this a go! It is some quite fragrant stuff! To me it smells like white cake with cream cheese frosting! So made up the sauce: * 150g Water * 150g Sugar * 1 Tonka Bean * 1 cap
It certainly was a fun year of pressing tobacco. Still trying to figure out the elusive straight Virginia recipe. I have gone through a couple of my old straight Virginia plugs to see how they develop. The first one I did was a Bright/Yellow Virginia plug and it is
I had some left over plum cased Red Virginia and blackberry cased Bright Virginia. Made a 200g plug of about 60% Bright to 40% Red. Total YOLO plug. Then I really screwed up and forgot it was stoving in the oven. It had been in the oven 7 hours at
Now I have an antique plug cutter made of cast iron and a new blade made by Bingham Knifeworks. It cuts like butter. It is fairly expensive and it takes time to cut the plugs and you tend to have inconsistent thicknesses of the flakes as a result. Enter the
Recently, for unknown reasons, I had a batch of Red Queen plugs that were very wet. Not sure the exact reason for it but humidity while pressing might have hand in it. The plugs were full of juice running and the flakes, when sliced, were very flexible. Since I don&
Blending/Processing Whole Leaf * Ernie Q on casing, pressing, and blending * Blend Your Own Pipe Tobacco book * Spirit Infusion * Making "Cavendish" at home Press: * Noodle Press (Cheap and simple, good for 50g pucks) * PVC and Hockey Pucks (Cheap and little effort, good for 100g pucks) * Shop Press (Saves
Pulled from Badger & Blade and Dutch Pipes Smoker Peterson YYDDMMXXXX 2003043214 = April 03, 2020 Orlik YYXXMMXXDD 2124061407 = June 07, 2021 Orlik/STG vs MacBaren Let me explain. On the picture on the right you see the backside of the two similar Capstan tins. Left the Orlik / STG version, right