Tweaking your Tobacco

Londy3

Hey guys, just a question on how or if you tweak the taste of some of your tobaccos. This will likely be the aromatics you smoke. I have added bourbon to a bourbon blend to enhance it further. I have it now aging for a bit but it does smell good. 
What about other blends like vanilla? Has anyone ever added more real vanilla extract to a blend? Does this work? Has anyone experimented with doing this sort of thing? If you did, please describe what you did.

ghostsofpompeii

I do it all the time, even on tobacco I like just the way it is. Experimenting with blending tobaccos is one of my favorite parts of the hobby. It makes pipe smoking interactive. Nine time out of ten my blending combinations are somewhere between mediocre to so-so, but on occasion I get a combination that's a bona fide Home Run. I bought several Watkins food grade flavorings such as vanilla, root beer, anise, caramel, rum, orange, and mint for experiments as you suggest. As well as using liquor to intensify the flavor of blends. I tried adding run to a rum flavored "Out Of Office" blend from Pipes & Cigars and it actually helped. But my experiments with liquor don't fare as well as with the food grade flavorings. I made a Root Beer Float and Dreamsickle blend that after a little aging ended up tasting wonderful. Had I used a better tobacco blend to start with it might even be better - but I used an ancient can of Velvet as the tobacco for the experiments. Next time I'll go with something like Carter Hall as the base tobacco because it's cheap enough that I don't mind experimenting with - and it's a much better stand alone tobacco than Velvet. 

Londy3

Cool. I just got some locally blended stuff in Charlotte and I want to increase the vanilla flavor. It's just to faint. I will use my extract and see how it works. Thanks

motie2

@Londy3 -- Yes. I did a lot of this back in the day: Rum, vanilla extract, even red wine (added to Balkan Sobranie). As long as one didn't go overboard and as long as the additive was evenly distributed, and you gave it time to dry, it almost always had pleasant results.

Londy3

@motie2, why only back in the day? I know there are a lot of good blends out there but, some also over rated. Sometimes you buy those to try and they are just ok at best. Don't wanna waste it so I'm trying to make it better. 

PhilosoPiper

I can't speak much for Aromatic blends. However, I have found that other tobaccos can have their flavors enhanced by letting them age for a couple of years.

motie2

And, it should be noted, aromatics are not good candidates for cellaring.aging/

motie2

@Londy3 -- It occurs to me that I have found liquor to be a more effective tobacco flavorant than extracts, which are difficult to evenly distribute unless much diluted, and then what's the point? For vanilla I have used a liquor called 43 which is a vanilla liquor (duh). It worked just fine. Note: I have found a tightly sealed jar sitting in the sun is the best way to evenly distribute the moisture or flavorant added to the tobacco therein. Cool naturally -- not in the fridge; be patient -- before opening. And then access condition of contents either by drying or remoistening, or by lighting up a bowl. 

buflosab

I smoke only aromatic,have a tendency to throw them all together and see what happens.Maybe should be a bit more selective in how I mix.

ghostsofpompeii

@buflosab It not so much about being more selective when experimenting, it's keeping track of what blends you're using and the amounts you use in each mixture just in case you come upon a real winner. It's best to write things down should you want to duplicate a blend. 

Woodsman

Using a base of Black Cavendish soaked twice with Madiera and adding a little Latakia and/or Perique. Yes on the Latakia, no on the Perique.

KA9FFJ

This is a very interesting thread. Never thought of adding extract or liquor to enhance some of my tobaccos... Now where did I put that jar of Vanilla? I feel an experiment coming on...