Have I Toasted Too Much?

[Orson Carte]

In an attempt to even out the 'taste' of some of my flue-cured Virginia I decided to experiment with a couple of things I'd seen discussed in the Forum - the use of citric acid and 'toasting'.
Even though my last season's leaf had been, in my opinion, well cured (for six days) and smelled delicious when it came out of the chamber twelve months ago it still has a noticeable mild taint (a tea-like/hay-like nuttiness) about it.
So, I decided to play a little; firstly I misted (well, dampened actually) a shredded two pounds with a two percent solution of citric acid and then spread it in an oven tray and 'baked' for around 40 minutes at 320F (160C). During this time I turned it several times.
There was a distinct smell of the 'hay' as it toasted (the very same smell I didn't like about it) but at the end had a blandness, possibly a slight caramel about it.
And it smokes pretty good.
The problem I need to overcome though is that instead of a strandy shred that it was when it started it has broken down into fairly small 'bits'. Am I doing something wrong - like, toasting it too hot/too long? I'd like to keep it looking like shredded tobacco and not something, finely chopped, like in a commercial cigarette.
Thanks.

 

[deluxestogie]

1. Kilning the previously flue-cured leaf would likely produce the result you are seeking. Sometimes, bagged leaf that has been stored a while just needs to air-out for a few days, prior to use.
2. Chemical potions are beyond my body of knowledge.
3. Don't touch or turn or even stare at oven-dried leaf, until it has been misted, and brought back into case. Just baking won't, on its own, fracture the shred.

Bob

 

[Orson Carte]

I think the mistake I might've made was to turn the shredded tobacco in the oven tray. I didn't feel that I was damaging it at the time but being very brittle when dry makes ruining the strands highly likely.

 

[Jitterbugdude]

Toast your leaf as whole leaf, then shred it. I have the same problem when I make Perique or Cavendish from shredded leaf. By the way, that hay smell is one of the hallmarks of a flu-cured tobacco, aka Virginia to most pipe smokers.

 

[Orson Carte]

After further experimentation I think, to some degree, I've cracked it.
As 'Stogie' alluded to above, any attempt to mess with either the shred or the whole leaf while it's toasted and crisp is fatal - it simply breaks up to a point where it is almost unusable. So, I know not to turn it over.

I firstly tried toasting the whole de-stemmed leaves, and not touching them when they came out of the oven (apart from a little misting) until they came back into pliable case. That takes about a day.
I then shredded a pressed plug of the toasted and now softened leaves. The result was a very fine, strandy shred. (I have a slicer than mechanically cut right down to less than 0.5mm).
However, this batch still had the slight 'hay' taste that I'm trying to eliminate - so,
I toasted it again, this time in its shredded form. The result was markedly better. So, I'm inclined to believe that, because of a much greater surface area, the toasting is much more effective on shredded material as opposed to whole leaves.
My next move was to shred another batch and place it in an oven tray, in 160C heat for an hour. There's a bit of a wait getting it back into usable case again but that certainly seems to do the trick - the 'hay taint' is barely noticeable.

 

[Plynx]

I toasted a handful of kilned and shredded Virginia Gold in one of those little benchtop toaster ovens. Because it effectively grills the top and bottom at the same time it only took about 5 minutes and came out amazing.

 

[burge]

Hay like is a trait of virginia. Does it have that sweet taste? I have noticed when I press tobacco it gains in flavour. I hand press mine in a plastic tobacco tub and it gets better and better with age.