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Improve my blend

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Leftynick

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I tried blending my crop this year and while it taste good, it somewhat is lacking in body. I suspect it is because too much rain during growing or I kiln in the car too long with too high temperature (it have slightly toasted flavor). The nicotine also lower than I expected. However, cigar variety I grow did have good body and flavor so I mix it a little to my cigarette blend. Are there any way to improve my blend? A good sauce recipe or anything? Too much cigar variety doesnt go too well with cigarette blend.
 

burge

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My thought is to ask what type of leaf is it? Color cure etc. Age of the tobacco. What seed was used? Fermentation? The last batch of lemon was newer tobacco. 6 months in the vapor proof bags added much more body and flavor. After shredded pressed for a month. Superb tobacco. I just have a cdn plastic tobacco tub. I hand press using my fist to compact the tobacco. That is how I do it. I would get a vacuum sealer. I would think something that is airtight will not mold.
 

deluxestogie

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Leftynick,
I suspect that your difficult year of growing has provided you with plants that never really reached their potential. The nicotine come from the root system. If the roots were struggling with saturated soil for much of the season, then they were stunted, and unable to support hardy plants.

If you can find some (usually harsh) dark tobacco on the local market, adding a small percentage would likely strength your blend, and deepen the flavor.

Aim for a less boggy growing bed next season. (I certainly admire your efforts this past grow.)

Bob
 

Leftynick

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My thought is to ask what type of leaf is it? Color cure etc. Age of the tobacco. What seed was used? Fermentation? The last batch of lemon was newer tobacco. 6 months in the vapor proof bags added much more body and flavor. After shredded pressed for a month. Superb tobacco. I just have a cdn plastic tobacco tub. I hand press using my fist to compact the tobacco. That is how I do it. I would get a vacuum sealer. I would think something that is airtight will not mold.

I grow few varieties this year. Some virginia gold, gold dollar, big gem, tn90, harrow velvet, samsun, besuki, little dutch and havana. All air cured, aged the oldest is 2 months after kilned. I tried pressing a plug with some and it does concentrate flavor and body but it molded on me a little so I have to shred them early. Now I am waiting for the shredded plug to age a little to see whether the flavor will improve.

Leftynick,
I suspect that your difficult year of growing has provided you with plants that never really reached their potential. The nicotine come from the root system. If the roots were struggling with saturated soil for much of the season, then they were stunted, and unable to support hardy plants.

If you can find some (usually harsh) dark tobacco on the local market, adding a small percentage would likely strength your blend, and deepen the flavor.

Aim for a less boggy growing bed next season. (I certainly admire your efforts this past grow.)

Bob

I suspected so. The root system for the plant that I harvested never go deep. And while I did harvest the leaves when it is yellowed, I dont think it was yellowing due to maturing, but rather nutrient deficiency. But as member of this forum suggested, it is better to have some than to have none. At least I have some experience growing, harvesting, curing and kilning so I can expect a better process next season.

I will follow your advise in blending with some darker and harsher tobacco to improve the flavor a little bit. I was just hoping that I can enjoy more the fruit of my labor without adding another source of tobacco to justify my effort this season.

As for next growing season, I already prepared the bed with dried grass cutting, some fresh cow manure and maybe I will add some goat manure later. Hope it all will decompose nicely and add some soil level high enough to avoid flooding.
 

Tutu

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I hope you'll see improvements next year. The upside of having such a big struggle is that there's lots of room to improve. How's the weather at the moment in Malaysia? On East Java the rain season has started since about a week or so. My next grow is going to be a shaded one with clouds. How's Melaka at the moment? When do you plan to start a new grow? Do you need any local Indonesian seeds?
 

Leftynick

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I hope you'll see improvements next year. The upside of having such a big struggle is that there's lots of room to improve. How's the weather at the moment in Malaysia? On East Java the rain season has started since about a week or so. My next grow is going to be a shaded one with clouds. How's Melaka at the moment? When do you plan to start a new grow? Do you need any local Indonesian seeds?

Yes, the learning curve is steep and I do learn a lot from this experience. I read Bobs' post on another thread, it take him few years of growing to get exceptional leaves so I can't expect to become expert overnight. Especially when I have no prior gardening experience. The weather here is still raining on and off. The rain never stop it just not as much as before. Last month there were flood around my area and in northen area (Kedah and Perlis). I am thinking of starting some seed now, maybe some Rustica and some cigarette tobacco (. I want to open new garden bed, already get permission from my landlord to do so. The only thing I seems to be lacking right now is time. Having a baby at home take a lot of time and effort so I will start as soon as I have settled down a bit.Funny you should say, I just about to ask you about that Xanthy seed you are harvesting.
 

Tutu

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Oh that's interesting. I had heard from friends in Kedah that there was a flood. But over here we've had a dry spell that lasted from May until the end of September. Last year we had rain, non-stop. This year is much better, for tobacco that is. Yeah I'll send some of that Xanthi seed and I'll include some Kasturi so you'll be able to spike the nicotine in your blend a little bit later on. I've sown some Rustica's myself as well. Good luck with the new garden bed!
 

Leftynick

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Come home today and my wife hand to me this package:
P_20171004_141811.jpg
P_20171004_142435.jpg

This is a cocktail of Indonesian homegrown leaves sent by Tutu. Thank you very much for this package. I have received the instruction to freeze them as soon as arrived, but to satisfy my curiosity I pick 3 leaves with different colour of them, one dark, one orange and one light yellow and tried shredding them
P_20171004_142952.jpg
then I stuff the shredded tobacco in one cigarette tube and smoke them all away. I dont know what variety of tobacco he send me, but this leaves have plenty of body, suitable for blending with my harvest
 

Tutu

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Glad it arrived! The dark leaf is probably Timor, the orange leaf is Besuki, the light coloured one KxA. Smoke all you can, a new package is one it's way (labelled for immigration as 'baju'). What leafs from your own grow are you blending it with?
 

Tutu

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Still quite a lot of varieties left to be send your way to make your blend a little more interesting!

DSC_0460.jpg
 

Leftynick

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Still quite a lot of varieties left to be send your way to make your blend a little more interesting!

View attachment 22243


Hey thank you. I have been busy last couple of day and dont have time to play around with the leaves you sent me. So today I spent some time sorting the leaves according to color and shred some threshed tobacco that cannot be sorted out. Its amazing, the smell reminds me of villiger cigar I used to buy at convenient store.

The main smell is dark air cured. I dont know how to explain it but it smelled musty cigar smell. I get this musty smell from my Harrow Velvet and Big Gem and I used to think it is because of mold. This is why I want some whole leaf tobacco to compare with my homegrown. Now I know how tobacco supposed to smell.

While sorting, i found one dark leaf that look like suitable to use as binder. So I made a short filler cigar using dark leaves found in your package. I forgot to take picture but smoke it right away. The cigar have full body and full flavor, unlike my Little Dutch plant that has more medium to light flavor. It is perfect for blending. I sorted some that big enough to be used as filler to blend with my leaves.

As for the threshed leaves, I blend it with some oriental and brightleaf. The blend is roughly 20% oriental (Samsun 85) 40% brightleaf (mixed of everything I have) and 40% of your leaves. It did exactly what I wanted it to be. Increased the nic and body while maintaining the cigarette taste. I think resting it for few days will give chance for the flavor to marry. I will experiment more to find the perfect cigarette taste for me.
 
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Charly

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LeftyNick, it's great that you finally ended with something you like ;)
 

Leftynick

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All thanks to Tutu. Without him sending me some leaves, I will end up smoking low nic ultra light cigarette.
 
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