Had some Virginia left over from the Burley Plug and decided to try a 120g Dark Fired to 60g Bright Virginia. The kick? Well I layered it like the days of Orlik Dark Strong Kentucky. I packed the plug in the short tube with a layer of Dark Fired Kentucky
Being irritated that the Mac Baren HH line is going away I decided to try and make a mellow burley flake substitute. Probably won't even be close but all that matters is it is enjoyable smoke. So HH Burley Flake is burley, Kentucky and Virginia with burley being
Let's face it, the pipe smokers are a rare breed. Go to any brick and mortar and either they cursory offer some pipe tobacco and basket pipes or nothing at all. There are exceptions to that rule such as The Country Squire, J.M Boswell's, Watch
This one I never sold at the local shop. I did make it and gave out to a few friends. Once again, with Sutliff/MacBaren being knocked out at the end of January I am releasing the recipe. I can be blended up with equal parts of: * Sutliff Z79 Creamy
Dix tobacco blend started out as a joke for me to derail tobacco forum threads. I will not expand on the derailment but it was always successful. Of course everyone said I need to make the actual blend. So I literally tossed some things together and everyone loved it, especially
If you are going to buy and IM Corona Old Boy, don't buy a painted one. I got a nice blue Old Boy and then one day tossed it in my pocket with the keys. The paint chips and it started to look ragged. My buddy Jamie at
Scandinavian Tobacco Group purchased Sutliff Tobacco and they will be moving the operations overseas. When STG did this with Lane's Tobacco they cut the tobacco line. Red Queen V was the first blend (well fifth iteration) I made with commercial components. Given it will be unknown if the
For one, I am not a licensed tobacco manufacturer. To do so would require a one million dollar bond on raw tobacco storage and one million dollar bond on the blending room and keep meticulous records of poundage going in and out of each room. Uncle Sam wants his tax
Decided to pull all the plugs I still have and flake them out. Plugs that I stoved in the oven were still moist and easy to slice. Plugs that stoved in a hot truck for 5 days was like trying to flake a 2 x 4. Ended up with a
Happy little accidents! I tried to make 2 more Angel of Izmir plugs and when I pulled them they seemed small. Thinking back I actually forgot to add Izmir to the blend. Head slapfrom Head slap The end result is a pretty smooth smoke without the citrus of Izmir. Blend
At the CORPS pipe show we open a jar of Red Queen plug flake that has been sealed for 6-8 months. Boom ketchup! What happened here? My theory for a couple of months has been tobacco vinegar is what makes this famous smell. This jar of Red Queen plug is
Attended the show and my hats off to a great event by Conclave of Richmond Pipe Smokers club. They did a great event at the Keystone Museum I got there Saturday morning and the folks were swarming every table in which I hope was a good sign for the vendors.
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