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Review of Indonesian tobacco.

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Leftynick

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This will be a long one.

Please note, the taste review is purely my novice opinion. I get some sample of Indonesian tobacco from Tutu, as a comparison with my homegrown. I might not able to replicate the same taste with my homegrown leaves, but it can show me potential that I can get with my grow. For the purpose of this thread, I will only review cigarette tobacco as I already review cigar tobacco he send me through pic of your stick thread. He is sending me some more sample, so I might add some notes to this thread later.

Here is some of the leaves he send me.
Lombok Flue Cured Virginia
Lombok Sun Cured (same variety as above, lower position sun cured)
Besuki Sun Cured

First, a picture:
P_20171028_133224.jpg
Left is sun cured Lombok, big one is Lombok FCV middle is sun cured Besuki

First one is the Lombok FCV. The color is lemon, with few orange spot. When I first opened the bag, it smell really amazing. The smell of molasses dominates with few hint of dried fruit. I dont notice any hay smell that people associated with flue cured leaves. I tried rolling cigarette from this leaves. It smokes really sweet, but the burn rate is not really good. It is really weird, as the leaves is thin enough and it is in the right case for rolling. Tried the same leaves in my pipe, much better. Maybe I pack it too tight when rolling a cigarette.

The taste of this leaves remind me of Samuel Gawith Full Virginia Flake, but much less concentrated in flavor. Burn quite hot in my pipe. One thing I notice is, although it is mild taste the nicotine is quite notable.

The second one I try is sun cure Lombok. The color is dark orange. It is not as sweet as the flue cure, and the smell is hint of dried fruit and tea leaves. It also has less smell than flue crued variety. Rolling it in cigarette yield a mild smoke, good burn rate and a just a little sweet, as expected of sun cured leaves. I thought it is good as burn rate modifier for the flue cure in a blend. Nicotine quite low, as this is lower leaves position.

The last ones is Sun Cured Besuki. I tried this one last because I expected it will taste more like cigar, harsh and bitter. This is because my puny homegrown Besuki taste too much like cigar although it is not in optimal growing condition. When I smoke it boy, I was wrong. The leaves is still a little harsh and bitter, no sweetness at all, but the taste is really different. It taste very spicy (condiment like, not pepper spicy). I would say Tutu's decisions to ask farmer to sun cure this lower leaves is a good one. It yield some good condiment tobacco, that I dare to say go really well in kretek making. The spicyness remind me of cardamom.

After sampled each tobacco, I decided to blend them all together with ratio as pic above. I added some of my TN90 homegrown for quantity, and a dash cigar making leftover for more body.

Here is the pic of my TN90 leaves for comparison.
P_20171028_133714.jpg

rolled it like a big fat cigar and sliced it using a cleaver.
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P_20171028_135350_LL.jpg

there you go, my one week supply of tobacco.

I immediately roll and smoke a stick. This is a good smoke. Sweetness from the flue cure, with hint of spice (I swear it smell much more like cardamom in this blend) with good body and throat hit. Nice full and balanced flavor.

What I can say is, this give me more experience in blending, and more idea on how different curing of the same variety yield different results. Enjoying the smoke is a plus.I have planned on rajangan curing for my side grow, to see if I can make some Flue Cure taste with my leaves.
 

Tutu

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Nice one sir. Blending is so much nicer when you got a few things to chose from. I simply love the sweetness of that flue cured. Should be some proper Jatim and Madura for you to blend with later on. And later on some sun cured homegrown too.

It's interesting how the Besuki comes out so much like something that can be used with a cigarette blend without altering the taste of it, like cigars leaf usually do! But then again, not all farmers were able to get results this good. Some of them ended up with bad quality cigar filler like sun cured leafs.
 

Leftynick

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Nice one sir. Blending is so much nicer when you got a few things to chose from. I simply love the sweetness of that flue cured. Should be some proper Jatim and Madura for you to blend with later on. And later on some sun cured homegrown too.

It's interesting how the Besuki comes out so much like something that can be used with a cigarette blend without altering the taste of it, like cigars leaf usually do! But then again, not all farmers were able to get results this good. Some of them ended up with bad quality cigar filler like sun cured leafs.

Yeah, the besuki doesn't really taste like dark air cured leaves. It should be a good blender. That why I say, I might not be able to replicate the same taste, but I can always try.
 

Leftynick

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Tutu has kindly send me two more package for Indonesian tobacco sample with some of his homegrown tobacco. I have used these tobacco for my daily smoke, mixing it with my homegrown to add complexity in taste.

First package contained sun cure Madura, Jatim blend (Jawa Timur or East Java blend), Indonesian Dark Fire Cure, a dark Lombok VFC and a special Dark Air Cured Kasturi (which made by unusual circumstances, according to him) All of this is commercial leaves.

I received the Madura, Jatim and DFC quite dry so to prepare I have to let them rehydrate a bit.

First review is the Madura. This is the one called Indonesian Oriental variety. The smell is quite sweet and I notice a little citrus smell from the leaves. I shredded some and inject it into a cigarette case. The smoke is woody, somewhat sweet, mild and slightly aromatic. It reminds me of my homegrown Samsun 85. However, the first time I try this leaves it burn poorly. I tried another one and it also burn poorly. After a while, I know the problem, I don't re hydrate the leaves before cutting. The leaves crumpled and become thick in certain part. After re hydrate the leaves, I open it and cut it and it give a better burn.

The next one I tried is the Dark Lombok VFC. This is very interesting leaves. Tutu said that this leaves is the same with VFC he send me earlier, only it have been redried in high temperature making it dark to almost black. The smell is very fruity compared to regular VFC. Dried fruit smell and less citrus then regular VFC. I smoke it in cigarette case and it is very good. Very sweet and flavorful. However, I dont think I can smoke this one alone. It make quite a good condiment tobacco.

I tried the Jatim blend after that. Jatim blend is a mix of everything they plant in East Java that have been sun cured. The buyer blend their own mix of sun cured leaves, grade them and sell it to exporter (correct me if I was wrong Tutu) The Jatim leaves is perfect for what I call as base blend. It has some sweetness, the flavor is not overpowering, but not bland either. Smoked alone is quite good, but I think it need other condiment to add depth to the taste.

My favorite leaves Tutu even sent me is the Indonesian Dark Fire CUre. The whole package smelled like it when I opened the package. I tried a full Zware blend with this leaves. The taste is almost the same with traditional tobacco I used to smoke everyday, but with a lot of smokiness. I made some research on the internet and found out that they use kentucky burley forIndonesian DFC. It makes me wonder whether my traditional tobacco is indeed a Burley variety. It is quite strong to smoke alone, but just half a leaf in every blend will give a very good flavor depth. I want to make some straight DFC cigar with these leaves but I rather keep it for my future blend. It is too precious too roll into cigar, which may take a lot of tobacco.

Last one from this package is the Dark Air Cure Kasturi. According to Tutu, these leaves are results of one of the farmers mistakenly cure his leaves. I forgot the full story but maybe Tutu can add some to that story. This is a very strong tobacco. I couldn't finish the cigarette made with only this leaves. It has a nice aroma, nice nicotine hit and very strong throat hit. Tried the leaves in cigar blend, it make a good full flavor cigar but the harshness is not reducing. Now I used it very little in cigarette blend and I cavendish some of the leaves. The cavendish leaves smell somewhat sweeter, and better. But it still very nice to have this leaves for my blend.

The second package I receive contained all of Tutu's current season homegrown leaves. It includes Sun cured Xanthi, dark air cured Xanthi, sun cured Besuki, Dark Air Cure Liquica and sun cured KXA.

I tried the Xanthi first, As I have very little sun cured oriental. The smell is nice woody tobacco, with hint of sweetness. However, when smoked, it is very strong. The strength of the nicotine is very high that I need to sit down for a while after smoking one cigarette. The taste is nice, very woody and very slightly sweet, but the strength blow me away. I had to ask Tutu several time to make sure that the variety is oriental because to my knowledge oriental tend to be mild in nicotine. Currently I used the tobacco in small quantity in each blend, it added some nice taste, and boost my cigarette nicotine content.

Next one i try the Besuki leaves. This besuki is sun cured, but it tasted different from sun cured besuki he send me earlier. The taste is typical besuki, just like air cured besuki wrapper I get from him, but it is a little mild and have hint of sweetness in the taste. Smoked alone would yield a cigar tasting cigarette but blended, it added a good flavor depth and complexity. I like to use this leaves in big amount to make a full flavor cigarette.

The Liquica is my favorite tobacco for this package. It smelled like a good cigar tobacco. The smell remind me a bit like Besuki, but somewhat sweeter and more barnyard smell. I smoked a puro cigar from this leaves and very satisfied. Good flavor, good amount of nicotine and burn well. It will stay its' position as my cigar filler variety. Based on the leaves, I think it will also be a good wrapper variety as the leaves is somewhat thin, and stretchy. But the size will deter it's use as wrapper, because it is somewhat small.

The dark air cure Xanthi is the same plant as the sun cure Xanthi. This is the leaves from second sucker crop Tutu get from his office grow. The taste is also the same, woody, strength is the same, only less sweet than the sun cure. I mix it in small amount for cigar, to increase the nicotine level, but also might use it a little in my cigarette blend. I used some in pipe and impressed with the taste. It can be a good strong pipe blend that I am searching.

Last one is the KXA leaves. This is the result of cross variety that Tutu done. The leaves color is brighter, smelled sweeter that any of his other homegrown and very big. Smoked alone is very nice. It has sweet taste, mild smoke but quite high in nicotine. I think it is on the medium high level of nicotine. Good as base tobacco to blend with other tobacco. The taste remind me a bit like coconut milk, creamy and sweet. I did ask him, maybe the taste are results of using coco peat. Might never know unless we do a comparison grown. But if I am not mistaken, all of the seed has gone due to the ant. It is a shame as I really like the taste of the tobacco.
 

deluxestogie

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First review is the Madura. This is the one called Indonesian Oriental variety. The smell is quite sweet and I notice a little citrus smell from the leaves. I shredded some and inject it into a cigarette case. The smoke is woody, somewhat sweet, mild and slightly aromatic. It reminds me of my homegrown Samsun 85. However, the first time I try this leaves it burn poorly. I tried another one and it also burn poorly. After a while, I know the problem, I don't re hydrate the leaves before cutting. The leaves crumpled and become thick in certain part. After re hydrate the leaves, I open it and cut it and it give a better burn.
Altogether an excellent review. I found your comments about Madura particularly interesting. In 2017, I grew Prancak N-1, which is a cross between the Madura variety, Prancak-95 and the Turkish variety, Izmir. I know Izmir well, but had no idea what sort of leaf the Madura leaf was. This clarifies that the Prancak-95 x Izmir can be expected to have mostly Oriental characteristics.

I haven't yet reached any conclusions about my Prancak N-1, since it needs a little bit more age. I flue-cured the lower leaves, and sun-cured the remainder.

Thanks for the post.

Bob
 

Charly

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Thank you Leftynick for sharing your impressions about these indonesian tobacco.
It's usefull and give me more ideas about new strains to try.
 
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