The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1886-08-12
DARK COLORED TOBACCO.
The R~esweating of the Weed to Meet
Popular Craze.

Popular Craze.
One of the latest tricks in the tobacco
trade, says The Pittsburgh Times, is the
artificial ~resweating of the weed to
meet the popular craze for dark-colored
cigars. The craze arises from the
false impression that, because all good
cigars are d~ark-colored, all dark-color-
ed cigars 7 good. The ground taken
for this latter impression is that the
dark color is an Indication that the
tabocco has been naturally sweated
through about three summers, and has
thus reached perfection of flavor.
The color was formally an indication
that this was the fact, but it is so no
longer, for the increased demand for
tobacco of the requisite age caused
manufacturers to find a way of aging
it, or giving it the appearance of age,
artificially. This was at first done by
painting, but a speedier and more
wholesale process has been invented
within the last three or four years call
ed resweating. The fact that tobacco
sweats is we'll known. The first sum
mer after it is cut, tobacco sweats very
heavily SO that it a be twisted and
tied in knot like ''kill-me-quick" tobies.
The next summer it sweats much less,
and the third summer the sweat is
hardly noticeable. After each sum-
mer's sweat the leaf assumes a darker.
color, until it reaches the hue of the
best Havana brands.
In order to sweat tobacco the box is
opened and the leaf ceased" or damp
ened, one ''hand'' or layer at a time, by
dipping it in water. The tobacco is
then repacked in the box and the box
placed in a steam tight receptacle a
few inches from the floor. A jet of
steam rises through the floor of
this chest, right underneath the box,
and the steam is allowed to play inces-
sanity on it for seventy-two hours, pro-
ducing as p~rofuse a sweat as that of
a fat man running up hill with the
thermometer at 100 degrees in the
shade. The box is then taken out and
the tobacco shaken out and allowed to
cool off. 1t is then repacked and is
ready for use. Great care has to be
exercised after sweating tobacco to
prevent it from becoming moldy. If
it is found to mold it is often dipped in
beer to kill the mold. Here is a proba-
BILE explanation of the %inebrating
effects of some cigars. The tobacco
must always have passed through n
summers sweat before being resweated.
This process ages the tobacco three
or four years, but whether it improves
the quality proportionately is an open
question with the trade. Some say
that as %resweating has the same effect
as the natural sweat, resweated tobacco
is perfectly equal to that which has
aged naturally, others say that it in
jures the flavor. Others, again, say
that it does not affect the flavor preju-
dicially OF favorably. All agree that it
makes the leaf tender and difficult to
work and thereby causes loss to the
manufacturer. What is admitted. by
all Judges is that a natural sweat in
variably improves the quality SO that
the question remains how to distinguish
tobacco naturally sweated from that
which has been artificially resweated.
1t is a difficult one to answer, the only
guide being that artificial sweating
often makes the leaf almost black, and
always makes it a darker color than
the natural sweat produces.
The Pittsburgher's delight, the toby,
is usually made of tobacco which has
stood one summers sweat. but at the
present time the crop of 1885, which is
now undergoing that natural process,
is being used. Hence the great elastic
ity and dampness of many tobies now
on sale.