Tobacco Flavoring: the Science

[SmokeStack]

You missed all the fun then!.. There's nothing like sticking a mercury thermometer in some hot water and the showing it to your mother hoping she'd see how sick you were and let you stay home from school. The problem is, she never believed the 105 degree reading..

Jitterbugdude, so you used this technique to get out of school also. It never worked for me - not since my Mom told me that she would have to get a rectal reading.

 

[Knucklehead]

I'm so busy sampling tobacco I've never tasted I may never get around to trying to flavor it. I do like the Cavendish process Bob posted. It's on my to do list.

 

[SmokeStack]

There are only a few flavorings that I use for my pipe tobacco. I don't use flavorings that come from food sources, such as fruits, chocolate, coffee, vanilla, rum, etc. The aroma given off from the tobacco and the fragrance coming from the food flavoring agent don't seem to pair well with me. There are some essences that, in small amounts, do compliment tobacco well. I have 3 working blends below.

1 My favorite example is to make a blend of cigar leaf and Burley. I then add just a very, very small quantity of cedar extract - just enough to let you know it's there. The cedar and cigar leaf pair well with each other along with the full-flavor nuttiness from the Burley. This make for a stout blend.

2 Another good blend I make is to use lemon Virginia, Burley, Fire-Cured and a very small amount of juniper berry extract. A great outdoor Michigan smoke.

3 Also, Burley, Izmir, Tambolaka, and a hint of Frankincense. This is my most bizarre blend. The Burley and Izmir make an interesting base. A moderate portion of Tambolaka is used and pairs well with a trace amount of Frankincense. This definitely not for the lighthearted smoker. I don't smoke this much, but I do find myself getting a craving for the Tambolaka/Frankincense aroma.

These are my only pipe tobacco blends to which I have added flavorings. I found the key to the success of these blends is to use the very smallest amount of flavoring - so little that it is difficult to detect. It is easy to over do it and that will spoil the smoke. I want the tobacco aroma to dominate and to be at the forefront of the smoke at all times but with an occasional hint of fragrance. The above extracts are strong so a little goes a long way.

Before joining the FTT forum, I used to blend my pipe tobacco by purchasing what is referred to as "blending tobaccos" from online vendors. This was the only way to blend tobaccos until I learned about the infinite possibilities of blending tobaccos when I joined FTT. So the above blends were made with these blending tobaccos. I would like to revisit these blends with my own grown tobaccos or tobaccos from Whole Leaf Tobacco.com. I can only imagine how the difference in quality and aroma will manifest itself.

 

[Randy]

If its true that most fibours roots of plants absorb/take-up nutrients from the soil they grow-in..how about growing special plants that relase flavors into the soil so the tobacco plants could absorb and add flavors as it grows I have no idea if such plants are out there? if not then just add different flavors of choice to soil directly as watering the plant?

Randy

 

[FmGrowit]

If its true that most fibours roots of plants absorb/take-up nutrients from the soil they grow-in..how about growing special plants that relase flavors into the soil so the tobacco plants could absorb and add flavors as it grows I have no idea if such plants are out there? if not then just add different flavors of choice to soil directly as watering the plant?

Randy

That theory is genius. I'm definitely going to try it. I think it would be most effective and have the least potentially harmful effects if the flavoring is added after the plant has been topped and after an extended period of drought.

 

[Randy]

Thanks FmGrowit..ehat made me think uf it was my likeing of menthol tobacco.so had idea of like growing sperament plants close to the tobacco plant and see what happens?? or maybe add the oil to watering or when you foliage ferlizter?

Randy

 

[DonH]

Thanks FmGrowit..ehat made me think uf it was my likeing of menthol tobacco.so had idea of like growing sperament plants close to the tobacco plant and see what happens?? or maybe add the oil to watering or when you foliage ferlizter?

Randy

I'd go with the second option. There's a possibility it might work if you do it close to harvest. The first way won't impart any flavor and spearmint is invasive as hell. I planted spearmint years ago a ways away from where I grow tobacco and I wish I hadn't. You can't get rid of it and it spreads.

 

[SmokeStack]

I would definitely experiment to find the quantity necessary to impart the menthol/mint oil essence into the tobacco. I imagine that it would take a great quantity and, as a result, it may not prove to be cost effective.

This reminds me of a professor in our department that is working on a project to remove toxic arsenic from the soil. Farmers would use arsenic for their crops years ago until they realize that they were destroying the environment. So the professor is using a plant (I am not sure exactly which plant - it may be alfalfa) that absorbs the arsenic from the soil. The alfalfa was grown, harvested and destroyed, thereby removing the arsenic from the soil. This anecdote is a little off topic, but it always was fascinates me.

 

[deluxestogie]

Do keep in mind that many "flavorings" are essential oils, and may be directly damaging to living leaf as well as root hairs.

As an aside, I did some trials of "recommended" companion plantings that have been said to enhance the flavor of certain vegetable crops. For example, a number of herbs are supposed to generally enhance the flavor of nearby greens. Well...from my results, I would rank that with urban (rural) legends. If there was a difference, it was too subtle for my appreciation.

Bob

 

[Matty]

To my knowledge some plants do obain certain flavors/smells by root absorbtion. When I was a teen (please, bear with me) I uses to read a lot of "High Times" magazine. One of the issues had a main topic called "feeding for flavor" the front cover has a coke can next to a plant and speaking from experience those types of plants do present an aroma/flavor of what you feed them. We used to use a micronutrient called Foxfarm, a supposedly concentrated organic compost tea, the plants would smell and taste just like the supplement, not a lot but you could tell it was there. Arsenic removed from the soil with the help of plants? I also read a study years ago about hemp being used around Chernobyl to romove some of the radioactivity from the soil, it is called "phytoremediation". I've heard of companion planting as well but never really got into it too much. I do know that some plants will hinder their neighboring plants growth or health, I think oinions next to potatoes was one of the bad pairings, however, they love each other on a dinner plate lol. There is a plant I saw on one of those nature documentries that actually gasses the soil it's in rendering it toxic for any other plants. It was a pretty good documentary, they talked a lot about a certain tobacco strain and how it protects itself from predators by doing some pretty drastic changes. However, I digress.

I tried downloading the pdf at the begining of the post but all I get are blank pages, can anyone help me figure it out?

 

[Brown Thumb]

High Times, Cool!! That was a long time ago.
But If you can figure out the Menthol Issiue. That would be SUPPER!!
Too Many BRESKEYS

 

[Ishi]

A lot of the local (growers) use molasses when they finish up there grow. Do not know the amount but my neighbor works for Halco Animal Health and is ask for it meanie times in late August and Sept.

 

[leverhead]

I tried downloading the pdf at the begining of the post but all I get are blank pages, can anyone help me figure it out?

I just tried it, it worked fine for me.

 

[deluxestogie]

I just tried it, it worked fine for me.

The hosting site seems to be having intermittant hangs.

Bob

 

[chillardbee]

Tobacco Flavor Book

I don't recall seeing this outstanding book (74 pages) on the intricacies of tobacco flavoring. The link was posted on HTGT by chillardbee. The book was originally created by Leffingwell et al. in 1972 for R.J. Reynolds.

http://www.leffingwell.com/download/TobaccoFlavorBook.pdf

That'd be me, I just joined a few weeks ago. I'm going to try some of those flavourings this year. I'm going to try to replicate or get close to replicating the borkum riff cherry cavendish pipe baccy. It was when I was researching that very topic that I came across that link.

 

[Matty]

Borkum riff cherry... lol, I used to smoke that, the smell drives most everyone wild

 

[Seanz]

Borkum riff cherry... lol, I used to smoke that, the smell drives most everyone wild

Im reaquainting myself with borkum at the moment. The seem to be better than i remeber

 

[jekylnz]

Sean what's a borkum

 

[Seanz]

Sean what's a borkum

Borkum Riff Is a brand of Pipe tobacco, its one of the staples down here. They have a good range of different blends available. The Cheery is nice but needs sipping i find I enjoy the origanal mixture and the black cavandish.
http://tobaccoreviews.com/ Go here and have a read through whats available in the pipe world.

 

[istanbulin]

Borkum Riff Is a brand of Pipe tobacco, its one of the staples down here. They have a good range of different blends available. The Cheery is nice but needs sipping i find I enjoy the origanal mixture and the black cavandish. ...

It's one of the staples here too with Captain Black, there're only aromatic blends of them here. May be you got "real" blends of them there. They both taste and smell like smuggled from a sweetshop I tried them once but no, it's not tobacco. I never smoke them.