Making a whole leaf Virginia tobacco plug
Experimenting with Making a whole leaf Virginia tobacco plug. Tobacco was purchased Bright Virginia Flue Cured and Lemon Virginia Flue Cured from WholeLeafTobacco.com along with their commercial casing. Whole Leaf Tobacco commercial casing for flue-cured tobacco is just an inverted sugar water flavored with lemon peel. Next, was deciding on the blend.
The blend recipe was 2 parts Bright Virginia and 1 part Lemon Virginia tobacco. I got that rough ratio from an interview on YouTube with Mike McNeil of McClelland’s. That was the Aston blend they use to do long ago. An no, this is not even going to be close to that blend. If you know what or how McNeil’s did their magic with their Virginia's The blend recipe was 2 parts Bright Virginia and 1 part Lemon Virginia tobacco. I got that rough ratio from an interview on YouTube with Mike McNeil of McClelland’s. That was the Aston blend they use to do long ago. An no, this is not even going to be close to that blend. If you know what or how McNeil’s did their magic with their Virginia
The plug total weight was about 8 ounces with the leaves hand ripped to smaller pieces and stuffed in an tube aluminum mold. It sure seemed to be a lot of tobacco. it was difficult getting it all in the and slip on a C-Clamp and cranked it down as far you can. Each day I was able to crank a little more. By the 10th day it was impossible to get it any tighter. At that point the whole mold went into a truck in the hot summer for 5 days.
The result fresh out of the press was a very smooth Virginia smoke with no bite at all. I am letting this plug rest and I will revisit and see how it changes, if at all.
Update: 8-25-2023
It has been over a year and I decided revisit to see how it is coming along. I am happy to report that the bright Virginia has settled down. Fresh, the bright Virginia's, can be bitey. The blend has melded nicely and not bitey at all. The citrus notes are there and not grassy at all. This blend is quite a treat. I am looking forward to let this age a few years.
Update: 7-31-2024
Had some left over Red and Bright Virginia. Red was cased with tonka and bright was cased with plum. Ratio was 50/50, pressed and stoved for 4 hours at 200F.
