Smoking Unfermented Tobacco

[jsullivan99]

In addition to rolling my own cigars, I am very interested in cultivating and producing cigar tobacco.

One thing that I often see mentioned in passing is that smoking unfermented tobacco can make the smoker seriously ill. Does anyone have more information on this topic?

It is my understanding that cigarette tobacco is cured (dried) and this process can involve heat or just air/sun drying. Is it correct that cigarette tobacco is considered unfermented? If this is the case, how is it that smoking unfermented tobacco could cause sickness? Additionally, wrapper such as Candela is only heat dried/cured to set the chlorophyl but it is not fermented, however, no one mentions that smoking said wrapper will cause illness.

Does anyone know why smoking unfermented tobacco would make the smoker ill? I've heard some sites say that it is the ammonia and a very high nicotine content but I can't seem to find an in-depth article discussing this. It almost seems as if it was mentioned somewhere and various blogs have mentioned it in passing as if they are only parroting something they have heard. The only thing I could find was that unfermented tobacco would not taste like a normal cigar and the smoke would be harsh, nothing stating it would be dangerous.

Lastly, is some of this only pertinent to cigars due to the larger amount of tobacco? For example, lets say I wanted to experiment with using cigarette tobaccos such as brightleaf to make a cigar, would I be asking for trouble due to a higher ammonia/nicotine content?

Any information is greatly appreciated as I am trying to learn as much as I can and hope to plant some tobacco this spring.

Thanks!

 

[deluxestogie]

I don't recall reading about unfermented tobacco causing illness on this forum. [I've read every post since the forum was created in 2011.]

I've heard some sites say that it is the ammonia and a very high nicotine content but I can't seem to find an in-depth article discussing this.

First of all, the nicotine in tobacco leaf does not change with any of the curing and finishing methods. Inadequately cured tobacco just tastes crummy, since it is loaded with albuminous proteins and other compounds that taste bad when burned. It will not make you ill. When fully color-cured and fermented, the albuminous proteins have broken down, and in the process these proteins produce free ammonia as a gas. There is not ammonia in the leaf. There may be ammonia trapped within a plastic bag of inadequately fermented leaf.

The Virginia flue-cured types are flue-cured in order to preserve their sugars, and prevent fermentation. That's what gives you "bright" leaf. Orientals are usually sun-cured, though they can be successfully flue-cured. If you flue-cure cigar types or dark air-cured / dark fire-cured, they simply taste awful.

Curing, Fermentation, Aging, Kilning? Basic Definitions

Curing Tobacco When you begin with leaf from the field (primed or stalk-cut), and then allow it to convert from a living leaf to a dead leaf (of yellow or brown), you have cured the leaf. Often in this forum, we refer to this as "color-curing". There are a number of methods for color-curing...

fairtradetobacco.com

It is certainly possible to just air-cure a Virginia flue-cure type, but the taste will be quite different from flue-cured tobacco. Curing tobacco is not the same as "drying". In air-curing, if the tobacco dries too rapidly (does not complete its curing), then it is green.

Candela wrappers are rapidly flue-cured, skipping the yellowing phase. They always taste like chlorophyll, and not much else.

I have made cigars with flue-cured leaf. It just smells and tastes like cigarette or pipe tobacco.

Experiment with confidence. So long as you don't eat the tobacco, there is no risk of the toxicities you have mentioned.

Bob

 

[DaleB]

I have, as I’m sure many others have, grabbed a “mud lug” or other uncured leaf, let it dry, rolled it into a cigarillo, and smoked it with no ill effects at all.

I think back to the days when Europeans were first introduced to tobacco. I’m sure the natives weren’t doing any elaborate curing.

 

[Juxtaposer-]

I think back to the days when Europeans were first introduced to tobacco. I’m sure the natives weren’t doing any elaborate curing.

“perique” seems awfully elaborate to me. I have also read that ”roasting” was common. Being revered, tobacco would have been handled with extreme attention to detail.
Furthermore, along the same line of defense, Neanderthals had a bigger brain than Sapiens, so don’t go thinking THEY did not know what they were doing either.