Having a go at growing in the UK

[squeezyjohn]

Hello - I'm quite excited at the moment at the prospect of growing and making my own snus here in the UK where it's supposed to grow fine but doesn't have the history of other countries. Apparently it's perfectly legal although you need to declare it to customs and pay duty as soon as it is made in to the form of tobacco for consumption. Fortunately no duty is payable on snuff at all (powdered tobacco) and as snus is illegal to buy - it carries no tobacco duty = win! If I were to try to cure it for smoking or chewing then it would be liable to duty.

I've bought seeds for the varieties Del Gold and Rustica. Obviously as it's now autumn time - I'm not going to be sprouting any seeds for the allotment until the spring. So as the learning curve is going to be steep, I bought a kilo of raw air dried virginia tobacco from snus2.se - it was on sale and only cost 18 euro plus shipping which is less than the price of a roll of budget snus! I also bought some of the "Prillan" little pouches to make your own portions - at 4 euros for 200 that's not such good value

So I've just had a go at an adapted version of the Strengbergs Finnish snus recipe on the web. I have some sodium carbonate and ammonium chloride (salmiak), and am working on how I can get hold of hartshorn (ammonium carbonate) and potash (potassium carbonate) as they are other good ingredients to have (any tips on how to get hold of these appreciated)

I managed to get the tobacco to a powder by taking out the lamina, then blitzing it in the food processor dry followed by the blender and finally by sieving it. The resulting powder is a bit courser than most snuff i've seen.

The think I'm having trouble with is the cooking times - I just don't have a way at the moment to cook something for days at a constant temperature - and the Strengbergs recipe gives no times at all - I tried 8 hours and I know i'm supposed to keep it a bit longer but I had to have a try and it's got a funny taste! It tastes quite bitter and green (almost tea like). I'll try and see how this trial batch goes with a week of storage. It looks like snus anyway so that's a start.

Does anyone know why you have to cook it for days? What's the process going on there? And also anyone who has had a go at growing in the UK, or anywhere else for that matter, I'd love to hear any advice you may have for me.

Cheers

Squeezy

PS - if any of this is a success then the EU can f**k off with it's ban on sales and I will still be able to snus for practically no money.

[Ansel]

Have you been to the Coffin Nails forum? It's on growing tobacco - think it was started by a guy from the UK.

Some of these pages might help you: http://www.divshare.com/download/15987578-53c

I'd love to make some air-cured twist.

Best of luck.

[whalen]

There are some old posts about cooking snus in a crock pot, quite detailed. The cooking temps and times are important in converting the raw tobacco into a finished tobacco state. You can go herehttp://www.fairtradetobacco.com for growing tips, I have three seasons under my belt now. Almost anybody can grow it, hell just getting it sprouted is the hard part, just remember that once you harvest, you have a almost worthless product until you cure it. That's the rub, and the art of tobacco. It has to be developed and aged to achieve what you want from it. Many use kilns cobbled together for the purpose.

[squeezyjohn]

Some of these pages might help you: http://www.divshare.com/download/15987578-53c

Thanks for those - brilliant - shows I missed the important 5 day bit with the Strengberg's Recipe. I'm sure it must be necessary - every recipe calls for something like it.

I'd love to make some air-cured twist.

Me too - would love to try and replicate the Swedish Match cuts as a kind of salty snus flavoured twist chew. But of course I wouldn't ever do that without paying the duty

I'll let people know how I get on once it's up and running next year.

Cheers

Squeezy

[squeezyjohn]

Whalen - thanks for your advice. I kind of thought that was the case.

Do you happen to know what kind of curing process the tobacco snus is made of goes through. I naïvely thought that the term "air dried" was as easy as it sounds! I've air dried herbs that I've grown to make them last through the year as dried herbs and am aware that you have to do it gently without letting them go mouldy. Is it more complicated than this with tobacco for snus? Do the leaves need to be fermented before they are dried?

Thank you.

By the way - tried some of the massively undercooked snus I made today again and it certainly gives me a good amount of nicotine release. It's very harsh, and has a bitter taste that becomes stronger the longer I have the pris in for - I will see how it develops over the ageing process. I think my odd way of producing the tobacco flour has worked though - I read quite a bit about how the grind size has to be right to make it stick together properly and I'm happy to say that the sieved/blended method seems to create some very fine dust along with larger particles which makes a good prilla that holds together well.

[whalen]

Squeezy j - The respective tobaccos selected for various snus and snuffs undergo curing at the source, air or fire cured depending on type and market. Most Tobaccos are grown in climates and harvested at times of the year when the resulting curing can take place in a very warm and humid environment. A cool humid environment can be warmed with the fire cure method. It is this stage in which the sugars and whatnot are converted in the raw green tobacco, resulting in a tasty brown and aged state. The resulting cured tobacco is forced through a rapid fermentation after receiving additives, each snus manufacturer has a technique. It is this stage that controls the final tobacco taste. It seems that every stage converts and controls the nature of the tobacco taste.

Dried leaves straight from the plant are rather bland. The Burly tobacco I am playing with now has been hanging two years in a Kentucky Barn. My plants will undergo the final cure in a closed up greenhouse next summer! Look up the kiln drying and curing method, a real eye opener.

This is how we humble ourselves and yet learn!

I will tell you there is no greater thrill than to harvest fifty great big tobacco plants you grew yourself! These cost me two dollars and a little hard work. I am overwhelmed with green leaf just now. Do a search for some of SNUPY's posts.

[squeezyjohn]

Thank you for the advice Whalen. I'm sure the thrill of making your own is just as you say, I love all kinds of other craft/self-sufficiency things like that, so I'm sure that tobacco will be the same.

The batch I had a go at making from the raw virginia seems to be working fine with a much shortened cooking time! I think the tobacco flavour is quite muted, but it seems to have lost that bitter, green edge to the taste. I flavoured the batch with 5 drops of cinnamon essential oil and 5 drops of ginger essential oil and even with the massively reduced cooking time it's tasting like a salty cookie dough and delivering plenty of nic. So I'm happy!

[Ansel]

I love all kinds of other craft/self-sufficiency things like that

Me too. Check out the Selfsufficientish forum, here:

http://www.selfsufficientish.com/forum/index.php

[squeezyjohn]

The test batch made from raw virginia with ginger/cinnamon is really coming in to it's own! It's a stark lös and it's closest in flavour to Nick & Johnny (maybe the discontinued East variety which was supposedly cardamom flavoured). The tobacco taste under the flavouring is there and has settled down to something similar to Prima Fint / Röda Lacket - again a win for me. My only complaint with my flavour is that I think I added a bit too much salt, the juice is a bit briny!

The consistency is perfect, just like Ettan lös - and the pris holds up brilliantly. This makes me very optimistic for simple air-dried home grown leaves!

My recipe derived loosely from the Strengburgs one is as follows:

100g virginia tobacco flour
6g salt (just under 2 level tsp)
160ml water

Mixed by hand and placed in a tupperware container and cooked at 90 degrees celsius for several hours in a water bath.

Then mixed in 10g Sodium Carbonate and 2g Ammonium Chloride in a little water to dissolve plus 5 drops each of ginger and cinnamon essential oils. Mixed well with a fork and left to age in the fridge stirring daily.

Now I'm on day 4 and it's going really well.

[whalen]

Look up the crock pot snus method, that's the one I would try! Welcome to the dark arts!

Even as I grow my own tobacco I am still learning the art of tobacco, What I have learned is the art of curing is the critical step to master. Hot and humid, although not too humid. I have been working with tobacco that has been grown and cured by others far more experienced than myself. There is a group of farmers who sell whole leaf tobacco at quite reasonable prices here in the US, But even then the tobacco needs further processing to make a good snuff. I just stripped, cleaned and pulverized two pounds of two year old Kentucky air cured burley, nice aged leaf, but the pulverized snuff is as raw and unappealing as can be at this step.

I will now have to prep it with Salt and Calcium Carbonate and allow it to age a long time in order to make a good snuff.

One thing I have learned from snuff making is that somewhere along the line a great amount of time is the secret ingredient. The snuffmakers get around this by selecting the heart of tobacco from bales that have sat compressed for a long time, that is what we need to replicate, aging over time. The only fast snuff is a toasted one. Its all about the fermentation, natural or otherwise.

[whalen]

The only thing really missing in my snuff making experience is the ability to break open a bale of tobacco and select just the part that sings! I would give anything to be able to inspect, choose from aged bales, and buy the best available. Remember that a lot of the classic tobaccos traveled a long way in hot humid environments for a long time to get to the final market, most of the magic occurred during that time by natural fermentation. Just like the center of a compost heap, the tobacco in the center is just magic.

[Ansel]

Don't forget to add the fibreglass.

[whalen]

I thought that everyone understood the fiberglass part! Goes without saying! I am really happy that someone is exploring making their own. Nothing quite as satisfying IMHO. Cheers mate.

(don't even think about adding fiberglass, ok?).

[squeezyjohn]

I got the fibreglass from Snus2.se along with the tobacco.

No I didn't!

Anyway - thanks for all your encouragement whalen. I've got a big pris of the stuff I made from the bought tobacco in at the moment and it's just brilliant (still a touch on the salty side, but not OTT)

Really looking forward to growing the stuff and seeing what I can do by way of curing once I see what can be grown on the allotment!

Cheers

Squeezy

[whalen]

Hope you have a good go of it! wish you the best, and I am starting to get the itch to make some snus now! I think I got way too much nicotine handling tobacco today! Even though I am growing it, I still bought some killer Bright leaf Virginia, it is really nice leaf, sweet and perfectly cured. It was about 15 a pound here, shipped. Only thing legal to ship to Maryland is whole leaf!