Testing last year's varieties of home grown tobacco as snus

[squeezyjohn]

Hello there everyone!

I've just taken delivery of a new toy for snusmaking!


These new cheaper Sous-vide machines are almost perfect for the job of making snus at home, replacing the crock-pot slow cooker and temperature controlling PID in to one tidy machine. With sale prices at the moment I got mine for just over £60 delivered!

It's almost perfect - I'm still using small half-litre glass kilner jars inside the water bath to hold the snus and keep it from getting wet during the cooking process - and this can fit 3 of them in at a time rather than the one my old set-up had which means more experiments! The only downside is the timer which goes for a maximum of 24 hours meaning that you need to go back to it every day and re-set the timer for longer cooks.

So today I am testing out some trial varieties of tobacco I grew in small amounts last year to see what kind of flavour snus it ends up making - it has had about 6 months ageing which gives the tobacco a bit more flavour than when freshly air-cured.

African Red
This tobacco didn't grow so well for me in the UK - making a small yield - however that might be due to being in fairly poor soil and if the snus it makes is good enough I'll try it again. It's supposed to be a bright-leaf variety that has a virginia tobacco flavour but with a high nicotine content.

Oxford 207
It's perfect that this 100% American variety of bright leaf tobacco shares a name with the town where I'm growing it! It made a medium yield for me and has a characteristic virginia smell. With any luck it will make a snus with a flavour on the Ettan/Prima Fint end of the spectrum.

Yellow Twist Bud
This is an easy-curing Burley type tobacco that should make a dark, rich and strong snus.

All the varieties will be given the same basic unflavoured recipe to see what kind of base flavour they give the snus. I can then use the results to try and build up a perfect blend.

[squeezyjohn]

Well the cook finished last night and I can definitely say that the bargain sous-vide machine is better at keeping a constant temperature in the cooking snus than my previous method!

As always I had a little taste of each one of the batches to see how it is doing despite having at least a week's ageing to go before it's full flavour is developed ... and the results are very promising indeed.

Both the African Red and Oxford 207 make an aromatic snus with a subtle natural sweetness to it - the Oxford 207 is more fragrant but weaker in nicotine whereas the African Red is more robust. The Yellow Twist bud makes a much darker tasting snus that is strong in nicotine with hints of chocolate, coffee and cigars - it is also a bit spicy. I was expecting that kind of profile from a Burley, but my home-grown is not quite as powerful as bought burley leaves which I find a good thing!

All the tastings are very encouraging ... I think these will actually all blend together to make a great snus that is both strong, full bodied and aromatic using just the natural tobacco flavours of the respective varieties.

[BasseBlues]

Interesting read. I am using a Crockpot and I find that the snus nearest to the pot is completely dry when I do the daily stir. Do you get any dry spots in your new machine?

I will try to grow some tobacco myself this year. After 2 weeks tiny leaves is showing in my Virginia tobacco pot. I don't know how it will go, but it's best to learn before the government start taxing snus kits as much as snus.

[squeezyjohn]

Hi BasseBlues ... whenever I make my own I have the snus tobacco in a sealed glass jar which I have inside a bath of water in both the new machine and the crock pot. I keep from getting dry spots by having a grill at the bottom which allows the water to flow all around.

Your tobacco should be fine ... I have a friend from another forum who grows very impressive tobacco that makes great snus near Halmstad. Tobacco used to be a normal crop to see in the south of Sweden.

[BasseBlues]

So you have a water bath in the Crockpot as well? I use to make snus from 1 kilo of tobacco powder. That amount fills the pot and I get a bit over 2 kilo snus when ready. My Crockpot is 3.5 liter.

I have read that people using roasting bags in the oven to preserve the moist when making snus, maybe that could work in the Crockpot as well?

I know that tobacco was grown in almost the whole of Sweden, even up in the north. I live in Dalarna which is almost in the middle. But I'm think a green house wold do the trick here. Maybe it's not warm enough where I live. But if you don't try you never know

[squeezyjohn]

My crockpot was the same size as yours and with the water bath it could only make a maximum of 250g of tobacco in to snus ... however the sous vide machine has a 5.7l capacity and is a better shape (square not round) ... with it you could easily find a waterproof container that would fit inside and cook 1kg of tobacco flour in the water bath!

Mind you I am still experimenting with all the different tobacco types available and recipe adjustments so I normally only make 100g batches of snus at any one time still. But when I hit on a brilliant recipe - then I will move to larger amounts.