Blending WLT's fire cured & dark air cured:

[Hugh]

As a long-time Drum smoker, I finally got around to blending a halfzware.
Let's look at the blend:

30% bright Virginia
30% homegrown burley
30% Fire cured
10% dark
(More or less)

The fire cured & dark look a lot alike. Both have thick ribs and large veins
The veins are large enough to be removed section by section.
Out of the bag can be a little dry for de-veining, best to raise the case a bit.

The dark air cured is very strong. Without it, think I'd be sucking a butt like a straw.
It give that 'click' on the back of the throat that says, enough.

Growing burley in northern climes gives a very thin leaf, which aides the free burn nicely.
Much like thin leaf Virginia luggs.

Any questions? I'll try to answer all.

 

[AlexKMW]

Hi Hugh. I have not tried Drum, but they say very tasty. I tried HalfZware from Mac Baren, Bali Shag. They used to be good, but at the moment they are very bad in taste.
Have questions.

30% Fire cured - Kentucky?
10% dark - what kind of tobacco is it?

I want to try this recipe, I really like these mixes.

 

[Nathan Esq]

I'd like to hear more on what people are doing with fire cure. I really like the fire cure DE stogies, and Lat in pipes.

 

[burge]

Drum is 50% virginia and 50% dark fired tobacco

 

[burge]

50% Virginia Kentucky fire cured 50% is drum I honestly forgot which one I know its the dark cured.

 

[Nathan Esq]

I was thinking more along the lines of cigars, but there is light fire and dark fire. Shouldn't take too many experiments to find a direction to go.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

I found that you can go two ways with fire cured. One is go all in with a well prepped and stretched wrapper on a cheroot containing slower burning, thick filler leaves. It still has burning problems, so maybe keep those ones to yourself. The other is to simply slice a 1/8"-3/4" strip of it and add it to the filler of another cigar. I have found that these need some sort of ligero.

I've only used Indian(central Asia) dark air in cigars. It was quite adaptable, but I tended to go with very narrow gauge, ~30, maduro wrapper and corojo seco.

I don't like telling people these things because half the fun is experimentation.

 

[Nathan Esq]

I just cut up some strips of dark fire, no ligero, and Seco filler, with viso binder, dark fire wrapper which is fairly thick. We'll see. I like the Drew Kentucky Fire. I've read they have a fire cure wrapper and read that it's not fire cure.

Next time I'll try some ligero.

 

[burge]

Hi Hugh. I have not tried Drum, but they say very tasty. I tried HalfZware from Mac Baren, Bali Shag. They used to be good, but at the moment they are very bad in taste.
Have questions.

30% Fire cured - Kentucky?
10% dark - what kind of tobacco is it?

I want to try this recipe, I really like these mixes.

I used to get Bali Red at the time what was close to it was the D&R Three Sails. I smoked the older McKlintock Virginia ps Danish and eit was all good stuff. until they changed it because of the tax. Bali Shag at the time was 18 dollars a can. same with Danish and D&R blends. You can still find D&R for 17 bucks a pound on sale. I haven't had it since the change from cigarette to pipe tobacco. Then where I was buying it from finally got it in and then we can't ship to Canada.

 

[Hugh]

Hi Hugh. I have not tried Drum, but they say very tasty. I tried HalfZware from Mac Baren, Bali Shag. They used to be good, but at the moment they are very bad in taste.
Have questions.

30% Fire cured - Kentucky?
10% dark - what kind of tobacco is it?

I want to try this recipe, I really like these mixes.

Hey! The dark air-cured comes from WLT stock. It is what it is --very strong.
I've since dropped from the blend 'cause its unpleasant back-bite. Using more of the fire-cured.

The Fire-cured is from WLT also, it's from Tennessee. Hickory smoked no doubt.

Hope that helps.

 

[deluxestogie]

Hickory smoked no doubt.

TN Fire-cured is fired over slabs of oak and oak sawdust.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

The 2019 "Production Guide" (published jointly by 4 university extension services) just specifies "hard wood" for firing tobacco.

The details start at the top of page 56:
https://tobacco.ces.ncsu.edu/wp-con...-and-Dark-Tobacco-Production-Guide.pdf?fwd=no

I'm assuming that the wood slabs are usually oak, since hickory leaves a distinctive food flavor, and since there is a retail consumer market for hickory chips, though not one for oak chips. Given the preponderance of oak logging, the sawdust from circular blade saw mills, while likely mixed, is mostly oak. Some growers of fire-cured tobacco explicitly state the use of oak, though that may not be universal.

Bob

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

I take it that poplar isn't a common tree in the area.

 

[deluxestogie]

I'm guessing here, but I believe that the firing wood was always oak in the past, since it is named in older extension service guides, rather than the vague, "hardwood". Logging, as well as fire-curing is apparently changing with the times (faster than I'm changing). Poplar smoke, to my jaded nose, is a fairly neutral aroma. I've fired tobacco at home with hickory, with oak, with mesquite, with silver maple and with apple. All but the oak-fired leaf smelled like food.

Bob

 

[Hugh]

TN Fire-cured is fired over slabs of oak and oak sawdust.

Bob

Good to know, thanx.

 

[Alpine]

The tobacco used in Toscano cigars is fire cured with oak too, both Quercus robur and Q. petraea.

pier

 

[Hugh]

Lately, I've been blending a true Halfware, as Burge said, 50/50% brite Virginia & Fire-Cured.
For a full-boded, strong cig it can't be beat.