Shredding Green tobacco?

[GonzoAcres]

I have encountered a number of videos while looking for ideas on how to most efficiently shred large amounts of tobacco that show an individual, generally in what appears to be India or South Eastern Asia, using a fairly long hand held blade to sheer off thin slices of what appears to be fairly tightly rolled, fully ripe, freshly harvested green tobacco leaves, which don't appear to have been wilted any more than one would expect them to after being cut from their roots. Any idea whats going on here in terms of the processing that goes on after obtaining the fresh shredded green tobacco? are would it be that they are slicing prior to the yellowing stages of the flue curing process because the controlled environment of the flue curing chamber has enough humidity to facilitate the enzymatic conversion of chlorophyll? You cant imagine they are simply allowing it to dry green for smoking right? Or is it because its Oriental tobacco that would be sun cured anyway? Here's a link to a video from Cambodia

View: https://youtu.be/WdEKhsbUSs0?si=WldPWeRgl1BFPuxp

 

[deluxestogie]

Attempt at making sun-cured rajangan

The process was briefly described to me by Tutu. In Indonesia, they apparently shred certain tobacco before sun curing them. This article sparked my interest even more: https://medium.com/@pylorns/indonesian-pipe-tobacco-71630487a33d Then I found this photo of the process I picked the...

fairtradetobacco.com

Bob

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

I have encountered a number of videos while looking for ideas on how to most efficiently shred large amounts of tobacco that show an individual, generally in what appears to be India or South Eastern Asia, using a fairly long hand held blade to sheer off thin slices of what appears to be fairly tightly rolled, fully ripe, freshly harvested green tobacco leaves, which don't appear to have been wilted any more than one would expect them to after being cut from their roots. Any idea whats going on here in terms of the processing that goes on after obtaining the fresh shredded green tobacco? are would it be that they are slicing prior to the yellowing stages of the flue curing process because the controlled environment of the flue curing chamber has enough humidity to facilitate the enzymatic conversion of chlorophyll? You cant imagine they are simply allowing it to dry green for smoking right? Or is it because its Oriental tobacco that would be sun cured anyway? Here's a link to a video from Cambodia

View: https://youtu.be/WdEKhsbUSs0?si=WldPWeRgl1BFPuxp

It's done in very humid countries. Forum member Tutu, who worked for a cigar leaf producer in Indonesia, if I recall correctly, said that he believed it takes around 5 days for this shredded tobacco (rajangan) to dry.

I have also seen a lot of photos of rajangan production where the tobacco is almost fully yellow. I think your intuition about questioning the process is totally fair. As someone who has already gone down this rabbit hole and produced tobacco this way multiple times, I would say that I believe the more ripe, the better the quality, and that producers who cut it green are producing inferior product. However, it is possible that in cooler, wetter weather, there might be sufficient time for the rajangan to colour cure. And, it's possible that they define quality differently. Maybe a bit of green gives them the pH and nicotine hit per dollar that their consumers prefer.

Edit: I also want to add that if the leaf is quickly ripening, in ideal conditions it only takes two days to fully yellow. Consider the flue cure schedule chart.