Tobacco Drying

While tobacco is a necessity for pipe and cigar smoking, it's easy to overlook its preparation and how the leaf begins its journey. Tobacco is an extremely sensitive crop and the soil, climate, and curing process it's exposed to all play crucial roles in its production. These factors determine where certain tobaccos can ideally be grown and harvested, making it impossible for a grower in one area to change to a type of seed that's primarily grown elsewhere and produce a leaf that's true to that specific seed.

Tobacco is harvested in one of two ways. The first harvesting method, called priming, involves removing the individual leaves from the growing plant as they mature and ripen in the field. The other method, called stalk-cut harvesting, is performed by cutting the entire mature plant's stalk at ground level with the leaves attached to the stalk.

Once harvested, tobacco must undergo what is called a curing process, which prepares the leaves for further processing as curing allows for the naturally occurring excess moisture within tobacco to be drawn out. When raw and freshly picked, tobacco is typically green in color and because of its excessive moisture, it won't easily ignite or be smokable. Tobacco curing is sometimes referred to as color curing because as the tobacco undergoes the process, the color of the leaf will invariably change because its chlorophyll content is being altered, gradually becoming more yellow to brown in color.

The primary tobacco curing methods consist of air curing, sun curing, fire curing, and flue curing. Each method has its own unique benefits and is used for different tobacco varietals, marking the first step in the manufacturing process of many of our cherished mixtures. 

The main difference between just drying and curing is that curing involves a moderately controlled environment – it takes a little more attention than just leaving the leaves sit out to dry. 

Let's talk about the most new method of drying tobacco leaves by heat pump dryer.

The advantages of using heat pump drying system are:

1. Energy saving to reduce energy drying bills;

2. Fully automatic control,touch screen opetration,no labour required;

3. Automatic temperature and humidity control,high drying quality;

4. Environment friendly and pollution-free.