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Perique: The Native Crop

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Jitterbugdude

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Mark Ryan of Ryan and Daughters (Perique manufacturers) has stated that the "St James Perique" every one thinks is so magical has always had Perique grown in other areas mixed in with it. This mixing has been going on since the 1950's.
 

ChinaVoodoo

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Mark Ryan of Ryan and Daughters (Perique manufacturers) has stated that the "St James Perique" every one thinks is so magical has always had Perique grown in other areas mixed in with it. This mixing has been going on since the 1950's.

And really, how much terroir do you get with a highly fertilized annual crop?
 

burge

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Sorry guys that is the way I feel I am a purist I want Canadian Virginia and if I want Perique I want St James. Its kind of like pop Coke aint nothing like the real thing baby. There are a few pop companies trying to imitate coke. They do not taste the same
 

Jitterbugdude

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Sorry guys that is the way I feel I want Perique I want St James. Its kind of like pop Coke aint nothing like the real thing baby.

Unless you were smoking before 1950 you've never had "real" St James Perique. It has been mixed with tobacco that has been grown somewhere else and "Periqued".
This "only real Perique is grown in St James County" is just a marketing ploy. It has to be, since no pure St James Perique has been sold for over 60 some years.

BTW, look up the Perique (VaPer)experiment I did. I sent 4 samples out to about 13 people(blinded). The "St James" sample I sent out was not picked as the best tasting!

Perique air cured tastes like Burley.
 

deluxestogie

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Air-cured Perique varietal leaf that has not been kilned is actually tasty as cigar filler. It seems to lack some of the carbohydrates or albuminous proteins that lend an acrid taste to un-kilned cigar leaf. I think it tastes better after kilning. In appearance, the plant resembles (is nearly identical to) Hickory Pryor, which is a flue-cure variety, but its taste and aroma are clearly quite different.

I would say that the varietal is not a cigar type, but its sugar content is not nearly as high as that of flue-cure varieties, and its acidity is closer to that of cigar types.

As for pressure-cured leaf, my experience has been that burley or Bolivia Criollo Black make superb "Perique." Probably any variety can be pressure-cured into a lovely, aromatic, high pH "Perique," with the greatest variation being in the resulting nicotine level.

Bob
 

ArizonaDave

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Air-cured Perique varietal leaf that has not been kilned is actually tasty as cigar filler. It seems to lack some of the carbohydrates or albuminous proteins that lend an acrid taste to un-kilned cigar leaf. I think it tastes better after kilning. In appearance, the plant resembles (is nearly identical to) Hickory Pryor, which is a flue-cure variety, but its taste and aroma are clearly quite different.

I would say that the varietal is not a cigar type, but its sugar content is not nearly as high as that of flue-cure varieties, and its acidity is closer to that of cigar types.

As for pressure-cured leaf, my experience has been that burley or Bolivia Criollo Black make superb "Perique." Probably any variety can be pressure-cured into a lovely, aromatic, high pH "Perique," with the greatest variation being in the resulting nicotine level.

Bob
Excellent answer! I might try it this year.
 

squeezyjohn

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I've still got a couple of bottles of this in the pantry from years ago. It's delicious, like a kind of sweet brandy liqueur ... has a stylish label ... nice bottle ... but I can't detect a single taste of what I know perique tobacco to be in there at all.
 

Smokin Harley

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I agree that Perique is definitely not an Oriental. (Sorry, GRIN.) The Perique varietal that I have grown (from seed acquired through New Hope Seed) displays a distinct Orinoco habitus--tall pyramidal plant; long, moderately wide, dark green leaves; rumpled surface; loosely wavy margin. The air-cured leaf is fairly strong, and when used as a minor blending component in cigars, lends a pleasing, edgy flavor and aroma. After kilning, air-cured Perique loses its edginess, and mellows out.

I also agree with the opinion that delicious and quite typical pipe-blending Perique (nearly indistinguishable from the product of St. James Parrish, Louisiana) can be made by pressure-fermenting many (if not all) varieties of leaf. FmGrowit's "Perique" is one of the finest I've tasted, and equals in quality the pure St. James Parrish Perique that I've sampled over the years.

The marketeers of St. James Parrish, as well as all the copy-and-paste tobacco journalists, have a great deal invested in maintaining the myth that the commercial product can only be obtained from St. James Parrish, while the sole remaining producer of that product has readily admitted that what he sells--and has sold for years--is blended from Perique that is predominantly obtained from elsewhere.

So I would venture to say that "Perique" is a process-class of tobacco that varies only subtly when made from differing varieties of leaf. The pressure process is the dominant factor in the final product.

Bob
In reference to Bobs first paragraph in this post -
I have whats left of my perique sucker plants standing in the plot still and they are turning yellowish green. I've topped them again as they have started to flower . The mud lugs are already yellow , some even have turned brown and dried already .I'd like to leave them stand until more leaves yellow but not sure . Not expecting any freezing temps any time soon. What do you think I'll get for a taste or strength difference by leaving them to yellow in the field vs pulling them now and color curing them in the barn as I have everything else so far?
 
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