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New to tins
WookieeJake
Newcomer
I've been enjoying the pipe now for a little over a year. I've only smoked "house" blends from local tobacconists but I recently bought a tin of Drew Estates Harvest on Hudson. The house blends that I had been purchasing were fairly moist, and that's what I got used to. However, when I opened the Drew Estates tin, I found that it was dramatically drier. It wasn't crumbling or turning to dust when handled, but it was drier than what I'm used to. My question is; is this normal? It still smokes well and tastes amazing (a much more subtle flavor than the house blends I'm used to). I'm just curious if I need to add some moisture or not.
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Jake, it really depends on the blend. Some blends are heavily cased with propylene glycol, and will hold quite a bit of moisture. House blends of the aromatic variety tend to be heavily cased, but not always. Again, it all depends on the blend.
When drying my tobacco prior to smoking, I like it slightly crispy, but not so dry as to have it crumble to dust during the process of loading a bowl. Depending on the particular blend you are smoking, you will learn your preferred ideal moisture content for that blend through trial and error
Some blends in particular, such as the Sam Gawith flakes, need additional drying time, because they tend to hold extra moisture, even though they are not heavily cased with propylene glycol.
Dutch and Pompeii, thanks fellas. I really appreciate the input. I do like the aromatics, but I'm trying to see what all is out there; taste a little bit of everything. Really glad a stumbled on this forum.
I find that house blends are moister than blends in tins, but that could be due to most house blends being more on the aromatic side of things. The dryness of blends in tins doesn't bother me, since I prefer my tobaccos being more on the dryer side.
You can always by a little coin humidifier to stick in your tins. Your local tobacconist should sell them alongside the little pipe knickknacks like pipe tools and reamers. You could place the tin contents in a mason jar and stick the coin in there to hydrate them a bit, but that's up to you.
I find tobaccos from McClellands and Cornell & Diehl have more moisture to them from how they're tinned compared to other companies. You should check their tins out if you'd prefer to have blends with more moisture in them.