Pebble Castle Special Reserve

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Ozark Wizard

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So a couple of weeks back I mixed up a batch of P.C. While I was at it, I played with a variation of the blend to better suit my tastes. Don't get me wrong, Pebble Castle is fine enough to me, but occasionally it hit me with the same 'pencil shaving' taste I get from Pebblecut by McClelland. Not a bad thing, just a bit distracting at times. Possibly the Basma tobacco component. Well, I took that out of this batch and used Izmir in it's place, so double the amount of Izmir that I normally use. It removed the 'pencil shaving' taste, and brought out more seared butter action. Good, but it could be better. Added a pinch more Yenidji. Now it's pretty 'bright'. Hmph. Bright is nice, but it belongs with citrusy Ginnies. Plus I tend toward dark, brooding blends. More perique. Ended up being 15 percent of the total weight of the batch more by the time it smelled right to me....

I will say it has a bit more oomph. The first bowl out of the press was like stuffing a small box of raisins in my mouth at once and chewing them dry. The extra Yenidji grabbed the fruit and brought out more of the Ginnies grass. Oh, and that warm buttery note was so nice. No more shavings. Four bowls in now, and it's been consistent.

I'm going to hit it again now, took a couple of days off it to rest my taste buds. Tonight when I find time I'll try to post a picture of the coins I cut it into.

The batch produced three 100gm jars, three 50gm jars, and 47gm loose in a ziplock bag for my pocket.

It might be another dead end, but I like it better than the P.C.  Huh!
 
Sounds like you have " an I hit the jackpot " blend you created for yourself to enjoy. Creating your own special blends is part of the enjoyment of smoking a pipe. Put at least a year age on that and you will taste the difference. So, enjoy some now and later :cheers::cheers::cheers:






KEEP ON PUFFING!!!
 
Sounds scrumptious Oz, will have to get myself some Izmir then for my own attempts at blending. I got some generic oriental blending tobacco that was quite buttery, so I'm presuming it had a fairly high Izmir content. Think it was C&D's baccy.

I was wondering what gave the buttered toast flavour profile and thanks to the Wiz, I now do.

Cheers

Tim
 
Can't think how you might improve on the original PC Ozzie. It's a classic blend right now and will only improve with age. Yet I'll be interested to get your take on the new blend when the components have melded a bit.


Cheers,

RR
 
Here are the pics. The coins are actually half inch thick pucks, each weighing around 25gm. I think the close up will be my new desk top background for a while.... :D





 
ooh now that looks appetising, well done OW that's some serious blending skills

sadly I counted the pucks, there's more tobacco there in your experiment than my whole cellar lol (I use the word cellar very loosely of course)

think I may need to become more "dedicated" in the coming months

enjoy in good health sir
 
That's some good looking baccy. Good to know information on the orientals too. I was seriously considering growing Basma but the Izmer sounds like a much better choice.

Jim
 
Basma that I've had is a bit 'zingier', almost like Yenidji, but softer. At least to my tastes. It was described to me as having floral notes, but I have yet to discern that. Izmir has a rather distinct flavor profile with the butter note forward. I've mixed it with some of the Cyprian Latakia blends that were a bit too intense for me and it helped take the raw edge off. One can readily acquire whole leaf Izmir from Leafonly.com or Wholeleaftobacco.com. I forgot which of those sites also offer seeds so one could grow your own, but as I live pretty far inland it seems to change the way the plant turns out. The soil here on the mountain is poor enough, but I think ocean air has an effect on how the plant assimilates moisture through osmosis and how it air cures. The few plants I grew last year were different than what I purchased. Almost more 'woody' than buttery when burned.. Leafonly has Izmir for $14 a pound (USD).

For our UK/EU Brothers out there, you have until April 1st to order before they cannot ship there any more due to new regulations. If any of you folks are curious about attempting blending your own or trying a recipe of mine, shoot me a PM and get your leaf ordered up! One can't beat the pricing!
 
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