Cigarette tobacco fermentation. Tobacco drying technology

For those who just can't part with bad habit, growing tobacco is a way to save money and get truly natural raw materials. To do this, it is important to know when to collect tobacco and how to dry it. The readiness of the sheet can be determined by color and texture.

When to pick tobacco

To obtain a harvest of high-quality tobacco, you must be able to determine the technical maturity of the leaves. During this period, plant tissues accumulate in in full all the necessary components, the leaf blade acquires maximum density and size. The collected raw materials turn yellow evenly and quickly when dried, which allows you to obtain the goods High Quality required coloring.

Source: Depositphotos

To obtain high-quality smoking raw materials, it is important to know when to collect tobacco

The period of full ripening of tobacco is determined by the following characteristics:

• • The upper and middle leaves become dense, with a sticky surface. Saturated green color turns pale and gradually turns yellow.

• • Appear on mature leaves light spots- accumulation of starchy substances.

• • The leaf blade takes on a wavy outline, and its lightened edges bend toward the ground.

• • The petiole becomes so fragile that it is easily separated from the stem.

• • When the lower leaves ripen, their color changes to yellow-green, without pronounced spotting and waviness.

Overripe leaves lose their density, dry out, and lose some of their valuable substances. If you skip the technical maturity phase, you can get only the lowest quality tobacco. To avoid an annoying mistake, it is recommended to watch a video of how tobacco is collected according to all the rules.

Features of tobacco drying

To obtain high-quality smoking raw materials, it is very important to properly dry the grown tobacco. The drying process is divided into several main stages:

• • Languor. Tobacco leaves are strung on a cord at a short distance from each other and hung in a dark place where they do not penetrate Sun rays. On average, the simmering process takes 4-7 days, depending on the type of tobacco. The languor will end when the leaves turn yellow.

• • Drying. Tobacco is dried at a height of 1 m above the ground, and the hotter the climate, the lower the tobacco should be hung. The leaves need to be regularly moistened with a spray bottle at night so that they have time to dry during the day. The duration of this stage is at least a month.

• • Drying. The final drying process at high temperature. It continues until the central vein dries so much that when pressed it will not bend, but break with a crunch.

OUR "TOBACCO" PRODUCES GOOD SILAGE)))

And this is especially noticeable in cigarettes under the GTF brand - someone is smoking next to you... so at least run...

This year I wanted to grow my own tobacco, but when I read the technology for bringing the leaf to the final product, I decided that there was no point in doing it. Drying the leaf is still half the process, in the end we get an ordinary self-garden... times are not the same)))

I recommend reading the process (technology) of leaf fermentation to anyone who wants to taste the taste of their own tobacco. I think the desire will disappear.

Here is one of the articles:

The processes that occur during drying of tobacco stop when the leaf tissue is dried. Processes resume again when favorable conditions at a new stage - during the fermentation of tobacco. At the same time, the appearance of the raw materials improves; aroma appears, moisture capacity decreases, elasticity increases, changes chemical composition, resistance against damage by microorganisms increases.

The harvested heated sheets,% as mentioned above, are placed in bales and stored in an unheated room. Tobacco leaves should be placed in bales according to the breaking time to obtain high-quality raw materials.

One of the environmentally friendly and practically proven ways to ferment tobacco and obtain high-quality raw materials at home is warehouse (seasonal) fermentation.

The fermentation process depends on weather conditions: air humidity and temperature. Tobacco, packed in bales, is placed on a wooden flooring spaced 25-30 cm from the floor. It is necessary for natural air circulation. Bales can be stored at a height of no more than 2.5-3 m.

Natural fermentation (i.e. aging) takes quite a long time, but produces high-quality raw materials. It should be noted again that seasonal fermentation has been developed empirically by many generations of tobacco growers around the world.

The aging period (reaching maximum quality improvement) for aromatic oriental Tobacco is 24 months, skeletal 18 months, other types - 12 months.

If tobacco is stored for a very long time, then deep-seated aging processes deteriorate the quality of the raw material: the aroma of the smoke weakens, the taste becomes light, empty, and incompleteness of taste develops. Reduced temperature air and its low humidity slow down the aging process of tobacco.

During the fermentation process, tobacco reaches a temperature inside the bale of 53-60°C and a humidity of 30-35%. Therefore, it is necessary to periodically rearrange the leaves in the bale as this temperature is reached (it is determined either by touch or with a thermometer).

Rearranging for ventilation is necessary to prevent mold and is done as needed, but at least once every 2-2.5 months.

Leaf tobacco that has not completed fermentation is not suitable for factory processing, both in taste and physical properties, and due to the instability of products during storage and transportation due to the ease of damage by molds and bacteria.

During fermentation, tobacco usually loses weight. Weight loss by tobacco during this time varies depending on varieties of tobacco its composition, moisture content of raw materials, fermentation mode, etc. In tobacco growing practice, weight loss during fermentation is called shrinkage. It arises as a result of a loss of dry matter and water during biochemical transformations of the composition and changes in the properties of the tissue of tobacco leaves and is considered a technologically necessary loss.

As mentioned above, this technology, which was used for many decades, was developed purely experimentally and was based on knowledge of the characteristics of tobacco leaf processing: the state of the air in the fermentation rooms, heating the tobacco and changing its humidity, improving the color and smell of tobacco. It is environmentally friendly and allows you to obtain valuable raw tobacco of very high quality with low content nicotine The whole process is based on natural properties tobacco leaf without the use of any synthetic chemicals.

Tobacco leaves before going on sale under the guise smoking tobacco exposed first preparatory operations: sorting, wetting, leaching, removing leaf nerves, rolling, etching, tinting.

It is clear that not all of the specified processing methods apply to any given T., the final processing consists of cutting, drying, sifting and packaging.

Sorting- very painstaking and important operation; they entrust it to an experienced worker, an expert in tobacco leaves - a sorter. Teenagers are assigned to help him, feeding, untying and removing bunches of leaves. All wrinkled or damaged leaves are selected. The best leaves are sorted by size, density, color (from yellow to dark brown). Such careful sorting is only carried out the best varieties Tobacco.

Moisturize tobacco leaves in order to give them the elasticity necessary for further processing. In the simplest case, proceed as follows: lay the leaves in bales and water the top layer. For complete and uniform penetration of moisture into the entire mass of leaves, it takes from ½ to 1 day. Another method is to pass bunches of leaves through water and place them in regular piles. In this case, time is also necessary for uniform and complete wetting. Humidification is carried out much faster and on a large scale in special devices.

One of the simplest in design is a tightly closed drum with double walls and two tubes: steam inlet and steam outlet. The drum is loaded with bunches of leaves and steam is passed through the entire mass for several seconds, then the cold water so that the steam condenses in the mass of leaves. In some cases, when, for example, cut T. has dried out, it is watered from a pump, which produces extremely fine splashes.

Leaching(to improve the quality of tobacco) produced with water, weak solutions of hydrochloric acid and other substances in special presses. The press consists of a voluminous cylindrical vessel into which tobacco is loaded. Liquids are poured onto the tobacco and compressed using a hand or steam press.

Removing nerves from leaves done after sorting. The instrument is a sharp curved knife or a special incisor with two blades, which is used to immediately make an incision on both sides of the main nerve (only this nerve is removed). Sometimes two blades are used for this purpose, mounted in a table parallel to each other, at a distance of the thickness of the nerve. By passing the sheet over these knives, the nerve is removed. The nerves and petioles are difficult to burn and give tobacco an unpleasant, pungent odor.

Rolling. If in some varieties of tobacco the nerves are left, then the leaves are rolled (rolled) between rotating shafts. At the same time, the petioles and nerves gain the thickness of the leaf and burn more easily. The most significant part The rolling machine consists of an endless belt that feeds leaves to the rollers, and rollers rotating on an axis. Sometimes peeled nerves and petioles are used for processing; For rolling them, machines are equipped with a funnel, through which the fine material is poured onto rollers, which are then rolled.

Etching is that Tobacco is processed various substances, giving it a certain taste and smell. In small factories, this operation is carried out by immersing tobacco leaves, tied in small bunches, in the so-called. "sauce", and then allow the latter to drain. Other factories spray the leaves with sauce using a broom and allow the sauce time to penetrate the leaves. This can be speeded up by squeezing them. At the end of the process of curing, or pickling, as evidenced by the softness and flexibility of the middle nerve of the leaf, the tobacco is transferred to a cutting machine. In large factories, the same presses are used for pickling as for leaching. Very often, with careless work, tobacco begins to ferment after pickling; an ammonia smell develops and the highly volatile aromatic parts introduced during etching evaporate (due to increased temperature). Fermentation is stopped by spraying the tobacco with solutions of acids (acetic, hydrochloric) or salts (table, ammonia).

Many people wonder how to make shag at home. After harvesting shag, it is dried and crushed for further use. The leaves must be fully ripe for cooking. You can tell that a plant is ready for processing by its appearance: the leaves begin to turn yellow, droop towards the ground, and a specific tobacco smell appears.

Drying shag

It’s easy to learn how to properly dry shag. Key principles must be adhered to:

• dry only mature leaves;
• drying is slow, takes on average 20-40 days;
• after harvesting, the plants “languish” for some time;
• The humidity in the drying room should not be high.

Arrange the plants in 2 rows in your shed, shed, or attic. The bases of the stems should be laid out. A day later, tie the plants into bunches and hang them in a darkened room. Periodically move the bunches away from each other and use a spray bottle to moisten the cord or beam on which the plant is suspended.

The main goal of drying is to completely get rid of chlorophyll. Therefore, the drying process turns out to be the longest. The leaves slowly lose color and turn yellow. There is no point in letting it dry out to the maximum; the residual moisture content of the plant should be about 35%.

Shag processing

After drying, the shag will need to be processed. Separate the leaves from the stems and place them in a meat grinder or immersion home blender. A meat grinder will require a special grid that allows you to pass through pieces of leaves measuring 1-10 mm. The roots and stems also need to be chopped. They can be chopped with a simple cleaver or ground in a mortar.

All dried plants are sorted out first. Only good bunches of shag suitable for processing are processed. The remaining wet part of the stem is cut out and not processed. The chopped stems and leaves are mixed.

Fermentation of shag

After growing, many people ask the question - is it necessary to ferment shag?

Fermentation allows you to:

• improve taste qualities tobacco plant;
• change its aroma;
• reduce strength;
• reduce the content of harmful resins included in the composition.

During the fermentation process, you can experiment with the flavors of shag and achieve the desired strength. Fast way:

1. Mix dried shag with honey. So that the plant is saturated with it.
2. Close the honey shag in an airtight jar.
3. Place a saucepan filled with water over low heat. Lower the jar of shag and heat it up.
4. Open the lid on the jar, release steam, close it, immerse it back in the water.
5. Keep the jar of shag in heated water for 2 hours, then turn off the heat and leave for another hour.
6. Remove the shag from the jar and dry it.

Drying tobacco leaves at home. When 80-90% of the leaf turns yellow, transfer it to the place of drying (if it was languishing somewhere else). If the sheet was tormented on a cord, pull and tie the cord and spread the sheets to the width of a finger. If in boxes or simply in piles, then first you need to string it on a cord, and then hang it as tightly as possible, pulling our bundle. I string the leaf using a clamp needle by the leaf petiole. It is advisable to dry the sheet at a height of no more than one meter above the ground.

The longer the sheet dries, the higher the quality of the raw material, and the process of initial fermentation occurs. This is night moisturizing and gradual daytime drying. When the bundle of tobacco has dried, you can hang it higher, and hang fresh tobacco in this place. It needs to dry for at least a month. I take the tobacco out of the dryer when the autumn rains arrive. By that time the leaf becomes moist and elastic.

Storing tobacco leaves after drying

So, our sheet is dry, it’s humid outside and it has already had time to fall off, i.e. absorb moisture. Next I do this. I take off the havanka with tobacco (that’s what a leaf of tobacco on a cord is called) and pull out the cord. Then I sort each leaf, with the green ones to the side, straighten the high-quality ones and place them in stacks of 10-15 cm in thickness under a load of 5-10 kg. for 20-30 minutes. Then I put these stacks in a box, one on top of the other.

I collect all the varieties in one pile, and if you plan to separate the variety, then label all the labels by variety and avoid confusion during languishing. After our raw materials are collected, I move them home to a warm and dry place. It is advisable to let it sit for 3-4 months (rest) before starting any manipulations with tobacco. But that was not the case, I remember myself in the first year))) And now we have a vast field for experiments, but more on that in the next article about

Drying tobacco at home

a tobacco leaf dries out in the attic of the bathhouse

Drying tobacco leaves under a canopy

Well, that seems to be all, now you know what it is drying tobacco at home. With experience, such childish questions will then seem to you to disappear.