100g Virginia/Cavendish

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

Virginia Experiment (Tonka/Blackberry)

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

2023 Year End Thoughts

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

Bright/Red Virginia Plug

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

The best, cheapest plug cutter

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

Wet Plugs

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&

Tobacco Pressing Resources

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

pipe tobacco

Dating Tobacco Tins

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

Virginia/Burley - Grateful Plug

Virginia/Burley whole leaf plug

Recipe Reference

You can find all the greatest hit recipes and logos on bookstack.thesmokinglounge.club

tobacco press

Pressing 1kg of whole leaf tobacco

Pressing 1kg of whole leaf tobacco challenge.  As they say, if it is worth doing it is worth doing to excess.  I picked up a 2 foot long 3″ by 3″ square stainless steel tube (T43311) from Metals Depot.  Next thing was to find spacers.   I didn’t want to

plug tobacco

Virginia, Oriental and Perique - Bosporus Strait Plug

Thought I would try something new and experimental with whole leaf Virginia, Oriental and Perique tobacco plug. Pressing a 200g block consisting of: * 30g Izmir * 60g Perique * 110g Bright Virginia The Virginia is cased with sugar water with a 1 to 1 weight of water to sugar to make 200g

pipe tobacco

Making plugs in winter

Making plugs in winter is a little more challenging.  Cannot take advantage of the summer heat and poor man stoving the press in the hot cab of the truck for a week.   So here is the update on recent activities. I got a wooden double press that UpArrow made on

pipe tobacco

Whole leaf latakia blend plug - Apertif Clone

Well, hurricane Ian knocked out the power last night so nothing to do but make a Latakia blend whole leaf plug. Worked on destemming the red Virginia and cased it with the plum casing I used for the Virginia/burley Thumbed through Goff’s book since it was full of

plug tobacco

Making a Virginia/Burley whole leaf plug

This will be a pretty obvious amateurish attempt at making a Virginia/Burley whole leaf plug in a similar vein as Germain’s Rich Dark Flake. I expect it not be even close but you got to put a stake in the ground somewhere on this 60/40 Virginia/Burley

whole leaf tobacco

1st whole leaf tobacco plug from hydraulic press

Quick post after pulling the 1st whole leaf tobacco plug from the hydraulic press. I have been experimenting with whole leaf tobacco this year. I have a nice aluminum/steel form that makes 3″ x 3″ plugs. The issue is cranking down on with a C-Clamp takes 10 days to

tobacco press

Upgrading the tobacco press

Time to upgrade the tobacco press!  Just pulled another dark fired Kentucky / Virginia plug out of the press.   Taking 10 days to crank down with a C-Clamp pretty much sucks.   So I ordered a 12-Ton Shop Press from Northern Tool.   While that was in route I destemmed the rest of

pipe tobacco

How to determine the age of tinned tobacco

EDIT: See updated list https://blog.acefour.org/dating-tobacco-tins/ How to determine the age of tinned tobacco is the art of reading manufacturing codes as well as history of the blend. This is for my reference but hopefully it can benefit the rest of the community. For English Tins, read

pipe tobacco

Red Queen V Virginia/Perique pipe tobacco

Red Queen V Virginia/Perique pipe tobacco blend was the fifth iteration of a blend that started with some very old perique. A local tobacconist was going out of business and gave me a giant bag of perique that likely had 5 years of age on it. This is not

pipe tobacco

Making a whole leaf red Virginia plug

Making a whole leaf red Virginia plug was my forth whole leaf plug. Sourced the leaves from Whole Leaf Tobacco. This used the same casing recipe from whole leaf Virginia plug with blackberry casing. Took about 10 days to crank down to max with the c-clamp. This one spent about

pipe tobacco

Ways to pressing pipe tobacco

There are several ways to pressing pipe tobacco and as elaborate as your budget will allow. Why press? It melds the flavors better of the tobacco no matter if you are doing raw leaf or using an existing blend. Many folks like make tobacco cakes and plugs. Moisture content will

pipe tobacco

Virginia/Dark Fired Kentucky - Memphis Plug

Whole leaf Virginia/dark fired Kentucky plug is the next experiment to perform. This is made with equal parts bright Virginia flue cured, red Virginia flue cured and dark fired Kentucky.   All of these leaves were purchased from Whole Leaf Tobacco. First step is prepping the leaves. Prepping the leaves,

pipe tobacco

Whole leaf Virginia plug with blackberry casing

Making whole leaf Virginia plug with blackberry casing is the same procedure as whole leaf Virginia plug blend. The difference is we are making our own casing. The casing is made by using 1 to 1 ratio by weight of water to sugar, add a cap-full of white vinegar. Next,

pipe tobacco

Making a whole leaf Virginia tobacco plug

Experimenting with Making a whole leaf Virginia tobacco plug. Tobacco was purchased Bright Virginia Flue Cured and Lemon Virginia Flue Cured from WholeLeafTobacco.com along with their commercial casing. Whole Leaf Tobacco commercial casing for flue-cured tobacco is just an inverted sugar water flavored with lemon peel. Next, was deciding

pipe tobacco

Blog on amateur pipe tobacco blending

I am an amateur tobacco blender. I make personal blends and blends for Afterburner Cigar Lounge in Lillington, NC. I don’t really make any money on it but it does give the local shop something unique to sell and a way for others to obtain some of my blends.