1. PLANTING

Tobacco seeds are small and powder-like, so they are planted in protected seedbeds. The soil around the growing seedlings is plumped up for extra protection while their roots grow strong.

2. INTO THE FIELD

After some 8-10 weeks, the seedlings are planted in the fields where they grow for approximately two months. Flowers and upper leaves are removed to encourage the remaining leaves to grow.

3. HARVESTING

Harvesting is mostly done by hand and occasionally by machine. It is done gradually by removing a few leaves at a time as they ripen. This process can take several months.

4. CURING

Curing aims to achieve the desired quality, colour and texture of a particular tobacco type. Generally, fine-cut tobacco is cured employing one of the following methods:

Sun-curing: the tobacco leaves are hung on racks under the sun.

Fire-curing: the tobacco is hung in ventilated barns and cured with heat and smoke by burning sawdust. Fire-cured tobacco is widely used in RYO products (half zware and zware; "zware” is Dutch for “heavy”) and in Scandinavian Tobacco Group’s brand Tiedemanns.

Flue-curing: the tobacco is hung in barns and dried in the heat from an external furnace.

Air-curing: the tobacco is hung in ventilated barns for natural drying.

5. LEAF PROCESSING

The tobacco is threshed and the lamina is separated from the stem. Quality checks are performed and the moisture of the tobacco is brought to a level that makes it safe for shipping to tobacco-manufacturing sites.

In RYO, the stem can either be separated from the lamina by hand (for hand-stripped tobacco) or the stem and lamina are not separated at all (loose-leaf tobacco) – this form is used for Scandinavian Tobacco Group’s Norwegian RYO brand Tiedemanns.

BURLEY

Burley is the second most widely used leaf tobacco. Its leaves are 20 – 50 cm long and range in colour from light brown to very dark brown. The taste is full-bodied with notes of chocolate and nuts. When the lowest leaves are harvested, the whole plant can either be cut down and dried or the plant can be harvested leaf-by-leaf. This depends on where it is grown. Burley has a low natural sugar content. The leaves are dried using natural ventilation and no sun (air cured).

VIRGINIA

Virginia is the most widely used leaf tobacco. Its leaves are 20 – 50 cm long and lemon, orange and mahogany in colour. Virginia has a high content of natural sugar and a sweet taste. Virginia is harvested leaf-by-leaf from the bottom of the plant. The leaves are dried with hot air (flue cured).