So you think you're a blender?

[mark]

Pipesandcigars "my own blend."

  Choose your tobaccos and create your special blend.

Might bring out the mad scientist in you.

I just thought this is pretty neat.

 

[DrumsAndBeer]

Minimum 8-ounces...Try not to screw up your first batch.   

 

[SteveS]

I've been doing a lot of thinking on this subject and a certain amount of experiment already ... it's as though they read my mind !

I'll be giving this a try ...

 

[Fight'n Hampsters]

I saw this the other day in the catalog they sent me and thought it was pretty cool. I would have no idea what I was doing and would probably create something pretty rancid.

BTW this and the toby of the month club are some really cool things that P&C has come out with since being bought out. I was skeptical of how it would go but so far I am impressed.

 

[Buckshot]

BTW  this and the toby of the month club are some really cool things that P&C has come out with since being bought out.  I was skeptical of how it would go but so far I am impressed.

I agree!

 

[Steveaux]

It's a pretty interesting concept, but a little pricey.

The blend I came up with, using P&C's Blending Tobaccos, has a component cost of $24.96 / 8 oz.

If I order the components, they still have to pick/weigh them. That leaves $7.04 for shaking the bag and applying a label with my blend name on it.

Just my cheapskate nature at work.

  

 

[d4klutz]

I tried to make a blend, but they only do whole ounces and a max of 4 tobaccos. If they let you have a bit more flexability, i might be inclined to try it. I have my own bits and pieces blend that is pretty good. I wanted to try to reproduce it, but too few options.

 

[Blackhorse]

Hmmm. Both Cornell &Diehl and McClelland have LOTS of different blending tobaccos that are available pretty much at all the usual suspects. I strongly recommend that you try your hand. I've done it on a number of occasions. It's an excellent exercise in developing respect and  humility. Respect for the years of training and/or experience decent blenders have behind them...and humility in the knowledge that I'm going to leave it to them since I really do like blends that are flavored with the spark of genius instead of mud. lol

But hey! You're likely WAY better at it that I am. I find it hard to imagine anyone being worse!

Blackhorse Blending Notes:

1. Throwing nice, neat percentages of this-n-that into a tub and mixing well will usually produce mud. No problem. We all have mooch friends.
2.  Nothing whatever wrong with blind luck! I'd gladly accept it...but it doesn't seem to like me except in the area of friendships. Those are more valuable anyway.
3. Perique does really, really weird things in blends. Twice as much can often taste half as strong. What's up with that? I think St. James Parrish is actually like the Area 54 of tobacco stuff...weird...alien...etc.
4. Adjusting a favorite blend is fun and a good learning exercise. You get to see how little 'other' tobacco it takes to ruin a perfectly good blend.
5. It's a fundamental law of pipe blends that you can actually screw up a good blend through ignorant tampering and adjusting faster than a new shipment of Penzance or Stonehaven will sell out at your favorite online vendor.

For my pipe tobacco dollar the best blender out there is John Patton. He doesn't do it any more, but the one's he's done are classics that not only are unique, both bold in flavor and subtle in their complexity and blended fairly dry of top quality leaf by 4 N's. But then we all have our druthers.

 

[Thomas Tkach]

It's a pretty interesting concept, but a little pricey.

The blend I came up with, using P&C's Blending Tobaccos, has a component cost of $24.96 / 8 oz.

If I order the components, they still have to pick/weigh them. That leaves $7.04 for shaking the bag and applying a label with my blend name on it.

Just my cheapskate nature at work.

  

My thoughts exactly. And the 8 oz minimum is pretty high.

 

[MisterE]

It's way harder than you'd think, that's for sure. Even following instructions to recreate a blend you know is a crap shoot. It's always different. Frustratingly so.

BH is right. I leave it to the dudes who know.

That said, some of my best creations have been from putting together some of the many mystery tobaccos I have around. My latest one was PS Balkan Supreme (perhaps Proper English, it is a mystery after all) with a pinch of C&D Old Joe Krantz. It really worked.

Then there's the "Hobo Blend". That's just a collection of all your leftover tobaccos thrown together.  :cheers:

Good luck to those who are giving blending a shot!

 

[joshoowah]

P&C's campaign to blend your tobacco really is not practical at all, that is, unless you already know every component of a blend you've already created. If anyone is seriously interested in the venture, buy some blending tobacco and make a blend in as little increments as you can. It is way more cost effective.

 

[mark]

If anyone is worried about the money they shouldn't play. I think it's a unique offering to have someone custom make a half pound or more to a specific recipe considering the cost of labor nowdays. Whether or not it generates massive interest or increased sales for them I give them credit for making it available.

 

[DoverPipes]

Not really happy with the four component limit....... :evil: 

 

[mark]

Not really happy with the four component limit....... :evil: 

When I read of the four tobacco limit I thought you'd be on the warpath. Wonder what it would take for them to cut you loose in their blending room for an hour.  :bounce: 

 

[DoverPipes]

Not really happy with the four component limit....... :evil: 

When I read of the four tobacco limit I thought you'd be on the warpath. Wonder what it would take for them to cut you loose in their blending room for an hour.  :bounce: 

I have been with Russ at his former shop (Habana Premium) and I did in fact, give some  of my "creations" to critique. He was very kind and gave me some ideas on how to make them "better" (Have more appeal to others. I geared the blends to my tastes. Not towards what would be "popular").

Russ did like the blend where I used the dark fired  burley that you had sent years ago... :king: 

I also ran a few of my burley blends by John Patton. He too found them to be decent. He wanted to know the proportions & components. I never told him because I wasn't overly serious about competing on the market..........

 

[idbowman]

It looks like a very cool idea...I think the prices are fair for what's going on, and I think an 8oz minimum is also fair - in and of itself.  The only hangup I have is that it looks like you can't use fractions of ounces in your recipe.

So Let's say I wanted to order half a pound of a creation that would ideally be 2.5oz "a", 2.5oz "b" and 3oz "c"...I can't do it.  To be able to get what I'm looking for, I have to order a pound (5oz+5oz+6oz).  This could really get significant if you're only looking for a small, condimental amount of something like, say, Perique.  If the minimum is 1oz of a component blend, you have to have a total weight of a pound to get down to a 6% Perique.  So you're talking 60 bucks to buy a pound of something that you've dreamed up but never actually tested.  Now...is $60 a good chunk for a pound of tobacco? It's on the high end but not at all unfair, all things considered.  But I think it is quite a bit for a pound of something you've dreamed up but no one has actually tried.

I'm sure this idea will be a huge hit, and they'll develop more ideas as time goes on - I just hope smaller increments is something they toy with down the line  (even if it never gets smaller than 1/2 ounces, that'd be a big step, IMHO).

 

[JParker]

I just gave it a try... Guess I'll find out if its good or not when it gets here.

1 x Yellow Virginia
3 x Toasted Burley
3 x White Burley
1 x Oriental