I really like stoved Virginias; just curious if someone can briefly describe the process and how it differs from flue-curing and fire-curing?

Stoving, as the word implies, means you heat up already cured and "in case" (moist) tobacco. It cooks out some of the nicotine and harsher aspects of the tobacco... mellows it. With Virginias, I've found stoving removes some tongue bite, so you can smoke it hotter. You can stove your own store-bought tins of tobacco by sticking the sealed tin in a 200 degree oven for an hour or more or just leave the tin in the windshield of your car during the summer for a couple days. It will mellow and marry. Try it, experiment.

Flue-cured is a process for converting uncured green leaf to "bright" cured leaf, leaving a yellow/gold to light tan finished leaf. It involves barns full of green tobacco and with careful monitoring of temp and humidity, the temps of the barn are gradually increased, turning the whole barn into a steamy oven until the tobacco cures.

Fire-cured is similar, except that the heat is supplied by fires in the barn and the smoke is used as "flavoring". You end up with a dark leaf.

Thanks! So Latakia is essentially fire-cured leaf, just having had additions of herbs to the fires?

I've been wondering how cigarette manufacturers cure their tobacco. And do they age it after curing?

Yup, Latakia is fire-cured, typically with White Oak and herbaceous (bring us a) shrubbery.

I've been experimenting with trying to make my own Latakia (will post pics at some point), but so far, it just tastes like smoked salmon.

Cigarette tobacco is flue-cured and then left to age in "bales" (actually large storage crates) for a couple years. The storage facilities control temp and humidity, probably around 70 degrees and 70% relative humidity.

That's not all bad though.

A couple years does not seem short, but when I put cigarette tobacco in the pipe, it tastes much hotter and harsher than most pipe botacco. Is it because of different curing? BTW, I'm very interested in your tobacco processing, particularly the degree of success. Is it reasonably practicable to DIY some blends that offer smoking quality comparable to the known brands? (Take virginia and burley blends as examples since other virieties of tobacco are less available). And if so, what does it take?

Cigarette tobacco is usually Burley, is cased with all kinds of chemicals and additives, is ribbon cut, and is typically completely dry by the time you smoke it... all these factors contribute to it's harshness in a pipe. Not to mention that Chinese tobacco is raunchy to begin with (even the famed Chung-Hwa).

I'm still curing/aging what I grew two seasons ago to get to a point where I feel the pipe tobacco is "on par" with the commercially processed stuff- slowly but surely. I can't tell you about blending it to replicate known brands, if that's what you're asking, but I doubt it will be possible. That's like vinting wine for the first time and expecting to make something comparable to a Grand Cru. I won't try to copy any blend, I'll just try to come up with finished products that are acceptable to my palate. I'll let you know when I get there. I think we're all spoiled with the quality of pipe tobacco available. It's not easy to do well on a small scale and especially without the transfered experience of generations.

On the other hand, the Burley I grew and cured makes fine cigarettes already. I'm sure it will get even better as it ages.

Yes being "on par" is quite a feat. I won't attempt to copy any blend either. In fact any blend, aromatic or non-aromatic, being cool and mild is welcome to me. Great job!

BTW, Chinese cigarettes are overwhelmingly virginia and boringly sweet, and I find it odd that manufacturers and cig smokers are so obssessed with bright golden tobacco ribbons, which is actually a sign of lack of aging. Chung-Hwa is very mild (excessively mild and bland IMO). You find it raunchy perhaps because it's only virginia un-balanced by other tobaccos. This reminds me of a friend who only smoked Camel. When someone offered him Chung-Hwa which is about ten times the price of Camel, he said he was not interested in smoking air.

Naw, I just find Chinese cigarettes raunchy, and I've tried them all... low quality tobacco with way too many chemicals. Virginia?... please. How do you define "Virginia"?

There probably is not a precise definition of virginia. It's said to be a common name for all brightleaf tobaccos. Certainly there are wild variations in variety, origin and quality. I'm no expert on this, but I think most smokers can recognize virginia when it hits the palate. It's much sweeter than other tobaccos like burley and oriental, and hotter if not well aged. Besides the wide differences in taste due to variety and origin, curing and aging seem to play a more important role on virginia than on other tobaccos. In other words, there can be very good virginia and very bad virginia, yet both are easily recognisable as such, if they can be roughly grouped together under this broad category.

Most Chinese cigarette packets indicate they are flue cured. Flue cure is equated to virginia in Chinese tobacco terminology. Certainly this is a mis-translation, with one relating to curing technique and the other refering to tobacco variety, but this terminology has been established and accepted since nearly no other tobacco is used in these cigarette products.