How to make strong tobacco more mild and smooth

[Michael Zarnott]

Well...after tasting this batch using 4% citric acid casing today vs yesterday. It is terribly salty. Like eating salt from the shaker salty. I did more research and this does indeed happen Back to the drawing board. Malic acid arriving tomorrow. Lower concentrations and smaller batches are definitely in order.

 

[burge]

You don't need casing. Sweating the tobacco works leaving it in the bags work and hand pressing it. I had emailed Don on one tobacco 3 years ago it was horrible bitter and said let me wait a month to see left it pressed in the tub went back to it tasted much better. My heat source was the radiator but it on that got it heated up a bit and totally changed the flavor of the leaf and it was really good. I want the taste of real tobacco.

 

[Zoogbomb]

You don't need casing. Sweating the tobacco works leaving it in the bags work and hand pressing it. I had emailed Don on one tobacco 3 years ago it was horrible bitter and said let me wait a month to see left it pressed in the tub went back to it tasted much better. My heat source was the radiator but it on that got it heated up a bit and totally changed the flavor of the leaf and it was really good. I want the taste of real tobacco.

I will try that in the method in the future ...but have not had pleasure of being able to wait for months to smoke it yet. ;D
I do notice that it does taste much different after casing with WLT casing. I like the taste better after casing.
Sounds like you can cure many baccy ills with time and heat. The pressure part of sweating is a new one for me..but i have seen the pipe guys use extreme pressure for some of their product.

 

[burge]

Well order lots in the sale it doesn't go bad. The first order and I still will use my plastic cig tub and leave it in the car on a hot day when I go fishing or camping the tobacco tastes even better. Again take advantage of this sale as it is a once a year only. If you go over what you smoke no need to worry it will not go bad.

 

[CaptainAubrey]

"about 2% of citric acid was added in aqueous solution by spraying."

When you're describing a water solution like this it's fairly common to express it as a percentage based on 100ml + 1 gram = 1% solution.

They give no detail of how much to spray. I just spray it down once until the leaves are pretty wet with droplets of solution and stack them up and put them in a bag. 48 hours later they do absorb a good amount of the fluid.

I believe if you add a stronger solution it could change the flavor of the tobacco negatively. Citric acid is rather sour and you don't want that flavor coming through. For this reason I don't use it on the wrapper.

I am glad you made your post almost 9 years ago now. I bought some harsh stuff and I had wondered about adjusting with an acid. I have both ascorbic and citric and was torn about which to use as well as the strength. Too bad they did not say how much spray to use. After all we know a heavy dose at 1% could provide more acid than a light spray at 2%. So I will start light and go again if that is not enough. Well, I just be glad that 1 ml of water weighs 1 gram.

 

[burge]

I am glad you made your post almost 9 years ago now. I bought some harsh stuff and I had wondered about adjusting with an acid. I have both ascorbic and citric and was torn about which to use as well as the strength. Too bad they did not say how much spray to use. After all we know a heavy dose at 1% could provide more acid than a light spray at 2%. So I will start light and go again if that is not enough. Well, I just be glad that 1 ml of water weighs 1 gram.

Tobacco will age over time. Some of the posts I made to mellow out tobacco works.

 

[CaptainAubrey]

Some more interesting but useless info, heck, maybe not even interesting.

I sprayed some of my harsh stuff with a 2% solution, some lightly, some moderately. But what is moderately anyway. The heavier sprayed stuff had improved but still was something only someone having a nic fit would smoke, maybe in a cigarette. So I decided to see if I make a difference and used a meaningful amount of spray. I mixed up a 5% solution of citric acid and sprayed it until sopping wet. So it was wetted thoroughly but as I had it on a sloping surface the excess could immediately run off. This made a significant change, much less harsh now, but there was something I will call a bluntness developing. Oh yeah, alkali and acid are going to yield a salt. It wasn't yet salty but I figured more acid would make it so, so I left it the time being.

I had some store bought black cavendish and it was too mild. If I wanted any flavor I had to burn it hot and heavy, no way to smoke a pipe. I blended this cavendish with about 25% of my harsh stuff. Maybe I should have used 15-20% but it definitely gave it some cajones. So I will save my harsh stuff and if I acquire another batch of sissyfied leaf I will add a pinch. I reckon this is my first blend.

 

[burge]

Leaf mellows with age. The more natural approach is to wet it let it dry and repeat.

 

[CaptainAubrey]

Thanks. Roger, wilco.

 

[CaptainAubrey]

Greetings,
This is my first post on this forum. I'm sort of new to making my own cigarettes at around 10,000 made thus far but I wanted to share some experiments that I have done this week in an attempt to make a cost effective casing to "smooth" tobacco.
I've been experimenting with making my own casing using citric acid for flue cured types. My first attempt at using a 2% concentration of citric acid and distilled water sprayed on shredded virginia did not significantly change the "raw" aspect of the flavor. Since i don't have a meter that would give me actual ph readings, I tasted a prepared commercial based casing and then mine. I determined my 2% concentration was substantially weaker than the commercial casing. I mixed a 4% concentration and repeated the experiment and the results were a much improved tasting cigarette. To help you understand how much of the 4% solution, I used on a lb of shredded tobacco, after resting for 12 hours in a sealed container, the moisture content of the tobacco was 26%.
My next experiment will be to mix a 50/50 combination of citric and malic acid to approximately the same 4% total concentration. I will also give you the exact weight and moisture content of my tobacco pre-casing and the total weight post casing to help with understanding how much of the solution is used in total for my trial.

Thanks for the post. I have been experimenting with acids too. Could you or someone contrast/compare the properties and effects of citric vs malic acid.

John

 

[deluxestogie]

citric vs malic acid

If it were for oral-use, smokeless tobacco, I would say:
citric ====> sour
malic ====> sweet & sour
(and both negated by the usual addition of alkali)

For treating tobacco prior to combustion, I have no idea.

Bob