44Smokeless
Member
The joy of RYOT and the American Spirit
If you found this post, you might be a refugee from American Spirit, or one my neighbors, whom I've been telling for years to check out plain old tobacco leaves, buy them, process them and smoke them. No matter, I'm going to walk you through this process, explain a few things, offer a few tips and before you know it, you'll be making your own smokes, for peanuts.
Enjoy them, stop stressing about the ever increasing and ridiculous prices for....tobacco. If you are coming from American Spirit then you are finally taking the next step in what AS began for you; really good tobacco, no additives, no casings....and no 200 other ingredients.
As a basic starting point, your tobac is a combination of Viriginian Flue Cured (VFC) tobaccos. I think the secret to early American Spirit was they were combining the leaves, so you got a nice blend of slightly thinner and slightly thicker leaves; the tobacco had a nice kick and great simple taste, that taste of hay, the good taste of hay and it went out if you didn't keep smoking. But far as smoking just pure flue cured Viginian, as AS smokers know, it's a bit raw on the palatte, it's acidic, little harsh on the throat.
I originally added other tobaccos to the American Spirit, even just a pinch of less acidic tobacco works wonders on your smoke. Additionally, the acidity or low pH of VFC tobacco actually inhibits nicotine absorption, so lowering the acidity, raising the pH, give a more satisfying smoke as far as nicotine hit and doesn't bite as much. I eventually discovered perique tobacco, AS came out with their black label perique blend, which I tried but it was lacking.
I went searching for pure perique and found the wonderful world of raw tobacco and this where we begin to get into making your own blends, and hopefully get to the really fun part of being a tobacconist, your own.
First a few pointers and explanations. There are three different suppliers of tobacco leaves. I've ordered from them all, and they're all great. Each has their own qualities and peculiarities, but remember you are purchasing an agricultural product from people that supply very large quantities to large purchasers. Us little people are purchasing a few pounds, they are moving through thousands of pounds. So, expect a certain amount of warehouse approach to your purchase. WLT is good at user friendly purchases, the tobacco is nicely packaged, folded neatly, ready to go, shipped quick and clean.
Others it might be awhile to your order gets filled, specially if it's small, and it might be not so gently stuffed in a bag, and it might have a little bit of livestock included. Not to say any of these companies have bad products, but we're dealing with wholesale agriculture farm products, raw for the most part.
I very much recommend starting an account first before ordering, then when you order you track and follow up all through your account. One company is peculiar in that they may or may not ship your order depending on when or if they can fill it. Having an account makes keep track of your order easy.
Next a few little things worth mentioning as you begin. You are going to need a few basic items to process pounds of tobacco from bag of leaves to beautiful cigarettes. There are many different paths one can take, I chose a simple one.
Shredders, turned out to be more headache than they're worth. I use scissors, been using for them years, simple and easy; I can cut through a lot of leaf with scissors, and adjust the thickness of the cut. -- Important tip: the width of the cut changes the quality of your smoke; string cut which AS uses for many of their labels burns hot and fast; thicker cut burns slower and cooler. I prefer a slightly thin cut, gives nice burn quality, draws more easily.
Next most important in setting up is storage. I store all my tobacco in the bags they arrive in. I just open the bag, inspect, smell and then fold the top back over a few times and clip the bag shut. I've stored pounds like this for years; dry but not desert bone dry. From these bags I can pull leaves and put them in another bag to bring the humidity up before cutting them up. I use a wet towel to moisten the leaves before stipping and cutting, usually a few hours in the bag, long enough to have enough moisture that you can strip and cut them without them cracking or dusting. -- For storage, keep them dry, never leave your leaves wet, moist or damp, they will develop mold. For finished tobacco, all cut and ready to smoke, I store them in ziplocs or tupperdor, throw a humidity pack in to keep it from drying out.
Now, since we are American Spirit (Light Blue) smokers, we can get started with blending a pure Viginian flue cured mixture. First get a variety of VFC tobaccos; there is priming thin leaf, which is very thin and light; used mainly to lighten the mix, improve burn quality; lemon leaf, also called Canadian brightleaf, which is very light in color and somewhat thin, often has more hay qualities, and again, lightens the smoke and improves burn quality; American brightleaf thicker still, and the base of all cigarettes.
Now moving onto what gives your smoke that punch, Virginian flue cured red leaf, and even riper redder leaf. These leaves are left to grow longer, get more sun and what makes your cigarette smoke give you that satisfying rich tobacco taste. The leaves are thicker and much more potent in flavor. You'll often read that this is the tobacco used in traditional "Red label" smokes, and it does give it a distinct taste in the throat and on the tongue, and it packs a bit of nicotine.
And now an important word of advice as you begin the process of mixing your tobacco. Get it while you can, where you can. I've found all three major suppliers have great leaf but there are variations and supplies are always limited. I've made the mistake of waiting to stock up hoping one or two items out of stock would come back and sadly, other things sell out. And once they gone, they gone until another crop comes in, and every crop, batch is different. Some tobaccos just disappear. I've accumulated a variety of leaf from different batches and suppliers; they are all good to great and each has their own qualities. As you begin mixing your own blends you'll want a selection to choose from, mixing lighter leaves with thicker, darker leaves and finding a balance you like. Too much yellow or thin leaf and you'll have something tasting like a Canadian cigarette; too much red leaf or ripe, and you'll have something that smokes sort of harsh on throat. But you find the balance you enjoy, and it won't take long. I like throaty smoke, and the taste of red and ripe tobacco.
Also, WLT has a really nice sampler with Virginians, Orientals, some dark cured to spice it up..great kit to start mixing but last I checked they were out of the lighter lemon Canadian. I recommend getting lemon/Canadian, wherever you can.
Got your tobacco...great. Got a few leaves of each, put them in a large zip lock bag with a wet towel for a few hours -- always use distilled water; prevents mold and unwanted flavors from tap water. Once your leaves are moist enough to unfold and work with, you're ready to go to work. Just like deboning fish, pull the spine of the leaf out-- there are numerous ways to do this, figure out what works for you. And then REMOVE the larger veins, they pull out easily and it's strangely cathartic.
Work through your assortment, cleaning or what is otherwise known as threshing your tobacco. You will have strips. I recommend just put them in a bag, or two; once leaves get moist and mixed it gets hard to tell what's a light red and what's a dark brightleaf. You can usually tell by touch which is which but keeping them seperated works too. At this point only the lighter thinner leaves will require continued moisture; they dry out quickly and keeping a moist towel, again distilled water, to cover the pile while working keeps them from getting brittle while you're working. I've had Maryland 609 dry up in my hand, so I keep a wet paper towel on the leaf while cleaning it.
I first saw someone in Asia selling these small wads, it was just tobacco leaves folded together and ready to cut. NOW...take out a few strips of each and make a stack; a small stack, the important factor being the thickness of the stack, which you will be cutting with scissors. Again, you will find the thinner the stack, the finer you are able to cut across the leaves.
And cut your small stack into a tray; ribbon after ribbon of your blend of VFC tobaccos. Pulling the ribbons apart, like picking cotton apart, you'll have long strands and ready to cross cut them. If the tobacco is still too moist you'll find the strands stick together and won't seperate easily or at all. The simplest approach is to gently work the moist tobacco strips apart until they start to unravel and seperate; hair dryer or even just sitting out for a bit will dry them out enough to seperate and...DO NOT OVER-DRY the Tobacco, you want to keep some moisture on the tobacco to aid in cutting and the moisture will serve another purpose soon.
Cross cut the strips, everyone has their own preference and method; I cut the pile of strips until they look like rolling tobacco; thin cut and long, thin cut and short (the worst) smokes faster and hotter; thicker cut and long strips, smokes more like a cigar; thicker cut and shorter strips, more like flakes, and you are smoking a cigarette.
Little bit of tobacco trivia, cigars usually use long fillers but some, designated SF, add small pieces, and the cigar smokes bit like a cigarette.
So, you've gotten this far. You've got a tray of what looks like rolling tobacco, thin cut, thick cut, cross cut to your preference; you'll learn, quickly, cutting your own leaf; the effect and your preferences in tobacco cut. At this point you should have a pile of "shredded" tobacco, a mix of lighter and darker Virginian. It's mixed up and the law of averages says each puff should have the same mixture of cut tobacco burning and giving you smoke.
As far as ratios of thin and lighter to thicker and redder is up to you and your taste. I suggest 20-30% red, that will be your dominant flavor, nice throaty smoke; with brightleaf making up the rest, yellow (Canadian) thins the base flavor and makes the red pop out; adding American brighleaf which is thicker and more flavorful adds a smoother taste and blends the red and thinner yellow into a nicer combination, more like a symphony rather than a opera duet.
Once you have the cut tobacco you have several options, keeping in mind the tobacco should still have some extra moisture, ideally the tobacco will still feel moist, not wet but damp. WELCOME to the world of kilning, or drying to a level that the tobacco will actually burn and smoke.
You can read the many methods of drying and preparing tobacco for smoking around this forum. My favorite method, especially if not working with raw burley tobacco, is a small metal tray. I have a few, smaller one for a few cigarettes worth of tobacco, larger ones for batches. The smaller one I heat with a lighter under the bottom of the pan, it's a small metal tray for playing cards. You will notice as the pan heats up, the smells coming up from the tobacco. Starting with the excess water vapor and various funky smells, like bad hay. As you are gently heating and shaking the pan you will notice that odd odors clear away and the smell of tobacco start emerging. These are the aromatic oils of the tobacco starting to evaporate and at this point the leaf has lost it's moisture. It will be dry and even a little brittle-ish.
Now you are ready to roll and smoke. Since you are an American Spirit smoker, you are now rolling with your own VFC blend. There are many here who will mock those that smoke pure VFC, it's a bit acidic on the tongue, lacks a few things. It's sort of the Beujolais of smokes, more a picture of what can be.
And your base smoke of pure VFC can be expanded with oriental tobaccos, Maryland 609, burley, fire cured, light and dark air cured but I recommend starting with Maryland 609, doesn't need to be aged or heated, processed etc. A small percentage of M609, which is less acidic than VFC, added to your mix will add a smoother and lighter flavor, tone down the acid, and increase the nicotine of the smoke. (Technically it's just lowering acidity and increasing your ability to absorb the nicotine)
Burley is a great tobacco but in it's rawest form it has a funk flavor which needs to be aged, cured, sweetened, boozed...burley is a rabbit hole of wonder. It can taste like honey or gym locker shorts. I bought burley years ago, stripped a few leaves, wrapped in foil and in the oven for an hour at 220F. Came out really nice but I put the bag into storage for a couple of years and now it's mellowed and really really smooth.
Finally, Out of the Blue and Into the Black. You've come along way and now we've finally arrived to the point that brought me here. I've been waiting for almost two weeks for my order of perique to arrive, no fault of WLT, blame USPS; and WLT warned me to expect delays. But my pound of pure perique has finally arrived. It's a brick of something that smells like fermented raisins; considered by many to be the finest tobacco in the world.
The perique is a wet fermented tobacco, and a little goes a long long way. It's less acidic than VFC so it mellows the bite of the smoke, and gives it a fruity full taste. The kind of taste that cigar smokers talk about, hints of raisins, chocolate and coffee. And again, because it lowers the acidity of the blend, you absorb more nicotine. I've been using a blend of burley or Maryland along with the perique; adding about 10% perique and 5% burley or Maryland. Nice full flavor smoke, exotic enough that I prefer my perique blend over the cabinet of cigars I have.
One weird note about perique blends is that mixing perique with oriental or basma brings out a very sour taste. Still not sure what to do with that other than never mix them again. And that dear reader is the fun of making your own smoking mixes, and my easy guide to the American Spirit of rolling cigarette tobacco. Don't sweat it, plastic baggies, scissors, tin foil, more plastic baggies or tupperdor storage. Have fun playing with different mixes, sort of like playing with the bass/midrange/treble adjustment on old stereos.
I have spent the past two weeks smoking mixes without perique, had time to reflect on the simpler aspects of a pure Virginian tobacco blend, puro, and finally my perique arrives.
If you found this post, you might be a refugee from American Spirit, or one my neighbors, whom I've been telling for years to check out plain old tobacco leaves, buy them, process them and smoke them. No matter, I'm going to walk you through this process, explain a few things, offer a few tips and before you know it, you'll be making your own smokes, for peanuts.
Enjoy them, stop stressing about the ever increasing and ridiculous prices for....tobacco. If you are coming from American Spirit then you are finally taking the next step in what AS began for you; really good tobacco, no additives, no casings....and no 200 other ingredients.
As a basic starting point, your tobac is a combination of Viriginian Flue Cured (VFC) tobaccos. I think the secret to early American Spirit was they were combining the leaves, so you got a nice blend of slightly thinner and slightly thicker leaves; the tobacco had a nice kick and great simple taste, that taste of hay, the good taste of hay and it went out if you didn't keep smoking. But far as smoking just pure flue cured Viginian, as AS smokers know, it's a bit raw on the palatte, it's acidic, little harsh on the throat.
I originally added other tobaccos to the American Spirit, even just a pinch of less acidic tobacco works wonders on your smoke. Additionally, the acidity or low pH of VFC tobacco actually inhibits nicotine absorption, so lowering the acidity, raising the pH, give a more satisfying smoke as far as nicotine hit and doesn't bite as much. I eventually discovered perique tobacco, AS came out with their black label perique blend, which I tried but it was lacking.
I went searching for pure perique and found the wonderful world of raw tobacco and this where we begin to get into making your own blends, and hopefully get to the really fun part of being a tobacconist, your own.
First a few pointers and explanations. There are three different suppliers of tobacco leaves. I've ordered from them all, and they're all great. Each has their own qualities and peculiarities, but remember you are purchasing an agricultural product from people that supply very large quantities to large purchasers. Us little people are purchasing a few pounds, they are moving through thousands of pounds. So, expect a certain amount of warehouse approach to your purchase. WLT is good at user friendly purchases, the tobacco is nicely packaged, folded neatly, ready to go, shipped quick and clean.
Others it might be awhile to your order gets filled, specially if it's small, and it might be not so gently stuffed in a bag, and it might have a little bit of livestock included. Not to say any of these companies have bad products, but we're dealing with wholesale agriculture farm products, raw for the most part.
I very much recommend starting an account first before ordering, then when you order you track and follow up all through your account. One company is peculiar in that they may or may not ship your order depending on when or if they can fill it. Having an account makes keep track of your order easy.
Next a few little things worth mentioning as you begin. You are going to need a few basic items to process pounds of tobacco from bag of leaves to beautiful cigarettes. There are many different paths one can take, I chose a simple one.
Shredders, turned out to be more headache than they're worth. I use scissors, been using for them years, simple and easy; I can cut through a lot of leaf with scissors, and adjust the thickness of the cut. -- Important tip: the width of the cut changes the quality of your smoke; string cut which AS uses for many of their labels burns hot and fast; thicker cut burns slower and cooler. I prefer a slightly thin cut, gives nice burn quality, draws more easily.
Next most important in setting up is storage. I store all my tobacco in the bags they arrive in. I just open the bag, inspect, smell and then fold the top back over a few times and clip the bag shut. I've stored pounds like this for years; dry but not desert bone dry. From these bags I can pull leaves and put them in another bag to bring the humidity up before cutting them up. I use a wet towel to moisten the leaves before stipping and cutting, usually a few hours in the bag, long enough to have enough moisture that you can strip and cut them without them cracking or dusting. -- For storage, keep them dry, never leave your leaves wet, moist or damp, they will develop mold. For finished tobacco, all cut and ready to smoke, I store them in ziplocs or tupperdor, throw a humidity pack in to keep it from drying out.
Now, since we are American Spirit (Light Blue) smokers, we can get started with blending a pure Viginian flue cured mixture. First get a variety of VFC tobaccos; there is priming thin leaf, which is very thin and light; used mainly to lighten the mix, improve burn quality; lemon leaf, also called Canadian brightleaf, which is very light in color and somewhat thin, often has more hay qualities, and again, lightens the smoke and improves burn quality; American brightleaf thicker still, and the base of all cigarettes.
Now moving onto what gives your smoke that punch, Virginian flue cured red leaf, and even riper redder leaf. These leaves are left to grow longer, get more sun and what makes your cigarette smoke give you that satisfying rich tobacco taste. The leaves are thicker and much more potent in flavor. You'll often read that this is the tobacco used in traditional "Red label" smokes, and it does give it a distinct taste in the throat and on the tongue, and it packs a bit of nicotine.
And now an important word of advice as you begin the process of mixing your tobacco. Get it while you can, where you can. I've found all three major suppliers have great leaf but there are variations and supplies are always limited. I've made the mistake of waiting to stock up hoping one or two items out of stock would come back and sadly, other things sell out. And once they gone, they gone until another crop comes in, and every crop, batch is different. Some tobaccos just disappear. I've accumulated a variety of leaf from different batches and suppliers; they are all good to great and each has their own qualities. As you begin mixing your own blends you'll want a selection to choose from, mixing lighter leaves with thicker, darker leaves and finding a balance you like. Too much yellow or thin leaf and you'll have something tasting like a Canadian cigarette; too much red leaf or ripe, and you'll have something that smokes sort of harsh on throat. But you find the balance you enjoy, and it won't take long. I like throaty smoke, and the taste of red and ripe tobacco.
Also, WLT has a really nice sampler with Virginians, Orientals, some dark cured to spice it up..great kit to start mixing but last I checked they were out of the lighter lemon Canadian. I recommend getting lemon/Canadian, wherever you can.
Got your tobacco...great. Got a few leaves of each, put them in a large zip lock bag with a wet towel for a few hours -- always use distilled water; prevents mold and unwanted flavors from tap water. Once your leaves are moist enough to unfold and work with, you're ready to go to work. Just like deboning fish, pull the spine of the leaf out-- there are numerous ways to do this, figure out what works for you. And then REMOVE the larger veins, they pull out easily and it's strangely cathartic.
Work through your assortment, cleaning or what is otherwise known as threshing your tobacco. You will have strips. I recommend just put them in a bag, or two; once leaves get moist and mixed it gets hard to tell what's a light red and what's a dark brightleaf. You can usually tell by touch which is which but keeping them seperated works too. At this point only the lighter thinner leaves will require continued moisture; they dry out quickly and keeping a moist towel, again distilled water, to cover the pile while working keeps them from getting brittle while you're working. I've had Maryland 609 dry up in my hand, so I keep a wet paper towel on the leaf while cleaning it.
I first saw someone in Asia selling these small wads, it was just tobacco leaves folded together and ready to cut. NOW...take out a few strips of each and make a stack; a small stack, the important factor being the thickness of the stack, which you will be cutting with scissors. Again, you will find the thinner the stack, the finer you are able to cut across the leaves.
And cut your small stack into a tray; ribbon after ribbon of your blend of VFC tobaccos. Pulling the ribbons apart, like picking cotton apart, you'll have long strands and ready to cross cut them. If the tobacco is still too moist you'll find the strands stick together and won't seperate easily or at all. The simplest approach is to gently work the moist tobacco strips apart until they start to unravel and seperate; hair dryer or even just sitting out for a bit will dry them out enough to seperate and...DO NOT OVER-DRY the Tobacco, you want to keep some moisture on the tobacco to aid in cutting and the moisture will serve another purpose soon.
Cross cut the strips, everyone has their own preference and method; I cut the pile of strips until they look like rolling tobacco; thin cut and long, thin cut and short (the worst) smokes faster and hotter; thicker cut and long strips, smokes more like a cigar; thicker cut and shorter strips, more like flakes, and you are smoking a cigarette.
Little bit of tobacco trivia, cigars usually use long fillers but some, designated SF, add small pieces, and the cigar smokes bit like a cigarette.
So, you've gotten this far. You've got a tray of what looks like rolling tobacco, thin cut, thick cut, cross cut to your preference; you'll learn, quickly, cutting your own leaf; the effect and your preferences in tobacco cut. At this point you should have a pile of "shredded" tobacco, a mix of lighter and darker Virginian. It's mixed up and the law of averages says each puff should have the same mixture of cut tobacco burning and giving you smoke.
As far as ratios of thin and lighter to thicker and redder is up to you and your taste. I suggest 20-30% red, that will be your dominant flavor, nice throaty smoke; with brightleaf making up the rest, yellow (Canadian) thins the base flavor and makes the red pop out; adding American brighleaf which is thicker and more flavorful adds a smoother taste and blends the red and thinner yellow into a nicer combination, more like a symphony rather than a opera duet.
Once you have the cut tobacco you have several options, keeping in mind the tobacco should still have some extra moisture, ideally the tobacco will still feel moist, not wet but damp. WELCOME to the world of kilning, or drying to a level that the tobacco will actually burn and smoke.
You can read the many methods of drying and preparing tobacco for smoking around this forum. My favorite method, especially if not working with raw burley tobacco, is a small metal tray. I have a few, smaller one for a few cigarettes worth of tobacco, larger ones for batches. The smaller one I heat with a lighter under the bottom of the pan, it's a small metal tray for playing cards. You will notice as the pan heats up, the smells coming up from the tobacco. Starting with the excess water vapor and various funky smells, like bad hay. As you are gently heating and shaking the pan you will notice that odd odors clear away and the smell of tobacco start emerging. These are the aromatic oils of the tobacco starting to evaporate and at this point the leaf has lost it's moisture. It will be dry and even a little brittle-ish.
Now you are ready to roll and smoke. Since you are an American Spirit smoker, you are now rolling with your own VFC blend. There are many here who will mock those that smoke pure VFC, it's a bit acidic on the tongue, lacks a few things. It's sort of the Beujolais of smokes, more a picture of what can be.
And your base smoke of pure VFC can be expanded with oriental tobaccos, Maryland 609, burley, fire cured, light and dark air cured but I recommend starting with Maryland 609, doesn't need to be aged or heated, processed etc. A small percentage of M609, which is less acidic than VFC, added to your mix will add a smoother and lighter flavor, tone down the acid, and increase the nicotine of the smoke. (Technically it's just lowering acidity and increasing your ability to absorb the nicotine)
Burley is a great tobacco but in it's rawest form it has a funk flavor which needs to be aged, cured, sweetened, boozed...burley is a rabbit hole of wonder. It can taste like honey or gym locker shorts. I bought burley years ago, stripped a few leaves, wrapped in foil and in the oven for an hour at 220F. Came out really nice but I put the bag into storage for a couple of years and now it's mellowed and really really smooth.
Finally, Out of the Blue and Into the Black. You've come along way and now we've finally arrived to the point that brought me here. I've been waiting for almost two weeks for my order of perique to arrive, no fault of WLT, blame USPS; and WLT warned me to expect delays. But my pound of pure perique has finally arrived. It's a brick of something that smells like fermented raisins; considered by many to be the finest tobacco in the world.
The perique is a wet fermented tobacco, and a little goes a long long way. It's less acidic than VFC so it mellows the bite of the smoke, and gives it a fruity full taste. The kind of taste that cigar smokers talk about, hints of raisins, chocolate and coffee. And again, because it lowers the acidity of the blend, you absorb more nicotine. I've been using a blend of burley or Maryland along with the perique; adding about 10% perique and 5% burley or Maryland. Nice full flavor smoke, exotic enough that I prefer my perique blend over the cabinet of cigars I have.
One weird note about perique blends is that mixing perique with oriental or basma brings out a very sour taste. Still not sure what to do with that other than never mix them again. And that dear reader is the fun of making your own smoking mixes, and my easy guide to the American Spirit of rolling cigarette tobacco. Don't sweat it, plastic baggies, scissors, tin foil, more plastic baggies or tupperdor storage. Have fun playing with different mixes, sort of like playing with the bass/midrange/treble adjustment on old stereos.
I have spent the past two weeks smoking mixes without perique, had time to reflect on the simpler aspects of a pure Virginian tobacco blend, puro, and finally my perique arrives.
