Anyone know how to make tobacco cuts?

[Norwester]

I have never tried the cuts because they idea of a chewing tobacco that tastes like snus didn't appeal to me.

From what i've heard, the cuts didn't taste much like real snus nor did they have much in common with the traditional chew that the company in the video produces.

I got in on a group buy on another forum and chainsuser is right. Had a tin each of the General and Roda Lacket cuts and they don't taste anything remotely like snus,more like plug tobacco. Was kind of disappointing but I was happy to have had the chance to try them. I don't think I'd even consider them as a last resort if I could get my hands on some Red Man or whatever. The best & only good thing about them were the little tins (smaller than a snus tin).

[chadizzy1]

I got in on a group buy on another forum and chainsuser is right. Had a tin each of the General and Roda Lacket cuts and they don't taste anything remotely like snus,more like plug tobacco. Was kind of disappointing but I was happy to have had the chance to try them. I don't think I'd even consider them as a last resort if I could get my hands on some Red Man or whatever. The best & only good thing about them were the little tins (smaller than a snus tin).

Hey Jeff!
Long time no see

[Norwester]

How are ya Chad? I'm administrator on an android devs forum( http://infectedrom.com/forum.php ) so thats kept me too busy to hang out on the snus forums much the last year or so. Downloads are getting upped to a dedicated server now,so I've got more time to hang out elsewhere and indulge my nasty habits. Now whats up with this Abraxas snuff? That I just ordered?

[chadizzy1]

Now whats up with this Abraxas snuff? That I just ordered?

The Premium Batch is WICKED good. Semi-coarse, semi-moist, easy to take, crazy complex - it has a LOT going on. It's well worth the price.

[chainsnuser]

It seems available to buy...

http://www.northerner.com/en/snus/No...riginal-34661/

Yes, it's produced again. Thank you very much for the hint, Ansel!

I had lost hope that it could come back, after Swedish Match even had announced something in their investors' magazine last year about the cessation of Piccanell (to increase their profit-margin). It seems that they begin to learn how to treat their customers. I guess many ex-SM-fans (LOL) have already switched to other producers who don't cease every new brand after half a year. It's not available for EU-citizens though, so I guess we'll have to wait till 2012 at least.

Cheers!

[Ansel]

chainsnuser, it seems to available to me in the uk - at least it lets me put it in my shpping basket.

[chainsnuser]

Same here, but unfortunately it gets removed from the shopping cart on checkout - as soon as I log in.

Cheers!

[Ansel]

To get back on topic... this forum is very good, this thread may help you:

http://www.howtogrowtobacco.com/foru...php?f=10&t=163

[squeezyjohn]

Hey Ansel - I'm starting to think along the same lines for home grown tobacco. Having taken the first steps to make some snus from scratch (it's perfectly doable but a bit of a faff and I use portions and can only really make lös) I was wondering about making ropes of chewing tobacco from a home-grown crop.

The technique as far as I can tell is that the leaves are rolled up in to a tight twist when still fairly fresh and supple to dry and cure like that. Problem is that then nearly every recipe calls for a sweet casing of fruit juice or molasses to flavour and soften the tobacco so it is comfortable to put in the cheek (and if you get the size right you could put it in the top lip like snus). I don't want a sweet tobacco though - both for the sake of my teeth and also I don't like the taste. The only thing on the market I can get that isn't sweet is the Cotton Boll Twist and that is really just air dried tobacco - so it's hard and rough on the gums unless you chew it for ages - it's also fairly plain as a flavour. The Swedish Match cuts were good and supple, and also salty and tasty.

So I'm trying to come up with an experimental solution to cure a twist like this!

Either dry the tobacco out entirely as a twist and then immerse the whole thing in a solution of salt, flavourings and sodium carbonate to give a similar thing to a tobacco cut - maybe with some glycerine or propylene glycol in the solution to stop it drying out too much afterwards.

Or ... semi dry the leaves on their own and then spray them with a solution similar to the above and then twist them together and leave to dry out a bit again.

In either case I assume the salt would act as a kind of preservative giving these twists a fairly long shelf life without the need to freeze them.

I'm definitely going to have a go at this with a few different techniques next year if I can grow something. Does it sound mad?

[Ansel]

I'm definitely going to have a go at this with a few different techniques next year if I can grow something. Does it sound mad?

No it doesn't sound mad - it's something i would like to experiment with. But are you going to put the twist in the oven to pasteurise like you would for snus?

[squeezyjohn]

Maybe, maybe not. I presume it's because the tobacco in snus is moist that it has to be salty and pasteurised to stop mould and bacteria growing on it. With most twist it would seem as if it's dryness maybe with the inclusion of sugar keeps it OK. I've no idea how this relates to TNSA levels in the end product but I think fermented or fire cured tobacco has higher levels of TNSAs than plan air dried. The "cooking" of snus when you make it is to develop the flavour like a sort of forced ageing process rather than to pasteurise the stuff.

I think I was just thinking of drying the tobacco twists cured with the salty solution the way normal twist is dried, with good circulation of air and humid enough to let it dry slowly and evenly without rotting. Again hopefully the inclusion of glycerine or propylene glycol could stop it drying out like a lump of salty rock. I also thought about using oil, maybe brushing the twists with it - but that kind of just seems wrong.

All the information I am going on is entirely based on internet reading including here plus a bit of half-remembered degree level chemistry and cooking skills - there really is not much to go on at all out there.

[lxskllr]

Sounds like a plan. I'll be interested in hearing how it turns out.

[Ansel]

Sounds like a plan. I'll be interested in hearing how it turns out.

Yes i would too. I thought today about the possibility of making a long-cut snus...

[squeezyjohn]

Well it's taken over a year - as I've found most things do making tobacco from scratch. But I have results! Apologies for the delay.

The growing takes about 3 months over the summer - it's easy peasy if you've got some land to grow on and a windowsill to start the plants off. The leaves when ripe are picked and hung up on wires somewhere warm and fairly humid to colour cure (that means turn yellow then brown from the dark green they are to start with) - that part is less easy. In the summer it was fine to use my greenhouse, bringing the leaves inside the house when it got damp and cold in the autumn.

The next thing to do with the mainly colour cured leaves is make twists from them. The leaves need to be kept somewhere fairly damp before this stage so they are pliable enough to roll up. You take the mid-rib out from the leaves, and then make a long line of half-leaves overlapping on a work surface and roll them up as tightly as you can starting on the left and rolling at 45 degrees to the line of leaves . This takes a bit of practice but once you get the hang of it your left hand can keep it tight and roll while the right hand can feed the leaves in to the right place and keep a bit of tension to make a nice neat twist. You could keep adding leaves ad infinitum - but I tended to only make them as long as my work surface allowed. Once fully rolled up you keep twisting the ends in opposite directions and the rope automatically doubles up on itself leaving you with a nice twist that you can tie up at the ends or use a bit of string to keep in place. It looks just like a cotton boll twist at this stage but a bit thinner.

For just air dried twist tobacco you can just leave it to dry out and age like that (apparently if you keep them in tissue paper in a wardrobe the mild ammonia given off by ageing tobacco will keep clothes moths away very effectively). Even un-aged it tastes great - it is not salty and has a really tobacco aroma (a taste like a freshly opened packet of virginia cigarettes) - it is also slightly sweet and slightly sour too especially when chewed. I'm sure the taste develops with ageing.

I haven't left it at that. The next stage is to experiment with flavourings - the best way I've found to use certain flavourings is to put the twists in an old pipe tobacco tin with a good seal along with items I want to flavour it with and stick it on the heater for a week so it gets nice and hot. As Christmas is coming up - I have been very successful with a mix of dried figs, raisins, cloves, nutmeg, a slice of fresh ginger and orange peel - the tobacco tastes of the fruit and spice without being sweetened by it - I think this flavouring technique works well if there is at least some water content to the ingredients - the heat drives the aromas in to the tobacco. When you take the tobacco twists out of the tins they are more moist and can be used straight away. This is still strictly a chewing tobacco. - I can't wait to try crushed coffee beans, meadowsweet and the tips of spruce trees as other natural flavourings.

So my current experiment is to take the twists and soak them in a salt and sodium carbonate solution until they have absorbed it fully - then drain the wet twists and put them in a tin on the heater to cook gently for a week or so then dry them out in the hope that a tobacco cut/snus-like product is the result. If I want to flavour it in the same way as above I can do that afterwards. I'll let you know the results of that too.

My only problem is I only have 17 twists from this years crop .... must grow more next year!

Cheers

Squeezy

[lxskllr]

That sounds awesome Squeezy! I especially like the sound of your Xmas chew. How long does the flavor last?