Virginia casing clarification

[yesrepeatno]

I've been working a few kgs of some locally procured flue cured Virginia. It's a mix of reds and yellows, it smokes decently well even though it's a bit light on flavour. I get no tongue bite from this leaf and it works well with other components. There are some vegetative off flavours I get from time to time in test bowls with a ribbon cut mix. I want to smooth out the flavours for a ribbon cut mixture with some cheroot leaf as a condiment.

A few things I would like to understand:
- Most Va casing recipes I see online begin with an invert syrup. What is the point of adding more glucose and fructose to Va leaf that is already high in sugars? Wouldn't that only increase any potential for tongue bite?
- Most casing recipes mention a 1:1 ratio of sugar to water. Wouldn't this produce a casing with too high a viscosity for a spray bottle?
- Do I even need any casing in my case or will making the mixture and pressing into a cake solve the problem? Again, there is no tongue bite from the mixture.

 

[deluxestogie]

making the mixture and pressing into a cake

That costs nothing, and with pressing for about 3 weeks, will significantly alter the taste and aroma. I would suggest trying that first, rather than adding non-tobacco ingredients.

Bob

 

[Juxtaposer-]

I add sugars because I love the extra sweetness. The hydroscopic nature of sugar holds moisture and flavorings as well. Sugar may also feed microorganisms that can add beneficial flavors. While the temperatures in burning will be elevated they can be controlled by smoking cadence.
Yes it may be too thick, just add more liquid. The one to one ratio is for inverting the sugar (with an acid). I make small batches of thick invert and add spoonfuls to casing liquids.
You absolutely do not NEED a casing although you may want to use water. I like to use citric acid on flue cured tobaccos. I find this cuts rough edges without adding noticeable flavor.
Regarding vegetable flavors which can be annoying although some are pleasant. Aging and/or various heat treatments seem to help eliminate these. Kilning, stoving, toasting, steaming, and/or a combination of these are worth looking into.
Pressing is the king of all treatments! Pressing your leaf will not eliminate other treatment options and certainly may be enough to get what you want out of this tobacco.

 

[yesrepeatno]

I do have some citric acid on hand, I'll give that a try. Any recommendations for ratio of acid to leaf weight? I have already tried stoving and that made the flavours more intense but the vegetative note is still there. It tastes like wet foliage in one puff out of twenty. I'll cut, mix and press a batch and report back.

 

[GreenDragon]

The statements that you do not get any tongue bite and taste vegetal flavors make me suspicious that the tobacco may have been harvested before it was fully ripe and/or the curing was rushed. Good Virginias can have a slight "hay" flavor profile, but they shouldn't taste "green". I also suggest pressing for a few weeks. Sounds like you have plenty to experiment with: I would try a batch with and without added sugar or honey. I like to case my pipe tobacco with rum or scotch before pressing. Also, try making a batch of cavendish to blend with. Good luck and have fun!

 

[yesrepeatno]

Yes, improper harvesting and/or curing is almost certainly behind this. I did go through all the leaves manually and discarded everything that didn't look great but it might not have been visible to me. I did try to make cavendish and an equal mixture of Va/Cav/cheroot leaf tasted great with a surprisingly subtle impact from the cheroot leaf. I'm having lots of fun playing with the possibilities of Va and cheroot leaf alone while I try to get my hands on other varietals. I'm also about a month into periquing cheroot leaf, so hopefully I'll have something good to report a couple of months down the line.

 

[Juxtaposer-]

A little research might reveal a standard amount of citric acid that gets added to tobacco products. Requiring painstaking careful measurement to achieve these numbers may not be necessary as I have found even in intentionally large doses there is little negative effect. I will use a solution estimated to be at two percent citric acid. This would be two percent of the entire casing volume including any other ingredients. Because in casing a tobacco generally all of a casing preparation is not used you can see were getting a precise amount of an ingredient would take some effort to make sure only the correct amount of casing is made. There are some numbers out there for the amount of liquid to tobacco. I don’t bother. A pinch of this and a pinch of that and spray on more or less to taste I would say as I do taste a casing before application.
P.S. If you are going to invert some sugar, jaggery would be amazing.

 

[yesrepeatno]

Pressing the leaf has totally removed the off flavours, giving a flavour profile similar to Hamborger Veermaster. I've yet to try the citric acid casing, I'll update once I do. Thanks once again to everyone here for the help!