Perique…the variety.

[Tobaccofieldsforever]

So, I came across this post while doing a simple internet search. In my opinion, it is misleading. I am aware that there is a variety of tobacco known as perique and the idea is it is the variety that is used to make perique down in st James parish. This particular post refers to perique as acidic (incorrect) and the implication that I get is if you grow and cure this leaf the resulting product will be comparable to what comes out of the barrels from st. james parish. I will omit the particular company that this came from. Anyway, beyond all the misleading information, has anyone grown the variety of tobacco known as perique? To my knowledge, it is not currently offered by northwood. I guess I am just making this post because I would potentially be interested in growing a perique variety but I find this provider of said seeds to be questionable…
Edit: I am, for the most part, aware of how the perique process is carried out and how it can potentially be done to ANY tobacco variety.

 

[deluxestogie]

I have grown the Perique variety several times. All of your assertions are correct about the errors in that listing.

Hickory Pryor (flue-cured variety) is at the right corner of the bed. Perique variety is the taller, bagged plant immediately to its left. As you can see, they look rather similar. Both reach about 6' in height, and have similar leaf morphology. When I've air-cured Perique variety, I just end up with a typical, very slightly acidic, air-cured leaf, with a moderate nicotine level.

NWT does carry Perique:

Northwest Tobacco Seeds Providing nicotiana seeds at wholesale prices for retail distributors and growers world wide Tobaccos

Bob

 

[Tobaccofieldsforever]

I have grown the Perique variety several times. All of your assertions are correct about the errors in that listing.

Hickory Pryor (flue-cured variety) is at the right corner of the bed. Perique variety is the taller, bagged plant immediately to its left. As you can see, they look rather similar. Both reach about 6' in height, and have similar leaf morphology. When I've air-cured Perique variety, I just end up with a typical, very slightly acidic, air-cured leaf, with a moderate nicotine level.

NWT does carry Perique:

Northwest Tobacco Seeds Providing nicotiana seeds at wholesale prices for retail distributors and growers world wide Tobaccos

Bob

Aaaah, now I see it! I did not expect to see it in the oriental section. Hmmm…interesting. It seems to share a lot of physical characteristics with bright leaf varieties. Thank you for the help!!
Did you make perique out of the perique variety? Have you made it out of other varieties? If so, how do they compare?

 

[deluxestogie]

The "Oriental" class is entirely the fault of ARS-GRIN. Somebody classed it as "Oriental" decades ago, and nobody there has the courage to fix it. So Paul was following the GRIN formal classification.

The actual genetic pedigree of the Perique variety is a mystery.

Bob

 

[HillDweller]

I grew two Perique plants, seeds from NWS this year. Air-cured and with no further processing. I was pleasantly surprised that with no aging or other treatment , it seemed pretty nice just from the one test bowl I smoked.

 

[skychaser]

I've always wondered why grin calls any of them called "Oriental"?

o·ri·ent
/ˈôrēˌənt/
noun
the countries of Asia, especially eastern Asia.

o·ri·en·tal
/ˌôrēˈen(t)l/
adjective
of, from, or characteristic of Asia, especially East Asia.

Mediterranean might be better name for about 95% of them.

Perique is a process more than any particular strain. The seed I have is said to be the original strain it was made from. It was being grown by native Americans when the first Europeans arrived, which would make it one of, if not the oldest Tobaccum strain in North America. My bet would be that it predates anything we would now call a bright leaf and was probably derived from one of the original Orinoco's. I would call it a very old heirloom dark Virginian type if I were classifying it.

​

 

[Tobaccofieldsforever]

I've always wondered why grin calls any of them called "Oriental"?

o·ri·ent
/ˈôrēˌənt/
noun
the countries of Asia, especially eastern Asia.

o·ri·en·tal
/ˌôrēˈen(t)l/
adjective
of, from, or characteristic of Asia, especially East Asia.

Mediterranean might be better name for about 95% of them.

Perique is a process more than any particular strain. The seed I have is said to be the original strain it was made from. It was being grown by native Americans when the first Europeans arrived, which would make it one of, if not the oldest Tobaccum strain in North America. My bet would be that it predates anything we would now call a bright leaf and was probably derived from one of the original Orinoco's. I would call it a very old heirloom dark Virginian type if I were classifying it.

​

Very cool! Now I will have to grow some (and likely not perique any of it….haha).