A friend sent me a s*itload of "Peretti's Oriental #40" in which I had expressed an interest. Good grief! Over the top doesn't even begin to describe this stuff. It's touted as being entirely Oriental...Latakia is one...the others aren't specified. Now, I've smoked a lot of blends and generally can 'take it' with the most stoic of you guys, but this stuff was too much. Too much flavor...too much intensity, but not particularly high in Vit. N. Dang! Well, the guy that sent it made the comment that if I didn't like it straight, it might make a good blender. Hmmmm. It did strike me that as a purely Oreintal blend it did kind of lend itself of a mating of some kind. So I laid awake a few nights pondering and decided on a few different approaches, right or wrong.
Approach #1: Pick a tobacco or blend to pair it with entirely by intuition...gut feeling. Don't ask me why, but I had this feeling that something equally strong, but unique in it's own way just might allow for an effective interplay of flavors. Again, don't ask me how or why cause even now it still seems nuts...but I fell asleep while thinking about doing the project and I drempt of Russ Oulette's "Lakeland Brickle Fortissimo" - one of my favorite 'fun blends'...with it's odd combination of flavors...decribed as "a fuller-bodied blend with dark air-cured, dark fire-cured and Perique with a richer flavor including juniper, lavender and clove." No, I don't often dream about pipe tobaccos...but I do tend to have vivid dreams while trying to resolve some kind of issue. So...what the heck. How bad can it be? Little did I know!
Approach #2: Pick a blend that would 'soften' the intensity...and sweeten it overall...to mute it. This might include one or more component tobaccos known to be effective with Orientals.
I chose two directions here. First was a VA/Per blend...the second was a Burley/Per blend. To be fair I wanted the perique level in both to be about equal (at least to me). So the difference was the base tobaccos. OK cut me some slack. Sure there's more that is different...but this is a first step. Anyway...this is a bit more thoughtfull approach, based on specific attributes instead of some out of the ether 'feelings'. So here I picked C&D's "Night Train" as the VA/Per and "Exhausted Rooster" as the Burley/Per.
Also...to get my toe in the water I decided to make all the blends the same mix ratio...set at 1:1. The blends were made according to volume as opposed to weight. The blends that were in Krumble Kaka form (actually, all of them except for the Peretti blend) were broken up and fully rubbed prior to mixing. No time was allowed for melding of any of that girly kind of stuff...they were consumed immediatley, in the manly manner. lol
Results? Yes, there were results. Strange...mystical things happened. Tongues were burned. Eyes watered. Foundational preconceptions were shattered. Yadda, yadda, yadda.
The Burley thing was the worst in a pile of evil results. Muddy. Throat clenchingly hideous. The pipe eventually got up and walked out. Well, you get the idea. Not a winner.
Second place looser goes to Night Train with it's predicted winning VA base and Perique condiments. Trying to sort out the tastes...I think the VA was an OK base to work from, the the perique forward aspect was just not working. Even though the Peretti #40 was VERY Latakia forward in flavor and predicted to hold up well, the two fought like cats and...other cats.
The least of the loosers? Well, there wasn't one as the third trial was, IMHO, a stunning success. The Fortissimo with it's Juniper' Lavender and Clove against a base of Biurley, Kentucky, VA and perique??? It was KILLER! Amazing! The mixed bases were there as a foundation while the Oulette's Lakeland flavors were still in and out...like eager three-year olds running in and out of the room squeeling and laughing. This against the Latakia which was always there, more or less like the foundation from the four from the other side, forming a kind of flavor base. The Orientals? Without knowing what they are (and it's a secret folks!) it's hard to know how they did with the other 'kids on the playground'. I'll just say the the overall effect was barely contain chaos...super intense flavors...interesting, very interesting. So much going on that it was hard to sort it all out. But that's a very good thing! It was wild, but good and invited further trial. Which I absolutely intend doing.
OH - and the trials were performed using either a Freehand or 'reduced height' General MM Cob...both wearing Walker Forever Stems.
All this brought something home in a big way. Not only is blending (and don't think I consider myself a blender by any means) a matter of science...of analysis and ratios and carefully weighed characteristics. It's also a matter of intuition...perhaps even the stuff of dreams! lol
Approach #1: Pick a tobacco or blend to pair it with entirely by intuition...gut feeling. Don't ask me why, but I had this feeling that something equally strong, but unique in it's own way just might allow for an effective interplay of flavors. Again, don't ask me how or why cause even now it still seems nuts...but I fell asleep while thinking about doing the project and I drempt of Russ Oulette's "Lakeland Brickle Fortissimo" - one of my favorite 'fun blends'...with it's odd combination of flavors...decribed as "a fuller-bodied blend with dark air-cured, dark fire-cured and Perique with a richer flavor including juniper, lavender and clove." No, I don't often dream about pipe tobaccos...but I do tend to have vivid dreams while trying to resolve some kind of issue. So...what the heck. How bad can it be? Little did I know!
Approach #2: Pick a blend that would 'soften' the intensity...and sweeten it overall...to mute it. This might include one or more component tobaccos known to be effective with Orientals.
I chose two directions here. First was a VA/Per blend...the second was a Burley/Per blend. To be fair I wanted the perique level in both to be about equal (at least to me). So the difference was the base tobaccos. OK cut me some slack. Sure there's more that is different...but this is a first step. Anyway...this is a bit more thoughtfull approach, based on specific attributes instead of some out of the ether 'feelings'. So here I picked C&D's "Night Train" as the VA/Per and "Exhausted Rooster" as the Burley/Per.
Also...to get my toe in the water I decided to make all the blends the same mix ratio...set at 1:1. The blends were made according to volume as opposed to weight. The blends that were in Krumble Kaka form (actually, all of them except for the Peretti blend) were broken up and fully rubbed prior to mixing. No time was allowed for melding of any of that girly kind of stuff...they were consumed immediatley, in the manly manner. lol
Results? Yes, there were results. Strange...mystical things happened. Tongues were burned. Eyes watered. Foundational preconceptions were shattered. Yadda, yadda, yadda.
The Burley thing was the worst in a pile of evil results. Muddy. Throat clenchingly hideous. The pipe eventually got up and walked out. Well, you get the idea. Not a winner.
Second place looser goes to Night Train with it's predicted winning VA base and Perique condiments. Trying to sort out the tastes...I think the VA was an OK base to work from, the the perique forward aspect was just not working. Even though the Peretti #40 was VERY Latakia forward in flavor and predicted to hold up well, the two fought like cats and...other cats.
The least of the loosers? Well, there wasn't one as the third trial was, IMHO, a stunning success. The Fortissimo with it's Juniper' Lavender and Clove against a base of Biurley, Kentucky, VA and perique??? It was KILLER! Amazing! The mixed bases were there as a foundation while the Oulette's Lakeland flavors were still in and out...like eager three-year olds running in and out of the room squeeling and laughing. This against the Latakia which was always there, more or less like the foundation from the four from the other side, forming a kind of flavor base. The Orientals? Without knowing what they are (and it's a secret folks!) it's hard to know how they did with the other 'kids on the playground'. I'll just say the the overall effect was barely contain chaos...super intense flavors...interesting, very interesting. So much going on that it was hard to sort it all out. But that's a very good thing! It was wild, but good and invited further trial. Which I absolutely intend doing.
OH - and the trials were performed using either a Freehand or 'reduced height' General MM Cob...both wearing Walker Forever Stems.
All this brought something home in a big way. Not only is blending (and don't think I consider myself a blender by any means) a matter of science...of analysis and ratios and carefully weighed characteristics. It's also a matter of intuition...perhaps even the stuff of dreams! lol
