Irish Oak

A Virginia Perique Blend with Burley and a hint of oak.

Recipe created for /r/mixersclub. Become a member today :)

Whenever I’m setting out to do a plain tobacco recipe, I’ll usually have the general idea in my mind, and search through tobacco reviews to kind of fill in all the blanks. For this month’s submission, I googled “Irish Tobacco” and hit up this page for Peterson Irish Oak. Tobaccoreviews.com is a really great source for inspiration because people that take the time to write reviews for Pipe tobaccos usually use some great descriptions for what they’re tasting, and the reviews are sorted by “most helpful.” So you usually get some ConcreteRiver level reviews at the top.

I’ll read the top three or four reviews and start thinking of flavors that fit the description.

A freshly opened tin reveals tangy woody and dry grass aromas with an upfront sweetness and background pepper note.

So right off the bat I’m thinking FA Oak Wood (woody), INW TA Virginia (grass), INW TA Garuda (sweetness), and INW Black for Pipe and FA Black Pepper (pepper.)

The flavour builds down the bowl, and mid-bowl the smoke transforms into more nutty and wood-like flavours. Overall the flavour is dominated by Virignia and Burley, but it is very much a unique blend (and I wouldn't say this is a classic Va-Per). The perique is detectable and adds spice but the taste overall is dry-nuttier...

Alright, so we are going to need a nutty Burley and probably give that Virginia a little boost. I’ve been messing around lately with mixing HS No. 5 with FLV Red Burley to create a toasted, nutty Burley. So that’ll get added to the list. FLV Virginia is a nice sweet Virginia that will give a bit more depth to the TA Virginia (in my submission to mixersclub I used INW Sunset Virginia, which I’m really liking, but my first version that used FLV Virginia is really good, and it’s a more common flavor.) I’m also thinking the Black for Pipe/Pepper should be quite low, so it doesn’t overpower the Virginia and burley.

All this is from the first review, and I’ve mostly got it figured out. The reviews after I will start playing around with the ratios and maybe seeing if someone got something completely different that I maybe should consider adding.

If there is burley present, it's blended harmoniously as I don't pick it up as a dominant or distinct flavor.

Uh oh, is there a strong Burley note or not?! Should I drop it? Better read more. Scroll through and see “nutty” mentioned a couple more times and feel safe to keep it in there. There’s really only so much you can get from a few reviews, and eventually you’ll have to start making decisions based on how you want the mix to taste. I’ve been in a Burley mood lately, so my Irish Oak is gonna have some gosh darn nutty Burley.

Anyways, figured I’d throw out a little bit of my mixing technique when it comes to trying to create a real tobacco profile. In case anyone ever wants to give it a whirl.

Subs: HS Virginia and INW Virginia are both fairly similar to FLV Virginia. INW I would keep the 1.5%, HS I would go 2-2.5%. INW Sunset Virginia at 2% is also pretty nice, and has a bit of a nutty flavor to it that compliments the Burley.

If you don’t have FA Black Pepper, you can try FA Perique Black at .15-.2%. Or bump the Black for Pipe up to .8% and add .15% FLV Heat.

If you don’t have HS No. 5, get it. In the meantime, turn that Red Burley up to 1.3%.