Dark fired tobacco production? and...

[ballzac]

My favourite tobaccos at the moment are English style (lakeland) dark fired african tobaccos. Specifically Samuel Gawith 1792 flake and Samuel Gawith brown #4 rope, both available from Cignall Frankston (no affiliation). I am very interested in the specifics of the production of these tobaccos if anyone knows anything about this type of leaf.

SG describe this tobacco as "dark fired Tanzanian leaf". I have found some info about the curing process used. Obviously it is cured in the dark, so it doesn't have the light colour of turkish and similar leaf. Fire is used to regulate the temperature. What I am not sure of, is if this is a specific strain of Nicotiana tabaccum, or just a different curing process used for regular Virginian tobacco leaf.

One of the most striking aspects of this tobacco is the strength. How is this strength achieved? I do not know if the nicotine level itself is higher than other tobaccos, as I have never inhaled it. The apparent strength could be due to a high pH in the smoke. It is also strong when chewed (the rope that is), so presumably the pH is somewhat high. Does anyone know how much of this strength is due to nicotine content and how much is due to pH? Also, how would these factors be controlled during cultivation and curing?

The other important factor for these tobaccos is the flavour. Regarding the rope, it has very little added flavouring, and most of the flavour comes from the tobacco. I love this flavour, and I gather most of it is due to the curing process. Some flavour must be from the smoke due to the fire used to cure it. If anyone knows anything about how the flavour is achieved, I'd love to know. Some of the darkening of the tobacco and the ensuing flavour is due to steaming or pressure-cooking, but this also reduces the strength, so they must start out even stronger.

The 1792 flake is heavily flavoured. According to SG, "tonquin flavor" is used. Real tonquin is apparantly toxic due to its high level of coumarin. I am not sure if the tobacco is flavoured with an extract that contains no coumarin, an artificial flavouring, or the real thing. Perhaps tonquin is safe to be smoked but not eaten? However, coumarin is supposedly a lung specific carcinogen, so even though usually not inhaled, the second hand smoke from this tobacco could be dangerous if real tonquin was used. Does anyone know anything about the use of tonquin in tobacco, or the toxicity of coumarin in this context?

I think that about covers it for the moment. Hopefully there's some knowledgeable people out there who can chip in (I'm looking at you VS )

Thanks in advance.

[Zen Peddler]

Well I prefer black (maduro) rapper cigars - but I believe this is from sun curing??

[ballzac]

Hmmmm, that's true. So why are turkish, sun cured tobaccos pale, where as sun-cured maduro cigar wrappers are dark?

The brown #4 rope is, in my opinion, similar in strength and body to a partagas P4 or a Romeo y Juietta cazadores, but with flavour more like a dark rollie tobacco.

[ballzac]

According to wikipedia, sun-curing causes the tobacco to be more acidic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_tobacco which would explain why it is weaker as a pipe tobacco and unsuitable for chewing. Maduro cigars are often quite strong, but this is probably more to do with the filling than the wrapper?

[Zen Peddler]

Yeah the maduro wrapper gives it a sweatness and almost coffee taste, but they are usually used on hardcore or larger cigar sizes - hence they tend to be strong. if you've got $50 to blow, get yourself a Diamond Crown Maduro - sensational! its not cuban but now days a lot of the better brands arent.

[ballzac]

$50 would buy me three pieces of #4, or an equivalent amount of tobacco. This would fill my bowl maybe 40 times, and each bowl last me twice as long as a double corona. Hard to justify cigars since I discovered pipes Having said that, it's a different experience, and if I happen to get a craving for a cigar, a pipe won't fill that void.

[hebrew]

yeah tonquin beans were banned in tobacco products sometime ago now. i dont know when or why, did read it once

but tonquin bean flavoured snuff is beautiful, i made some once, like vanilla.

the art of curing tobacco is a very interesting one. very complicated and there are many ways

from the top of my head, snus is sun dried and then steam cured, after steam curing for a certain period of time at a certain temp, it is flavoured and ph adjusted with calcium carbonate or other alkaline. sometimes a mixture and glycerin as well to make it form, its very tricky to make a good snus

snus is wonderful stuff

i love chewing tobacco,

the ropes i had to chew have all been flavoured, usually sticky, i never had plain rope

i think it comes down to how it is cured and let to age,

strength i think comes down to type of tobacco, and curing process, plus amount of ph.

i dont know about smoking tobaccos, i rarely smoke tobacco

lately been chewing mirage, indian khaini type tobacco, i really like it but i know its not good for you

i dont know if i have address anything here really

tonquin is called for in a lot of old snuff recipes, i have a ning site dedicated to tobacco, with a very knowledgeable snuff man there, but i need to pay the fuckgin subscription to make the site live again, lots of old info about snuff and chew production from old days.

you can still buy tonquin beans for cooking purposes so i am not too sure about the banning of it in tobacco products, maybe it was the concentrations they used? cant remember now, all i know is it flavours tobacco very nicely

[ballzac]

Thanks VS Do you know if calcium carbonate would work for a smoking tobacco? By the way, the #4 rope is exactly the same as chewing rope (i.e. pigtails), just a thicker gauge. The rum flavouring in this one is almost non-existent, but I am getting some Gawith Hoggarth brown bogie (unflavoured) from the states to compare. Will be interesting to see how it compares. I am also very interested in trying the black rope, which is apparantly the same as the brown but is pressure cooked.

[hebrew]

not sure about ph and smoking

here is my ning site

http://tobacos.ning.com/

Edited September 29, 2010 by VelvetSiren