Canadian blends and other questions

[dangobar]

Hey everyone,

I'm not new to whole leaf tobacco. I've been rolling my own cigs with strictly Canadian lemon Virginia and Gizeh airstream tubes for a good 4-5 years now, and loving it. Especially here in Ontario, where the prices (for everything really) are astronomical.

I ordered from 'the other' U.S. whole leaf tobacco retailer for a few years, but after one terrible batch and unreliable quality all around, I had had enough, and started going with WLT. I did not look back.

Anyway, I've mostly been using the Canadian lemon, and am looking into blending this with others. The main body will remain Canadian lemon, as it is excellent, and my choice of cigs were light Canadian when I was smoking commercial.

I even puncture several holes with a small pin into my cigarette filters in order to make it 'Canadian light'. So I think even the bright leaf might be too much, as ridiculous as that may sound.

I've been thinking of something like the following:
- 58% Canadian lemon
- 20% hand tied lemon (2019?)
- 15% thin leaf
- 7% Krumovgrad (turkish)

Should I get the 2019 or the 2020 hand tied Virginia lemon?

Is the hand tied lemon even that different from the current Canadian lemon? Do you think it would suit my 'light' purposes?

Apparently, Canadian cigarettes are all made with a blend of flue cured Virginias, so I think this blend would generally work, with or without the Turkish.

I won't even bother naming which brands I used to smoke. I'm not really looking to emulate anything. I already know WLT's tobacco doesn't compare to the weird trash sold in stores.

Does anyone think I should stick with what works for me? Strictly Canadian lemon?

Some insight would be most helpful.

Thanks!

Edit: I should add that I can only order up 6lbs at a time, due to stickler province. So I'm kind of trying to nail what types of baccy I should get for my blend. Otherwise, I would order 12lbs, at once, no problem.

 

[deluxestogie]

Welcome to the forum. Feel free to introduce yourself in the Introduce Yourself forum.

In general, the lighter, Basma type Orientals should blend nicely with Canadian Lemon, and add a light floral note. These would include Krumovgrad, Basma and Prilep. My impression is that the Stacked Basma is lighter and a bit more floral than the Krumovgrad.

Bob

 

[Oldfella]

Welcome from me in NZ.
Oldfella

 

[dangobar]

Thank you for the warm welcomes.

Now that I'm thinking about commercial cigarettes I used to smoke though, there was one. One to rule them all.

They stopped production 5 to 7 years ago, and they were one of the reasons I started buying whole leaf.

They were called Yuma ( I bought the light version yellow pack). Organic cigarettes, which eventually led me to find organic whole leaves online and basically got me started on the DIY journey, because the other organic cigarettes either had a bad taste to them like every other cigarette on the market (including American spirit, Northfield), or were too expensive. Nothing compared to Yuma before I started buying whole leaf.

They were more common in Europe, but distributed in Canada by Kretek International. I think the company was called 'Yuma Europe'. Not sure if they were in the states.

Those smokes were like nothing else. They were so clean and smooth. I would actually buy a pack today and try to emulate that.

If anyone has smoked these, and have any idea what is in them (probably thin leaf with lemon/some kind of blend of the lightest and smoothest virginias on the planet), or have a solid recipe, that would be so excellent.

 

[Hazen]

Nope we never had any Yuma here in Maine. I smoke Canadian smokes and I think a little bit of blending with the lemon is good for the flavor, but if I mix any less then 80% Canadian it doesn’t taste right. I got a little American Virginia and some sweet bright leaf to mix with the Canadian. It’s very heavy compared to the lemon. Not strong but heavy, I like strong I smoke export green usually so the lemon is a little light for my taste. I always blend the darker leaves in with half the lighter, I wish they could find a Canadian orange or red . I almost had a pretty good players blend going about 90 lemon with 9% American flue cured Virginia and 1% sweet bright leaf

 

[Knucklehead]

Thank you for the warm welcomes.

Now that I'm thinking about commercial cigarettes I used to smoke though, there was one. One to rule them all.

They stopped production 5 to 7 years ago, and they were one of the reasons I started buying whole leaf.

They were called Yuma ( I bought the light version yellow pack). Organic cigarettes, which eventually led me to find organic whole leaves online and basically got me started on the DIY journey, because the other organic cigarettes either had a bad taste to them like every other cigarette on the market (including American spirit, Northfield), or were too expensive. Nothing compared to Yuma before I started buying whole leaf.

They were more common in Europe, but distributed in Canada by Kretek International. I think the company was called 'Yuma Europe'. Not sure if they were in the states.

Those smokes were like nothing else. They were so clean and smooth. I would actually buy a pack today and try to emulate that.

If anyone has smoked these, and have any idea what is in them (probably thin leaf with lemon/some kind of blend of the lightest and smoothest virginias on the planet), or have a solid recipe, that would be so excellent.

Here's a thread on Indonesian Kretek cigarettes

Homegrown Kretek Trials

@Tutu suggested cloves are soaked in clove oil, then mixed 10-20% into tobacco. @Leftynick also suggested filters were sweetened I weighed out cloves and found an average weight of 0.06g, so I estimated 3 cloves per cigarette to be around 18%. I mixed with flue cured Delhi-34. This was too...

fairtradetobacco.com

There are more mentions if you enter Kretek into the search box.

 

[dangobar]

Forgot to update with what I'd been doing for several months. I ordered some Virginia 1st priming leaves to try out, as they are known to be light. Got some hand tied lemon too, as the reviews were very good. the 1st priming leaves are exactly what I needed for my Yuma light knockoffs. Now I think their light version used quite a bit of 1st priming. At first I tried a bit of hand tied lemon with the 1st priming. That was fantastic. Then I tried adding the Canadian Virginia to the mix, and that's basically all I'll ever need, personally, as it's quite an excellent light smoke. I found my lifer Canadian cigarette, whether that's a good thing or not haha (I'm a very light smoker, I think I'll be fine).

I think my bill goes a bit like this:
50% 1st priming
35% Canadian Virginia
15% hand tied lemon

 

[burge]

The hand tied is a lot like Dumarier I think I have one pound left. It's all good. I like mixing Big Bonner virginia with Canadian. The red leaf that was yellow in colour from WLT is great with the Canadian.

 

[burge]

Wondered how the process went

 

[Francoisfg]

Wondered how the process went

the process here in Quebec, is not doing good. the parcel is stuck at the custom for more than 2 weeks .... for now i don t know what to do.
The parcel is stuck in Missisauga and no answer from any one, I will wait one more week and see and then get back to you and give you some news

 

[deluxestogie]

Welcome to the forum, @Francoisfg. Feel free to introduce yourself in the Introduce Yourself forum. Your issue was discussed recently:

Got charged duties/taxes for whole leaf tobacco - suggestions needed

I'm in British Columbia. Ordered 4.5 lbs from Leaf Only, got dinged with $418 in fees after it languished in customs for over two weeks. $295 of that was in provincial sales tax. Anyone else had something similar happen to them? Did you appeal?

fairtradetobacco.com

Bob

 

[Homegrowngoodnes]

My wife is coming around to shredding whole leaf tobacco to make our own cigarettes but she is dead set on menthol. I wonder how effective dried peppermint leaves would be at introducing some menthol flavor to a whole leaf blend. Does anyone have any experience?

 

[deluxestogie]

Purchase menthol tubes.

Bob

 

[Homegrowngoodnes]

Menthol tunes alone dont have enough menthol flavor for her. Eventually I will probably transition her to just a whole leaf blend. I just gotta get started with the blending n make her try it! Lol

 

[Francoisfg]

Forgot to update with what I'd been doing for several months. I ordered some Virginia 1st priming leaves to try out, as they are known to be light. Got some hand tied lemon too, as the reviews were very good. the 1st priming leaves are exactly what I needed for my Yuma light knockoffs. Now I think their light version used quite a bit of 1st priming. At first I tried a bit of hand tied lemon with the 1st priming. That was fantastic. Then I tried adding the Canadian Virginia to the mix, and that's basically all I'll ever need, personally, as it's quite an excellent light smoke. I found my lifer Canadian cigarette, whether that's a good thing or not haha (I'm a very light smoker, I think I'll be fine).

I think my bill goes a bit like this:
50% 1st priming
35% Canadian Virginia
15% hand tied lemon

can someone explain to me what is canadian virginia
all I find is virginia red, virginia bright and virginia lemon
are those what you call canadian virginia
Sorry but I am new to this
Thanks

 

[Knucklehead]

it gets confusing:
Virginia, Bright Leaf, and Flue Cure "varieties" are used interchangeably for leaf that was traditionally developed, grown, and processed using the flue cure "process". The process of flue curing sets the sugars in the flue cure varieties. American cigarettes usually use flue cure, burley, oriental, and/or maryland. Canadian cigarettes are usually made with mostly or all flue cure varieties, the same or a combination of different ones that went through the flue cure process.

see flue cure process:

Curing, Fermentation, Aging, Kilning? Basic Definitions

Curing Tobacco When you begin with leaf from the field (primed or stalk-cut), and then allow it to convert from a living leaf to a dead leaf (of yellow or brown), you have cured the leaf. Often in this forum, we refer to this as "color-curing". There are a number of methods for color-curing...

fairtradetobacco.com

 

[deluxestogie]

There are, of course, Virginia flue-cure tobaccos that are grown in Canada, and flue-cured in Canada. I have grown burley and cigar varieties that were developed in the Agricultural Experiment stations in Canada.

We have brought the confusion upon ourselves, by naming tobaccos by geography, rather than biology.

Bob

EDIT: Imagine naming an animal, Buffalo Wild Wing.

 

[Francoisfg]

it gets confusing:
Virginia, Bright Leaf, and Flue Cure "varieties" are used interchangeably for leaf that was traditionally developed, grown, and processed using the flue cure "process". The process of flue curing sets the sugars in the flue cure varieties. American cigarettes usually use flue cure, burley, oriental, and/or maryland. Canadian cigarettes are usually made with mostly or all flue cure varieties, the same or a combination of different ones that went through the flue cure process.

see flue cure process:

Curing, Fermentation, Aging, Kilning? Basic Definitions

Curing Tobacco When you begin with leaf from the field (primed or stalk-cut), and then allow it to convert from a living leaf to a dead leaf (of yellow or brown), you have cured the leaf. Often in this forum, we refer to this as "color-curing". There are a number of methods for color-curing...

fairtradetobacco.com

wow tks alot ... a bit less confusing
I need to read it again and again and understand fermentation, maybe it looks compliacated but once you have done i will get use to it
Tks

 

[Francoisfg]

There are, of course, Virginia flue-cure tobaccos that are grown in Canada, and flue-cured in Canada. I have grown burley and cigar varieties that were developed in the Agricultural Experiment stations in Canada.

We have brought the confusion upon ourselves, by naming tobaccos by geography, rather than biology.

Bob

EDIT: Imagine naming an animal, Buffalo Wild Wing.

tks

imagine naming a dragon, fire Pegasus ;-)

 

[Francoisfg]

There are, of course, Virginia flue-cure tobaccos that are grown in Canada, and flue-cured in Canada. I have grown burley and cigar varieties that were developed in the Agricultural Experiment stations in Canada.

We have brought the confusion upon ourselves, by naming tobaccos by geography, rather than biology.

Bob

EDIT: Imagine naming an animal, Buffalo Wild Wing.

wow you guys are champion
so if my understanding it should go about this way ( if I don t grow it)
Virginia bright ... smooth taste
Virginia lemon ... mid strong
Virginia red ... stronger taste
Right ?