Is Green or Immature Leaf suitable for making smokeless?

[DaleB]

I know that immature leaf, and leaf that (for example) dries green, and so on is not suitable for pipe or cigar tobacco.

Is it suitable for chew? I’ve got plans to cook up a batch of snus/dip similar to the late and lamented Skoal and/or Happy Days. Yeah, I’m THAT old.

I’ve got a grocery sack and a pile of assorted leaf that won’t be fit for smoking. Just want to make sure it’s worth drying for other purposes, otherwise I won’t bother.

 

[Bottenslam]

I would say you taste clorophyll in snus, so that depends on how picky you are. And how much good leaf you got... It sure tastes better than non.

 

[deluxestogie]

The energy equation:

When I grow my own leaf, the growing of it seems to be about 1/3 of the total work involved in rendering it into a useable end product. The remaining 2/3 of the labor is consumed by harvesting, curing, finishing (kilning, etc.) and then creating the desired cigar or pipe blend. I have concluded over the years that if my leaf is not well grown, it is not worth my investing twice as much additional labor, just to see what I end up with. I've tried with runted plants, sucker leaf, frosted leaf, frozen sucker leaf and nice leaf that dried green for various reasons. If leaf is simply torn or physically damaged, but is intact enough to color-cure properly, then I find some use for it.

Immature leaf is thin, generally lacks sufficient nicotine and—importantly—flavor.

Bob

 

[johnny108]

Do a quick test- powder a handful in a blender, mix in a bit of water, and give it a try.

 

[johnny108]

Almost forgot- even if that doesn’t work, you can still make chimó!
Boil the leaves in water with flavoring, and concentrate it down to a thick syrup, and/or add more powdered leaf to make a moldable putty that works like chewing tobacco.
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK326503/

 

[plantdude]

I know that immature leaf, and leaf that (for example) dries green, and so on is not suitable for pipe or cigar tobacco.

Is it suitable for chew? I’ve got plans to cook up a batch of snus/dip similar to the late and lamented Skoal and/or Happy Days. Yeah, I’m THAT old.

I’ve got a grocery sack and a pile of assorted leaf that won’t be fit for smoking. Just want to make sure it’s worth drying for other purposes, otherwise I won’t bother.

Yes, it's usable if some conditions are met. Heavily flavor the chew, age the green leaf for about 6 months, keep it down to 1/5 volume of the mix with decent leaf, and cook it for about an extra day in the crock pot.

If green leaf is used by itself or with a recipe that doesn't heavily flavor the chew you will notice the grassy, bitter flavor. Heavily flavored recipes like those with wintergreen extract mask a lot of the lot of the off flavor. I've noticed stalk cured partially green leaf tends to be more forgiving than immature sucker leaf in chew.