Been fooling around with some burley and had good results. Have a batch of toasted (250F for 1 hour) TN90 burley, a mix of WLT and BB. It is still too harsh and strong for my taste. Have read the cigarette manufactures remove nicotine in burley in some way and always wondering why most OTC burleys are so smooth, and in comparison, have so little nicotine. So I figured I would try washing it. Using a strainer, I rinsed it under luke warm water for about 30 seconds, then using my hand/fingers pressed out the water. While pressing, there is a notacible brown tinge to the water, so something is being removed. Then dried it out in a 300F oven, took about 20 minutes for the small batch. Excited by the result, it is way smoother, has enough flavor, and plenty of nicotine left. I think much improved for my taste, the flavor blends better with the the flue cured imo, and still get the cooling burning and lots of smoke that I want from burley. Worked so well, I just made another batch.
Washing Burley
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bonehead
Well-Known Member
if you let it sit for a year or more or less you end up with the same thing,just better . that is just my opinion. i toasted some and it definately smoothes it out but i like the kick. i am growing african red this year for that reason.
The burleys were obtained early last year, should have at least 2 yrs aging. Toasted to the max, still kills my throat if untreated. Casing does help some. I was going to give up on all things TN90, washing was a last ditch effort. Not a fan of the so called "throat hit".
DGBAMA
Well-Known Member
The beauty of RYO/GYO........if you don't like it ASIS, change it till you do. If we all liked the same thing, there would only be a couple varieties instead of thousands; much simpler but not near as enjoyable.
If you're going to grow this year, Golden Burley, Harrow Velvet, or Yellow Twist Bud may be more to your liking. They are medium flavored Burleys and much milder than TN90. Also good to blend with TN90.
I've cut back on the Burley in my cigarette blend and substituted some Maryland. It seems to smooth out the Burley and adds a nice flavor to the mix. Maryland is also lower in nicotine.
I've cut back on the Burley in my cigarette blend and substituted some Maryland. It seems to smooth out the Burley and adds a nice flavor to the mix. Maryland is also lower in nicotine.
SmokeStack
Well-Known Member
HolyRYO, you have just introduced a new method of processing tobacco - at least from what I know. Thanks for posting it here. Knucklehead is right. TN90 is a strong Burley. I grew Yellow Twist Bud last year and found it to be much milder than TN90. I grow most of my tobacco for pipe smoking and I have to toast TN90 thoroughly for a smooth smoke. I can smoke Yellow Twist Bud without toasting but I do let it age a year.
I heard that D&R washes their regular tobacco to make the Silver (light) types they offer. I have washed some of the D&R tobacco to remove the excess topping with good success.
Read somewhere that Phillip Morris bakes burley at 300F to lower the nicotine, going to try that some time.
Wish Don sold a Yellow Twist Bud type, TN90 can be a brute. I do not grow. Thanks for the info.
Read somewhere that Phillip Morris bakes burley at 300F to lower the nicotine, going to try that some time.
Wish Don sold a Yellow Twist Bud type, TN90 can be a brute. I do not grow. Thanks for the info.
They may be using the lower leaves on burley ??????
I do not know what D&R is or how it looks . But my bet is they are using lower leaves .
The trashy bottom leaves shred and blend in and you will not know they were trashy after shredding .
D&R is Daughters and Ryan Tobacco Co. They bought all the Perique production a few years back and pretty much cornered the market. Their Perique pipe blends are pretty good.
Whenever somebody mentions about D&R (Daughters and Ryan Tobacco Co.) I think of our D&R which is a music, book etc. chain store and I ask to myself if D&R sells tobacco. If yes why I've not tried them yet. lol
BTW, I think they may really extract nicotine (by water, steam etc.) from the stronger tobacco leaves. By this way, they may made the tobacco milder and also they use the nicotine (also other) extract(s) (by products) by adding them to the " Improved or Expanded Stems for blending matters. If D&R doesn't use expanded tobacco they may sell the by product to the users, one stone two birds.
BTW, I think they may really extract nicotine (by water, steam etc.) from the stronger tobacco leaves. By this way, they may made the tobacco milder and also they use the nicotine (also other) extract(s) (by products) by adding them to the " Improved or Expanded Stems for blending matters. If D&R doesn't use expanded tobacco they may sell the by product to the users, one stone two birds.
My guess is that is what the big manufactures do. I think they want roughly 2% nicotine, so they extract nicotine from some and use it to adjust the sheet slurry when making filler. Relative to OTC cigarettes, say 2%, my guess is WLT flue cured is around 3.5%, and WLT TN90 around 4.7%. I like nicotine, but whenever there is more, I notice more harshness, becomes a balancing act.
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