Smoking the Dregs of the Tin

Here’s my take on it:

The “crumbs” at the bottom of a tin are what would be called, in tea, fannings. Fannings are the almost dust-sized particles of tobacco left over from the mechanical stresses of manufacturing, packing and your use of the tin. they are basically tiny shards of tobacco leaf that have been ground into near-nothing.

As to why they taste different, or not as good as the long strands of fluffy tobacco on top when you open the tin is two-fold. First, they, by definition, have been in the tin longest, being the leftovers. Therefore they have had the most time to dry out, outgas and otherwise change chemically in reaction to the air around them. Secondly, being such tiny particles, there is less surface area for the adherence of whatever saucing, flavoring or humectant agent is on the tobacco. This means that it is possible that their taste is more “raw” and unprocessed than that of the other parts of the tin.

Without going too far into the science of it, let us just say that the fannings at the bottom of the tin are not really part of the tobacco blend anymore, and are part of the refuse left when we are done smoking the tin.

I recognized years ago that there were finer pieces floating to the bottom of any container that had tobacco in it and established a habit of occasionally shaking up the container and re-suspending these fannings into the main part of the mixture. It never crossed my mind that they could be worse tasting than the rest of the package. It seemed just a matter of economy that saved, maybe, a half a bowl of the overall package and also made each bowl a little more homogeneous.

As I do this with every package of tobacco that I ever use, it has become a simple, unobtrusive habit and probably adds a negligible amount of taste difference to each bowl full.

Hi all. What i like doing is, i will remove all the tobacco from the tin when drying it out. I will then put it back by hand. I try and seperate the small particles and store it in a seperate little tupperware. I will then use these little crumbs as kindling by sprinkling it on the top of the tobacco after i packed my pipe.

I find it convenient because my tobacco lights with one match and no toabcco is wasted.

Cool

I’m with old puffer. I mix and shake regularly so I don’t really have a problem when I get to the end. When I have less then a half a bowl left in a tin (or baggie) I throw it in a large old Granger tin (from the days when they were tin)labed ‘odd ends’ and when that gets about half full, I smoke that strange mix and it usually is, oddly enough, an interesting and good smoke.

I don’t do anything in particular while smoking my way through a tin. When I get to where I have less than a bowl full I use the Irishlefty method only I label the tobacco as “Stuff”.

I had a similar problem with flake and cakes. In most cases, I empty out the crumblings onto a tray and mix them into every bowl. That way, I never experience inconsistencies. I do something similar with loose tobaccos. I mix the older with the newer, sometimes throughout and other times just as a topper to make lighting easier. I never throw unsmoked tobacco away, no matter how small the pieces become.

I actually LIKE the leftover crumbs in the bottom of the tin. I try to handle the tin carefully all through the batch, so as to minimize what falls to the bottom. But when I smoke my last bowl, I just dump these crumbs onto the top of the bowl and run with it. They burn quickly and easily, helping to light the bowl, and they also give a blast of flavor right at the beginning.

I’ve found that this is particularly true of Penzance . . .

– Doug Pearson

Thanks for the answers. I appreciate it.

I also mix in the finer stuff with the coarse or use it as dry topping for lighting, but sometimes at the end of a large bag there can be a fair amount. I will try mixing it in as I go along.

Here are a couple of other items that have little to do with this, but are things I have wondered about and maybe someone here knows the answers.

1) Why does nicotine from different tobaccos have such different effects? Example, G&W Kendal Kentucky (a favorite) seems to cause a deep sense of physical relaxation. But a pure Virginia seems to go more to the head and act like a cup of coffee. I realize there are all sorts of other chemicals in there and nicotine probably has different forms, but maybe someone else knows what I mean and can shed some light on this.

2) What bulk tobacco comes closest in flavor to Fribourg & Treyer’s Golden Mixture, or is Golden Mixture available in bulk?

The fine powder, for me, is expendable. For such a featherweight it is such a load. I use a kitchen sieve to rid me of this nuisance. For those with OCD gluing the pieces end to end would be my only other suggestion.