Tobacco Experiments: Stoved Virginia

[F4RM3R]

I have a passion for smoking pipe, but as with many things I love in life, I not only enjoy It, but also like to create it. I have been refining my techniques and experimenting with whole leaf tobacco purchased from wholeleaftobacco.com which is a great site for many different high quality tobaccos. It has taken me a few pounds of experimenting to really learn to get consistent results. But I am getting the hang of it and thought I would share.

This is some red virginia. Stoved in my oven at home. I simply put it in old tobacco tins, spraying with only water, repeating the spraying a few times as the tobacco heats up and hydrates more fully. This done until the tobacco soaks up the maximum amount of water it can. I have found this is necessary to get more sweetness from the leaf and encourage the colour and taste transformation of the Cavendish/stoving process. I've been experimenting with casings, but wanted see what is possible with only water. With Virginia, because of the natural sugars, only water is necessary to get some tasty results!

1st pic- the leaf in natural form after it's been flue cured of course.
2nd pic- stoved for about 2-3 hours
3rd pic - after about 6-7 hours
4th pic- after about 14 hours

These times might change with different leaf which has different sugar content, and the process is sped up by the addition of more water hydrating the leaf as much as possible.

 

[Casual]

Woah! And what about the difference in taste?

 

[lightmybriar]

Awesome! Great post and looking forward to more of your experiments!

 

[mikestanley]

That's pretty neat. Thanks for sharing. I'm no "tinkerer" but, I've heard of good results with stoving in a Crock Pot.

Mike S.

 

[aquadoc]

What temp are you setting your oven to for stoving?

 

[F4RM3R]

Woah! And what about the difference in taste?

Well....
Pic 1 - Red Virginia in this state is very bready, hay and grassy(not as much hay and grass compared to a bright virginia) not much sweetness, but a bowl will stove itself and get a little sweeter at the end, definitely no fruity notes. This can be used to add to a blend like an English if you don't want the Virginia to stand out very much and just back things up a bit.
Pic 2- this is where the hay and grassy notes are replaced by some up front sweetness, and an almost creamy quality. Still lots of bread, but it takes a backseat. Some tang comes to the forefront. A tiny smidgen of fruit notes. This is great on it's own, and really develops into a full flavoured smoke at the end of a bowl, but is best for use in a blend to add sweetness and depth. Also great as a base for a va per.
Pic 3- a sort of in between, losing more bread, for that caramelized Cavendish sweetness. All the hay and grass notes are gone. This is nice to add in small amounts to blends to sweeten them up without adding too much depth.
Pic 4 - ah yes the rich and royal black stoved. This has all the tang and sweetness, the breadyness replaced by the caramelized sweetness and tang. A very slight oilyness, thick and cool smoke. Wonderful stuff on it's own, developing to a very full smoke during a bowl. Adding some perique makes a really complex and tasty dark va per in my opinion. This can be used sparingly in a more complex blend, but the tangyness and sweetness sometimes dominates too much.

Mixing pics 2 and 4 (2/3 to 1/3)creates a best of both world's mix with the creamy, bready, tangy and fruity qualities all present for an excellent all Virginia blend.

 

[F4RM3R]

I set the oven for 200-220. The tobacco inside won't go above boiling point inside the tin as it will be fully hydrated the entire time. So it's basically steaming inside the tin.

You could set the oven higher and it won't go more than boiling point, but its not necessary. If you do this in tins, you can melt the rubber seal on the lid if you go too high(I have done this) I prefer using old tins as they are easy to use, won't break like a jar could, and they seal the right amount to let a small amount of moisture escape to not have the thing explode, but not enough to dry it out quickly.

I have to respray the tobacco a few times during the process, once it's fully soaked though, it only needs to be checked every few hours. You can also pause the process and continue the next day if you don't have time, with no I'll results.

 

[F4RM3R]

That's pretty neat. Thanks for sharing. I'm no "tinkerer" but, I've heard of good results with stoving in a Crock Pot.

Mike S.

Crock pot can work too, but tins in the oven is really easy and will give same results basically.

 

[F4RM3R]

Awesome! Great post and looking forward to more of your experiments!

Glad you enjoy It, I'll definitely post some more experiments soon!

 

[supdog]

Now that you have the process down you can experiment with different leaves. Leafonly.com has a good selection of tobaccos and they sell 1/4 lb samples.

 

[lightmybriar]

Well done on your descriptions! This is great stuff. Thanks very much for posting!

 

[F4RM3R]

Now that you have the process down you can experiment with different leaves. Leafonly.com has a good selection of tobaccos and they sell 1/4 lb samples.

Yes my latest order included, bright Virginia, latakia, Kentucky, perique, and basma. I prefer wholeleaftobacco.com myself as I think the quality is better than my previous orders from leafonly. The 1/4 lb option is nice though.

I have played with stoving/steaming and toasting burley too. It definitely needs some added sugar casing to get some good results. As for the latakia, Kentucky and basma, I haven't had the time to stove them just yet, but soon! I really just wanted to perfect the Virginia since it really reacts and changes so much with stoving. I'm not sure the other tobaccos will really gain a lot from stoving, besides melding the flavours and mellowing them out. Which should be good for Kentucky I am guessing though.

 

[Tommy Boy]

That is very interesting to see. Nice job with the pictures. It helps to see pics along side the descriptions. I might have to try it out soon. How much leaf did you go through in test runs?

 

[supdog]

I wonder if you use a sugar casing on the latakia, would it be anything like the latakia that McClelland used?

 

[davek]

Great post!

I used to stove everything. I would float a bowl with the tobacco in it in a crock pot full of water and stove for about 8 hours. It would get pretty wet from the steam and, as you say, would be doing cavendish to an extent. I stopped doing it because it seemed that all the tobaccos would get a similar taste, and more importantly because it would stop the aging process. I need to play with that again someday.

I've ordered from leaf only, traded for leaf online, traded for it locally, and now have my own homegrown.

 

[jhand45]

A while ago I stoved some orientals that I had lying around. Prelip I think it was. Very good, heavy apricot notes as I recall.