I trimmed the edges a bit where the tobacco mushed out slightly, and cut off a strip for a test smoke. I then wrapped the plug/crumble cake tightly in some parchment paper and put it in my vintage/antique “Repeater” tobacco tin. I am debating on wether or not to vacuum seal the block tightly then drop it in some heated water in my drip coffee pot or my Ember mug to “stove” it for awhile to help meld the tobaccos. The coffee pot warmer runs at about 165F I think? My Ember can be adjusted from 120F-145F, I will have to read a bit to pick a temperature, I know there is a point that is too hot. I think the max is around that 165F of my drip pot warmer. I was planning on the coffee pot warmer, because I wasn’t sure the plug would fit in my mug, but it will👍🏻. I will use a thermometer to check my coffee pot warmer, if it is 165F or lower, I will probably use it if I decide to try “stoving”. My vacuum sealer isn’t working 100%, so I don’t know if I can suck the bag down very tightly? I think it needs to be tight, or the plug will loosen and expand…not what I want.
So, from what I have gleaned from The Google, it looks like I want to keep the temperature below 149F so as not to kill off the beneficial “little bugs” that age tobacco.
I was looking through my “cellar” rounding up tobacco samples for a co-worker who wants to try the pipe. He ordered a wood pipe smoking kit off of Amazon. It’s supposed to be either some type of rosewood, or green sandalwood (the descriptions listed both?). I rounded up 25-30 different 8 gram samples. I hauled out a jar of my homegrown that was towards the back of the cabinet. This was a jar of some whole leaf from 2016 that I had attempted to roll into cigars, but failed…I think they were rolled too tightly if I remember correctly? I disassembled them and stuffed the remnants into a mason jar. Some of the leaves (binders and wrappers) were still large enough to run through one of my Teck 1 cutters👍🏻. The tobacco has a nice sweet fruity smell. Now, off to load a pipe…which pipe is the next question.
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Looks awesome man!!