So after receiving tutelage from @Bruck , I decided I would take a shot at making Cavendish and document the process in case others are interested. I did mine on the cheap, you can be more elaborate if you so desire. Rather than work with my stock of Virginia and Orientals, I decided to "recycle" some random sticks I had taking up space in my humidor. If you are working with whole leaf, I imagine the process would be pretty much the same.



Step one was to gather the sticks and remove the bands

I then split them down the middle so I could "rub out" the binder and filler...



Step two involved a single cut in order to try and keep the pieces moderately large for steaming

Rubbed out, I placed the tobacco in a bus pan and prepared my topping



Step three is prepping the leaf for topping by placing it in a large mixing container

My topping recipe for this was pretty simple...whiskey, and pure vanilla & almond extracts.



Step four is mixing your topping in a clean spray bottle

Once I had the bottle set to a mist I soaked the entire tub of leaf with a little more than 8 ounces of topping



​Step five is making sure the leaf is thoroughly wet. I then allowed it to sit overnight and absorb the flavoring goodness.

In the morning I gathered a small hibachi grill, an old pot with colander, a plate for a lid, and some charcoal.



Step six is lighting your fire and getting the water boiling in the pot. The reason this is done outside is because you are fermenting the tobacco a second time, at a very accelerated rate. This will release ammonia and stink up your house for the first half of the process. If you live alone, knock yourself out but if you have a wife and kids you may want to spare them the olfactory torture.

I then loaded the colander full of leaf. It may take up to 30 minutes to get it full. Similar to cooking spinach, you need to let it begin to reduce before you can fit it all in the pot.



Step seven is steaming the leaf. You need to make sure you check the water (mine is lasting for about an hour at a time with this set-up), and stir the tobacco as it cooks down. Ultimately we're looking to do this for 8-12 hours


Four hours...


Eight hours...

When it came to be the deep brown/black color I was looking for, and it smelled sweet, I spread it on sheet pans and let it dry a bit. Then I packed it (still pretty moist) into gallon freezer bags and pressed it under 50lbs of free-weights for 24 hours. I think sliced these pressed "cakes" up, laid them out to dry for jarring, and then packed it up to use for blending.