chillardbee
Well-Known Member
So, It not exactly the same as what you'd associate latakia that you know with but this would be the native taste for our area. Let me explian.
The Latakia that's produced in various regions of the world use the woods and herbs native to those regions for the smoking of the leaf. following that train of thought I'm doing the same thing as well using a mixture of various herbs and woods native to our area. Unfortunatly I'm using an air cured virginia variety rather than a sun cured oriental but I think it will still turn out ok.
So, I've been doing this. I've been smoking the leaf 1-4 times a week with apple wood, cherry wood, and alder wood, with a bit of dead dried herb stems from the herb garden like rosemary, mint, oregano, ect. So far I have probably 20-25 smoke sessions on it with each smoke session lasting the duration of the material thats being smoked, which is usually an hour and fourty five minutes. I usually start the sessions by mixing a few of the herbs in with the wood and and adde a quarter cup of water to bring the leaf into order before the smoking begins. I'm using my Big Cheif smoker for smoking in.
So far the leaf is half as dark as I would like it but I sampled a bit of it by blending a bit so it made up 5% of the blend. All I can say is that so far is that it adds a rich robust tasty smoky flavour to the blend and it's quite enjoyable. What I think I'll do differently the next time I do this is to use a sun cured oriental and I'll throw in more leaf (1lb) to make it worth while. This may not be latakia proper I'm making but it is fun experiementing with it.
The Latakia that's produced in various regions of the world use the woods and herbs native to those regions for the smoking of the leaf. following that train of thought I'm doing the same thing as well using a mixture of various herbs and woods native to our area. Unfortunatly I'm using an air cured virginia variety rather than a sun cured oriental but I think it will still turn out ok.
So, I've been doing this. I've been smoking the leaf 1-4 times a week with apple wood, cherry wood, and alder wood, with a bit of dead dried herb stems from the herb garden like rosemary, mint, oregano, ect. So far I have probably 20-25 smoke sessions on it with each smoke session lasting the duration of the material thats being smoked, which is usually an hour and fourty five minutes. I usually start the sessions by mixing a few of the herbs in with the wood and and adde a quarter cup of water to bring the leaf into order before the smoking begins. I'm using my Big Cheif smoker for smoking in.
So far the leaf is half as dark as I would like it but I sampled a bit of it by blending a bit so it made up 5% of the blend. All I can say is that so far is that it adds a rich robust tasty smoky flavour to the blend and it's quite enjoyable. What I think I'll do differently the next time I do this is to use a sun cured oriental and I'll throw in more leaf (1lb) to make it worth while. This may not be latakia proper I'm making but it is fun experiementing with it.