Curing Chamber results.....Curing Phase II

[ashauler]

I started pulling the tobacco from the kiln over the weekend. Here are some shots of the results.

As you can see by the photo's, the LRL/SSBM/ARG tobacco all cured very dark. The texture is also very different from the Florida Sumatra.....the Sumatra is like paper thin, very delicate, while the others are very much like leather though they can still be easily damaged.

I did much reading on this process, all the way from crap on YouTube....to tobacco manufacturers web sites, to University research programs, etc....etc...etc. The temperature, RH, and length of fermentation ranges from the various sources was, frankly, mind numbing. I chose the middle ground of 100 - 110 F and 67-75% RH and did my best to maintain that. Other than a couple of times that the crock pot went dry, I think I did pretty good at keeping the temp/rh combo steady.

Now comes the true test.....rolling some cigars and smoking them. I missed my first goal of Halloween, though I was smoking some pipe tobacco by then. I'm shooting to smoke some of this, in cigar form, over this holiday weekend. I'll complete the stripping and shut-down the kiln tonight so I may start trying to roll as early as tomorrow evening. I'm kinda excited.

Long Red Leaf:


Removing the mid-rib from the LRL:


Small Stalk Black Mammoth:


Pile O' Florida Sumatra:


Argentina:

[Paddy]

JB Fresh Rolls - Box split anyone?

[TachyCoventry]

Very cool that's awesome!

[mrtr33]

Those leaves are HUGE. When you remove the middle vein, do you actually cut the leaf? How does that work?

[ashauler]

Those leaves are HUGE. When you remove the middle vein, do you actually cut the leaf? How does that work?

Yep, I just took that big ass pair of scissors and cut as close to each side of the mid-rib as I could. Some use a pizza cutter instead of the scissors.

[cigarsarge]

Cool...

[logan37]

Yep, I just took that big ass pair of scissors and cut as close to each side of the mid-rib as I could. Some use a pizza cutter instead of the scissors.

I know a guy with some pizza cutters...

Those are some fine looking leaves Jamie. Nice work!