Monkel's Best (Virginia)
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
I have done a version with half lemon Virginia and half bright Virginia. It turned out very good as well. I like doing 2 lbs and after stripping I usually end up with four 175g plugs and I can do that all at once in the steel 2' tube in the A-frame press.
On my third attempt I went back to the original recipe with all bright Virginia and pressed. Instead of stoving in the oven I opted to put the whole steel tube in the cab of a hot truck for a 5 days. It has been brutally hot here in NC and heat index was 107F. I am curious if the heat of the day with a cooler night would make a difference in how it ages.
As you can see it is not as dark as if I did 200F for four hours. Well time will tell so stop back in a month or so to find out the results.
