Buy Tobacco Leaf Online | Whole Leaf Tobacco

Is there any way to mellow out shredded tobacco ?

Status
Not open for further replies.

burge

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 11, 2014
Messages
1,579
Points
113
Location
Alberta
I have had Auld Kendal the Three Castles and if you have some red it accents the lemon as well. I am curious to what value brand you smoked. The only bag tobacco that is worth buying is D&R. I find when I get the sale its about 12 dollars a pound and I tend to get a full pound of tobacco or pretty close as WLT tends to give you a dry pound and compensates for stem loss. You are at WLT getting the good stuff that if you were to but is on the higher end.
 
Joined
Feb 13, 2019
Messages
13
Points
3
Location
Virginia
burge, i'm assuming you're asking me - if so, basically all the value brands, Southern Steel. OHM etc that retailed in the $12 - $14 range. The lower end tobaccos all seemed to flavor their tobacco with something, either liquorce, chocolate, vanilla whatever flavoring, but it would seem to build up a reactive after taste that once it developed, didn't take long to return if you quit that particular brand tobacco for awhle

D&R i consider a mid-level tobacco with it's tobaccos priced in the $17-$20 range - i never had an aftertaste issue with any of the D&R tobaccos though
 

deluxestogie

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
May 25, 2011
Messages
24,069
Points
113
Location
near Blacksburg, VA
Burge and T O R, your two, adjacent non-avatars are making my eyeballs hurt.

Good discussion, though. And burge makes a solid point about WLT selling a dry pound, whereas commercial tobacco is always heavy with water.

Bob
 
Joined
Feb 13, 2019
Messages
13
Points
3
Location
Virginia
Burge: " ...... as WLT tends to give you a dry pound and compensates for stem loss. You are at WLT getting the good stuff that if you were to but is on the higher end. "

All the WLT or most the WLT i've gotten has been on the moist side - which i'm glad of, as shredding toast dry leaf just tends to produce a good deal of dust. I only mentioned the finished weight for a valid side by side comparison to processed tobacco.

Maybe that long trip to canada gives it more time to dry out enroute, not sure.
 

burge

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 11, 2014
Messages
1,579
Points
113
Location
Alberta
The higher end means higher end tobaccos. Compensating for stem loss means is just that. Not literally dry tobacco. I get roughly 45 leaves from WLT sometimes 50 and get 2.5 cartons. With the other guys you get 1,5 cartons to 1.75 cartons on a wet pound. I weighed it out after the bag completely dried.
 

SAW

Member
Joined
Oct 13, 2019
Messages
12
Points
3
Location
Oregon
I am posting in this thread because I labelled a baggie "Virginia Red Leaf - Aalborg Mellowed" today.

I am still working on shredding and exploring blends with my first sampler pack. A week or so later (today) I realized that I had missed one, so I put it in high priority for today's chores. It was the Red Leaf Virginia (Flue Cured).

There were a couple of leaves that were literally crumpled up into a ball that clearly didn't belong in this grade. However, this is so rare that it doesn't merit any complaint. These two balls were difficult to get to lay flat for shredding, and when I got them that way, they had a lot of white dots on them that looked like it might be mold. So, I dabbed them (as I have read to do so) with a strong alcoholic drink from Denmark that has the brand name Aalborg on it (which sits around my house waiting for something to do since I don't want to drink it). I dabbed and dabbed so much that they became pretty well soaked - and I put that mold out of commission.

Then I let them dry for an hour or so before shredding them. I'm not going to combine this little batch with my larger stash (because it seems there might be a mold contamination risk), but I'm not throwing it away either.

The WLT description advises blending this with a milder leaf. But when I rolled one up and smoked it straight it was pretty good. "Aalborg Mellowed" smokes mighty good even as a standalone! I have not tried it yet without the "Aalborg Mellow" treatment to compare, but I suspect that the alcohol soak made it a lot more mild. So you might want to try something similar if you are looking to make a strong tobacco more mild.
 

burge

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 11, 2014
Messages
1,579
Points
113
Location
Alberta
Mold is hairy when I was new there was black on the top of the leaves and it was scold. which led me to post on leaf being a agricultural product. I am willing to bet the white dots were sugar and that is normal in virginia tobacco.
 

SAW

Member
Joined
Oct 13, 2019
Messages
12
Points
3
Location
Oregon
Thanks for the info. You are probably right. It seems common that newbies make these kinds of mistakes. Next time I see something that looks like that I will have a taste of it.
 

burge

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 11, 2014
Messages
1,579
Points
113
Location
Alberta
Mold will be white and hairy. I saw on the competitions florescent green and it is common on stems. WLT leaves will be mold free. and because I leave tobacco to age it is sometimes on the stems but its nothing to worry about and quite rare. A lot of people when new and I was the same did not know what to expect. as we have only seen the finished product.
 

deluxestogie

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
May 25, 2011
Messages
24,069
Points
113
Location
near Blacksburg, VA
As a point of interest, mold can be just about any color. Aspergillus, which is one we worry about, can be black, blue, gray, yellow, green, white, etc. (There are a few hundred species of Aspergillus alone.) It can appear as a smudge, or fuzzy.

Bob
 

SAW

Member
Joined
Oct 13, 2019
Messages
12
Points
3
Location
Oregon
I guess the taste test could bring me close to going off the deep end, but at least I'm not testing datura or amanita. Maybe the mold proves to be an entheogen!
 
Last edited by a moderator:

SAW

Member
Joined
Oct 13, 2019
Messages
12
Points
3
Location
Oregon
The guys who run the show here are censoring posts, so I don't think that I want to continue posting here or doing business with them.

They will probably censor the above!
 

ChinaVoodoo

Moderator
Joined
Sep 1, 2014
Messages
7,210
Points
113
Location
Edmonton, AB, CA
The guys who run the show here are censoring posts, so I don't think that I want to continue posting here or doing business with them.

They will probably censor the above!
As an aside... I could simply delete the above (and still might just to clean things up), but I want to leave it up long enough for everyone to see, (as to avoid the accusation of censorship).

I have something to say about this, (and a private conversation), in another thread. Here is the link, please don't reply in here.
Please resume the conversation about mellowing tobacco, and mellowing tobacco only (ish).

Thank you.

 
Last edited:

burge

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 11, 2014
Messages
1,579
Points
113
Location
Alberta
The guys who run the show here are censoring posts, so I don't think that I want to continue posting here or doing business with them.

They will probably censor the above!
I have never had a post censored getting back to tobacco experience we all here have a lot.
 

davek14

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 8, 2016
Messages
166
Points
28
Location
Cincinnati Ohio
Reading back in the thread about newbies, and Burley, and kilning and aging (oh my!)...
I bought tobacco for the first year or so back smoking but immediately started growing, mostly Burley.
If you grow your Burley and color cure correctly, then just pile it semi-loosely in boxes in the basement, you will get exactly what has been repeatedly said. One year is smokeable and not bad. Two years is noticeably better. (three years would probably be better, but who can wait).
At first I was worried that things would be too dry in my waterproofed basement for aging, the tobacco usually broke when bent when I checked on it. It seemed to age, "as on schedule", however.
Yellow twist bud is a mellow Burley which ages *much* faster. The early primings which I allowed to get quite yellow were smokeable by Christmas and good one year after harvest.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top