Micro-scale Tobacco Processing

[nathaniel]

Gosh guys... I've been doing some thinking. And some arithmetic. And some political predictions. And I think I'm screwed. There's no way I'll be able to cellar enough to get me through to ~100 before it gets too prohibitively taxed or outright banned. I'm only 34. I doubt we have 20yrs left before the market is relegated to millionaires only.

But growing is easy. I can grow. What im unsure of is processing. Ive smoked and chewed locally grown leaf, one just dried I think and another dried after being dipped in cane sugar molasses. It's potent af but its rank.

Is it possible to process tobacco on a personal scale to make something remotely enjoyable that doesn't taste like garbage? Are there any resources for learning about this?

 

[proteus]

There are other boards involved with primarily tobacco blending and fair trade tobacco. All you need to do is to get some seed, grow some tobacco and then process it according to whatever style you want. You probably won't be able to make perique or Latakia but you could make a decent straight Va or burley or bend of the two. Air cured methods are fairly straight forward.

 

[proteus]

Tobacco Curing Methods | Smokingpipes.com

Learn more about the different curing techniques used to create the blending components in your favorite pipe tobaccos.

www.smokingpipes.com

 

[AppalachianPipe92]

Go to the FairTrade forum. Lots of discussion on growing and processing. There's other boards for these topics also. I don't grow yet but have the seeds and will add it to my garden next year. I've put it off for quite some time now. Instead, I've been blending whole leaf Tobacco I bought from various sources. Surprisingly, I've cranked out some decent blends that I think will continue to get better with age. It's not expensive to experiment with and I wanted to try my hand at blending it (casing, topping, processing, etc) before growing any to see if it was even worth my time. Lots of information and resources out there to get started. Check the search bar here

 

[ThermionicScott]

The future will no doubt be very different from today. The key is always to be adaptable. That extends to the enjoyable things we do to spend the time...

Growing and processing your own is quite the interesting rabbit hole. Just my luck that the blends I enjoy most contain Virginia, and flue-curing requires more of a controlled set up that just hanging the stuff to dry. I'd have to build something like this if I wanted to keep smoking Virginias after my cellar runs out and it's no longer commercially-available: deluxestogie's Trash Can Cozy Flue-cure Chamber - https://fairtradetobacco.com/threads/deluxestogies-trash-can-cozy-flue-cure-chamber.1094/

 

[Ahi Ka]

Yes you can. I started to grow out of necessity, and now I do it for joy. The resources available at Fairtradetobacco will help, and if possible, follow the advice above by getting a supply of whole leaf to play with. Depending on your country’s import legislation you may have just found a way to get some serious stocking up done.

Homegrown produce is invariably more rewarding (and tastier!) than stuff purchased from the shop. With time, the same can apply to tobacco. Is the locally sourced stuff you tried rustica?

I would also add, that it is entirely possible to process perique, dark fired and Latakia at home, the later being much more labour intensive. If you do go down the whole leaf/home grown route, I would suggest buying a healthy supply of these components as whole leaf.

Some final thoughts:

For “Virginias”, I found that for me, air or sun cured leaf is much tastier than flue cured.

For orientals, I am enjoying exploring the nuances of individual varieties.

For burley (and semois), after growing my own, I pretty much traded away all of the burley blends I had stocked up on

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Everyone overthinks this, and they make it like processing tobacco is way too difficult, and yet for thousands of years before white people landed here, the Native Americans were doing this shit without the use of PGs and industrial flu curers. Then we went a few more hundred years of white guys doing it without electricity... and they had to of been making something that they liked, because we still do it.

I have made posts on here for years explaining what I do The 2015 Cosmic Crop :: Pipe Tobacco Discussion - https://pipesmagazine.com/forums/threads/the-2015-cosmic-crop.41699/page-6 And there are more, just Google (pipesmagazine cosmic tobacco) and you'll see lists.

Just grow it, dry it as slow as possible, or build a flu if you want, age it a few years, and bam, you will have something maybe even better than what the corporations do.

Think about it, everything homemade is always better than corporate, unless you just think Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies are the zenith of human dessert production.

You may have to change your tastes a bit if you've only ever had heavily cased tobaccos from England. Because that is barely even tobacco, IMO.

It's funny, something as simple as tobaccos, and we have to buy books, have forums, and someone to hold our hands... it's really simple, don't over think it.

 

[brian64]

I'm only 34. I doubt we have 20yrs left before the market is relegated to millionaires only.

I've got a quarter of a century on you, so I'm close to the point where I probably have enough for the remainder of my sojourn in this realm. But in the event that I ever end up with no pipe tobacco, cigars will likely still be available.

Aside from that, all indications at present are that long before the tobacco apocalypse, we will all be overtaken by issues and events of sufficient magnitude as to make tobacco problems irrelevant anyway.

 

[nathaniel]

Thanks so much everyone! Im much more encouraged now. I think at the very least I can buy 10lbs of latakia to "anglicize" my blends and then grow the rest myself. Since its probably no more 10% lat in most blends. 10lbs of latakia should serve me for life for my own English/oriental blends.

I know whats grown here (down the mountain from me, here in costa rica) is likely some Virginia or burley because its big leaves that looks like what ive seen grown in Kentucky when i lived there. Hopefully i can buy some basma, Turkish, and smyrna seeds that will do well here. I didn't realize most of the english/oriental blends components are just air dried. Thats what i smoke mostly and looks easy to do!

 

[nathaniel]

Man i cant wait to try this!

 

[proteus]

Some other suggestions I have from making my own ... I use a purpose made steamer from kitchen supply place for cavendish and then I made a smaller scale press like the one shown below in the link. For flue curing I use an insulated wooden box with a few ceramic lizard heaters to get it up slowly to 175 with a temperature thermocouple which turn them off and on. You can get all of it except the box at a pet supply place or online. Fire curing and Latakia and perique I don't think I can do. I have thought about using my smoker to smoke the leaves. Haven't tried it yet.

Curing Methods and Tobacco Types

By Russ Ouellette The curing of tobacco is sometimes likened to alchemy or subatomic structure by some pipe smokers. The fact is that curing is just a method of preparing […]

pipesmagazine.com