Burley seeds - the normal way

I do not have good luck with the method I used to grow my Burley seeds: in a wet plastic container and later translated to a soil.

However, I use a normal method: seeds in a little container, with some soil wet, and covered by the top for a plastic film.

This is the result after 15 days using this method.

I have three of this reused plastic containers, coffee used. I plan to use the method I read from a lot of sources: let in grow until a solid leaf, and remove the weak plants. 

I only need one plant to got seeds. Next year, everything will be more easy.  

Original mapacho leaf

Harvested from an old shaman, from the shores of Oaxaca. With a Missouri Meerschaum Country Gentleman.

Tabaco BURLEY - Cotiledones

El pasado 21 de julio, coloqué en un contenedor plástico algunas semillas de tabaco Burley que me compartieron. No más de 30 semillas me entregaron, y arrojé las mismas con la esperanza de que conseguir al menos una planta desde la cual consiga semilla y pueda hacer más experimentos orgánicos.

Diez días después, este es el resultado. Más de la mitad de las mismas han "despertado". Ya aparecen el par de hojas llamadas "cotiledones" que indican el nacimiento de la nueva planta, con los nutrientes que le aporta la semilla.

Micro-cotiledones de tabaco, diez días después de haber sido colocados en humedad.  

La luna nueva vendrá pronto, ojalá y el crecimiento de la misma apoye  estas nuevas plantas de Burley y aunque estamos a mitad de verano, aprovechemos que en Querétaro, el verano se prolonga a veces hasta noviembre. Aún restan tres meses para ello. 

Tabaco Virginia ORGÁNICO - 1 Transplante

Hace 19 días, coloqué en un contenedor plástico, una servilleta humedecida y encima, microscópicas semillas de tabaco Virginia. Desde hace cerca de nueve días, las semillas han germinado.



Hoy, por fin las coloqué en vasos de unicel - conseguidos en el lugar donde trabajo, "desperdicios" de otras personas.



La mezcla de suelo fue un poco de arena de río, tierra "negra", humus de lombriz y agua de lluvia (que a veces colecto usando las botellas de refresco o agua que muchos arrojan por las calles; otra vez, los desperdicios de otros).

Ya se sabe, las semillas de tabaco son microscópicas, y así sus plantulas apenas germinadas. Se advierte que en este contenedor hay TRES plantulas. (¡Sirve de prueba de agudeza visual!)

Un poco de agua pulverizada por encima, y las dejaré en una habitación tibia, a veces bastante cálida. En total coloqué CINCO vasos de unicel con un agujero en la base, para el drenado. Algunos recomiendan colocar los vasos en una bandeja con agua para mantener la humedad. Tal vez lo haga con un par de los vasos, y los otros los deje así. En total, estoy germinando 13 semillas. Veremos de ellas cuántas llegan a ser una planta en forma. 

Mi pretensión es tener al menos una planta con flores para tener más semilla (si este experimento no funciona, tendré que conseguir más de ellas. Apenas me compartieron unas cuantas, mismas que he agotado). Y hacer experimentos. Lo que es fundamental, no utilizar ningún producto químico a guisa de fertilizante o de control de plaga. 

Chupar faros

I'm a lucky men.

I don't like its taste. A few puffs and the back of my tongue has a horrible taste who last until I washed my mouth with toothbrush. 

I was a kid and I remember old men, peasents alike (with hat and overall) just lefting the bus. With a peaceful walking, they open one of his pockets, and pick up the Faros cigarretes package. They smoke with so a pleasure, that as far as today that images still live on my memory. 

Faros - still - is a popular cigarretes brand. Some people still says, as a synonymous of "passed away": "uf, ese hombre ya chupó Faros" (Oh, than men already sucks Faros!). The tradition says that in the Revolution times (1910 decade), a lot of people was executed using fusiliers. Then, as a "last wish" some of them ask for a cigarrete. Faros was - still it is - a popular and cheap brand. So, most of people carry a package of it. And a lot of people smoked a Faro cigarrete as the last event on his/her life.  

Tabacalera Mexicana, and the same iconic logo of the brand. Upside, the warning that Faros is not a product for rats!

A comparison of the sizes using a Cohiba cigarretes box.

Same comparison using a popular Coke!

The traditional package contains only 14 cigarretes, and unfiltered cigars. Today, no more 14 pouch is available, and it exists a filtered pouch. 

Pain in my soul reading that tobacco, a herb that emerges from Mexico in the XV century, has the authorization of the "Phillips Morris Company".

And here, a video broadcasted in Mexico in the 80's, ending with a Spanish rime

FarOS, 

son re buenos y nada carOS.

(Faros, they are so good, and non expensive)

Unión - Yerba mate

Otra de las yerbas que se puede conseguir en Querétaro, es la que podemos encontrar en Liverpool, por MX$99. (US$5)

La yerba no engaña: suave. Nada comparado a la Taragüi roja - la azul me pareció con demasiado polvo.

Otro problema adicional es que, aunque dice que es "con palo", la realidad es que tiene demasiado polvillo en ella, algo a lo que no acabo de acostumbrarme.

Luego de mis acostumbradas 26 agitadas, queda este polvillo demasiado fino en la palma de mi mano. 

El polvillo se sigue viendo con las manchas alrededor de la calabaza.

Contiene suficiente saponaria, sin embargo ya me acostumbré a un sabor más intenso de la yerba. No creo que vuelva a comprarla, sin embargo puede ser una buena introducción a quien no conozca el sabor de la yerba mate. 

Coming soon ...

Starting a new project. Here with my beloved Country Gentleman, and the Kentucky Club mexican burley.

Mason jars - UPDATE

Here in Querétaro, we have a store, Superama. A store with usualy high prices, but you can find there stuff that is not possible to find elsewhere.

Here, a package with four Mason Jars. It cost MX$113 (Aprox. US $6)

The same container, alone, it cost me MX$44.

Note: pic only show 2 of the four mason jar included in the package. 

Kentucky Club - By Norma (MEX) Dry tobacco

Previous entry, I taste the Kentucky Club with the original moist from pouch.

I let a little on a paper, and last one whole day to normal temperature. At the end, tobacco was dried.

My Zippo and a MM Country Gentleman.

I only slide the dried tobacco into the bowl, and hit a little to let the tobacco sits on the bowl using gravity only. I pack only a little, because almost no air with this so little chunks.

No packing. Only a little.

Then I light the pipe. A good flavour for what I paid. Agan¡in burley, with raisins, little chocolat, nuts. But this time retrohealing was even better. What I need to know is the use of the tamper. Just a little pressure.

Tobacco now with fire!

After 40 minutes, tobacco turn into ash. More ash than other blends, who leave almost nothing. Guess because of the original chunks. 

Ash was top on the bowl!

Almost no traces of non heated tobacco. 

I'm loving this flavour of burley. I hope soon taste the legendary Carter Hall  and/or Prince Albert to have a point of comparison. By this moment, a lovely taste.

UPDATE 17-06-2016. When I was cleaning the pipe, the shank was closed by a plug of tobbaco caused by the size of the mini-chunks. 

Kentucky Club - by Norma (MEX)

Here at Querétaro, it is difficult to get pipe tobacco.

However, we have all around México the "Sanborns's" store, ownded by Carlos Slim Helu. Stores for medium-high society. You can find restaurant, drugstore and also books, magazines, electronics and so on. Also, tobaccos pouch. The only presentation you can find it. 

I went last Saturday to the tobacco counter (where you can find peppermint, chicles, chocolat, playing cards, fire liquid for Zippo, lighters, etc.) and I saw the Kentucky Club pouch. A long time I never meet it. Only read stories from people who has tasted it. It cost MX $115 ($US 7), besides a Ronsonol (MX$53, US$4)

Burley blend, says on the pouch. 

(Light burley. Pipe tobacco)

The house who sells this tobacco is Norma de Mexico SA de CV. 

(Sweetener: sweet rum)

Once I open the pouch, comes a sweet rum odor. Little agressive for my nose. Sometimes nasty, like cheap parfum. And again an upset, the tobacco show to me like little chunks, very little. Maybe, garbage. 

Moist, very moist tobacco.

This picture is make to show the size of the chunk.  ("B" stands for Burley) 

The Kentucky Club chunks of Burley expanded all over a piece of paper. 

Only for the comparison, this is a McBaren Symphony. 

For this first test, I use my Devilish Legend (A MM Legend who I paint using acrylic paint!)

Easy to pack using the "gravity" method. Drop the "garbage" tobacco until fills the bowl. Then, press down and apply some light! In the event of this amount of moist, I have to dry a little. Not this time. I use the tobacco as it is.

Dropping tobacco inside the bowl. 

After some little hits outside the bowl, chunks of tobacco goes down. Only a very little press with the tamper. 

I have to find the correct way to pack it. Because of the size of the chunks, very easily goes down and the air can not flow as easy as in other tobacco cuts (ribbon, flake). I feel the pack so tight (even I put so little pressure using the tamper).

I use my Zippo to light it for the first time. Because of the humidity, hard at the beginning. At first puffs, some gurgle. I need more power to make puffs. 

The taste is like normal burley: nutty, some raisins, a little of chocolat. Nicotine level is low (from my point of view). Retrohaling reccomended! 

Smells like old, remind me to grandpa (My grandpa actually does not smoke pipe, but that came into my mind). Dense smoke, not bite. The problem actually, the humidity. So far, the first tobacco who made me this. Besides I need more saliva to puff. Does not leave me traces of tobacco flavor on my tongue (My problem with cigarretes and the main reason I hate it!)

In the line of the OTC, and for a man who never has taste the Prince Albert or Half and Half, I think this is a tobacco who everyone can test. The best I tried coming from Mexico so far. And with the regulations of the FDA, maybe the best blend for me in the future. 

VITAL STATS

Kentucky Club by Norma de México

Light burley. Pipe Tobacco. 

Made in México by Tabacos Industriales SA. 

Camino Real a Xochimilco 58. CP 16020. 

México DF

Distributed by Norma de México

SmokingPipes and mason jars!

Back to February 2016, I ask for some issues to smokingpipes.com. A new Country Gentleman MM, some filters for the corn cobpipes and only for test, el Mc Baren Symphony in bulk. The mail was the cheapest, but last almost 2 months! Some people at mexican Facebook group "Azteca pipa club" says that tobacco has some difficulties at border. No this case. 

A few months ago, McBaren Symphony was the first tin I want to get. Problems with credit card avoid it. Now, It's here! Not very moist on it, however smells like "old". Subjective, but that smells for me: old. Classic. Fine for me! Newcomer in the pipe world, I start to know how tobaccos taste. 

McBaren Symphony is mainly Burley and Black Cavendish. I think it need some moisture, so  I going to buy a mason jar 4 oz.(MX$44, moreless US$3)

I put a piece of barro (mud, pot material) inside, with some water on it to help moisture. 

I plan to leave some days and see what happened.

Anyway, thanks to smokingpipes.com. I plan to ask for more tobacco. If the time is not an issue, price is almost the same than in Querétaro.

Mate, magic herb!

An "algarrobo" mate! Algarrobo is a wood, used in Argentina to make mate container. Cured using the same method: fresh used yerba, wet for 24 hours, 5 days in a row. Then, start to using it in a regular fashion.

Besides this, an annotation.

Yerba Mate
Mate absorbs almost any natural healers. Throught mate, you can make people fall in love, kill or get haunted.

Yerba mate, a magic herb.

When conquers came to South America, thinks that Mate was a "devil plant"...Maybe they have some reason.

Yerba Mate "Taragüí" en Querétaro

Esto es lo que se consigue en Querétaro. Sin embargo,

Liverpool (www.liverpool.com.mx) la vende en $99 pesos.
El Molino (En el Mercado de La Cruz), $74 pesos.
La Europea, tienda de licores, $69 pesos.

Ustedes decidan...

The devilish pipe!

All in red! Pipe, tamper and mexican matches (flama means fire) 

#mateTime - calabaza seca!

Al llegar a casa, revisé si el mate estaba seco o seguía húmedo. Me preocupaba que siguiera húmedo, y "ciscado" por la experiencia previa, se llenara de hongos. Querétaro es el semidesierto mexicano, sec, con temperaturas de cerca de 35 grados centígrados.

¡Mate seco! Sin hongos, mi preocupación que poco a poco se va alejando de mi. 

Al fondo del matero, hay hierba seca. ¿El aculotado del matero? 

Leí unas cosas muy interesantes acerca de la hierba, ¡contiene saponaria! Y sí, le eché agua a la hierba en la pava, aquí la imagen de la misma. Y sí, ¡burbujas de jabón!

#mateTime - Primera cebada en mate de calabaza

Llega la hora de la verdad. El mate de calabaza, curado durante CINCO días, recibe su prueba de fuego. O de agua.

Siguiendo las recomendaciones que aprendí en esta aventura del mate (no hervir el agua), colocar la hierba, agitarla y dejar un hueco. Luego, echar agua tibia para no quemar la hierba, dejarla humedecer, repetir el proceso y finalmente, comenzar a echar el agua caliente al matero.

La hierba hasta los 3/4 de la calabaza. 

No se advierte bien, pero la hierba ya dejó un hueco. Se ven las partículas de polvo alrededor de la boca del matero, luego de agitar el mate con la hierba. 

Luego de depositar el agua tibia, un par de veces y luego, introducir la boquilla. Listo para recibir el agua caliente. 

Con la pava nueva, depositamos el agua caliente. 

Ahí la prueba de fuego. O de agua caliente.

Ahí una demostración de que parece que lo hago bien. Las burbujas, leí que son producidas por un agente similar a la saponaria. Importante también que hay una parte de la hierba que está seca.

El mate sabe distinto, la calabaza realmente le aporta algún sabor distinto, remanente. Me gusta.