My knee-jerk reaction to the 2400% tax increase on tobacco was to grow my own. Having experience in the industry only as farmhand, I was hardly qualified to become a "tobacco farmer".
In all practicality, I knew nothing about tobacco since being a user of tobacco doesn't make me an authority on the subject. My tobacco project started with completely random purchases of various types of tobacco seeds from several on-line vendors and from a local source where I was once that farmhand. Fast forward 9 -10 months, one of the first things I realized is the vast differences in the types of tobacco I grew. These differences are fundamental to what each variety would be used for. Out of the nearly 100 different varieties I've grown, maybe 10% of them taste the same as another variety, but even those have different growing characteristics than the ones they taste similar to.
Now that I'm finding myself more interested in cigars, the same nagging question keeps coming up. "What varieties of tobacco are used by the major manufacturers?" The basic information exists on what leaf position is is used and what it is used for (wrapper, binder, filler). many manufacturers even disclose where the leaf is grown (Honduras, Dominican Republic, Ecuador etc.), but there is little information of what variety is used.
With having such little information, the only option was to re-invent the cigar. One of the most widely accepted creations I've made was using 100% Oriental tobacco. They are very aromatic and it can even be inhaled if you want to. Currently, I'm blending Burley, and a traditional filler with a strip of perique and a CT Shade Leaf wrapper....there's one commercially available cigar made with Perique.
My thoughts on the feasibility of re-inventing the cigar is...if Acid cigars sell, so will unconventional blends of natural tobacco.
In all practicality, I knew nothing about tobacco since being a user of tobacco doesn't make me an authority on the subject. My tobacco project started with completely random purchases of various types of tobacco seeds from several on-line vendors and from a local source where I was once that farmhand. Fast forward 9 -10 months, one of the first things I realized is the vast differences in the types of tobacco I grew. These differences are fundamental to what each variety would be used for. Out of the nearly 100 different varieties I've grown, maybe 10% of them taste the same as another variety, but even those have different growing characteristics than the ones they taste similar to.
Now that I'm finding myself more interested in cigars, the same nagging question keeps coming up. "What varieties of tobacco are used by the major manufacturers?" The basic information exists on what leaf position is is used and what it is used for (wrapper, binder, filler). many manufacturers even disclose where the leaf is grown (Honduras, Dominican Republic, Ecuador etc.), but there is little information of what variety is used.
With having such little information, the only option was to re-invent the cigar. One of the most widely accepted creations I've made was using 100% Oriental tobacco. They are very aromatic and it can even be inhaled if you want to. Currently, I'm blending Burley, and a traditional filler with a strip of perique and a CT Shade Leaf wrapper....there's one commercially available cigar made with Perique.
My thoughts on the feasibility of re-inventing the cigar is...if Acid cigars sell, so will unconventional blends of natural tobacco.