After harvesting my small 2023 crop of tobacco, I spent some time “flue curing” the leaf in a home made kiln. I kept it at roughly 120-125 degrees with humidity levels of at least 70 percent, though I think it was significantly higher for most of the time. I think I had it in there for 4-5 weeks, maybe longer, before giving up trying to keep the kiln sealed up enough.
Once the leaf was out of there, I made a few ounces of Cavendish in a pressure cooker, and pressed some for a couple of weeks. It’s mostly VA with a little bit of Black Sea Samsun oriental mixed in. I just removed the midrib, stacked the leaf, wrapped it in parchment paper, and squeezed it in a vise between two chunks of particle board. When that was done, I sliced it into flakes (strips, really) and tried some. It was, well, kind of awful. I put it in a jar to age and see if it would improve with age.
I tried it after 3 months, then 6, and now it’s been about 13 months since it went into the jar. I’m smoking some now in a MM corncob, and I have to say that if you’re a fan of straight Virginia, it’s not bad. There seems to be a fair nicotine content; I had to take a break halfway through. I’ll bet this stuff will be pretty darned good in another year.
So tobacco growing is a long term process that requires a fair amount of patience. I’ve often heard that cigar rollers will often age tobacco leaves for several years before rolling the sticks, then let them age for months before they’re ready to smoke.
I have a pound or two of leaf sitting in a Sterilite tub now, aging at 63 percent RH and room temperature. I’ll likely pull some out in the coming weeks and press two more blocks. One will be straight Virginia tobacco leaf, brought into high case with distilled water. The other will be the same, but brought into high case with a spritz of Islay Scotch whisky just to see if that imparts any of the smoky/peaty flavor at all. I’ll probably try about 50 grams of each.