Curing Tobacco for Cigarettes

[Daniel]

Last year my focus was on growing tobacco. and the final results of that tobacco show it. I have 15 lbs of tobacco I produced in only 220 square feet of space. sadly all that tobacco is suffering in the way of taste. I air cured it all which as it turns out was not the best choice for all of it. This year I plan to grow nearly 2000 plants and I will be putting more focus on curing so that I do not grow 150 lbs of useless tobacco. There are 4 basic types of curing. Air Cured, Flue Cured, Sun Cured and Fire Cured For cigarettes we will only be concerned with the first three. Fire cured is used for pipe tobacco, chew and cigars as it adds flavor as well as converts more sugars to make a sweeter milder tobacco. Air Cured. basically this is just hanging the tobacco in a building and letting it turn yellow then tan then brown if it is going to. I have found most tobacco is easily cured in this manner and it is the easiest to accomplish. Sun Cured, Much like Flue Cured but with some of the ease of Air Cured in that you basically hang the tobacco to yellow and dry but in this case you hang it in the sun for that additional heat. The heat will make more since when I explain flue cure. Flue Cured, This is the method mentioned for curing tobacco specifically for cigarettes. The main idea is to yellow the leaf then dry it as fast as possible. I think this is the main reason most of my tobacco does not make a good cigarette. My tobacco is to mild due to the curing process having been slow. Flue cure is targeted at taking green stalks or leaf and turning them yellow/orange in two to three days and then drying it mid rib and all in another 4 to 5 days. Cigarette tobacco is commonly made of three basic types of tobacco. Burley, this is the main ingredient. Oriental, also called Turkish. and Virginia. I may be wrong in the Virginia distinction. please correct me if that is so. (Edit: with a little more looking around and Bob's psot below. Virgina type is not exactly correct. IT appers to me that a better designation would be Flue Cured.) Burley's, These will be air cured. I would appreciate anyone helping make a list of suggested varieties for this category. So far I believe Monte Calm Yellow, Believed to be another name for TN90, and Yellow Twist Bud are the two varieties of Burley I have grown. Yellow Twist Bud has produced a very mild tobacco being air cured while Monte Calm Yellow has what I can only describe as a nasty taste. That may improve with time. Blending MCY and YTB has produced the most acceptable tobacco I have grown so far. Burley's for the most part are a huge group of tobacco varieties. Flue Cured, Larry, Bigbonner here on the group, has produced a Flue Cured Virgina Bright Leaf that is reported to be a best cigarette tobacco by other members. Orientals, Sun Cured. I am also wondering if they would do well being Flue Cured since sun curing is closely related to Flue curing. In a nut shell it is my thinking that for cigarettes fast yellowing and then drying is more desirable than slower (8 weeks or so) air curing. Burley is an exception I believe because it also tends to be a harsh tobacco that you want to get toned down. Edited: From the link Bob has provided in his post below I am adding this list of varieties under each category.

Burley's

Comstock Spanish	Binder
Havana 38	Binder
Havana 142	Binder
Havana 211	Binder
Havana 263	Binder
Havana 322	Binder
Havana 425	Binder
Havana 503b	Binder
Havana 608	Binder
Havana K-1	Binder
Mass CK-1	Binder
Wisconsin 901	Binder
Wisconsin Seedleaf	Binder
Burley 21	Burley
Golden Burley	Burley
Green Brior	Burley
Harrow Velvet	Burley
HB04P Hybrid	Burley
Hybrid403	Burley
Hybrid404	Burley
Hybrid501	Burley
Hybrid502	Burley
Improved Brior	Burley
Kelly Brownleaf	Burley
Kelly Burley	Burley
KT200 Hybrid	Burley
KT204 Hybrid	Burley
KT206 Hybrid	Burley
KT209 Hybrid	Burley
KT210 Hybrid	Burley
KY10	Burley
KY14	Burley
KY15	Burley
KY17	Burley
KY8959	Burley
KY907	Burley
KY908	Burley
KY910 Hybrid	Burley
ms21x10 Hybrid	Burley
msKY14xL8 Hybrid	Burley
msR7-12 Hybrid	Burley
N126	Burley
N7371	Burley
N777	Burley
N88	Burley
NBH98 Hybrid	Burley
NC2002	Burley
NC3 Hybrid	Burley
NC7 Hybrid	Burley
TN86	Burley
TN90	Burley
TN97 Hybrid	Burley
VA509	Burley
VA510	Burley
Warner	Burley
Yellow Twist Bud	Burley

Flue Cured

401 Cherry Red	Flue
Bamboo Shoot	Flue
C176	Flue
C319	Flue
C371 Gold	Flue
Coker 282	Flue
Coker 48	Flue
CU 165	Flue
CU 1097	Flue
Dixie Bright 27	Flue
G28	Flue
G70	Flue
GL737	Flue
GL939	Flue
GL973	Flue
K149	Flue
K326	Flue
McNair 135	Flue
McNair 373	Flue
McNair 944	Flue
NC2326	Flue
NC79	Flue
NC82	Flue
NC95	Flue
Oxford 207	Flue
Oxford 403	Flue
Oxford 940	Flue
Reams 158	Flue
Robertson	Flue
SP172	Flue
VA 116	Flue
Vesta 64	Flue
Virginia Bright Leaf	Flue
Virginia Smoking	Flue
Yellow Pryor	Flue

Oriental

Bafra	Oriental
Balikesir	Oriental
Celikhan	Oriental
Chilean	Oriental
Izmir-Ozbas	Oriental
Mutki	Oriental
Perique	Oriental
Samsun	Oriental
Sherazi	Oriental
Smyrna No 23	Oriental
Tasoua	Oriental

I also would appreciate assistance in putting the varieties I am growing this year into their proper categories. Some i know some I don't. of the following list what are burley's what are virginias and what are orientals?
Yellow Twist Bud (Burley)
Monte Calm Yellow (Burley)
Virginia Bright Leaf (Flue Cured)
Bursa (Oriental)
Havana 142
Lonnies Havana
Dark Virginia
Virginia Gold
Gold Seed Burley
14L8/TN86 cross
#9 Virginia
#7 Virginia
Silver River
Costello
African Red
Samsun 15 (Oriental)
Black Sea Samsun
Lizard Tail Orinoco
Perique (Oriental)
Aztec Rustica
Ergo Burley
TN90 (Burley)

Yes I know I have MCY and TN90. I am finding out for myself if they are the same plant. I am also interested in suggestion for the various types as well. My list is subject to change. With the report of flue cured Virginia Bright Leaf for example I am considering increasing the number of them I grow from 100 to 500. growing an equal number of MCY and YTB and making that my main shot at a blend this year. for the oriental in the mix I am growing 100 Bursa. Any and all co9mments on the issue of what varieties and what curing method are welcome. I am on the hunt to nail down some specifics for making cigarette tobacco. So all thoughts, ideas, experiences etc. are welcome.

 

[deluxestogie]

Daniel,
My impression of Sun-curing is that it depends on the humidity of the environment to prevent the leaf from flash-drying green.

Most so-called "Virginia" tobacco is one of many dozens of varieties of flue-cured tobacco. By that, I mean that it has undergone the flue-curing process. This produces a distinctive, acidic smoke and taste recognizable as "cigarette" taste. The commercial cigarette blend recipes that I have seen use a high proportion of "Virginia" (40 to 60%), a somewhat smaller proportion of Burley, and between 5 and 20% Turkish (often Samsun or Bafra, neither of which has a "perfume" aroma).

As for identifying the class of a particular variety, I've found Doug Moats' Nicotiana Project website to be helpful. There are numerous varieties identified in the separate sections for each class, and his available seed, on the Seed Listing page, arrange most of them by class.

Bob

 

[Daniel]

Bob, Thank you for that source on types of tobacco that fall under various categories. I will edit my original post from that link. I am in hopes that when folks post the common. "What do you recomend for cigarettes" they can be directed to this post as an answer.