Dark Virginia: Process or Actual Leaf?

[geopiper]

What exactly is dark virginia? Is it an actual leaf that can be plucked from somewhere on the plant, or is it more of a way to process the leaf? For example: red and bright virginia are actual leaves that grow at different heights on the plant. I haven't heard mention of dark virginia in this same regard. Another example are the Sam Gawith blends: Golden Glow, Best Brown and Full Virginia Flake. Others on this forum have determined these blends start with the same leaf but are subjected to increasing pressing and steaming time to produce the final darker results.
Samuel Gawith Virginia Shootout :: Pipe Tobacco Reviews - https://pipesmagazine.com/forums/threads/samuel-gawith-virginia-shootout.76759/

 

[logs]

Virginia leaf can come in a lot of different colors but mostly when people talk about dark VA they mean stoved.

 

[Ahi Ka]

Unless you are talking about “dark air cured Virginia” you can purchase as whole leaf - it’s a different variety

 

[shanez]

Most VAs are the result of a process or where on the plant the leaf is harvested from. Many, if not all, VAs can even come from the same plant.

Terroir is a different discussion.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Dark Virginia, unless used in some sentence of marketing verbage, means one of the dark Imperial Virginias, such as African or Indonesian Virginias. This is actually more of a buriey, and can be fire cured, air cured, and maybe flue cured, but usually not. These were cultivated in the Brittish Emp

It is a totally different variety than the usual bright leaf varieties we are used to.

Usually, unless used obscurely in a sentence, do not mean the same as Stoved.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

red and bright virginia are actual leaves that grow at different heights on the plant.

That is sort of correct, and with Jeremy’s last interview, I know what you mean. But, bright leaf is the varietal. Noy, where it was picked off the plant, nor a leaf color. Bright leaf refers to any varietal that is processed in the flue. Reds are usually selected midway, but there can be color cured reds, which is where the flue ises different settings to produce a red color in curing. I can cure bottom leafs to red, and it was the McNiels who cited their farmers that no longer did this for them that drove them out of the business.

There is much more to flue curing, color curing, varietals, and how blenders, marketers, and pipe tobacco companies use terms like these.

 

[geopiper]

What about Astley's #44 Dark Virginia Flake, or Dunhill Dark Flake, McConnel Black Flake, Wessex Brigade Campaign Dark Flake?

These are all stoved?

 

[mso489]

McC's Dark Star is aged and stoved.

 

[mingc]

Dark Virginia, unless used in some sentence of marketing verbage, means one of the dark Imperial Virginias, such as African or Indonesian Virginias. This is actually more of a buriey, and can be fire cured, air cured, and maybe flue cured, but usually not. These were cultivated in the Brittish Emp

It is a totally different variety than the usual bright leaf varieties we are used to.

Usually, unless used obscurely in a sentence, do not mean the same as Stoved.

For what it's worth, the former British colonies that grow tobacco are India, Nyasaland (now Malawi) and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).

 

[woodsroad]

bright leaf is the varietal. Noy, where it was picked off the plant, nor a leaf color. Bright leaf refers to any varietal that is processed in the flue.

OK, I'm not screwing with you here, just trying to understand:
Bright Leaf is a varietal.
But it can be ANY varietal that is flue cured?

Reds are usually selected midway,

Midway...on the stalk? Midway through the flue cure?

but there can be color cured reds, which is where the flue ises different settings to produce a red color in curing. I can cure bottom leafs to red, and it was the McNiels who cited their farmers that no longer did this for them that drove them out of the business.

So McClelland was buying flue-cured, bottom stalk selected Red Virginia, and supposedly couldn't procure it any longer.
So what might Sutliff's Red Virginia be? Selected somewhere else on the stalk and flue-cured red? The entire stalk cured red? Machine harvested (mangled) leaf cured red?

There is much more to flue curing, color curing, varietals, and how blenders, marketers, and pipe tobacco companies use terms like these.

That's for certain. Marketing is a free-for-all. My guess is that many marketers don't know/care about correct terminology.

 

[kcghost]

Man, we haven't a chance of keeping up with these guys.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

For what it's worth, the former British colonies that grow tobacco are India, Nyasaland (now Malawi) and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).

Virginia is not where Virginias are grown. That is a name from where it was cultivated. Much of Africa was colonized, right? I’m not 100% certain where all African Virginias are grown commercially. I’ve grown it in Alabama. Seed stock can also be named Dark Virginia.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

OK, I'm not screwing with you here, just trying to understand:
Bright Leaf is a varietal.
But it can be ANY varietal that is flue cured?



Midway...on the stalk? Midway through the flue cure?



So McClelland was buying flue-cured, bottom stalk selected Red Virginia, and supposedly couldn't procure it any longer.
So what might Sutliff's Red Virginia be? Selected somewhere else on the stalk and flue-cured red? The entire stalk cured red? Machine harvested (mangled) leaf cured red?


That's for certain. Marketing is a free-for-all. My guess is that many marketers don't know/care about correct terminology.

Brightleaf is a term for tobacco varieties that have the starches to be cured to sugars. Cherry Red, Ukrainian, Canadian, and VAGold25, are a few brightleaf varietals…. Like burley. It’s something to look for when buying seed.

Temps and time in the flue will give you different colors of leaf, of you push it. I’m not 100% an expert, but I’ve had happy intended results.

 

[anotherbob]

That's for certain. Marketing is a free-for-all. My guess is that many marketers don't know/care about correct terminology.

Or more accurately there are several different classifications that all use the same terms to mean different things.
Kind of like that b.s. about tomatoes being a fruit. Biologically it's a fruit culinarily it's a vegetable. It's more that kind of thing and then there are regional differences in terminology too.
So the basic rule with pipes and what's written on them is at best the terms indicate or hint at.

 

[Chasing Embers]

So McClelland was buying flue-cured, bottom stalk selected Red Virginia, and supposedly couldn't procure it any longer.

It was available but not up to Mike's standards.

 

[karam]

What exactly is dark virginia? Is it an actual leaf that can be plucked from somewhere on the plant, or is it more of a way to process the leaf? For example: red and bright virginia are actual leaves that grow at different heights on the plant. I haven't heard mention of dark virginia in this same regard. Another example are the Sam Gawith blends: Golden Glow, Best Brown and Full Virginia Flake. Others on this forum have determined these blends start with the same leaf but are subjected to increasing pressing and steaming time to produce the final darker results.
Samuel Gawith Virginia Shootout :: Pipe Tobacco Reviews - https://pipesmagazine.com/forums/threads/samuel-gawith-virginia-shootout.76759/

The Gawith brown ropes are key examples of their dark Virginias. Personally I am not much of a fan, there’s an oilyness from them that once tasted I couldn’t untaste it and now colours everything it’s present in like dark flake (unscented), dark plug, all ropes, even Synjeco’s ropes that use it as a wrapper.

 

[Worknman]

One thing I've learned is its all very confusing when it comes to tobacco varieties.

 

[woodsroad]

Brightleaf is a term for tobacco varieties that have the starches to be cured to sugars. Cherry Red, Ukrainian, Canadian, and VAGold25, are a few brightleaf varietals…. Like burley. It’s something to look for when buying seed.

Temps and time in the flue will give you different colors of leaf, of you push it. I’m not 100% an expert, but I’ve had happy intended results.

Ah!
Like mashing malted barley.
Heat activated enzymes.
I get it.

 

[Morrison Jeremiah]

The Gawith brown ropes are key examples of their dark Virginias. Personally I am not much of a fan, there’s an oilyness from them that once tasted I couldn’t untaste it and now colours everything it’s present in like dark flake (unscented), dark plug, all ropes, even Synjeco’s ropes that use it as a wrapper.

I've got like that at with Gh curly cut deluxe, now I've tasted beef burgers on a barbecue it just won't go away.
Fortunately I'm fine with the ropes, just as well because that's the bulk of my cellar.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Ah!
Like mashing malted barley.
Heat activated enzymes.
I get it.

Maybe…. I never mashed barley.