Smoking "unprocessed" tobacco

[garryricketson]

I have some questions on processed or unprocessed tobacco. I am thinking about buying some unprocessed "Fire-Cured-VA-309", and "Dark Air (2012 crop)", ( saw them at http://wholeleaftobacco.com/Dark-Air-2012-crop-1GROS.htm

http://wholeleaftobacco.com/Fire-Cured-VA-309-1FireCured.htm)
Don mentioned, that they are unprocessed, just to make sure I understood, or was not dissapointed,.. Ok, well , the tobacco I have been buying here locally also is unprocessed, other then dried, or cured, and I am not sure as to how long, but it did turn brown, a very dark brown,
so that is what I have been smoking,I just crush up a leaf, take the stems out, and smoke it, seems fine to me, I usually fill a container, about the same size as a "bugler" can, that lasts me a week, usually I put some fresh orange peels in the can too, to moisten it a little, it rolls better that way.
So, why is it necessary to "process" it ?, or is that my "processing", crush the leaf up with my hands, and add a few orange peels ?
I see on wholeleaf tobacco, also about "Cigarette Tobacco Casings " but what are they ?, why are they needed, to me the tobacco tastes fine just like it is.
I know store bought ciggarettes have been "processed", and also even "bugler" and top tobacco, but they also kind taste pretty nasty, now, and don't seem to have any nicotine, So any way, I don't think I will be dissapointed, with any whole leaf tobacco, unprocessed, or am I missing something ? Is there a reason it should be "processed", other then that is because so many people are acostumed to processed cigarettes and tobacco, like my wife, she thinks the tobacco I smoke smells terrible, and "gagged" when she tried to smoke one, but to be honest, her cigarettes, packaged and processed, smell awfull to me,..and make me cough when I smoke one, plus do not "satisfy" my nicotine craving.

The other question, is they say you can not smoke tobacco that dries green, ? Why not, if it burns, it could be smoked, ? Will it harm you ?, like to many unripe green apples ?
I have some other tobacco, it came from Kentucky, not sure what kind of tobacco it is, but it is a light brown or gold color, I do not like it much, but at this time that is all I have, I think it also was unprocessed, because it was pretty much whole leaves,and stems,..I did find that instead of using orange peels, boil some water, then in about 3 table spoons of water, I put a couple of tea spoons of Nescafe (my favorite instant coffee) and as much sugar as the water can desolve, then I put the liquid in my tobacco tin, with the tobacco, shake and mix it up real good, it seems to burn better, and tastes a lot better, sometimes it makes it to moist, so I need to let it dry a little, but it works. Is that "processing" tobacco ?
Thanks from Garry

 

[Mad Oshea]

Hey Garry, The way You break down the leaf is processing. I call it flake- outhers call it what ever. I use apples in My can. And I smoke green baccy as well. Some don't tast to good.

 

[DGBAMA]

Gary, there are various degrees of processing . Unprocessed simply means whole leaf. "dark fire" references a curing method, like "flue curing".

Casing is ingredients added to the baccy to improve smoking qualities. Your Nescafe method is casing.

Green baccy can be smoked. What I tried tasted no better than grass clippings though, maybe worse.

 

[Knucklehead]

Whole leaf tobacco is the only unprocessed tobacco according to the tax laws. If you so much as remove the stem, it legally falls into the "processed" or "manufacturing" tax category and you have to possess a manufacturers license, pay taxes, tax stamps, and jump through other legal hoops in order to sell it. Shredding, casing, rolling into cigarettes, etc. are other forms of processing, or manufacturing, that put you into another tax situation if you plan to sell the product. Whole leaf tobacco, with the stem intact, and no other processes done to it, is considered an agricultural product and is legal for sale with no taxes, just like garden produce at a farmers market. Whole leaf tobacco can also be mailed USPS while processed tobacco cannot be. The legal aspects of exporting whole leaf tobacco to other countries is a lot different and easier also.

 

[winston-smoker]

Whole leaf tobacco is the only unprocessed tobacco according to the tax laws. If you so much as remove the stem, it legally falls into the "processed" or "manufacturing" tax category and you have to possess a manufacturers license, pay taxes, tax stamps, and jump through other legal hoops in order to sell it. Shredding, casing, rolling into cigarettes, etc. are other forms of processing, or manufacturing, that put you into another tax situation if you plan to sell the product. Whole leaf tobacco, with the stem intact, and no other processes done to it, is considered an agricultural product and is legal for sale with no taxes, just like garden produce at a farmers market. Whole leaf tobacco can also be mailed USPS while processed tobacco cannot be. The legal aspects of exporting whole leaf tobacco to other countries is a lot different and easier also.

Knuckle,
What you wrote about unprocessed tobacco meaning whole leaf, with respect to being an agricultural product for taxation purposes, is (as practically everyone here knows) correct. Threshed tobacco apparently has to be sold in quantities above 10 lbs. in order to remain untaxed.

About mailing, your post isn't entirely accurate, mainly on account of omission. Class J tobacco (cigarette-cut or "rolling" tobacco) and cigarettes cannot be mailed, though there are some exceptions (a lot of hoops to jump through) which you can look up on usps.com. Tobacco vendors, in general, are prohibited from interstate shipping of Class J tobacco and cigarettes, unless they collect your state's excise and sales taxes, and that even whether they can do that (assuming that they're willing) depends on each state's laws, and they would still have to comply with the regulations of the USPS (the exceptions mentioned above). The only store I know of, last time I checked, that offered interstate sales of Class J tobacco is American Thrust Tobacco in Plattsburgh, New York.

Class L tobacco (pipe-cut tobacco) and cigars may still be mailed by the USPS and other common carriers, such as UPS and FedEx, without restrictions. The federal excise taxes would be included in the price paid, but it is the buyer's responsibility to report untaxed purchases, and pay applicable excise and sales taxes, of Class L tobacco and cigars to his state's department of taxation ... just as it is the buyer's responsibility to do the same for out-of-state purchases of anything else that's taxable in his state, unless the vendor has already collected the state's taxes.

I think that the purchase of cigarettes from foreign vendors is probably legally murky, as least so far as mailing is concerned, since 2010. That is the probable reason why these foreign vendors "conceal" the fact that cigarettes are being shipped from the shipping packaging and sales records. Even though the mailing of cigarettes may be perfectly legal in the country of origin, once the parcel arrives in the U.S., the USPS becomes the agent who actually delivers the parcel.

If anyone else reading knows these tax and mailing intricacies better than I do, please feel free to correct me.

 

[Knucklehead]

Knuckle,
What you wrote about unprocessed tobacco meaning whole leaf, with respect to being an agricultural product for taxation purposes, is (as practically everyone here knows) correct. Threshed tobacco apparently has to be sold in quantities above 10 lbs. in order to remain untaxed.

About mailing, your post isn't entirely accurate, mainly on account of omission. Class J tobacco (cigarette-cut or "rolling" tobacco) and cigarettes cannot be mailed, though there are some exceptions (a lot of hoops to jump through) which you can look up on usps.com. Tobacco vendors, in general, are prohibited from interstate shipping of Class J tobacco and cigarettes, unless they collect your state's excise and sales taxes, and that even whether they can do that (assuming that they're willing) depends on each state's laws, and they would still have to comply with the regulations of the USPS (the exceptions mentioned above). The only store I know of, last time I checked, that offered interstate sales of Class J tobacco is American Thrust Tobacco in Plattsburgh, New York.

Class L tobacco (pipe-cut tobacco) and cigars may still be mailed by the USPS and other common carriers, such as UPS and FedEx, without restrictions. The federal excise taxes would be included in the price paid, but it is the buyer's responsibility to report untaxed purchases, and pay applicable excise and sales taxes, of Class L tobacco and cigars to his state's department of taxation ... just as it is the buyer's responsibility to do the same for out-of-state purchases of anything else that's taxable in his state, unless the vendor has already collected the state's taxes.

I think that the purchase of cigarettes from foreign vendors is probably legally murky, as least so far as mailing is concerned, since 2010. That is the probable reason why these foreign vendors "conceal" the fact that cigarettes are being shipped from the shipping packaging and sales records. Even though the mailing of cigarettes may be perfectly legal in the country of origin, once the parcel arrives in the U.S., the USPS becomes the agent who actually delivers the parcel.

If anyone else reading knows these tax and mailing intricacies better than I do, please feel free to correct me.

Good information, thanks for posting.

 

[winston-smoker]

By the way, Pennsylvania has no excise tax on loose tobacco, cigars, and snuff, though there is a sales tax. But Pennsylvania classes "little cigars" as cigarettes and taxes "little cigars" at the same rate as cigarettes. Florida does not tax cigars, but taxes all other forms of tobacco.

 

[garryricketson]

Thanks for clarifying all that, the additional stuff on the taxing and shipping laws is interesting too