Need some help. Whole Leaf Tobacco.

[Charlemagne]

I bought some organic Canadian Virginia flu cured and organic American Virginia flu cured from LO and have been doing research about how to store these properly and just need a little bit of advice before I go ahead and do what I think is best.

My goal is to make some pipe blends with these.
It looks like the thing I need to do next is:
1) destem all of these?
2) cut them with xacto knife/scissors into shreds
3) put in airtight glass tupperware container with a lid

But im confused on whether I need to let it air dry first?
Or just throw it in the containers?
Having a hard time understanding how to get these ready to smoke and store them. They have been indoors in the provided bags for about a week.
Advice of what to do to prep this into pipe tobacco blend would be appreciated.

and do these look like good leaves?

 

[deluxestogie]

Welcome to the forum. Feel free to introduce yourself in the Introduce Yourself forum. You may wish to scan through the topics in our Index of Key Forum Threads, linked in the menu bar.

The little pinholes seen in some of the leaves are caused by tobacco beetles (Lasioderma serricorne). Although the beetles may already be dead, I would strongly suggest that you place both the closed bags into your freezer for a week, to make sure they are dead, and prevent any potential spread of the beetle.

Bob

 

[Juxtaposer-]

If you are not going to press into plugs the cutting method I favor is roll to cut.
Roll pliable leaf halves as in bunching for a cigar then slice thin coins intentionally. More moisture in the leaves makes for easier cutting. A large sharp kitchen knife works well. Attention, concentration, and patience will reward you with a consistent cut. Collect coins in a mixing bowl and rub out. Here you can tear up any pieces that are too wide or long. Be sure to separate any strips stuck together because they will harbor moisture that will foster mold growth. Preventing mold dictates how dry you should keep your tobacco. At this point I recommend smoking a test bowl to see what you have.

How long have you been smoking a pipe?
Other information about you may also help.

 

[treecutter]

Happy New year and welcome to the forum. I think the best thing you can do in the future is to purchase leaves from Whole Leaf Tobacco.
Please see their site here. They have everything you will require to blend first class tobacco. You can even purchase " kit blends " of leaves already to cut up and blend. The tobacco comes in perfect case, ready to use, all you need to do is remove the stems, and cut the leaves. Many very easy ways to do this and all published right here on this forum.

 

[Charlemagne]

Welcome to the forum. Feel free to introduce yourself in the Introduce Yourself forum. You may wish to scan through the topics in our Index of Key Forum Threads, linked in the menu bar.

The little pinholes seen in some of the leaves are caused by tobacco beetles (Lasioderma serricorne). Although the beetles may already be dead, I would strongly suggest that you place both the closed bags into your freezer for a week, to make sure they are dead, and prevent any potential spread of the beetle.

Bob

Yikes! In the freezer it goes. Had not noticed that! Is there a chance that one is smoking imperceptible bugs then in a batch like that?

 

[Charlemagne]

If you are not going to press into plugs the cutting method I favor is roll to cut.
Roll pliable leaf halves as in bunching for a cigar then slice thin coins intentionally. More moisture in the leaves makes for easier cutting. A large sharp kitchen knife works well. Attention, concentration, and patience will reward you with a consistent cut. Collect coins in a mixing bowl and rub out. Here you can tear up any pieces that are too wide or long. Be sure to separate any strips stuck together because they will harbor moisture that will foster mold growth. Preventing mold dictates how dry you should keep your tobacco. At this point I recommend smoking a test bowl to see what you have.

How long have you been smoking a pipe?
Other information about you may also help.

Started pipe smoking within the last year or so, but still fresh at the craft. Thanks for these tips!

I currently have it in the freezer per the advice about tobacco beetles above, but in a week what would you say, I remove it, lew it thaw, then immediately do your cutting tactic above? If too wet, let it air dry for a while? If too dry, remoisten it? Then do you store it at the standard moisture level you would smoke it at?

 

[Charlemagne]

Happy New year and welcome to the forum. I think the best thing you can do in the future is to purchase leaves from Whole Leaf Tobacco.
Please see their site here. They have everything you will require to blend first class tobacco. You can even purchase " kit blends " of leaves already to cut up and blend. The tobacco comes in perfect case, ready to use, all you need to do is remove the stems, and cut the leaves. Many very easy ways to do this and all published right here on this forum.

Good tip! Thanks!
The reason I went with the site I did, however, was because they have certified organic tobacco and that seemed to be one of the only sites I could find organic tobacco.

 

[Juxtaposer-]

When you are handling the leaves during stemming you can visually inspect and rub off or pick off any mold or odd discolorations as well as dirt, grass, or weeds if any. Set aside the strips in a clean container that you can cover to avoid evaporation. Clean your work surface before cutting. If you are going to reuse the bag you should clean it. I am not aware of beetles tasting bad. Now I am curious. I’m sure cigar smokers have some experience with this. For now, I would recommend storing it as dry as you can but not so dry that it will break. I expect your confidence level to improve as you learn more and have a bit of hands on experience. If you google your questions you can get immediate answers mostly correct and sometimes referencing this very forum.

 

[deluxestogie]

Is there a chance that one is smoking imperceptible bugs then in a batch like that?

...but they're organic bugs! A dried-out, dead bug is mostly chitin, which is a long chain sugar.

Most of the detritus of tobacco beetles (a rust-colored dust) accumulates on the leaf surface near the central vein, and simply needs to be brushed or blown away. My major worry with live tobacco beetles roaming my house is that they can find their way into nice cigar wrapper leaves.

A cigar with a tobacco beetle tunnel is just a cigar with a hole poked into the side. An air-flow issue.

Bob

 

[DaleB]

...but they're organic bugs! A dried-out, dead bug is mostly chitin, which is a long chain sugar.

Most of the detritus of tobacco beetles (a rust-colored dust) accumulates on the leaf surface near the central vein, and simply needs to be brushed or blown away. My major worry with live tobacco beetles roaming my house is that they can find their way into nice cigar wrapper leaves.

A cigar with a tobacco beetle tunnel is just a cigar with a hole poked into the side. An air-flow issue.

Bob

Plus the beetle poop. They sure can make a mess of a good cigar, or a bunch of them. Usually you don't know anything is wrong until you see a little pinhead-size hole in the wrapper, and find that much of the cigar has been eaten already... and they may have spread to others in your humidor. That said, the worst I had was a beetle or beetles that got into my prized 10 year old Cuban Hoyos. One was almost an empty shell. Another was partially eaten, but fortunately they were double corona size. I managed to carefully slice it into two somewhat abbreviated robustos.

I read somewhere that a high percentage of cigars have tobacco beetle eggs, but they won't hatch unless the temperature gets over something like 84 F for a while. I put mine in the fridge for a day, then the freezer for a couple weeks, then back in the fridge for a few days before returning them to room temperature. All of that was an effort to keep them from splitting due to rapid temperature change. Don't know if it was necessary or not, but like the kid I pay to keep wild man eating tigers off our lawn - it must work.

 

[deluxestogie]

I read somewhere that a high percentage of cigars have tobacco beetle eggs

I've smoked commercial cigars produced all over the world, since 1970. My unscientific impression is that I encountered tobacco beetle damage in maybe fewer than 6 cigars over the past 55 years. The risk comes from purchased whole leaf that may contain them. I suspect that all tobacco warehouses worldwide maintain lures and traps, just in case. Sometimes they manage to sneak through.

For that reason, I always carefully inspect any tobacco (that I have not grown myself) when it arrives, and more closely when I open the bag.

Bob

 

[WillQuantrill]

Started pipe smoking within the last year or so, but still fresh at the craft. Thanks for these tips!

I currently have it in the freezer per the advice about tobacco beetles above, but in a week what would you say, I remove it, lew it thaw, then immediately do your cutting tactic above? If too wet, let it air dry for a while? If too dry, remoisten it? Then do you store it at the standard moisture level you would smoke it at?

I have had 1 experience with Tobacco Beetles, 4 years ago I bought a lb of Penn Oscuro Wrapper (cigar leaf) from the same vendor. I store most of my leaf in the bags they arrived in inside 50qt plastic waterproof storage totes. I rolled some test sticks with the leaf placed it back in its bag with a wire tie to seal it and back in the tote for 8-9 months. When I noticed the bottom of the bag was dust/debris mixed with dead beetles and all of the leaves were unsalvageable. Alas, I muttered some expletives and donated the loss to the gods in a burn pit. Much like Bob, I have never had this problem with my homegrown leaf. Partially because I saw first hand the damage these bugs cause all of my homegrown leaf goes into the freezer for 1 week after packaging.

 

[Charlemagne]

So with it being in the freezer a week to kill beetles, what next? Shred and smoke? Anything else to do before I smoke it after freezing?

 

[Juxtaposer-]

Since I have never frozen any tobacco myself I did a google search. A quick summary for you… It is recommended to put frozen CIGARS in the refrigerator for a slower thaw to prevent the wrapper from cracking... freezing cured tobacco does not notably change its character. I certainly learned more than this but for you I will conclude that you do not need to thaw it slowly and more importantly you cannot attribute any qualities detected while smoking to the fact that the tobacco was frozen (Being your first time smoking “raw tobacco“, there will be flavors that you are not accustomed to). The good news is that flue cured tobacco that has not been processed further has the least amount of off putting tastes.

 

[WillQuantrill]

So with it being in the freezer a week to kill beetles, what next? Shred and smoke? Anything else to do before I smoke it after freezing?

At this point I double check moisture level before long term storage. I generally grow "cigar leaf" so the aging for a few months helps the leaf stabilize and color balance. With a Flue Cure or Burley you are good to enjoy it. If the initial flavors are rude with ammonia lower the case and age a while longer.

 

[Charlemagne]

Does this still look useable to you guys? This is my Organic Virgina Flue Cured after being in the freezer for a week or two then thawed. I shredded up my other leaves, but this set had more holes and discoloration.

 

[deluxestogie]

Does this still look useable

I wouldn't hesitate to use it.

Bob

 

[Juxtaposer-]

If the beetles were to chose they would choose the best.