Shredding whole leaf tobacco

[Haebar]

I started a new project this morning. Ordered some tobacco leaves from Whole Leaf Tobacco | Premium American Tobacco and a simple hand shredder in the past few weeks and am now de-stemming it and shredding it. Fun! This is dark air cured.

[Haebar]

Well, so far this has been a very educational experience, if not a cost-effective experiment. I have a newfound respect for commercial pipe tobacco pricing and what a bargain it is. I spent over 3 hours de-stemming and shredding a quarter pound of Yenidje Oriental leaves tonight! The burley has been the easiest to work with and the Orientals the most labor intensive with the small leaves that they have.

[Emperor Zurg]

Yeah, just from trying my own hand at blending different tobaccos I've often wondered why anybody messes with it. The lowliest tobacco blender does SUCH a better job at coming up with something that tastes decent and doesn't fry the tongue. You're certainly not going to save any money if you consider your time worth anything, and you're probably not going to come up with a blend that's anything better than 'smokable'. I've read threads on here and other forums that pretty much back this up. If you find it fun to mess with and appreciate the challenge (and it certainly is a challenge) to actually create something you can use, that's one thing. However, being the consumer type that I am, I don't foresee myself ever venturing into it. Building the equipment however, would be something I could get into. I'd have built a flake slicer by now if plug tobacco wasn't so rare and hard to come by.

[GWBowman]

yea, sometimes hobbies and saving money are on opposite ends of the spectrum

[Haebar]

This is 1/4 lb. of Yenidje Oriental tobacco after de-stemming (2 hours):



After shredding:

[Emperor Zurg]

Have you sampled a bowl just because? I would have Although I wouldn't expect it to be all that good all by itself.

[Haebar]

Have you sampled a bowl just because? I would have Although I wouldn't expect it to be all that good all by itself.

I haven't tried any of the Yenijde straight; it is intended for blending. The shredded product sure smells interesting, it's a cacophony of bold spicy scents.

[Tobias Lutz]

Nice, Tab! That looks a lot more efficient than what I have done in the past (rolling the leaves and chiffonading them with a chef's knife).

[Bruck]

Nice work, @Haebar !

You can't really compare hobbyism to manufacturing As you know, I roll my own cigars for a hobby, but they're never going to look as good as the cheesiest commercial cigar, nor taste as good as a Padron, and if I tried to sell them, I wouldn't even make enough money to cover the licensing fees. It's just the fun of craftsmanship and coming up with something unique.

[Haebar]

Nice work, @Haebar !

You can't really compare hobbyism to manufacturing As you know, I roll my own cigars for a hobby, but they're never going to look as good as the cheesiest commercial cigar, nor taste as good as a Padron, and if I tried to sell them, I wouldn't even make enough money to cover the licensing fees. It's just the fun of craftsmanship and coming up with something unique.

Good point! I am having a lot of fun with it; have never handled whole leaf tobacco before. Love the feel of it in my hands; it has a wonderful waxy, leathery feel. I like taking a leaf and spreading it open. And I am becoming much more efficient at destemming it. Last night I did a quarter pound of Virginia in 15 minutes. The Perique was interesting too, dark, exotic, and unique smelling.