The Art of Making the Perfect Herbal Smoking Blend
Smoking Herbs an Introduction
When I first set about making a herbal smoking blend as an alternative to smoking tobacco and cigarettes, I found to my surprise that here was quite a lot of information online regarding herbs that could be smoked as well as what herbs could be used to add flavor to mixtures to make them more interesting. However, there was a big and very important catch and one that I had no way of knowing about, before I actually made my first few blends and tried to smoke them. The catch was, that there is a hell of a lot more to creating a herbal smoking mixture (that is palatable let alone satisfying) than merely combining the correct mix of herbs together, rolling it up and putting a match to it.
I later discovered, through endless months of research, trial & error and a ton of wasted herbs that making a herbal tobacco alternative that could be used to replace tobacco in any meaningful way was actually quite an art and possibly a bit of a lost art at that. But closer to attaining the holy grail of herbal smoking blends I did slowly draw and better at the art I became, an art which I am going to share with you today.
Creating Your Masterpiece
So you have already heard me liken creating enjoyable herbal smoking blends as being akin to art and it’s only proper that I should quantify that statement, so I will.
Just like with painting, a piece of art cannot be created by merely getting some really nice colored paints and then slapping them down anywhere on the canvas. The artist needs to consider composition, proportion, texture as well as the quality of paint whether gauche or oils in addition to when to apply paint on top of previous strokes already applied.
In the same way, the expert herbal smoking blend maker needs to ensure that the smokeable herbs are prepared correctly, added to the blend in the right proportion and time, that the herbs are of good quality and that the entire blend works well together and has the right moisture level throughout.
This is not easily achieved and with the majority of herbal smoking blends it’s clear that this hasn’t even been attempted. Don’t get me wrong I’m not blaming sellers of herbal smoking mixtures for this, I mean to say that the knowledge is hidden (which is an understatement) and even with the knowledge, the time and effort it takes to go painstakingly through the correct process is no mean feat.
The Base
Just as a landscape artist knows that the fundamental starting point for a new work of art is first to lay down a color wash upon which to create the composition, the expert herbal smoking blend maker knows that a good base is the foundation upon which a good smoking blend stands.
The base in a smoking blend is what determines whether the blend is going to be a satisfying smoke or not, depending on what herbs you use and in which proportions the final blend will be either mild or strong, produce a lot of smoke or little smoke, burn well or need to keep being re-lit.
Two herbs that go to make an especially good base for herbal tobacco blends are Red Raspberry Leaves and Mullen Leaves either on their own or mixed together (subject to taste of course). These two herbs need to be broken down to the correct size (about 1cm square) and then rolled (preferably by hand) in order to ‘fluff’ them up and make them burn better.
It may also be desirable for one to add something to the base to give it a more full bodied ‘woody’ flavor with a thicker smoke as is preferred by some smokers who are used to tobacco. This can be achieved by adding a small quantity of something like Silver Birch bark to the base of course this will need to be ground down into small flakes before it is added.
Moisture Levels
It is also imperative to moisten the base so that it is not to dry as smoking dry herbs is very harsh and pretty unpleasant as you may have already discovered. If your blend is to moist is will be barely smoke able at least until it dries out a bit.
It’s also not a good idea to moisten your mixture with just plain water as it will end up going moldy with you having to throw it away after just a few days. A good way to moisturize your herbal smoking blend is to make a solution of water and honey as the latter is a natural anti-fungal and will also give your mixture a nice flavor.
It’s difficult to say exactly how much solution to use in order to get the correct moisture level as this can be pretty subjective but you should aim to have it feel as moist as a fresh pouch of tobacco as a general rule of thumb and use a fine pump spray to deliver the solution to your mix evenly as you roll the herbs.
By now you should have a really smokeable herbs base mixture which you can smoke on it’s own or to which you can add more herbs to add texture, flavor and/or medicinal properties.
In part 2 of The Art of Making Smoking Blends, I will go more into how to prepare, roll and blend your herbs as well as how to add herbs to achieve more affects, so stay tuned..
bye for now
Rob