I just tonight realized how I am destined to failure as a home blender of tobaccos. I am not depressed about it. It's just that it took me this long to know I am doomed in my attempts.
Oh, I can modify an existing blend. The Great Odyssey Experiment proves this, for me. I can kick-'em-up-a-notch. I could even purchase a fairly wide variety of blending tobaccos and make presentable smoking mixtures.
What I cannot do is replicate (bad choice of word) better blends. Meaning. I cannot get more than the most very basic oriental tobaccos.
So, I get my lemon Virginia, my bronze Virginia, some latakia (which I think there may be many different grades/types/etc.), some Turkish. Even the Turkish available for blending looks like it's often a blend itself. I reach for orientals...I am lost. Where do I get my hands on a variety of orientals? Basma, Izmir, Yenidje, and all the other orientals I have never heard of. Where do I look for toasted Virginias? Just what is toasting, as the term was used by Dunhill?
You see my problem. I cannot get the spice or condiment tobaccos. Nor can I replicate a process at home that I know virtually nothing about. All I can do is pester Craig and try to get him to blend something for me. In the hopes he can understand what I am asking for in my limited knowledge of the subject.
I am so doomed.
Oh, I can modify an existing blend. The Great Odyssey Experiment proves this, for me. I can kick-'em-up-a-notch. I could even purchase a fairly wide variety of blending tobaccos and make presentable smoking mixtures.
What I cannot do is replicate (bad choice of word) better blends. Meaning. I cannot get more than the most very basic oriental tobaccos.
So, I get my lemon Virginia, my bronze Virginia, some latakia (which I think there may be many different grades/types/etc.), some Turkish. Even the Turkish available for blending looks like it's often a blend itself. I reach for orientals...I am lost. Where do I get my hands on a variety of orientals? Basma, Izmir, Yenidje, and all the other orientals I have never heard of. Where do I look for toasted Virginias? Just what is toasting, as the term was used by Dunhill?
You see my problem. I cannot get the spice or condiment tobaccos. Nor can I replicate a process at home that I know virtually nothing about. All I can do is pester Craig and try to get him to blend something for me. In the hopes he can understand what I am asking for in my limited knowledge of the subject.
I am so doomed.