Adding Perique To A Sweet Aromatic Blend - What can I Expect?

ghostsofpompeii

To date my tobacco blending experience has been little more than mixing one already established blend like Sutliff's Vanilla Custard, Chocolate Mousse, and Crème Brulee together and giving it my own name. But I've never purchased bulk blending tobaccos like Perique, Latakia, Burley, or Virginias to create a truly original or unique blend. And because of my distaste for Latakia and English blends I doubt that I'll ever really explore true tobacco blending. But recently my curiosity has piqued for the blend Perique and wondered how adding a bit of Perique to the sweet aromatics I'm currently smoking would add or detract from the smoking experience. 

Curiosity got the better of me today and I pulled the trigger and ordered 4 oz. of blending Perique from P&C. So what changes ... good or bad ... might I expect by adding a touch of Perique to sweet vanilla, chocolate, or maple cased tobacco blends?

Since many may not be familiar with the Russ Ouelette Monthly blends like "Warm Up", "Spring Training", "Snow Drift" or "Candy Corn"  I commonly smoke I'll use a more familiar OTC blend like Captain Black Royal as a reference -.what changes should I expect by the addition of Perique?      

paulwansing

I tried the same thing because I ended up with a blend that was 60%-70% perique and I was not pleased with it at all (I tend to try the really strong blends so I can pick out the flavor of a specific leaf in other blends-sometimes it works like with pirate kake, sometimes it doesn't!) so because I had some aromatics leftover from the early fall that I don't really smoke during the colder months I added perique to the following:
Sutliff Black Spice-It added an awful flavor to this one, I think it wasn't sweet enough to begin with so the perique simply made it unpleasant to my tastebuds.

Russ' Blends Cavendish in the woods and Russ' candy corn-this worked out great on both blends, the perique kicked up the nic content and cut the sweetness a bit to make a richer smoke.  That is the only word I can use for it, the sweetness became richer and a more full smoke that I enjoyed

Autumn Evening-with this one I added the failed black spice mixture to and came up with a winner.  The maple in the autumn evening blended with the perique once again gave that richness to the smoke and salvaged a failed blending experiment.  I think as long as the aro is sweet enough the perique adds richness, if it isn't then it seems to get unpleasant but that may just be my taste buds.

Let us know how your blends come out and happy smoking!

ghostsofpompeii

@paulwansing Thanks Paul Glad I have a supply of Russ' Candy Corn to experiment with and see if I get the same results. The majority of my blends are on the sweet side so it sounds like I might end up with something enjoyable.

ghostsofpompeii

@paulwansing Just thought I'd post a follow-up now that's I've received my shipment of blending Perique from P&C.

I didn't waste any time after unpacking my order. I went straight to my stash of Russ' Candy Corn and did about a 3 to 1 mixture of Candy Corn to Perique to ease into it. My immediate impression is that the Perique did tone down the sweetness of the blend. And the most noticeable change was the amount of thick white smoke produced while smoking. Felt like I was operating the smoke machine at a rock concert. Unfortunately, being the lightweight I am, I felt the nic hit about 3/4 of the way through bowl. It might have hit me harder than it should because I've been dieting and cut back on my consumption of food, monitoring my calorie intake; existing mainly on salads, steamed veggies, and an occasional can of soup. So although I've been losing weight my energy level is down considerably. Which may have contributed to the queasy feeling afterward.

I'll continue experiment with different blends and change-up the amount of Perique added. This simple act makes me feel more like I'm creating my own blend since I'm blending component tobacco rather than just tossing together existing blends. I've got a can of Captain Black Black Sea coming, which will be my first experience with Latakia in quite some time, and think it might be the perfect blend for an infusion of Perique.  

paulwansing

@ghostsofpompeii I found out in a hurry that I do not posess the knowledge needed to blend perique into anything...I'll leave it to the experts!  But, I did have 6 oz that I had to use up so I did what I could.  The candy corn seemed to be my best shot, adding the perique to my Atlas Balkan was a disaster (it overpowered the entire blend and wrecked it.  My solution there was to add a small amount of Pirate Kake to each pipe to hide/mellow the perique that I added in) I see by your posts you tend to go aromatic, where I tend to go lat heavy english or straight codger burley, so I guess where I was trying to cut the swertness back you may not have wanted that outcome.  All I can say is the masters at C&D, Orlik, and Russ over at P&C are very skilled at what they do, managing to utilize something as potent and powerful as perique takes some serious skill!  Good luck on the black sea blending!

Woodsman

I fully agree, a little bit of Perique goes a looong way.

ghostsofpompeii

@woodsman I learning that the hard way. I must be adding a bit too much to each bowl because I'm getting a bit queasy after every bowl. And like I mentioned earlier ... so far all I've managed to do is pull the sweetness from most of the aromatic blends I've tried, but increased the smoke. I'm sure Perique does more than that ... at least I hope so. My next trial and error will be with a very very small amount. And if that doesn't work I'll chalk it up to experience and leave the blending to professionals.