My tobacco world - Dark Air Cured

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Oxman

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My tobacco world – Dark Air Cured Tobacco (DAC)

The vast majority of DAC tobacco is used in the production of cigars and a smaller amount is used in RYO, snuff, snus, chewing and pipe tobacco blends. All of which I enjoy!


Enjoying a fine cigar
by oxmanonline, on Flickr

The main growing areas are around Central America, North USA (KY, TN, CT, PA), Philippines and Indonesia.
In the production of cigar tobacco there are three specific uses and grades of the leaf; filler, binder and wrapper and their production is slightly different.


DAC curing barn Honduras
by oxmanonline, on Flickr

Filler tobacco is grown mostly by small scale growers on approx. 0.75Ha plots, whereas the production of binder and wrapper grades tends to often be done by slightly larger commercial operations as the production of good quality wrapper requires great care and attention.  Any marks or blemishes will immediately relegate the leaf to binder grade and any holes means it ends up as filler.


IMG-20120919-01553 by oxmanonline, on Flickr

To produce more wrapper leaves, the plants are often grown under covers of shade netting, this is obviously very expensive but the returns for good quality wrapper are worth it!


Wrapper production under shade
by oxmanonline, on Flickr

At harvest time, the farmer will string up the tobacco and hang it in an open sided barn to begin the curing process.  It is important to allow the leaves to dry slowly until the midrib is completely dried out.  Towards the end of the harvest, the farmer will begin to grade his crop by plant position and quality in terms of leaf damage or not.  Filler leaves are either tied into bunches or loose packed into bales.  Binder and wrapper leaves will be tied into hands of 6-8 leaves and then packed into bales.

The farmer will take his 40-50kg bales of leaf to the merchant buying stations where they will be weighed, graded and checked for consistency of quality throughout the bale.  It will also be checked for any non-tobacco related material (NTRM) ie feathers, grass etc.  The farmer is usually paid based on pre-set prices for each grade of tobacco.


creating fermentation stack
by oxmanonline, on Flickr


IMG-20130918-00035 by oxmanonline, on Flickr

Once the tobacco has been received in the merchants warehouse it will be resorted and re-graded.  Filler styles will have the leaf midrib removed but binder and wrapper will remain in hands.  These are then placed in stacks for fermentation.  Fermentation will take several months during which time the stack temperature is carefully controlled by breaking and restacking the piles.  Fermentation is designed to use up any reducing sugars left over after the curing process which helps to develop a smooth smoking characteristic.   Binder and wrapper leaves will be re-graded several times during the fermentation process to create consistent stacks.


large wrapper grading hall
by oxmanonline, on Flickr

Once fermentation is complete, tobacco will be graded and packed in bales for sale.  Dark tobacco is usually sold in 80kg bales.  A bale of wrapper can be worth up to $6000 USD!


packing DAC bales
by oxmanonline, on Flickr

As previously stated, the main use of DAC tobacco is for Cigars – my other tobacco obsession!


template for cigar wrapper
by oxmanonline, on Flickr


hand rolled cigars
by oxmanonline, on Flickr


cigars ready for packaging
by oxmanonline, on Flickr
 
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