That's exactly what I searched for.
Using Air Cured Tobacco Leaves.
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I will try it and see how it goes.
Is it also called Dokha? What people may or may not call air curing can be two different things.
When you first harvest tobacco leaves, they need to be dried and color cured. Air drying slowly allows the leaves to yellow and then brown and you end up with raw tobacco. Flu cured is dried more quickly with heat and has a higher sugar content. A lot of cigarette tobacco and Virginia is flue cured.
Anyway, raw air cured tobacco is strong and not so tasty. It needs to be "fermented" or sometimes people say "cured". Thus some confusion. Cigar leaf is fermented in piles, many (most) growers these days build a fermentation/curing chamber, or, simply hanging the tobacco and aging it will accomplish that too.
So, "air cured" can mean more than one thing.
The Wiki article below says that Dokha is very strong, so I guess it could be un-aged /unfermented. Raw tobacco is sometimes smoked (I think Bidis are raw, dunno).
Or, possibly it is just hung to age and that's what they mean by "air cured"
Sorry for the rambling. It's early and I just got up. Anyway, is it also called Dokha?
en.wikipedia.org
When you first harvest tobacco leaves, they need to be dried and color cured. Air drying slowly allows the leaves to yellow and then brown and you end up with raw tobacco. Flu cured is dried more quickly with heat and has a higher sugar content. A lot of cigarette tobacco and Virginia is flue cured.
Anyway, raw air cured tobacco is strong and not so tasty. It needs to be "fermented" or sometimes people say "cured". Thus some confusion. Cigar leaf is fermented in piles, many (most) growers these days build a fermentation/curing chamber, or, simply hanging the tobacco and aging it will accomplish that too.
So, "air cured" can mean more than one thing.
The Wiki article below says that Dokha is very strong, so I guess it could be un-aged /unfermented. Raw tobacco is sometimes smoked (I think Bidis are raw, dunno).
Or, possibly it is just hung to age and that's what they mean by "air cured"
Sorry for the rambling. It's early and I just got up. Anyway, is it also called Dokha?
Dokha - Wikipedia
Hello from Greece,
I've grown some burley, air-cured the lowest leaves (apparently the mildest on the plant) for ~3 weeks to crispy dry, moistened with water to roll and shred as thin coins as I could, left the coins to dry until I could ruffle them up to ribbon again, left it to dry further and when it felt appropriately dry I smoked it in a pipe. It was surprisingly good for 3-week old tobacco, more spicy than nutty, fairly soft in nicotine, not bitter, and only a tiny bit herbal in the exhale.
If these are cured (ie prepared) leaves I am sure you can do what I did and end up with a good smoking product.
Nice pictures too.
I've grown some burley, air-cured the lowest leaves (apparently the mildest on the plant) for ~3 weeks to crispy dry, moistened with water to roll and shred as thin coins as I could, left the coins to dry until I could ruffle them up to ribbon again, left it to dry further and when it felt appropriately dry I smoked it in a pipe. It was surprisingly good for 3-week old tobacco, more spicy than nutty, fairly soft in nicotine, not bitter, and only a tiny bit herbal in the exhale.
If these are cured (ie prepared) leaves I am sure you can do what I did and end up with a good smoking product.
Nice pictures too.
Thank you for the valuable information.Is it also called Dokha? What people may or may not call air curing can be two different things.
When you first harvest tobacco leaves, they need to be dried and color cured. Air drying slowly allows the leaves to yellow and then brown and you end up with raw tobacco. Flu cured is dried more quickly with heat and has a higher sugar content. A lot of cigarette tobacco and Virginia is flue cured.
Anyway, raw air cured tobacco is strong and not so tasty. It needs to be "fermented" or sometimes people say "cured". Thus some confusion. Cigar leaf is fermented in piles, many (most) growers these days build a fermentation/curing chamber, or, simply hanging the tobacco and aging it will accomplish that too.
So, "air cured" can mean more than one thing.
The Wiki article below says that Dokha is very strong, so I guess it could be un-aged /unfermented. Raw tobacco is sometimes smoked (I think Bidis are raw, dunno).
Or, possibly it is just hung to age and that's what they mean by "air cured"
Sorry for the rambling. It's early and I just got up. Anyway, is it also called Dokha?
Dokha - Wikipedia
Dokha is different and is mostly famous in the United Arab Emirates. The people who smoke this tobacco in its water pipe swear it is tasty and that is what intrigues me to try it. There is another way Yemeni people smoke such tobacco without a water pipe and it is so similar to the way pipe smokers smoke pipe tobaccos, they smoke a special type of this tobacco with a pipe which bowl is made of clay and the stem is made of wood and it is long, there is this old picture of a man smoking one:
But I cannot find any of this tobacco or these pipes and they seem to be no more. Maybe six years ago I was traveling on a rural road, more of off-roading, and saw an old man walking while smoking a similar pipe, I thought it was rude to ask him where he got his tobacco pipe from, but now I regret it. Am still on the hunt for one of these pipes.
Thank you.
I will try your method with the other methods I was planning to attempt. I am going to buy some of the premium leaves because there are cheap and premium ones and see how it goes.
So nice to hear about tobacco and life in a far corner of the world! Thank you for your posts!
One thing I've learnt growing my own tobacco [Still a novice] is that 'home-grown' tobacco needs to be stored at a much dryer moisture level than commercial tobacco.
So I'd advise that you rehumidify small quantities that you intend to smoke within a couple of days to avoid mould.
The tobacco looks like it has been cured well, showing no green, so I think for at least a part of the year, the humidity is right for aging tobacco. After a couple years, it will be much better than the year it was picked.
The topic of unprocessed tobacco burning a certain way keeps coming up. If you ask most people who grow their own, it's only a psychological hurdle. Others have implied that tobacco should be cased. I would like to see that said in a cigar forum, lol.
Many air cured tobaccos, properly hydrated with water, taste great and are balanced. Others need to be blended. It all depends on the individual and the varietal.
Your tobacco looks similar to this one, which is called Tombac.
fairtradetobacco.com
I would totally smoke it.
The topic of unprocessed tobacco burning a certain way keeps coming up. If you ask most people who grow their own, it's only a psychological hurdle. Others have implied that tobacco should be cased. I would like to see that said in a cigar forum, lol.
Many air cured tobaccos, properly hydrated with water, taste great and are balanced. Others need to be blended. It all depends on the individual and the varietal.
Your tobacco looks similar to this one, which is called Tombac.
Tombac
According to a post about hookah (nargile) tobacco, I want to post a new topic because Tombac is a different and very interesting strain. The tobacco used in nargile is Tombac (Tömbeki). World's best tombacs are grown in Isfahan (Iran) following Iraq, Syria and all Arabia. There may be a very...
I would totally smoke it.
A relative of Sherazi is also a possibility as it is one of the larger leafed oriental tobaccos.
fairtradetobacco.com
Shirazi Morphology
Shirazi: a morphological discussion Shirazi, classed as an Oriental tobacco, is named for the southwestern Iranian city of Shiraz. Although it has pink blossoms, its leaf shape is unlike any other Oriental that I have seen. A search of the Internet, GRIN, the Nicotiana Project (Doug...
That is exactly what it is called here, Tombac, but it is never flavored and as I explained here some people smoke it in these pipes. Thank you.The tobacco looks like it has been cured well, showing no green, so I think for at least a part of the year, the humidity is right for aging tobacco. After a couple years, it will be much better than the year it was picked.
The topic of unprocessed tobacco burning a certain way keeps coming up. If you ask most people who grow their own, it's only a psychological hurdle. Others have implied that tobacco should be cased. I would like to see that said in a cigar forum, lol.
Many air cured tobaccos, properly hydrated with water, taste great and are balanced. Others need to be blended. It all depends on the individual and the varietal.
Your tobacco looks similar to this one, which is called Tombac.
View attachment 42672
Tombac
According to a post about hookah (nargile) tobacco, I want to post a new topic because Tombac is a different and very interesting strain. The tobacco used in nargile is Tombac (Tömbeki). World's best tombacs are grown in Isfahan (Iran) following Iraq, Syria and all Arabia. There may be a very...
I would totally smoke it.
Will, I bought some today and it was not as dry as I thought it would be so I did not humidify it. I shredded it into ribbons and filled my corn cob with some and after lightning it it was a disappointment. It tasted bland and although it has no characteristics it was harsh. Maybe the tobacco I bought was bad, I will get some from another place and see how it goes.
I am planning on that, I bought some straight latakia from smokingpipes, which I am still waiting for, and I will see if that can make this tobacco smokable.
There's a great idea. Latakia will definitely add flavour and reduce harshness.
If the tobacco is young, that would explain why it's harsh.
Most tobacco needs to be aged for a year before smoking.
When I tried this years homegrown Burley it was not very nice. The same variety of Burley that I'd grown the year before was totally different. Much smoother and tastier.
What about the taste? Could aging develop the taste of the tobacco?
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