2026 Perique'n Out

[WillQuantrill]

Week 13, as previously posted I primed off my Corojo Viso and cut 7 more Perique for hanging. Each Corojo averaged 6-7 Viso leaves giving me about 80 leaves in 6 hands. Last night humidity went up 7% in the shed after hanging leaves while temperature stayed at 88*F at 10pm.
Second and Third Picture is an impressive sized Corojo Viso leaf that I hung about a dozen this size. I use these as bookends in the hands.
Fourth is capturing my optimism that Corojo Seco will cure out to a usable product.
Fifth picture is Corojo Ligero status still on the plant. Quite thick leaf and now begins my annual game of chicken. I strive for "dark" ripened Ligero with Cigar varieties. So I will leave it on the plant until the threat of insects becomes too much for my psyche to bare.
Last picture is inside the shed, 12 Perique plants and 12 Corojo hands hanging. Temp and humidity are at 8:30am.

 

[WillQuantrill]

Week 14, after a couple questionable cold fronts and high wind events blew through this week I surrendered and harvested my remaining leaf. Thats a wrap for the dirt phase. 2nd picture is the curing shed at present 20 Perique stalks on the left and all of my Corojo primings on the right. 3rd picture is my harvested Corojo seed for this year. Late last night I sifted through it all for bottling. Just realized I need to put the year on the bottles. Now that we are in a lull of action waiting on leaf to cure I will start engineering my Perique barrel press.

 

[deluxestogie]

Which variety of "Corojo" seed have you saved?

Bob

 

[WillQuantrill]

I bought this from Victory 3 1/2 years ago. From what I gather it was the original strain before being hybridized to Corojo 99. For whatever reason, my soil/conditions I have had better luck with the "Coroja" in yield and leaf size than the "99" variety. I do find it queer the website calls it an Oriental though.

Coroja Tobacco - Victory Seeds®

An Oriental-type tobacco that possesses a bit of spice and was historically used for cigar wrapper leaves.

victoryseeds.com

 

[deluxestogie]

I've grown:

• Coroja (Cuba) Pi 405643 [the one you are growing]
• Corojo (Honduras)
• Corojo 99 (Robaina)

For me, the Corojo 99 was nearly twice as productive (leaf size as well as total leaf count) as either of the others. None are "Oriental". That is an error on the part of ARS-GRIN data entry.

Bob

 

[WillQuantrill]

I've grown:

• Coroja (Cuba) Pi 405643 [the one you are growing]
• Corojo (Honduras)
• Corojo 99 (Robaina)

For me, the Corojo 99 was nearly twice as productive (leaf size as well as total leaf count) as either of the others. None are "Oriental". That is an error on the part of ARS-GRIN data entry.

Bob

For historic accuracy Im gonna add the squiggle tail to my O on the seed vials. And now that I am recalling it Corojo 99 was a bug magnet in my soil in addition to mediocre yield. Thanks for the info I didn't know there was a 3rd Honduran variety.

 

[deluxestogie]

I didn't know there was a 3rd Honduran variety

There are likely other locations where Corojo has been (or currently is) growing. This particular Corojo seed sample came to me from @Tutu.

Bob

 

[Tutu]

I’ve worked for people that grow Corojo commercially in Ecuador, and currently work for a US company that grows it in Connecticut as well. These days it’s being grown in lots of different places!

 

[WillQuantrill]

3 weeks into Air curing first primings 1 week for the last. Not too much to detail here but second picture shows how Corojo Ligero is curing...nicely. 3rd picture is a nice Viso leaf that seems to be struggling to rid itself of all chlorophyl but in years past i found these will cure out. Having had much home improvement stuff happening I haven't yet started working on the Perique press.

 

[WillQuantrill]

4 and a half weeks hanging in the shed and thankfully the weather has taken a mild turn when below pictures were taken it was 76*F- 86%RH in the shed. They were in just enough case to be able to snap a couple pictures of how they are curing. Third and fourth pictures are Coroja Ligero with a nice chestnut hue. 2nd picture is top priming of Perique. I did receive my 5 gallon charred oak barrel this week in preparation for the ensuing Perique fermentation. I do have a 2.5 gallon that has Red Burley Tips aging inside for about 16 months now. Depending on what 20 plants of leaves looks like volume wise I will make my determination on which one to use.

 

[WillQuantrill]

On September 4, I fired up the kiln and put all of my Coroja in. First primings had air cured for 6.5 weeks and last (ligero) had for 4.5 weeks. Weather has been 100*+ everyday for 2 weeks and no rain for probably 3+ weeks so conditions no doubt dried everything. The big development I have been working on is pictured below. Out of spare wood laying around and a trip to the hardware store for all-thread and rod couplings I got my Perique handpress fully assembled last night. I am most proud of the 1"-8 rod coupling embedded in the 4"x4" damn snug because I had to use hand chisels to cut the "flats" thereby keeping it from spinning. Used some spare metal at work to weld handle and pressure plate at bottom. The all thread came in 36" section and I didn't feel like cutting it so it is pretty tall but otherwise Im excitement to get the Perique portion off the ground. All the plants are still in the shed hanging in the shed and I will hopefully have them stripped and pressed into the barrel over this Labor Day weekend. Will probably move the whole operation into my sub basement and not the garage as temps are more stable for the year long process.

 

[WillQuantrill]

Plugging away, stripped all 20 Perique plants this morning. Initially sprayed them with distilled water in the shed and as they became safe to handle I wrapped all 20 stalks into a 10'x10' tarp and wetted them down again. I made 3 piles, bottom third, middle third, and top third primings. Going to frog leg the leaf this evening. My only complication now is picking which barrel I need to use 2.5gal or 5? Feel like the 2.5 will be FULL after pressing but it is very hard to tell what volume will look like with 20 plants of leaf. Since I went through the effort to separate 3 primings, I will make hands accordingly. Stay tuned lots of activity this weekend. 3rd picture are the leaves that didn't make the QC cut, all lugs.

 

[WillQuantrill]

Late night follow up, it took me 2 1/2 hours to frog leg 20 plants...not my favorite task in this hobby. While stripping I did cull out some more questionable leaf but again most of it was lowest priming. While assessing the amount of leaf I had at the end I laughed at myself for wondering if the 2.5gal barrel would be big enough. All loaded and under pressure I would say fills 30% of the barrel, haha. As this barrel was bought with removable lid made from the same oak the barrel is made of I trimmed off the rim of the lid until it would fit past mouth of the barrel and used that as a press block with a small scrap of 2"x4" to act as a buffer to absorb any rotational friction from the press arbor. As I could not find any twine I had to use zipties to secure the bundles as they went in but still staged each layer 90* clocked from the lower layer. Up to this point I have a new found respect for those that process Perique commercially, this is labor intensive to have so many possibilities for the whole project to go south. I cranked the press until I saw virtually no more bubbles rising to the top and had to brace my leg against the frame so the press wouldn't rotate. While I have no way of measuring how much pressure is on the leaf I am confident its enough to reach desired outcome. I will follow up for a few days checking tension on the press as the leaf squeezes itself into the most comfortable position. I left just enough water in the barrel to barely cover my press block but will do some research on appropriate level during the pressure portion of the fermentation. My initial guess is to have as little excess on top as possible, so I may have to suck out some of it .

 

[deluxestogie]

I'm not sure what you are doing with zip-ties. The leaf does not need to be bundled in any way within the barrel. Sturdy, thick, black zip-ties that I have used for a number of purposes have turned out stiff and crumbly in sunlight. I don't know how they would respond to anaerobic fermentation, though I imagine that plasticizers would leach out into the solution.

Bob

 

[WillQuantrill]

This thought occurred to me, and since you bring it up I will "reset" today as I also want to cut the press board in 2, allowing me to divide the approximate 5/8" gap around the edge that is not under pressure currently.

 

[WillQuantrill]

So I pulled all ties off tobacco bundles and cut my press block in 2. Feel better about the process after making these adjustments. As an added bonus I pulled the Red Burley tips out of the small barrel that had been aging in it for the last 17 months, think I call it Red Barrel Burley. When I opened the barrel it still registered 62% RH, and the digital hygrometer was still operational, Im impressed. Should be interesting to shred a sample and smoke 1 to 1 with the same Burley that has been stored in vacuum seal bag. Pictured is the Red Barrel Burley and the now adjusted Perique barrel.