Classes of tobacco (from Grin database)

[FmGrowit]

UPDATE 2021:
ARS-GRIN has updated their website and links. They now use GRIN-GLOBAL.
To search their tobacco accessions, use the following link:

Search Accessions GRIN-Global

npgsweb.ars-grin.gov

Enter Nicotiana tabacum (plus any additional terms) into the search box.
[@deluxestogie 2 JAN 2021]

This is a list from the Grin of the different classes of tobacco. The links are hot and will take you directly to the complete lists of individual varieties held by the Dept. of Agriculture.

This is being posted for research purposes. If you're interested in growing any of these varieties, please check our seed collection for availability there before requesting germplasm from the GRIN. Please use this resource responsibly.

Distribution of Values for CLASS of TOBACCO

CodeDefinitionNumber of Accessions
BU-BURLEY 101
CB-CIGAR BINDER 16
CF-CIGAR FILLED 288
CW-CIGAR WRAPPER 195
DAC-DARK/AIR CURED 6
FC-FLUE-CURED 382
FRC-FIRE-CURED 14
HU-HUNGARIAN 25
MD-MARYLAND 20
NT-NO TYPE 5
OR-ORIENTAL 166
OT-OTHER 43
PR-PRIMITIVE 292

 

[Hakamo0o]

Great job

 

[laurahill]

Hey,This is very good post..Thank you so much for such helpful post.

 

[BaccaChew]

Pardon my greenness and ignorance, but which kind would make the best chew, something like BeechNut?

 

[Jitterbugdude]

Baccachew, I don't think there are many ( if any) that chew on this forum. I have been making chew for about a year so keep that in mind ( ie, lack of experience) when I say the following. I do not really know what commercial chew tastes like all I know is I like mine and a friend of mine that is a dedicated chewer loves it. Typically, the best tobacco for chew is one with thick leaves. This can be anything like Yellow Orinoco, Perique and even Burley . Typically, the thicker and gummier the leaf the better. The thick leaves are desirable for two reasons, they absorb a lot more sauce than a thin leaf and they give a better "mouth feel" than a thin leaf does.

Randy B

 

[deluxestogie]

Although you can make chew from any leaf, the Dark Air-Cured varieties are often used commercially for chew.

The GRIN database lists six: http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/close.pl?81001+DAC

I would also add Little Yellow. There are probably others.

Bob

 

[BigBonner]

I sure hope several chew I planted a acre of the dark fire and air cured tobacco this year .

The leaves are a little darker than the Conneticut Broad leaf but they look exactly the same leaf and plant wise .

I pulled one leaf off the Conn yesterday It was 29 " long an 19" wide ,the plant was about 36 inches tall , It is still a baby .The dark fire and air leaves are the same .

 

[FmGrowit]

I've heard Fire cured is what is most common for dip and snuff. Seams I remember hearing the Dark Air is used for chew.

Also, from what I understand...both make good cigar leaf as well.

 

[BigBonner]

The tobacco I am raising is either way you can air cure it like burley or wait until the leaves yellow up and then fire the tobacco . This tobacco can be done either way . It is still hung stalk and all .

Who know I may accidentally burn down a barn .

 

[Chrism]

I'm going to try making my own. I like the wintergreen flavors the best on dip. As far as chew, I like red man gold blend.

 

[BaccaChew]

Thank you all for your insight-ful replies!

Yesterday I stopped at a convenience store and the Beechnut was $10.49 per bag. That is highway robbery!

I will try to get my plants to yellow, then smoke it a little this winter in my smoker with some apple wood, unless somebody here can tell me why not.

Bigboner, I have some pretty short plants with leaves that big. I am thinking they could each make a pack of cigs.

Thank you Jitterbugdude, I do plan on trying LittleCrittendon from Hudsons next year. Suppose to be very good for chew.

deluxestogie, is it your experience (or anyone elses for that matter) that the Feds just cough up whatever seeds anybody asks for? All I have ever asked for and gotten was apple scions from Geneva.

Chrism, what are you paying for your Redman in OK?

Thanks again all.

 

[FmGrowit]

Looks like I better start a Smokeless Tobacco category. I'll most likely move this thread there.

 

[FmGrowit]

Chewing tobacco recipe

1. Dry and cure your tobacco. This process can range from moderately difficult to extremely complex. For my purposes I a. harvest the leaves, b. tie into bundles, c. hang in the sun for three weeks, d. hang inside for another month. I would suggest looking for further reading on this subject.

2. Strip off the tobacco from the stems and put in a food processor. Give it a few quick spins to shred it to your desired cut. (Long, short, snuff)

3. Take 2 cups of apple juice and simmer them in a stainless saucepan. Reduce by half until thickening and tacky.

4. Stir in a tablespoon or two of blackstrap molasses.

5. Promptly stir in tobacco and turn off heat.

6. Stir until all tobacco is coated and tacky.

7. Bag, or better yet place in an oak cask to cure further.

By; http://novitiatehomesteader.blogspot.com/2009/11/chewing-tobacco-recipe.html

 

[FmGrowit]

Dip information

BRAND NAMES: Copenhagen, Skoal, Skoal Bandits, Happy Days (U.S. Tobacco products),
Hawken, Kodiak (Conwood products), Red Wood, Gold River, Silver Creek (Swisher products),
Red Man, Timber Wolf, (Swedish Match products)

COMMON NAMES: spit tobacco, dip

HOW USED: A pinch (called a dip) or a pouch is placed and held between the lip and cheek or
gum.1 Saliva may be swallowed or, more commonly, spit out.

PROCESSING / MANUFACTURING: The tobacco is either air- or fire-cured, then processed
into fine particles (“fine cut”) or strips (“long cut”). Tobacco stems and seeds are not removed.
Moisture content of the final product is up to 50%. The tobacco is sold either loose (in such
products as Skoal, Copenhagen and Kodiak), or packaged in small, ready-to-use pouches called
packets or sachets (in such products as Skoal Bandits). Nicotine is released more rapidly from the
fine cut form due to the greater surface area. Moist snuff is the most commonly used form of
tobacco in the United States.

 

[FmGrowit]

Another Chew recipe/process

This one is floating all over the web so I don't know who to give credit to.


Chewing Tobacco-recipes

Glad too give you my recipe. I do not let quantities play into my batches too much. It is
all sort of generally that and that and always comes out good. I use fermented tobacco. For years my dad and I used unfermented tobacco and thought that was alright. But then free makes a lot of things
right.Well fermented tobacco is very tasty plain.


My favorite thing is using a fruit juice as a casing. For example peach juice right out of the can, cherries, wine, apples. Cherry is just awesome and we live in a region where cherries are plentiful.


For this example I will go with apple juice. For a sweetener you can try brown sugar,honey,molasses etc. We will use molasses today and the country store stuff ; no name brand; is remarkably better. A pinch of salt brings everything together. Now for the process and this is simple. If this doesn't sound simple something is wrong. The whole home tobacco thing is common sense and use what you have.
The goal is always not to spend any money.


Using the largest fry pan in the kitchen pour in a skim deep quantity of apple cider and boil. When the
stuff is boiled away some, pour in some more and boil it off again. I keep this up 4 or 5 rounds and the liquid gets richer with the loss of water and turns dark gold. It thickens some but not like a syrup. It
is still pretty thin.And the depth of the juice in the pan is never more than a skim that covers the bottom. When you are satisfied the juice has come closer to the essence of the apple add a couple shakes of salt and 2 to 5 tablespoons of molasses.


The total time so far is perhaps 10 minutes. Using a wooden spoon I stir in tobacco until the juices are soaked up and a very definite tacky feel comes to the leaves like it is drying out. I turn the heat off by the way, stirring in leaves immediately. The heat drives the flavors into instead of on the tobacco. I do not cook the tobacco. When it doesn't dry out for me quickly I leave it in the pan for a while, even overnite.Please understand the leaf never is supposed to dry out but it should get tacky. It is like the molasses has taken over and it is stickier than it is wet. While the stuff is hot keep rolling it around and picking it up and the steam will just roll off it. Believe me, writing this description is much harder than the actual process. You cannot screw it up. Guaranteed. You are done. Total time 15 minutes. The quantity of tobacco is about enough to fill a sandwich bag being about as large as a mans fist. You should sample it right away as to experience the disappointment that comes with it. It improves
remarkably in just a few days. If you prefer this wet, pouch type of tobacco store it in the fridge. It keeps well for a few weeks.


There is a better way. My home grown is fermented with the main stems removed. So my brews consist of long strands equal to half of a leaf.When the aforementioned process is complete I lay these out and
twist into ropes about three feet long. Roll these up tightly in some cloth. ( No dyes, Perfumes) (Old sheets work, White Shirts). Then assuming this thing is 3 ft long fold 8 or 10 inches over and continue
folding until the rope is a more compact flattened coil. Now wrap twine very tightly around this thing from end to end like a noose. Don't open it for at least a month. When you get the hang of things
you can make these up for months in advance. Store them in cool dark places like you would cigars. They keep well outdoors in some full shade place in the winter when the humidity is high.Don't let the sunshine on them nor let the rain on them. I have never had one of these mold. As a closing note, the dark green varieties make the finest chewing tobacco.

Edit...Any of these recipes that call for "ashes" from some kind of plant can be substituted with tobacco stem/stalk ash. Ash is used to raise the ph of the mixture and ash is ash...it really doesn't matter what plant it's from. Baking soda can also be substituted, but I don't know if you'd do it by weight or volume.

 

[deluxestogie]

is it your experience that the Feds just cough up whatever seeds anybody asks for?

When you request tobacco seed through ARS-GRIN, simply provide a brief description of the genetics research you are attempting. They will expect some subsequent feedback.

Bob

 

[BarG]

That might be a good use for the tops of my plants where the leaves are smaller, thick and very sticky to the touch. I made a sample batch last year to experiment using apple cider and brown sugar{had no molases} using half leaves. turned out really sweet, a little too sweet could definitly be improved on. I believe I over did the brown sugar,try try again lol. I only use it when i'm bow hunting and worried about smoke smell.

 

[dkh2]

When you request tobacco seed through ARS-GRIN, simply provide a brief description of the genetics research you are attempting. They will expect some subsequent feedback. Bob

I filled out there form and asked for 2 types
PI 552334 - TOB - Nicotiana tabacum
PI 552385 - TOB - Nicotiana tabacum
Virginia Gold and Virginia bright leaf

Special instructions:

Email is the best way to contact me.
The telephone is secondary as it is in heavy use of the females in the household and is
Extremely difficult to get through.

For my experiments I put

Describe your planned research use of this NPGS Germplasm*:

I live 3 miles from the Lewis and Clark Trail my experiment includes four rows.
1)One row utilizing "Forrest Floor Compost"
2)One row utilizing "Household product compost"
3)One row utilizing "Worm castings"
4)One row utilizing "and a equal four way mixture of soil,composts and Worm Castings"
I plan to pay particular interest in the "Worm Castings" row as I have high expectations of the enzymes,
micro-organisms,and plant hormones that they add to the soil.
The soil here is a clay soil and the soil,compost mixtures will be 50 per cent compost 50 per cent soil the Worm casstings how ever will be 25 percent 75 percent soil.
This area is extremely windy at times and at times heavy snow falls (Poor mans nitrogen)that's why the high expectations of the Worm Castings.

Several weeks after I got the seeds
They mailed me a questionnaire with a few questions but they had a phone number so I called and talked to the guy and he just asked some questions about how things were going and some basic questions about my " Acreage" I told him I got a 20 by 15 foot plot he said OH and then we talked about the weather and other nonsense. He was a bureaucrat that could care less what happened with the seeds and had no idea what so ever about growing tobacco none zilch nada. He was just filling out a questionnaire on the computer screen.

 

[Hakamo0o]

Are GRIN Cuban seeds really Cuban?
And will it produce a better quality crop that our usual seeds?

 

[Jitterbugdude]

Are GRIN Cuban seeds really Cuban?
And will it produce a better quality crop that our usual seeds?

Hello Hakim!, If you look through the GRIN database it will tell you where the seeds were originally obtained. Once obtained from the country of origin they are grown in the U.S. So to answer your question, they probably were originally obtained from Cuba but have been grown in the U.S. for quite a few generations.

Randy B