NRustica
Well-Known Member
What do you mean they are a mixture and that you need to subline them first? Inquiring minds want to know.
I'd love to see a thread started that had photos of old curing barns, farm equipment, cigar tools like MarcL keeps finding on ebay, tobacco fields, etc. All in one place. I find all that old stuff interesting.I personally heard about (and "Shrouded in Cheesecloth confirms) that at first wooden slats were used to shade plants. Somebody tried to patent the design of his "slat" setup, buy was unsuccessful. I have seen a very old photo somewhere of a field shaded by wood slats from the late 1800s.
Discussion of Indonesian Tobacco
Vroege oogst [VO]: ("early harvest")
I am new to the forum but I came across this Indonesian tobacco thread and wanted to reply at least to the definition of VO. VO means indeed “Voor Oogst”. In Indonesia they usually have two times of tobacco planting and harvesting. One is started in the rainy season and the other one in the dry season thereafter. The first planting is called “Voor Oogst” whereas the second planting is called “Na Oogst”. Could be translated as before harvest and after harvest.When I searched it , it came up as "Voor-oogst". Voor-oogst is a type of tobacco grown in the rainy season and harvested in the dry season.
Bob, I had never heard the term FIK before. I've done some digging. Let me try to explain things.This is wrapped in the VBN/FIK 2007 wrapper from Perantara (via WLT). It's been an ordeal, trying to decipher the "FIK" part of this classification. There is no question that FIK is listed separately from VBN shade-grown Indonesian leaf by the broker, Perantara. But this sample (see below) clearly indicates "VBN/FIK".
"FIK" is, I assume, derived from a phrase in Dutch, but I haven't been able to make too much sense of it. The best I've come up with is that it indicates leaf that has somehow been subjected to either heat or smoke. But this wrapper does not have the smokey aroma of, say, San Andrés wrapper from Mexico, which is subjected to light smoke exposure from drying fires in the barns.
Perhaps Tutu can clarify what the "FIK" term means here.
I can say that, unlike Sumatra wrapper, this leaf has no tooth (tiny bumps on the surface of the leaf and the ash). It may be derived from CT Shade. The flavor does not resemble CT Shade, but is very neutral, with a faint nutty undertone.
The bound bunch needs to be well finished, since this wrapper has very little tensile strength, and can do no compression of its own. It also doesn't stretch very well. But when laid upon a smooth bunch, it comes out rather nice in appearance.
Bob