Custom Blends
Most of their blends seem of good quality, clean and consistent. At $25 to $30+ per lb. they are some of the most expensive tobaccos around. #3 is pretty good. #17 was also pretty good, a tad stronger than #3. #2 was too light (descriptions indicate it should be stronger than #3), #11 was to strong and #9 was the worst tobacco ever, soapy and bitter.
Comments [ new ]
- Custom Blends #14, 34 and 35
- Posted by Smokin' Mo on Friday, 02-Feb-2007
I received my order yesterday(Thur)--3 day shipping is nice BUT what I received is not.
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I may be a MYO newbie but I'm not new to quality control, having worked in plenty of factories(of various kinds) and restaurants(of various kinds)over the years.
I understand that natural, additive-free tobacco tends to dry out quicker than the other kind and I choose to smoke it anyways--because I prefer a clean, natural smoke. The half-pound bag of Light Turkish(#14) was dry upon arrival(DUA)so no matter which tube I put it in, it was harsher than it should be. It is presently unsmokable. I am re-hydrating some of it.I would prefer to send it all back, though!
On top of being DUA, I am finding stems and mystery matter in the 8 oz. bag and these aren't the average little stems, no-siree. These are like an inch long & longer. And there's this other stuff--possibly old tobacco or moldy tobacco, I don't know what it is but it's grayish-brown in color. Some of it is tobacco shags/strands and other pieces are little stems with leaf(??)--those are brittle. Mind you, there's not a lot of the 'mystery matter' but because of its color, it really stands out in the bag.
Samples #34 & 35 are Perique blend and Brazillian blend, respectively. I have bought the AS Perique premades occasionally(black pack)and enjoyed it and the B-blend sounded good enough to try. These 2 little bags are moist enough and smokable but they're not really blended/mixed. I realize from my own limited experience in blending tobaccos that some cuts/shags make blending hard but it seems to me that if your tobacco biz's phone number is " 1-888-blend-me" then you ought to have the blending skill down pat. Perhaps the Perique and Brazillian tobaccos are cut differently from the base tobacco--too differently to mix in. I don't know, but a smattering here and there of Perique or Braz. doesn't quite cut it, in my humble
opinion.
I believe Custom Blends has potential but only if they hire some ryo/myo tobacco experts to run their quality control process and/or dept. As it is now, the customers are the QC dept--and that's not a good thing.
- Re: Custom Blends #14, 34 and 35
- Posted by Captain U-96 aka Mike on Friday, 02-Feb-2007
I'm sorry to hear that! If you do have moldy tobacco, and you attempt to rehydrate it I'd think it'l take off like a fire. As a customer you have every right to receive quality goods, and at their prices--I'd have taken Q-1 as a given! Try D&R tobacco if you like Perique! Your satisfaction is their motto, and you'll save money too! Mike
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- Re: Custom Blends #14, 34 and 35
- Posted by Smokin' Mo on Friday, 02-Feb-2007
Well, thanks Mike, I might give D&R a try, even though they're an MSA like AmSpirit but out of disgust with the quality of the tobacco I recently received, I bought a pack of med. AS today, so what the hell.
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And the tubes are kinda getting on me, too. I've had enough of the Zig-Zag lites, the Laramie Milds are icky and the only way I can bear the Vera Cruz nocturnes is by poking a few holes in the filter.
Maybe I need a break from MYO...:)
- Re: Custom Blends #14, 34 and 35
- Posted by Captain U-96 aka Mike on Sunday, 04-Feb-2007
The fact that D&R is MSA Compliant only means that D&R pays more than their fair share of taxes, and in no way has anything to do with the quality of their product. Once you try their products; you'll have a viable model in which to judge other's products by. Mike
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- Re: MSA
- Posted by Smokin' Mo on Sunday, 04-Feb-2007
Mike, I see the Master Settlement Agreement as a gigantic fraud perpetrated on the American people. Or rather, a continuation of big govt and big cig/tobacco's crappy behavior towards us. So, I am doing my best to not do business with MSA-compliant companies.Or at least, minimze the amount of money they get from me.
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I cannot separate the product from the company for the two go together.
I can judge tobacco without D&R's assistance.
- Re: MSA
- Posted by Captain U-96 aka Mike on Sunday, 04-Feb-2007
I have no doubt in your abilities to judge tobacco blends on their merits! These small tobacco companies have been unfairly penalized by government lawyers with gold fever! The MSA was originally set up to sanction the Cigarette Manufacturers for being deceptive about what was in their cigarettes after loosing their court case with the Federal Government! Seeing a cash cow that needed milked, the government lawyers threw in the RYO tobacco manufacturers even though they weren't included in the Court Case, and they didn't have any say in the final agreement! I agree with you about the MSA! IMO,it's the biggest scam ever put on the American Public. Where are you going to find tobacco manufacturers that don't pay into MSA?
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I suggested D&R to you as a friendly gesture, because they have high quality products that they design, blend, and package right on the premises, and because you were sharing your thoughts on C.B.'s. Mike
- Re: MSA
- Posted by Smokin' Mo on Monday, 05-Feb-2007
Oh okay, Mike. I understand your post. Didn't mean to sound huffy/rude.
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Rough week or whatnot.
- Re: MSA
- Posted by Captain U-96 aka Mike on Tuesday, 06-Feb-2007
Been there, done that, and got the hat & t-shirt! I can understand, because I too look forwards to my order of tobacco being delivered! And, if I had went through your recent experience with CB; I'd have been ready to run rabbits and bark at the moon! I would already have boxed up the order and shipped it back to them; especially at those prices. Please do keep us posted on CB's treatment of your complaints! I hope they make it right with you. Mike
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- amending comments on #34 &35
- Posted by Smokin' Mo on Friday, 02-Feb-2007
I just emptied each of the 1 oz samples into a shallow salad dish to see just how much "special" tobacco was in them. I'd say the word, "smattering" is overly generous. I do believe the proper word is, "smidgeon" or "pinch". Now, I wasn't expecting anything like a 60/40 mix or a 70/30 but an 80/20 or 90/10 mix would've been nice. Heck, even a 95/5 would be acceptable to me but this...no way, man. This is like false advertising; I'd say it looks like 99.9% Virgina/.1% Brazillian and ditto for the Perique "blend" and they're charging $18 for half a pound!
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My good will towards CB has dwindled pretty quickly--hey, I tried.
- Re: amending comments on #34 &35
- Posted by Kizer Sosa on Saturday, 03-Feb-2007
Thanks for your comments, but if you're that completely dissatisfied with the quality of your order, then you should call/write CB to discuss your issues and let them respond. Then post up here and tell us what they said and/or did to make it right. (Or what they didn't do as well)
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Not saying your reviews are wrong, but if you're going to publicly hammer them that hard, then fairness requires that you "go all the way" and present the whole story.
Especially since there are so few reviews of their stuff.
- Re: amending comments on #34 &35
- Posted by Smokin' Mo on Sunday, 04-Feb-2007
Yeah, you're both right. I'm going to try to return my order because it wasn't anywhere near the expectations that came from their own website. Maybe I can get a refund or some fresher and cleaner tobacco. I'm willing to give CB a chance to make things right.
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This week I'm trying some Sagamore Nat and Halfzware from RYOTobacco.
- Re: custom blends
- Posted by Smokin' Mo on Friday, 09-Feb-2007
Well,on Sunday evening I sent them a pleasant email expressing my dissatisfaction with the tobacco I received recently and gave them an opporunity to fix the problem. Here we are on Friday evening and still no response.
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I am an over-30 full-time college student with not a lot of free time on my hands so I am content to put my experience with Custom Blends behind me. Live and learn is my motto, of sorts.
Based on what others have said here about CB and based on my own brief experience with them, I'd say they are banking on ignorance and on the growing niche of MYO/RYO.
For now, it is working for them well enough for them to continue on this path. But one day, somebody who knows quality tobacco will take CB to the mat, business to business. Head to head and heart to heart.
- Re: custom blends
- Posted by Wazmo Nariz on Saturday, 10-Feb-2007
They won't be able to sustain such levels of shoddy cutomer service for too long, especially if we continue to make our experiences, good and bad, known on forums such as this. Thanks for the input...I'll never take a chance on 'em based on the almost universal negative input here.
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- Re: sticking with MYO
- Posted by Smokin' Mo on Sunday, 04-Feb-2007
I had about 5 AS premades left, bought the pack on Friday afternoon.Today, I decided to empty the tobacco out, just to use the rolling tubes, mind you because those Laramies kinda coverup the tobacco--even the halfzware disappeared in 'em; no small feat.
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So I gently twisted the paper and tapped the filter and out came this extremely dry tobacco, half of which is like powder. I looked at the sparse amount and said to myself,"Self, that's not a cig's worth of tobacco". And it wasn't a whole cig of the MYO kind,what came out of one AS premade was enough to make like 2/3 of a cig, roughly.
So I took apart one of AS filters to see if it's longer than the others b/c that would explain the sparse amt of tobacco, right? It's a medium, so there was a charcoled stub attached to a filter and the two of them together are basically the same size as the Vera Cruz filter, the Zig-Zag and the Laramie.
Maybe they're of a smaller diameter--the whole tube, that is. Granted, the paper on these 4 AS tubes is compromised by the twisting/turning I've done but it takes some doing to get it on and keep it on the nozzle of my hand-injector. Maybe it was a bad pack sold at regular price.
I don't understand how as premades, they were so well-stuffed even though it's not much tobacco and it's so very, very dry. Maybe their cig-making equipment doesn't break down if there's powdery stuff running through it?
That's my Sunday experiment--so I'm sticking with MYO. There's no need to go wobbly again like I did on Friday.
- Re: sticking with MYO
- Posted by mike c on Sunday, 04-Feb-2007
you had the answer...
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the SYO tubes are based on the european format and are larger in diameter
as for the rest of the mystery I suspect others here can tell....
I think the "freshness" of MYO tobacco has a strong appeal to us here!! ?? !!!
- Re: amending comments on #34 &35
- Posted by Smokin' Mo on Sunday, 04-Feb-2007
Secondly,that part about "publicly hammer them that hard" is not quite accurate. I didn't even bring out the hammer on Custom Blends--though I do have one. What you read was a mix of sarcasm, the fondness for quality and a deep appreciation of business ownership. This mix is common on Internet forums, of any kind--sarcasm mixed with hope,etc...this is how many individuals talk on the 'Net. We hold nothing back. Let 'er rip, dude.
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I want Custom Blends to do well and they might but they have to change some things, in their minds more than anywhere else.
Just my opionion, of course.
- Re: amending comments on #34 &35
- Posted by Smokin' Mo on Monday, 05-Feb-2007
I'd like to amend these comments a tad and also apologize for the tone of them. I was not necessarily in my usual easy-going mood and Custom Blends got the brunt of my stressed-outness.
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There isn't much of the dark Brazilian tobacco in the blend, I still believe another couple of pinches of it would be nice. I enjoy smoking it in the evenings, though. It's pleasant. Even in a Vera Cruz.
I'll buy it again, most likely.
So it may not qualify as false advertising though they could really put some more Brazilian in that blend,in my humble opinion.