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.
