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Sugar crystal precipitate. I'm skeptical.

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ChinaVoodoo

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So in this Facebook group, brotherhood of briar or something, this guy posted a photo of some esoterica black pool all crusty with sugar.

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Being a bit of a snob, I said I didn't understand what was so exciting about precipitated additives.

I've since been told it's like bloom and only happens with high quality tobacco.

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I call bullshit, but knowing that I don't know everything about tobacco, I humbly ask my betters, (you guys) if I am in fact correct.
 

Jitterbugdude

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Actually it has nothing to do with so called high quality tobacco. Its just the extra added sugar coming out. I've noticed most pipe smokers of commercial pipe tobacco seem to think they all smoke "high quality" pipe tobacco. I've never bothered to mention to them that what they smoke is low quality masked by sauces and toppings.

I have NEVER had sugar crystal precipitate out of any tobacco I've grown and I truly grow high quality stuff.
 

deluxestogie

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"Bloom" is a word used by tobacco product vendors that puts a happy face on groaty tobacco that they still have to sell. I have seen over-humidified, moldy cigars at a tobacconist shop described as having "just a bit of bloom." Cedar-aged cigars sometimes develop "true" bloom, which I believe results from the crystallization of salts formed from the terpenes emitted by the cedar. [I'm not positive about that.]

It is true that sometimes a fine layer of salts may form on the surface of un-doctored tobacco leaf, but as with JBD's observation, I have never seen true mineral bloom on any of my own tobacco. [I have seen a subtle coating of mold, in a few unfortunate instances.] Stored Perique frequently develops "bloom," which I have concluded is yeast growth that does not seem to impact the taste, aroma or smoking quality. I suspect that yeast participate in the pressure-curing ordeal.

Bob
 

Gavroche

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Then, we can find what is called " flower of cape " on Havana of Cuba in chives, it is often cigars which spent time in the moistened shop window(showcase) we brush the cigar and we smoke him(it), no tasteful change, as it is old he(it) is more melted.

I put for my part cooking in a frying pan of the sheets of semois ripped with some honey of sweet chestnut tree, the sugar of the honey stood out not long after, but is it some sugar which I see or some mold? There is not a smell of damp, just that some tobacco but I ask myself questions ...
 

DistillingJim

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Out of curiosity, what's the longest anyone here has aged their tobacco for?
 

Jitterbugdude

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I have flue cured Virginia Brightleaf from 2011. It was shredded and put into a mason jar as soon as I received it. No sugar crystals. I also have some older stuff from 2009 such as air cured Turkish, Burley and Virginia. There are no sugar crystals on them either. I could see someone pointing out that air-cured tobacco would not precipitate any sugar crystals because the sugar was used up in the air curing process. The fact that my flue cured Virginia with it's naturally high sugar content has still not produced any crystals after 5+ years of aging confirms what I said earlier, that the crystals are a precipitate from added sugars.
 

deluxestogie

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Just a few years ago, I purchased 10 Henry Clay cigars manufactured in 1987. They, of course, showed no crystals or bloom or anything. Their taste and aroma were just a tad less harsh than I remember them being back in the early 1990s, and the nicotine seemed typical for Henry Clay (too high). So, with this cigar leaf, at least, proper storage for over two decades results in very little change, and zero precipitates.

Bob
 
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