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Cavendish cure? Water curing? Oxidation?

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Jpcouling

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So after the sun stopped coming out but I still had leaves to dry and cure, I was experimenting with ways to prepare the leaf. The hands down best method I found for my tastes was to essentially do the cavendish process on the dried greenish-yellow leaf. All I do is let the leaf hang for a couple weeks and let them turn yellowish brown but green color is fine too. I place the leaves in a mesh colander inside of a pot with steaming water, and let the leaf steam for somewhere around six hours, give or take. The leaf turns this very dark brown or black, and has a noticeably sweet smell. I then take these wet leaves and hang them for 12 to 24 hours. Typically, I have pressed them and then cut them in to fine ribbons. Really nice throat hit with not a ton of flavor but a noticeable sweet aroma. It is probably on par with the effect flue curing has on tobacco, but introduce a load of steam and it seems to make it a little more funky! Has anyone else done similar methods of processing? Am I oxidizing the tobacco?
 

Jpcouling

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Yes it is a good aroma and flavor, but it is funky in the sense that there is something still green about it. Buried under the dark complexion you can detect something a little more untamed! Sorry to just wax poetic, but I am limited to this method of description as I really don't know the chemical mechanism.
 

FmGrowit

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If you're processing green leaf or partially green leaf, the chlorophyll will give the tobacco a funky flavor. Unless you're allowing for a full color cure, I'd suggest pile curing to kill the chlorophyll before steaming. I'd probably strip the tobacco first before steaming too.
 

Jpcouling

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Ahh yes I forgot to mention that I do strip the center stem also, I only wish I knew a better name for this process. Any thoughts on how it works? Accelerated fermentation may be part of it. I also think it may do that the heat that is applied would quickly destroy the tobacco if it was only subjected to the pure heat. However, the water acts as a preservative and a buffer so that the heat alters the quality of the leaf with minimal damage.
 

DGBAMA

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Your process is that of Cavendish. I have not heard of it being done with green dried leaf, but if you like it, use it.

As far as the "funky" part, try two batches of sorted leaves; one with just brown/yellow and the other with just the green tinted ones and compare the result. I would guess that the "funky" flavor follows just the batch with green (chlorophyl) in it.

I have a pile of Virginia Gold that did not color well (green tint) and I have thought about splitting it between a try at Cavendish and a try at Perique to see if something smokable results. Tastes like alfalfa right now so cant get any worse.
 
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