Interesting Blending Concept

[harkpuff]

I was reading through hundreds of tobacco reviews on various blends the other day and happened to be reading about one of my favorites, Carter Hall, a simple Burley/Virginia blend.
I wish I could find the exact review, but one of the reviewer's said that they like to use Carter Hall as a Burley/Virginia base and then tweek it to somewhat replicate some of his other more expensive favorite blends. His words went something like...."If you add 10% Latakia to CH you will have a very close clone to Pease blank, blank blend,... or if you add 10% Latakia and 5% Perique you will have a close clone to Samuel Gawith's blank, blank blend. And he went on with a few other recipies that could be contrived by adding a pinch of this and a percentage of that.

Since Carter Hall is a good quality leaf base and the price is right, I could see the benefit and fun of this kind of tweeking.
However, this review was obviously written by someone with much experience of the components of well known and famous blends; far far more than the novice would have.

So, I'm wondering....Those of you out there that have many years experience under your belts, could you also make some similar suggestions that could be done by starting with the simple Burley/Virginia base of Carter Hall and then tweeking it in whatever way you know to arrive at what you think would be a close clone to something. For grins, I think it would be a lot of fun to hear from a lot of you on this. It would make for some great discussion.

[DepartedLight]

50/50 CH and Solani Burley Flake is exquisite.

I call it No.328.

I'm looking at various Red VA's to use in blending fun.

I just did a CH, Red VA (bulk from LL, I think) and black cav.

Did a 50/50 base and then added 4% Black Cav. It was pretty good. Then I switched it to 60/40 CH over VA and 8% black cav. Far superior. And now I don't have any base VA product to play with.

Looking at C&D Red VA ribbon.

I dig stuff like this. Enjoy!

I don't play a lot with Perique. But my understanding is a little condimentally (3-7%) goes a long way and is quite yummy. If you like Perique.

[harkpuff]

50/50 CH and Solani Burley Flake is exquisite.

I call it No.328.

I'm looking at various Red VA's to use in blending fun.

I just did a CH, Red VA (bulk from LL, I think) and black cav.

Did a 50/50 base and then added 4% Black Cav. It was pretty good. Then I switched it to 60/40 CH over VA and 8% black cav. Far superior. And now I don't have any base VA product to play with.

Looking at C&D Red VA ribbon.

I dig stuff like this. Enjoy!

I don't play a lot with Perique. But my understanding is a little condimentally (3-7%) goes a long way and is quite yummy. If you like Perique.

Thanks for sharing this experience. When you were doing this were you aiming to match some other more expensive blend that you really like?
So I'm clear on this...when you say 60/40 do you mean 60% Carter Hall and 40% VA?

[DepartedLight]

50/50 CH and Solani Burley Flake is exquisite.

I call it No.328.

I'm looking at various Red VA's to use in blending fun.

I just did a CH, Red VA (bulk from LL, I think) and black cav.

Did a 50/50 base and then added 4% Black Cav. It was pretty good. Then I switched it to 60/40 CH over VA and 8% black cav. Far superior. And now I don't have any base VA product to play with.

Looking at C&D Red VA ribbon.

I dig stuff like this. Enjoy!

I don't play a lot with Perique. But my understanding is a little condimentally (3-7%) goes a long way and is quite yummy. If you like Perique.

Thanks for sharing this experience. When you were doing this were you aiming to match some other more expensive blend that you really like?
So I'm clear on this...when you say 60/40 do you mean 60% Carter Hall and 40% VA?

yes on the 60/40

I started the VA Burley fun to try and tone down some biting VA. Then it just got good to play with.

A few years back I played with DIY English blends. Had some good success there too.