Anyone know how to make tobacco cuts?

[squeezyjohn]

It does last as long as I use a piece (30-40 minutes) - but it's not the strongest flavouring in the world - you can still taste the tobacco which is pretty similar to the taste of raisins anyway, and the spice is not cloying. It's only been absorbing the flavours for a week though - it gets stronger the longer I leave it.

The strength of the tobacco is such that I couldn't use it for much longer - a piece the size of a normal prilla of los will end up too strong - but it also doubles in size as it hydrates in my mouth! I must learn to use smaller bites!

[lxskllr]

That sounds great. I'm all about subtle flavoring. I wish more snus makers would take that approach. Thought about doing it as a money making hobby? If you could score a patch of ground to grow on, I bet you could have free tobacco for yourself by selling to other Brits. It doesn't have to be a big production. Just sell to people here, and maybe Snuffhouse.

[Ansel]

Well done Squeezy :-)

[Skell18]

Nice one matey

[squeezyjohn]

I think the laws in the UK regarding tobacco and it's taxation make a cottage industry based around chewing tobacco grown organically in the UK are pretty much a non-starter! Also taking this hobby too seriously might detract from my 2 other main aims in life which are to be happy and to become the first accordion player to get a number 1 hit in to the UK charts since 1951.

I do see it as a craft though - and a fascinating one with plenty of scope both for experimentation and to learn from the old craftsmen from the golden age of tobacco - it is definitely a dying art form given the huge amount of mechanisation and short-cuts introduced to bring the price down from the growers for big tobacco in the last 40 years.

I got the idea for flavouring things this way from discovering that old boys in Kentucky used to wrap up their twists in tissue paper with a partially dried apples, plums, cherries or apricots to age in order to impart a fruity flavour to the tobacco before the days of the super sweetened molasses and apple syrup varieties that are on the market today. It figured that flavouring in this way would not introduce much (if any) sugars to the tobacco in the interests of reducing the risks of tooth decay Swedish snus stylee.

Cheers

Squeezy

[crullers]

Hey Squeezy, I'm happy to hear of your success in this. How many plants did it take to make those 17 twists and approximately how much cured tobacco did you end up with weight-wise?

[squeezyjohn]

I grew about 4-5 times the tobacco I have now because I lost the most of it to mould. 7 plants of the 'black stalk mammoth' variety would have made me about 30-35 twists if I'd have been able to save and cure all of it properly. If I were to use only my twists for tobacco I would get through 1 of them every 2 days and I'm a pretty heavy snuser on about 20 starks a day.

The rest of the crop I lost was around 10 plants of 'wild tobacco' or Nicotiana Rustica which is supposed to be much much stronger than Nicotiana Tabacum - however these plants made far less leaf in total than the other sort.

Cheers

Squeezy

[squeezyjohn]

The general rule of thumb is you get 3-4 oz of dried cured tobacco from a single plant although it can be 1-7oz in reality.

To put that in to perspective, a snuser that uses half a can of Los a day is using half an ounce of dry weight tobacco a day. That works out at 45 tobacco plants per person per year using the 4oz average.

Extrapolating my harvest last year for predicted twist usage (1 every 2 days) - I'd need 36 plants for a years supply.

[squeezyjohn]

Well news on these experiments flavouring and processing the twists to make tobacco cuts:

Lesson learnt 1: Don't cook the twists ... my heater got too hot and if the tobacco actually cooks it introduces a kind of flavour that is a cross between burnt and cooked vegetable. To flavour in this way the best way is to leave the tobacco in a tin with the flavouring agents at a warm temperature but not hot for longer.

Lesson learnt 2: Don't use sodium carbonate solution. This has a similar effect to cooking actually - it doesn't significantly increase the strength of the cuts from straight tobacco and totally destroys the aromatic qualities of the tobacco flavour. The twists cured with a weak salt and sodium carbonate solution end up tasting like chewing on a cheap, slightly salty cigar.

Lesson learnt #3: By far the best solution for my tastes (and I imagine for most snus users' tastes) is to re-hydrate the twist by storing it in a tin with a little water in a warm place for a few hours and then sprinkling it lightly with pure sea salt which will then be absorbed and drying the twist out again completely to be stored until it's needed. This provides a natural aromatic tobacco taste with a snus saltiness that also counteracts the bitter nature of tobacco.

Cheers

Squeezy

[squeezyjohn]

Oh I already did give the results above - but to recap ... flavouring this way is a great way to go - but you should not get the tobacco twists too hot in the process. Too much heat will give a cooked/burnt flavour to the twist - warm is all that is needed.

The coffee flavoured ones are still infusing and I want to give it enough time to get a proper flavour.

I'm running out of twists to experiment on!

[Skell18]

How have you done the coffee? Put them in some espresso or filter coffee?

[squeezyjohn]

No - I've just coarsely ground some good aromatic coffee beans and placed them in a sealed tin along with the twists and some distilled water soaked in to some cotton wool. Left it infusing for a week or two in a warm place so the flavours can mingle some.

[Skell18]

No - I've just coarsely ground some good aromatic coffee beans and placed them in a sealed tin along with the twists and some distilled water soaked in to some cotton wool. Left it infusing for a week or two in a warm place so the flavours can mingle some.

Sounds amazing! Be sure to let us know how they turn out mate.

[squeezyjohn]

Well - I tried a few things with the increasingly dwindling supply of home-made tobacco twists.

Firstly - the best results with coffee was actually just to shove the whole twists in a sealed jar of fresh whole coffee beans and leave for a month. They just sucked up the flavour. I did it with two types - the black stalk mammoth (regular tobacco) twists were just put in as they were and came out tasting a little bit insipid (no salt like snus) - and the rustica twists that had been soaked in rum for fear of moulding setting in ... these came out a little sweet for my liking due to the rum - but the flavour and aroma is similar to that of irish coffee and is pretty delicious.

Secondly ... I've been honing down this method of flavouring and it seems as if the best results are to use highly fragrant but quite dry flavouring agents and absolutely pack the jar with these around the tobacco. Critically I think that heat kind of ruins the flavours a bit - what is needed is simply cool storage for a longer time ... the tobacco I have grown needs ageing anyway. For me as a snuser I think that salt is essential to get the flavour right and that can either be done after flavouring like I'm doing by spraying a brine solution on the twists and put in a closed container to soak it up before drying back out for storage. Alternatively (I think I will do this next year) - you could try using a brine solution to bring the leaves back in to case before you make the twists from them - that would probably soak in better.

Next year I will try and do some videos on how to do the various stages and hone down the recipes further. For me - in a world where we may not be able to buy snus these bites replace portions and the home-made los is good for los snus. But for now the basic recipe is this:

Grow tobacco (seeds indoors in March - plant out May after frosts)
Harvest Tobacco when as ripe as possible (August-October depending on season - earlier is good because there is still some warm dry weather to cure)
Colour cure tobacco until most green has turned to brown (easier said than done without moulding!)

Then - take cured leaves and spray with water (brine for salty chew) and leave in a sealed plastic bag for an hour or two. Strip out the midribs. Overlap the leaves lengthways on a non-slip mat and roll up tightly on the diagonal while twisting the end you rolled first. Tie the ends together when the twist curls back on itself. Hang these twists up to dry back off again.

For plain twist just leave to age a bit and then use.

For a boozy twist you can soak it in a spirit and then hang up to dry back off again. Be careful with some spirits as they are sweeter than you think - especially when the alcohol and water has evaporated back off - it leaves quite a sugary residue which can be sickly and is probably not so good for your teeth!

For flavoured twist ... choose a natural strongly smelling thing you want to flavour your twist with. Whole dried spices / dried fruit / herbs (mint I guess) / coffee beans / dried rose petals / dried elderflowers / lavender / earl grey loose leaf tea ... I haven't tried all of these but the ones I have worked well. You need a lot of whatever you use to flavour with - but I expect as you're keeping it in an airtight jar you could use for more than one year. Pack the tobacco within the things you're flavouring it with and leave in a not-hot place for about one month or until needed for use. If you take the twists out of the jar - store them separately somewhere airtight to prevent the aroma from escaping.

Twists should be stored fairly dried out - take care crispy dry tobacco crumbles so easily. But it's nice to use them when they're softer so you can rehydrate the whole twist when you take it out of storage for using in a pouch/bag/box. Either spray or splash a little water on it before putting in something covered to rehydrate and you're ready to cut in to bites for the days use or you can take the whole twist with you and snip cuts off with a knife or scissors as needed.

Cheers

Squeezy

[tattooer601]

This is truly awesome, Squeezy.
I tried and failed once with make my own snus.
You know the craft is something every man should know, as Tobacco is medicinal for many like myself.
Continue on man I wish you the best with the craft