Mixing Tobaccos

Depends on the tobacco’s a pipe smoker prefers. Add Orientals, Burley, Sweet Red Carolina or even Cavendish. Mix enough to sample a bowl or three, if it’s a blend you enjoy, make a note of the ratio you blended and make a batch to keep on hand. Works well for me👌👍

Both....also with whole leaf I purchase locally 👍👍

I gave up on mixing...It never seemed to work out well for me.

I add perique to Virginia's , which actually makes them smoother. I add perique to Balkan blends to give them a bit of a fig-like undertone. To A Balkan mix that's a bit too tangy with Orientals I add Dark Fired kentucky. Unfortunately my favorite oriental mixers are from McClelland, so I do those pretty sparingly. Nobody has Orientals like they did.

I have no idea how to improve aromatics, because there's no way to do that except give 'em away.

LL said: " I'm still too scared to waste any tobacco." Just mix enough for a bowl and see how it goes...that way you won't lose any tobacco.

Nice move!

I generally will add strong burley tobacco (e.g., Five Brothers) to American aromatics to give them some N. I add orientals to Virginias for the incense quality and Perique to blends for the N, fruit, and pepper. Finally, I add unsweetened black Cavendish to blends that need more body and a little sweetness.

Good combo for some pipe smokers, a bit strong for Paddy!!

A kaleidoscope would be a good way to mix tobacco too.

I tried mixing a few left overs and it didn't turn out great. I may get brave some day.

I bought some granger, not knowing that it was not like the old granger. I also had some English with lite latikia. Mixed it 50/50, and it’s pretty good.

Glad you found a good English tobacco to create your own blend. Plus now you also learned the new Granger is not even close to the original. For me it’s horrendous! Let your blend marry together for 30 plus days and you’ll notice a big difference 👍👌

I made my own cigar-leaf blend by starting with a well-known, easily found, economical, "base blend" ...and then mixed in small amounts of additional, easily found, tobaccos. Make sure you start with a base-blend that you really enjoy smoking. I let the master-blenders do the hard work for me and I just mixed some named blends together, and concocted a "new" customized, blend of my own. Then for some additional interest and creaminess, I added some mild cigar-leaf, as the cherry on top!

For God's sake....write down and measure everything! I use a volume/unit measure when mixing tobaccos, and mix only small batches when experimenting. Use an old pill bottle, or a shot-glass, or a tea cup for volume/unit measuring. Measure out your base, measure out your additions, then smoke what you mixed. It won't take very long to find out what mellows, what's too harsh, what strengthens, sweetens, smells great, what bites the tongue, etc. Write every measurement down! Oh, I mentioned that point, already. I use a little book for my recipes, and comments. The quest can be fun, and if you make very small batches, it's not too expensive. For example: If you find that some English mixes are too strong, dilute them with some other milder blends.....Aros too weak, and lack interest....give them some punch with more Virginias, and a pinch of Perique (aka Va-Pers). You want more toasty-oats, add some Burleys. Seek, and ye shall smoke.

BTW, I think this forum and other pipe-smoker's forums have special threads and sections for home-blending tobaccos along with recipes/formulas, etc.

Once you create your own, "customized" mixture(s), and are happy with how it smokes, scale up the measurements and mix up a small batch. Let it mellow, and smoke away. Tobaccos are sold by the ounce/grams. Order it that way, but pay no attention to weight when mixing by volume/unit measurements. Just be consistent, and you (and others) can duplicate your own, customized recipes. It's easy if recipes are in "units".

Here's my cigar-leaf blend (for an example):

(Note: measurements are by volume/units/parts). I originally used a bottle cap for my part/unit measurements.

"PLEASANT MOMENTS" :

10-parts Lane Ltd. "HGL" (base-tobacco blend) "HGL" is an English aromatic = "Captain Black" with a little additional Latakia. (If you hate Latakia, use Lane Ltd "RPL-6" = "Captain Black")

Additions:
2-parts/units: mild cigar-leaf trimmings....chopped
2-parts: Stokkebye Cubed Burley
2-parts: Sutliff match-"Elizabethan" (va-per)

Blend/mix all tobaccos, and let mellow in a glass jar for 10-14 days. This mixture smoked, and smelled great! Love it. I also tried adding 1-part of Lane Ltd. "BCA" to the final cigar-leaf blend - for a little sweetness and a tiny bit of Vanilla. It works either way. IMO, "Pleasant Moments" is way more complex and interesting than smoking straight "HGL". Easy to smoke, stays lit, very nice for the smokers and sniffers. Not harsh, no tongue-bite.

Good luck with your endeavors....enjoy the process and results.

Frank
NYC