Dark Air Cured - what is it?

[Paul]

I'm based in the UK.. For the past couple of years it has been illegal to deal in raw tobacco. Before the ban I made a point of stocking up, from fair trade UK agents.
Of course, I wish I had bought more. Anyway, I now have a variety of stock, including some " Dark Air Cured". Can anyone tell me what this might be?
I have light burley, dark burley and dark air cured. They seem to get progressively stronger. Are they all burley? Are they different varieties? Are they different positions on the plant?

 

[Alpine]

Dark air cured is a class of tobacco, different from burley. If you’re old enough to remember, Gitanes, Gauloises caporal (both from France) were made with mostly dark air cured. Ducados from Spain are still sold and made similarly. French call it “tabac brun” and in Spanish it’s called “tobaco negro”.
It’s good for a strong tasting smoke, but I personally don’t like it much... try to tame it down with some flue cured or light air cured tobacco. All you can do, if you don’t like its taste, is try to dilute... if you are a pipe smoker, then try to make cavendish or perique out of it but I have no idea of the final result! Maybe some other forum member has already tried this...

pier

 

[deluxestogie]

I agree with Alpine. Dark air-cured is a separate class of tobacco. It produces very large leaves that are a deep green, and very sticky. (In the US, it is mostly grown in western Kentucky.) After being air-cured, the leaf is a potent, flavor-rich tobacco, with a relatively high nicotine, but also a somewhat higher pH. This higher alkalinity enhances nicotine absorption from your mouth and pharynx.

I use it as a condiment tobacco. A little goes a long way. In pipe blends, it can replace perique, to decrease the tongue bite of flue-cured leaf. It makes a tasty Cavendish, but is still just as high in nicotine. You may find that a small percentage of Dark Air can entirely replace a larger percentage of burley.

You'll just have to experiment.

Bob