Buy Tobacco Leaf Online | Whole Leaf Tobacco

How do certain tobaccos smell different?

Status
Not open for further replies.

Michibacy

Northern tobacco grower
Joined
May 10, 2012
Messages
1,560
Points
63
Location
Michigan
Tobaccos such as the Nicaraguan compared to a turkish tobacco obviously smell quite different, how do they achieve this smell? I'm curious because my burleys always tend to smell somewhat like a haybarn. Not too grassy, and they taste fine when smoking, they all just smell somewhat different. Does burley always smell this way?
 

deluxestogie

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
May 25, 2011
Messages
23,931
Points
113
Location
near Blacksburg, VA
Each variety of tobacco has its own blend of aromatic esters. If your burley smells like a hay barn, it needs more aging (usually 9+ months). Most burley, though, has a distinctive burley aroma.

Bob
 

deluxestogie

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
May 25, 2011
Messages
23,931
Points
113
Location
near Blacksburg, VA
Order some of BigBonner's red tip burley from last year. That's the smell. It will tame quite a bit with kilning, but it's still there.

Bob
 

istanbulin

Moderator
Founding Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2012
Messages
1,290
Points
66
Location
Stockton, CA
Tobacco leaf has a lot of type of chemical compunds which determines the smell of the leaf. Some of them are volatile like aromatics, phenols, esters, aldehydes etc. but tobacco leaf also contains fixed vegetal oils. Especially aldehydes and esters are very effective in odor. While curing the fresh leaf (degradation of chlorophyll) some catabolic compounds come up (like free acids, phytols etc.) and these compounds are converted into esters and other scented compounds by chloroplast. These synthesis is directly related with the related genes of the variety which are controlling this synthesis by enzymes. There may be same catabolic compounds come up while curing but the related enzymes of different tobacco varieties may be different, so the eventual ester may be different. This is why different varieties generally smell different.
 

Ben Brand

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 8, 2012
Messages
1,167
Points
63
Location
Groblersdal, South Africa
I kilned my tobacco (Fl Sumatra, Com Spanish, etc, for 6 weeks, been in storage in low case since about March this year, opened the tobacco this weekend and it smells beautiful, but not a cigar tobacco smell. A sweet tobacco smell. Nothing wrong with the flavour or smell when smoked. Got a few commercial cigars in my humidor and the smell is typical cigar, but my own smells different. I think the location, country, soil, humidity got a lot of influence on the tobacco we plant. I think if we all plant the same variety of tobacco, same fertiliser, same everything, and we roll cigars they will all smell and taste different.
 

istanbulin

Moderator
Founding Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2012
Messages
1,290
Points
66
Location
Stockton, CA
Yes Ben, you're right about the growing conditions. Especially sunshine duration has a big influence on tobacco taste and smell.
I just tried to write only one component about the tobacco smell above, there're a lot of components in this fact.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top