Blackhorse":jmsmf8hi said:
Keep in mind that almost every flake started out it's life as a plug...and then the factory put it through the slicer. Are the flakes different than it would have been as a plug. Not many ways to tell except with the Gawith stuff, which is availabe both ways in a few cases. Some swear that Dark Plug and Dark Flake are different in flavor and in how they behave...maybe. If they are, it's subtle fer sure.
I have a feeling, so far unproven, that cakes age differently from slices. My hypothesis is that the core of the cake will begin anaerobic fermentation early in the process, and that the leaf will hit a greater level of maturity sooner in this form than in ribbon form. I'll be observing this by slicing and rubbing out half a block, and storing it under identical conditions with the other half left whole.
It might turn out to be a small difference. Whatever happens, observing the way JackKnife ages may well end up changing the way I look at the whole process of aging, in general. (There has been a lot written, some of it by me, that I'm finding questionable, incomplete, or even wildly inaccurate. Some of my stated speculations have been adopted as truth—never a good idea.
)
The thing about a plug and why (to me) it's different than flakes is (pretty obviously)...control. YOU control the thickness of the slice...or the shred, or whatever. Again...take a plug and either slice it thin or thick (which changes the burn rate...and to me this is the thing too...when outside in either calm or windy conditions, you can adapt the tobacco to burn the way you want it to. Some guys cube cut it. Some guys do either of the above and then either rub it out or put it in a small food processor and ZAP it till it's the correct size in bits and pieces. CONTROL. FIDDLING. PLAYING. RITUAL.
Yes! I've been playing with this only for a few weeks, yet it's already become a source of fascination. Slice it thick, and cut it into cubes, or make medium slices, and loosely rub it out, or slice it thin and turn it into shag. It's remarkable how different the same tobacco can taste when prepared differently. Your words deserve repeating. CONTROL. FIDDLING. PLAYING. RITUAL.
It's part of what pipe smoking is all about!