How to grind tobacco at home: step-by-step instructions and useful tips

State policy regarding smoking is becoming stricter every year. Prices are rising, and the quality of store-bought cigarettes is invariably deteriorating. Therefore, lovers of real tobacco have no choice but to grow it themselves or buy already dried tobacco leaves. In both cases, you still have to work with him. How to grind tobacco at home? Even at this seemingly simplest stage, there are several important points, failure to comply with which can ruin a quality product.

Grinding from A to Z

It all depends on how you are going to smoke tobacco. If the chopped leaves and stem are needed for a pipe, all you need is a good steel knife and a cutting board. Rolled cigarettes require more thorough grinding, so you can’t do without special devices.

To chop with a knife you will need:

1. Prepare tiles of dried tobacco and place them on a board. Although this sounds simple, you will find that the tobacco is very fragile and crumbles when touched, so be careful.
2. Prepare and sharpen the blade of your work knife. It is better to use a separate knife for chopping. Firstly, it quickly deteriorates from frequent sharpening, and secondly, the smell of tobacco is quite corrosive, so this blade is not suitable for food.
3. First cutting method - start cutting the tiles from the corners, gradually changing its sides. Tobacco cut in this way should resemble small noodles.
4. Second cutting method - cut straight strips 3 mm wide and then shred them. Cutting will take more time, but tobacco crushed in this way is more convenient to stuff into the tube.

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For rolling papers, take a pestle and mortar:

1. The chopped mass is placed in a mortar and chopped again with a knife.
2. Collect the crushed leaves in a pile, crush and grind with a pestle.
3. Sift the shredded tobacco through a sieve to remove any tobacco dust.
4. Sift the mixture through another sieve with smaller holes. What is not sifted must be ground again in a mortar.

What can you mix tobacco with?

To get a new smoking experience, or for those who don't like the taste of regular tobacco, you should consider supplements. Experienced smokers advise paying attention to the following interesting fillers:

1. Leaves of fruit and berry trees. Especially distinguished are cherries, orange trees, apples, peach, and grapes. Such leaves are dried separately and added to tobacco at the grinding stage.
2. Fruit and berry juices. For example, strawberry, apple, cherry, multifruit. The tobacco is infused in juice and then dried again.
3. Expensive alcoholic drinks: whiskey, cognac, rum. The tobacco mixture is infused into the drink.
4. Various food flavors: coffee, vanilla, cinnamon.
5. Other types of tobacco. By mixing different varieties you can get tobacco of the desired strength.

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Using a cutting machine

Special tobacco cutters are made to order. You can buy more common grass cutters or coal mills.

You can try to build something like a tobacco cutter at home. The easiest option is to use a meat grinder with knives for fine minced meat.

Advice! Instead of using a regular knife, fasten several strong steel blades together with no more than 3 mm between them. Thanks to this simple design, you will cut several leaves in one movement - the process will go faster.

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Storing finished tobacco

When storing crushed tobacco, the main rule is to keep the room dry, cool and dark.

It is better to pack the tobacco mass in plastic bags so that it retains its aroma and is protected from mold.

Do not store tobacco cuts in the refrigerator. Regardless of how hermetically sealed the container with raw materials is, it will absorb food odors, which will change its taste. To prevent your home from smelling, tobacco should be stored in a dry attic or in a separate outbuilding.

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Useful tips

Simple recommendations from heavy smokers will help those who are just addicted to tobacco:

1. If the tobacco leaves crunch when cutting, it means you have a quality product.
2. Prepare several knives in advance: they quickly become dull, and sharpening a knife every time for a larger amount of work is tedious.
3. For smoking with a pipe, the most optimal cutting width is 3 mm.
4. To experience new sensations, try pouring different types of tobacco into your pipe in layers, without mixing them.
5. Order a special tobacco cutter from a trusted specialist: this way you won’t have to overpay for delivery from China, and this device will last longer.

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Conclusion

Cutting a tobacco leaf or bar is a necessity and one of the components of the ritual of a modern smoker. There are special machines and knives for this, but you can use a pestle and mortar.

Thanks to simple devices and techniques for grinding tobacco, you will enrich your smoking experience, which store-bought cigarettes cannot provide. But remember: smoking is harmful to your health even in this case!