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