I have quite a few projects to follow up on. I hope to inspire those interested in working with whole leaf. My organization of note taking is slowly improving and these reports will certainly only help.
I have a drawer outside for jars to enjoy the summer heat here in Las Vegas. A couple of Navy Plugs, which are Kentucky burley cased with licorice root and rum. A couple of twists, which are labeled “Anise”. These I can’t find the notes for but I’m sure they are mostly dark air cured with a bit of other leaf. Maryland 609, Burley, a bit of Virginia are good guesses. Likely cased with licorice root, molasses, and aniseed extract. I also have a “Rum Cake” in there which is another burley blend that decidedly needed aging. The idea for this low temperature “summering” came about due to my lack of a kiln. Air cured tobaccos definitely need some type of aging / curing beyond the color curing if they are going to be smoked at higher percentages. Last summer I started with a few jars late in the season and found decent enough effect after only three months of warmth.
I have been going through some of my mixtures to find other “young” blends to summer but most of them have a couple of years on them already and some of them have “flavorings” that I debate might be disturbed by the heat. These will likely be left to age out as they are already good smokes and only need time to become (hopefully) great smokes. One of them is the subject of this post, a jar labeled “Chai”. I started experimenting with chai spices for pipe tobacco a few years ago finding that all of the spices that go into chai work well to enhance tobaccos. Meanwhile some Saigon cinnamon in the kitchen caught my attention with it’s luxurious fragrance. I whole heartedly cased a jar of my Burley Red Tip blending tobacco with it. This Burley, as
@commonsenseman says is very tasty and the cinnamon made this strong tobacco even more “in your face”. It sat around for some months being considered as a blending component until I pulled the trigger for this “Chai”. I blended in some relatively milder Burley and a bit of Ripe Virginia Cavendish then cased it with a ginger, black cardamom, and clove tea leaving out the cinnamon as the Red tip was loaded with it. I loved what the ginger brought to the table but after resting it seemed to have been lost. At this stage with all this Burley being so young I decided to let it dry out for re-casing. I have heard that drying and rehydrating can help air cured mellow. Same recipe for the re-casing including some cinnamon this time and very heavy on the ginger. It was good but still “young”. Now with over a year of age on it I’m considering putting it in the summer drawer. Surely the spices can take the heat and it does still need aging but it’s just so tasty I think I will simply leave it alone. I have thought about getting some of those flue cured lugs for toning down some of my high nicotine blends and this would be one of them.
Otherwise it’s good to go and there is a certain taste that nicotine brings to a bowl that I really enjoy. I would describe nicotine taste as “hot” but certainly not to be confused with temperature it is more of a chemical heat like a spice. The Chai spices do bring out this taste wonderfully. Black pepper, wood, resin, dirt, are some of the other outstanding flavors this mixture has. I did make an effort to go light on the clove as this particular spice can easily take over. I give credit to the Black Cardamom for the resinous wood taste as the hulls in the boil have this scent. I do have some green cardamom that I want to test but it seems much more mentholated so it remains low on the to try list.
“My foray into the cigar world tobaccos has proven quite rewarding. None need kilning and are ready to smoke. I would hesitate to call these cigar leaf, instead describing them as dark air cured is more appropriate for the pipe. Lots of earthy, spicy, woody, chocolaty, nutty, full bodied flavors in various combinations. It would neither be fair to call these cigar like aromas as they are very specific in and of themselves. In the pipe these tobaccos smoke differently as well, specifically with no excessive build up of tars etc. that cigars have. They blend well with other tobaccos and lend themselves to the myriad of casing, scenting, and processing potentials creating infinite possibilities.
This Cameroon is spicy and woody with a very slight resinous quality.
The Arapiraca is a quiet earth with a hidden spice. Soft and unassuming.
Both of these come with an underlying sweetness.”
The above from me in another thread stating none need kilning is a little misleading. Most of these tobaccos that are available have been fermented in the style of cigar leaf therefore are ready to smoke. A few are not such as the PA binder sold at WLT. There may be a few others. I have gathered that the ones that have been are called ”aged”.
After some initial testing and casing the Cameroon I have planned to use in a Burley based floral mixture. This will be an elderflower, othmanthus, and chamomile scented blend. The Arapiraca will be blended 50/50 with the Brazilian flue cured leaf. I wanted an all Brazilian mixture and this combination is amazing. I do have the fire cured Foiano from Brazil as well but it will get left out for now remaining an offshoot option to be tried as the mood strikes. Otherwise committing this amazing Brazilian flue cured is not an easy choice. Strong, spicy, sweet, and tangy it is already a stand alone smoke. Some has already been steamed to use in other mixtures but a pure Virginia mixture with this leaf remains a high priority. The test mixture for this Arapiraca was smoked up quickly with no time to marry at all. No need! This will be a drive though Elvis wedding in Las Vegas. It will be said they eloped. This will only be a half press so I can start digging in to it immediately.
It has been fairly common for me to throw things together rather quickly. When I first started little or even no testing was done. I always maintained that these could be adjusted with other tobaccos later. Now, with individual blending components created I can test more complex blends with more room for early corrections.
Another tobacco that has my attention lately is this Picaroon that I sugared and steamed for about five hours. I have already assigned a bit of it to the fire cured Foiano blend that is almost out of its testing phase. This high nicotine dark air cured tastes like dirt but has a unique “room note” that unfortunately does not show itself much in the taste. I will try to bring it out by blending it with orientals and a bit of VA. It was too “hot” at 1/3 with only Orientals on the first test. Not enough on the second test where added VA took it down to 1/5. Next test should be with VA where the Picaroon is at 1/4. Choices of Orientals and Virginia will need to be made likely leading to considerations for adding other tobacco types. I’m going to enjoy creating this one expecting to take about a year to get it finalized. This is the amount of time I predicted my Samson forward mixture would take. I only have another month to go for that prediction. It is about done, my notes tell me to eliminate or switch out the lemongrass lemon VA.
OK then… I may be caught up here for now. This post may read a little odd. It is from my posts at the Speak Easy regarding Perique making.
lot of attempts throughout the years being made on the FTT forums show some ideas as to what may be necessary to do a “Perique” process to tobacco. I have tried to simplify the process experimenting with leaving out some things that may not really be needed. The idea is to simply leave tobacco underwater for some time (1 year). I put some tobacco in a (coffee) French press with the plunger holding the tobacco under water. This worked well enough, making a bad tasting N. Rustica smokeable. This year I used some PA binder. It was done with cut leaf that had been pressed. Cell disruption seemed somewhat important so this initial pressing along with some releasing and pressing of the plunger at the airing intervals should be enough. Airing intervals were not done properly IMO for this batch but this will be addressed in the 2026 batch. An initial test of this ‘25 batch yields a woody, spicy, and heady taste. It is my understanding that some rest is needed for flavors to develop after coming out of the press so I plan to report back in due time. The 2026 batch will be Bursa tobacco. The picture is from the 2024 batch when it was first put in.
Theoretically if done correctly the process could take as little as nine months. I have read about some not being happy with just one year giving it a few more months. I have done one year each batch so far so yes an entire year. The water evaporates slowly and does need topping off maybe once a month at most.
Potential mold, well, there must be all kinds of things growing in there. I trust the process. I would certainly pasteurize if using for snuff or snus etc. but for smoking I don’t see a need. The French press is super convenient. Small enough to not take up too much space. Able to be picked up and moved around with one hand. Easy too see through for quick visual checks. Pour spout offers air flow and easy smell checks. Easy to pour off liquid to separate for airing procedures. Perfect size for experimental amounts. No need for pounds of this stuff anyway.
However you are correct and this crock will work. I have seen many contraptions being used successfully. There was one guy that simply put tobacco in a jar then topped it with water, put the lid on and got back to it in a year. He was happy with his results.
To be clear, we are not making copies of St.James parish perique. In fact they themselves are not always consistent or successful and will have barrels go “bad”. What we are doing is using the “Perique” method to process our tobacco. While the results are similar to authentic Perique in many ways, they are NOT the same.
Getting back to the Basma today finding the cover water very cloudy brown. I did expect brown but not cloudy. The PA from last year had only opaque black water throughout the year. Giving the Basma a stir for some oxygen and it smells good. I’ll do another “airing” some time in January.
The Basma water cover is now translucent black. The tobacco remains brown. Familiar but difficult to describe non tobacco smells are coming off the top. I will wait a couple more weeks to do the oxidizing stir since all is well.
The PA rested for a month now has lost its ammonia smell and is being given some test smokes. Smoked straight it has typical Pennsylvania flavors with accentuated spiciness and additional foreign flavors similar to OG Perique. Smoked with a red flue cured at 20% brings a typical VA/PER flavor profile as an initial impression. It’s already on the to do list to be caked and jarred.
With this perceived success comes along questions.
would it improve if left under water for longer?
Is the “airing“ protocol really necessary?
Is pressure other than to keep it under water necessary?
can I simply put some tobacco in a jar topped up with water close and come back to it in a year (or two) and have something valuable? Would this create too much pressure inside the jar?
Well… I see there are some jar lids made for fermenting that include a plunger to keep the product under water that also have a pressure relief valve. Using one of these could answer a few of these questions.
It’s not like I need more “Perique” but years from sooner comes before years from later so I better get on it. Checking in on the Basma today. It has been two months now. It’s original fragrant smell has an additional E.coli stench. The stench is more distinguishable than the previous batches I have made. This I take as good news. Anyone unfamiliar with this process would likely want to throw the whole thing out at this point as it certainly would be at home in the toilet. This bacteria however, is the fastest to bloom and is expected. The other slower growing bacteria will take over soon enough. With easy access to the odors through the pour spout I don’t expect to open it up for at least a few months unless there are any unexpected changes. I see some bubbling going on. This, in Perique making, I did not quite believe was an off gassing but rather just bubbling up of air from tobacco compression. Now I believe. None of this in previous years so this is a first for me. I think the Basma was dirty enough to contain soil microbes that are helping it along. No real stench smelled from the pour spout and it is not stinking up the cabinet which is good news. I wondered if this would be a problem. So far so good. A quick follow up on this post;
“Dark fire cured Foiano with its hints of lemon and eugenol from the wood used in smoking it has been interesting to work with. In a mixture the eucalyptus is not as noticeable as the lemon. I have taken it further by blending in a lemongrass flavored Canadian flue cured. Cameroon leaf for a rounding earthiness is also being used and it was steamed along with the Foiano to mellow them both. Orange Virginia is also being used to counter the earthiness but I am on the fence with this and may just want more Canadian. The lemon is good however there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Needing some sweetening up a VA cavendish is added as well. All these at relatively equal parts have made a decent smoke. Especially after “a ships voyage” marriage time. But there is still something missing. Today while checking in on some recent productions I got a whiff of fruitiness from my rested Picaroon cavendish. A test smoke revealed no real fruitiness but excellent flavor none the less. This Picaroon even after steaming is way too “hot” to smoke straight so the door was opened wide for ideas of its use. A Turkish/Picaroon is near the top of the list. Moving forward in checking on my blends to test I had my nose in the Foiano mix jar with Picaroon still on my facial hair and it clicked. This was the missing piece. Once the VAs get straightened out I will have myself another blend. I don’t know of any commercial mixtures that use Foiano or Picaroon for that matter, perhaps in the future. I can’t legally share these interesting creations but I certainly can share how it is done. I would encourage anyone interested to take up this inexpensive hobby. Lots to learn lots to do, all at your own pace. Your patience will be well rewarded.”
Another test bowl and this mixture is in the press. The pressing will be a bit harder than I would like due to the volume here. The original idea for this was to create something along the lines of Dark Flake. The Cameroon and fire cured Foiano were steamed together then pressed and cut immediately so no beautiful flakes resulted like some of you have. The taste was not what I expected and I concluded that the Cameroon is the wrong choice of tobacco to counter balance this Foiano. I’m happy with what I ended up with and am looking forward to how it will age. I don’t expect the flue cured to remain this lightly colored for very long. The jar labeled Aniseed Plus that was plussed with a Chartreuse was intended to have anise extract added to it. Not being too happy with the Chartreuse it was dried out and re-cased with the extract which is basically oil of anise, alcohol, and water. It’s better now but still super strong with “rough edges”. I like the bitterness which is still a bit much even with the anise cutting it. The room note (French inhale) is nice from the Chartreuse and every now and again a warm vanilla like note comes through which with the tobacco is reminiscent of a milk chocolate. This jar was wrongly described in posts on the whole leaf thread. What the tobaccos are where not recorded and so I am left guessing. I know I was testing an aniseed tea on air cured mixtures and this one was slated for extra aniseed to be added. Burley, dark air cured, and perhaps Maryland 609 are likely the tobaccos. It does seem to be a bit heavy on the dark air cured and I presume that’s why I intended on topping it with anise oil. This mixture was started on 4/9/2024 so it will be another year until its planned three year final test will be done. It certainly needs to mellow and I’m not sure another year will be enough. I’m not inclined to expose it to any type of heat treatment at this point but am considering adding some citric acid to it. I have another mixture that will be tested soon that will show how citric acid (hopefully) smooths out an air cured tobacco. I know it works wonders on the flue cured stuff. As it is “Aniseed Plus” could easily be modified with other milder tobaccos for a win and I always had it in the back of my mind that this may be needed. We shall see! Initial testing of citric acid to alleviate “harshness” in a Kentucky Burley shows promise. I expect even more improvement after resting. This was done on a twist of Kentucky Burley with a little Va in it. The twist was made in 2018 with a bit of molasses and aged unopened until 2023 a few months shy of five years. It was sliced up and smoked a bit during the last few years. I always intended on adding a bit more flue cured to it as it is very strong. The type and amount of flue cured to add took some fiddling as I wanted to feature the amazing flavors it had developed. Having found a match I still felt it presented some harshness that could be toned down. Licorice root is a no brainer for this but it has a pleasant astringent bite to it that I don’t want covered up. Besides, I use licorice root on almost all my air cured stuff to cut the dryness. So a 2% solution of citric acid was applied then the VA was mixed in. This particular jar labeled VA/BUR never ended up very high on the to do list. Glad to finally getting around to it. I’ll give it another serious look in about a year when I make the citric acid decision on the above Aniseed Plus. I have a feeling I will want to sweeten it up but tastes do change and having this tasty dry BA/BUR on hand might be valuable. Posts from a year ago from that other thread and some comments;
“Casing some Canadian flue cured with some fresh squeezed pineapple juice. I forgot about the fact that the whole pineapples in the markets are now a less acidic hybrid. Not what I planned for so I added some citric acid. I wanted fresh juice to see if bromelain has any effect. I did add citric acid to the fresh juice because the pineapple was a non acidic hybrid made for modern markets. Nothing else was added because this will be a blending tobacco. This was pressed to cut and rest as a broken flake taking up less space.
Pineapple juice is used in cigar leaf casings as well, though I am certain it is the common acidic pineapple. I used it on the gold leaf so that it would be more detectable. Like most casings you would not be able to tell it was there unless you knew it was used. Then you will find an added fruitiness that is reminiscent of pineapple. It would work well as a topping with the help of added hydroscopic ingredients (goop). This I will leave for others to explore. Preliminary smokes on the fresh pineapple cased Canadian flue cured are going well. Just one bowl that I have been smoking a little off of daily. Freshly cased tobacco usually does not burn well and also tends to burn wet. It also only hints at the final results but I do make a habit of testing in that state to see what changes are starting to take place. So far the first smoke was not so impressive as the tobacco had not surrendered to the influence entirely. After sitting in my truck for a day it is starting to burn better and a wonderful pineapple character has asserted itself. I still have perhaps one or two more sessions with the test bowl but I will not do any more testing until the tobacco has rested at least two weeks (mold watch during this time). I already have plans to use this in a blend featuring Samson. Meanwhile I will be finishing up tobaccos and ratios for a blend starring Bezuki. I also have three blends that will be done with their unique double pressed processing soon. I will try to share as much I can here so that fellows can see what this hobby is like and hopefully give it a go.“
“Lemon juice is a winner with VA’s This was used with some honey.
pomegranate was unsuccessful with unbearable bitterness. If I ever try again I will be much more careful not to disturb ANY of the pith.
I have not used grapefuits, oranges or limes but do imagine they would work like lemons do.
Passion fruit gets put on my list, thank you very much!”
Comments;
I am certainly interested in using fresh pineapple juice from an acidic type of pineapple. Perhaps on a less awesome flue cured rather than Canadian Lemon leaf.
I have done the passion fruit on some ”Smooth Virginia” This particular leaf does not impress me and I will not get any more. It seemed too grassy to me. The passion fruit however did wonders on it. Very grassy at first but as it has aged it is losing this quality. The fresh passion fruit puree that I used was filtered of particles which I recommend for all juices so that you don’t end up with too much fiber that would potentially give off odd flavors when burned. The enzymes in passion fruit help in the breakdown of the tobacco (educated guess). It seems to have accelerated its aging or that is how it appears to me. I would need to use it on another leaf type to confirm but fresh passion fruit gets a thumbs up for a casing ingredient at the moment.
While I am on the subject of juice casings I should mention the beet juice that I used on some red Virginia. Fresh beet juice that was cooked with an enzyme to break down the (I forgot what). Not sure I did it correctly and I added way too much to the tobacco. The taste of carotene was well present. I should have looked more closely at percentages that are used in cigarettes. I failed in patience on this as well and did not give it a chance to do what I thought it should do in the tobacco. I ended up steaming for a short five hours and found the carotene taste gone. Even though I did add extra sweetener to it (honey) I did not find it as sweet as I expected. I know it just needed more rest but I could not leave it alone so I ended up adding 20% of my Periqued PAbinder which also was in its resting phase. Now they can rest together. I did sneak a premature test bowl after a few months and it does show some promise however 20% is a fairly high percentage and it is awfully strong. If I could only just leave it alone. This post is from a year ago;
“The processing of these blends uses the theme of the John Cotton double pressed. The tobaccos were pressed and set to rest for six months then cut, rubbed out and aired for one week, then pressed and set to rest for six more months. These blends were tested after the first six months and they were all very promising. I am now planning to give them another week of air time. So I will name these blends 2X02 meaning double aired. In order not to have the blends dry out too much the airing is done by leaving out and re-jarring at certain intervals for the week. I have already started airing one blend that had been cased with coffee, chocolate syrup, and date syrup. A test bowl here shows no casing flavors but a much easier to smoke heavy nicotine blend with quality tobacco flavors. I originally expected to be forced to add bright tobaccos to this blend but it is great on its own. I’ll do another test bowl after the full week of airing. Now I just need some of the larger jars for the others. 2XO2 VA has the lightest color of them all and has a fermented raisin smell.”
This Burley, DAC, and MD blend Is the base for a Chocolate flavored mixture. I topped it with cocoa essential oil and found it created a sharp floral note that took over. Some vanilla toned it down and deepened it tremendously but it still had a bit of treble in it that I did not like. I covered it up with a splash of Cointreau. I really need to get some cacao nibs to see what they are all about. For now this mixture rests undisturbed until another bowl.
Another in the 2XO2 series has similar tobaccos cased with aniseed. I recall now that when these were in their plug state during the first six months this was a taller plug and that it ended up being split in two. I’m now fairly sure that one half is the previously mentioned Aniseed Plus. The other half was topped with rum soaked star anise. Having just smoked a bowl it’s clear that the amazing taste of star anise covers all the harsh and bitter tastes that minimally processed air cured tobaccos have. Alas, only for the first half of the bowl. The tar soaked second half proves challenging with its sharp high nicotine taste. I would have dumped it sooner if it were not for the wisps of delicious rum soaked star anise. When this jar comes up in rotation again (I don’t have a rotation) I will consider adding flue cured to it.
Speaking of flue cured, the third in this series was a combination of brights from different years. Smelling like raisins it smokes like a typical Virginia. The problem is with me here. I have a taste for air cured at the moment and almost all of last year as well. This makes it difficult to give my flue cured mixtures fair judgments. There is a list of these that are waiting examination so hopefully I can get back into the right gear for these.
This whole “double pressed” trial was interesting but this pressing, airing, and pressing again seems to be what I am doing any way. For example quite a few plugs and cake plugs of mine have been opened after a year or so, cut and/or rubbed out and re-pressed (though with less pressure) and re-jarred for use. In the theme of Spring cleaning I just finished a Spring seal check. I found only one jar of unprocessed whole leaf with a loose lid. Of my “commercial” stash, all of the ancient stuff even though not vacuum sealed had seals well gripped except for one that had a larger than usual amount of air in it. This jar actually popped when the ring was loosened. This reminded me of my intellectual struggle of; To Air or Not To Air. There were also several jars of mixtures I was digging into a few years ago that had tobacco in their seals. Some of these dried out as a result. Most of them were given new lids. i did find some well aged blending tobaccos. A a Perique from 2010 and some Orientals from 2011 and 2012 as well.
The 2012 is a whole leaf that is labeled “Turkish”. I bought it as Turkish and what type was not specified. It’s possible it is a mixture but may be singular. It does have the taste of Izmir. This tobacco is what I used to blend with my latest interest, Picaroon. The first smoke of this had the Turkish smoking flat but now that it has breathed a little it is really shining. Right now I’m confident I’ll keep the 2 Picaroon, 3 Turkish, and 1 flue cured ratios for this one. The only decision to make is which flue cured to use. Being only in a supporting role I will be using something less interesting than the Passion VA in this first test.
Meanwhile on the top of the list is this Samson mixture that is in its final iteration and only needs some final testing. My mixture called Firehawk Kake has been together for over a year now. I consider it as an extremely successful attempt at home blending. It has a combination of aged Orientals at 40%, 15% of a ripe flue cured black cavendish, 15% light fire cured, and 30% of some very old Criollo 98 ligero. It has led me to believe that using Orientals at such high percentages would make for other amazing mixtures. Well… there is a catch! Orientals seem to need a strong counterbalance. In Firehawk Kake the Criollo does this very well and the fire cured certainly helps. Trying to use a lot of Oriental with only mildly flavored tobacco does not turn out to work so well. The strong flavors (oils?) accumulate during a smoke making the taste in the later half of a bowl somewhat one sidedly overwhelming in taste. I hadn’t noticed this very much from this Samson mixture I have been trying to put together because most of my test smokes were being done on drives to and from work Where only the first half or second half after resting were smoked. This style of smoking actually is a good solution for a bowl of tobacco that has become too strong either in flavor or nicotine as well. Regardless, I would prefer to have tobaccos that can be enjoyed uninterrupted. This realization has changed my view on using this tasty Samson I have. I am going to have to rethink using it as a “base” for this mixture that would have Burley and flue cured as condiments. I did have fun with all my attempts on this one with some interesting smokes along the way but I’m going to take some time away to rethink this and focus on other tobaccos. Perhaps the Samson will be used as a condimental component in the meantime. My words from another forum mostly in response to “accelerated aging” discussions might be of some interest here.
“ While some of the processes that tobacco is put through gets called “fermentation” it should not be confused with actual fermentation. The methods of fermentation mentioned here normally involve the use of salt to control competing unwanted colonies. The by-product acetic acid does add a little tartness but also adds acridity which will be unbearable at larger doses. A bit of vinegar in a casing is enough. Try putting more to find out what I mean.”
“The enzymes that break down tobacco do use oxygen and the breakdown does produce ammonia but this process starts very soon after picking and continues during color curing then bailing and during whatever storage time it has before it is purchased. At this point in aging I am not convinced that oxygen is necessary nor am I convinced that any ammonia created needs to “gas off” because it will itself break down. “
“With this convenient narrative I have developed some processing techniques that involve kilning sealed jars. Summer temperatures are high enough here in Las Vegas that jars of select air cured tobaccos will be ”summered” in drawers outdoors. At such low temperatures averaging 100F they will be given at least three months. I have also, instead of waiting the expected three years, taken a few of my Burley forward blends and stoved them. The lowest setting for my oven being 175F I did 175F for twelve hours. This worked wonderfully with no burnt notes to rest off which would be normal at higher temperatures. These blends are now noticeably less “harsh” and are only expected to improve even more with age. “
“Regardless, I will be eagerly awaiting the results of these experiments here. Oxidative = Maillard reaction = browning …does not need to be helped along. In fact it takes quite a bit of effort to not have your tobacco darken.”
“The enzymatic breakdown is what uses oxygen. The majority of its effect happens very soon after harvest and during color curing. Then when sitting in bales this process will slow down dramatically. Further aging can help, especially with air cured tobaccos. Three years, in low case to prevent mold, is a good standard. This is generally done in bales and taking up space is not too practical in the home. Fermenting in pilons for cigars involves heating within the pile and turning before the pile gets too hot. Kilning does the same thing for the home grower. Here, enzymatic breakdown is boosted by temperatures. Ideally hot enough to prevent mold (123F) and not too hot (149F) so that enzymes don’t get destroyed. This takes a month or so on average until the fermentation takes over the very slow by now enzymatic breakdown. Longer times produce the over fermented dark maduro. The high nitrates of air cured tobacco do increase the TSNA’s with the application of any heat including smoking. To avoid this I would vape whole leaf sun cured tobacco (known to be the lowest in TSNA’s. lol”
“Microbial activity is where the magic happens. Anaerobic microbes specifically. In a sealed jar microbes will use up oxygen rather quickly. About three weeks or so is typical. After this the anaerobic microbes have little competition. Warmth and moisture can accelerate growth and with little oxygen mold will not grow. Temperatures reaching over 191F will kill off these microbes though. The waste products of these microbes are where the flavor is. Just some of my notes here and I have made some conclusions based on presumptions.”
“This thread has inspired me to try something myself. I will soak some stems in distilled water for a tobacco tea, add invert sugar syrup then let ferment. This may create something akin to kombucha that could be used as a probiotic casing. “
“The tobacco tea I made is now two months old. Last month there was mold growing on the scoby so I scooped it off and sealed the jar with a vacuum sealer. More grew and was scooped off a few weeks later. It was tasted then and was still sweet and bland. Now being opened the small amount of scoby has no mold growth but was scooped off anyway.
“The taste now is loosing the plain sugar taste and developing a fruity sweetness. Maybe a slight sourness is there and I would expect this to develop so we will see. As it is my thoughts are that this would make a decent casing. I will ignore it for a while longer to see how it develops. I think if it does sour I might give it a feeding. It seems that what this is without any starter is what happens in a normally sugar cased tobacco. I can see it might be useful as a starter for casing somewhat dead flue cured tobacco to accelerate “aging”. Looking forward to seeing how it develops in the warmer summer months. I might start another one in the spring. “
“This time vacuum sealing it right away to see if I can keep a mold less scoby. I’ll start my own thread for that. “My tag along project is still ongoing. The tobacco tea is still growing rings of scoby. Checking on it I have found the vacuum of the jar lost. Smells are a bit deeper with much less moldiness. Taste is moving slowly into sour. I scooped out the scoby and vacuum sealed the jar for further aging. I might try something like this using distillers yeast as a culture. This is something that has a few patents for. This also may be interesting to attempt with Perique to see if a Perique tea would work as a culture. I’m not sure if sugar would work in this one. It would be nice if
@Took would check back in for some reports here.”With the changing of the season my focus on dark air cured tobacco appears to be winding down. I have ended up with several notable mixtures that are fermented dark air cured and flue cured in equal proportions. Most of these were given only limited testing as their flue cured counterparts were easily selected. Another consideration that had these mixtures get put together so quickly was the notion that they would retain excellent blending potential with these particular match ups. A French fermented Burley was matched with some Canadian flue cured. Some aged Cuban cigars were matched with sweet flue cured from India. Brazilian Arapiraca leaf was matched with Brazilian flue cured. I did make an effort with the Besuki wrapper leaf to make something a little les simple. I will likely bring up the details on this in the Fall when this line of mixtures are likely to be looked at having been aged a bit.
I would like to focus on flue cured based mixtures this Spring and concentrate on using condimental tobaccos as actual condiments in more reasonable proportions than I have been trying. This will change the Picaroon mixture into something less than the bomb that I have been enjoying. This new focus will also likely have me developing a “straight Virginia” mixture as they are called. I am tempted here to create what could be called a “crooked Virginia” using tobacco that could be called Virginia but is not flue cured. I also have on my ”try” list, a few flavorings to test and some of these are slated to be paired with flue cured.
Meanwhile, I pulled out my cut Latakia and took a portion for processing. I have tried a few things with Latakia mixtures most notably scenting. Jasmine being a favorite. I also have some scented with cacao essential oil. The problem is that I‘m not inclined to smoke Latakia mixtures. For whatever reason, this extreme low interest has this stuff getting easily ignored. I expect the same for this special processed Latakia. I will certainly make an effort to test it but it’s likely to be forgotten while it rests. Maybe this Winter when I get reminded that it’s the season for it. The processing is as follows.
Pour boiling water that has a pinch of citric acid in it into a bowl with cut Cyprian Latakia in it. Stir for a minute then pour into a sieve to drain off the filthy water. Air dry the tobacco slowly without heat (48hrs). Mix Cabernet wine with an equal amount of distilled water and add some honey. Pour the unheated mixture into a bowl of this acid washed then dried Latakia. Stir for a minute the pour into a sieve to drain. Air dry slowly then jar to rest.
