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I've seen a lot of stuff recently talking about letting tobacco dry out before stuffing the pipe. I've heard this about flavored aromatics, but not in terms of non-aromatic blends. Is this something you all do with non-aromatics? If so, how dry is to dry?
For every kind of tobacco, every time I smoke, I remove the amount I’m going to smoke and put it on a tray (more precisely I put it on an insurance advertisement postcard I’ve been using for years, it’s easier to get the crumbs off into my pipe than any of my trays) and let it dry for at least 15 minutes. Longer if the humidity is higher in the room. If it’s something I’m going to rub out, I do that before I set it out to dry. Even when a tobacco seems on the dry side I do this. I like to let some air get to the tobacco. I don’t have a real rule for how dry is enough, I just kind of go from experience. I tend to prefer the way most tobacco smokes on the dryer side.Â
If you put too much out some and there was still there the next day. Would you still smoke it? I want to give this a try, but I think I let it sit out too long and it's too dry.Â
Take just the tobacco you can need for one bowl. If you took more than you ned, put it back into the jar. If the tobacco dried too much, you can also put again into the jar. The rest of the tobacco won´t mind lending it a bit of it´s moisture.
In my opinion, the perfect point is when you touch the tobacco and doubt if it is dry or not, just dry, not dessert bone dry.
Pick up a small amount of tobacco with your fingertips and make a little ball. If once done the ball, it keeps it´s size, the tobacco is wet. If the little ball tends to grow, that's the point, but if it breaks or even worse, it turns into dust, the tobacco is bone dry.
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As @Juan José Pascual Lobo said, if I ended up with more than a bowl full when I dried it, I just toss the extra back in the jar.Â
I concur with my comrades above 😊
I always take a bowl’s worth of tobacco out of the jar and place it on my leather mat. I’ve got surprisingly good at judging this, though I say so myself! 😄 If, on a rare occasion, I take out too much, I just put it back in the jar. It will regain some moisture from the tobacco that surrounds it.
I usually spread the tobacco out on my mat (flakes I always rub out) and leave it for 15 minutes. Some tobacco requires longer and it always depends on the heat and humidity of the room. I handle the tobacco to determine whether it’s ready, with my limited experience as my guide.
This is the mat where I spread the tobacco before packing. Half a DIN A4 white paper. It's smell is lovely and maybe I'll smoke it next year when it gets black.
Although I have a fancy sterling silver tray and a few trays made just for this purpose, this is what I always grab.Â
Some great information. I have a little metal rolling tray from some other activities that is to small but perfect for tobacco. I gave it a try with some navy flake yesterday, strange how much more fragrant it seemed after sitting for 15 minutes
Not strange because flavors and aromas develop in presence of air. You can make this experiment. Open a bottle of wine, serve a cup, smell it and immediately drink a sip. Let the cup of wine air 10-15 minutes, smell again and drink. The difference is notorious. I listened many people, not precisely wine experts, say that they like better the second half of the bottle, and they are right. Air helped wine to develop it´s potential. Same happens with tobacco, needs aeration.
As a returning pipe smoker {after many years} I'm also looking to learn. As for drying your tobacco, according to TheSpurgeonPiper - try pinching a wad in your fingers -between your thumb,index and middle fingers- then release it, if it stays clumped together then it's still to moist, but if it seperates then it's good to go. Hope this helps
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