Tobacco Pr0n - 12yr Aged St. James Flake
- Thread starter hfearly
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Wow, that is some seriously delicious looking tobacco you have there OP. I am new to this world of aging tobaccos, so I had yet to see a pic of some nice aged tobacco. It looks good, really good in fact. Congrats on having the will power to not smoke it all as you moved it from the tin to a jar. 
Beautiful flakes!!!
Does anyone know what the plume, bloom or "sugar crystals" actually are?
I think it's an unanswered mystery, hard to find any scientific data.
There's a little bit of stuff to be found at the Legacy Library, like this which suggests the crystals are Calcium Malate, which is the calcium salt of malic acid, dunno if this had to do more with a casing/topping or natural leaf, but it's interesting...
..."A crystalline deposit on Bulwark Flake tobacco was found to be due to salting, and chemical tests indicated that the crystals were predominantly (72%) Calcium Malate. It is believed that the moisture present during manufacture is in some way responsible for the appearance of efflorescence."
The word efflorescence is appealing, I like it.
That's some mighty fine looking efflorescent flake ya got there hfearly!
In chemistry, efflorescence (which means "to flower out" in French) is the loss of water (or a solvent) of crystallization from a hydrated or solvated salt.
The most indepth article I found is a bit difficult to read at times, but talk is made saying that the lower leaves have a higher Malic Acid content, many of the stronger strength flakes use darker lower leaf in the blend and flakes retain more moisture as well...it's kind of funny that they're researching this because they view it as a problem...
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/action/document/page?tid=nwf51f00&page=3
Anyway, thanks for sharing the yummy picture, it's almost magic seeing such well developed bloom!
Does anyone know what the plume, bloom or "sugar crystals" actually are?
I think it's an unanswered mystery, hard to find any scientific data.
There's a little bit of stuff to be found at the Legacy Library, like this which suggests the crystals are Calcium Malate, which is the calcium salt of malic acid, dunno if this had to do more with a casing/topping or natural leaf, but it's interesting...
..."A crystalline deposit on Bulwark Flake tobacco was found to be due to salting, and chemical tests indicated that the crystals were predominantly (72%) Calcium Malate. It is believed that the moisture present during manufacture is in some way responsible for the appearance of efflorescence."
The word efflorescence is appealing, I like it.
That's some mighty fine looking efflorescent flake ya got there hfearly!
In chemistry, efflorescence (which means "to flower out" in French) is the loss of water (or a solvent) of crystallization from a hydrated or solvated salt.
The most indepth article I found is a bit difficult to read at times, but talk is made saying that the lower leaves have a higher Malic Acid content, many of the stronger strength flakes use darker lower leaf in the blend and flakes retain more moisture as well...it's kind of funny that they're researching this because they view it as a problem...
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/action/document/page?tid=nwf51f00&page=3
Anyway, thanks for sharing the yummy picture, it's almost magic seeing such well developed bloom!
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