Mojo

[blisscigarco]

it had begun to naturally ferment.

Hey, can you remind me how you knew that the juice should ferment? Something Willy said, or something you smelled in his mojo? Thanks.

 

[BrewinHooligan]

Hey, can you remind me how you knew that the juice should ferment? Something Willy said, or something you smelled in his mojo? Thanks.

He told me he leaves it in there for several days. I've seen his water jug with the pineapple juice just sitting out in his garage for a while now and I know that juice will naturally ferment on its own when left out like that.

 

[blisscigarco]

He told me he leaves it in there for several days. I've seen his water jug with the pineapple juice just sitting out in his garage for a while now and I know that juice will naturally ferment on its own when left out like that.

Okay. Yeah, I've just never been sure whether that was optimum in a mojo or not.

 

[BrewinHooligan]

I can't say for sure how well my method works yet. It smells wonderful but is definitely pineapple forward. I may have made mine a little too strong but I won't know for sure until I test the sticks I'm bunching now

 

[Hopduro]

Also... How shelf stable is everyone's mojo? If it smells funky throw it away? I've never used it before... crazy enough


Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk

 

[BrewinHooligan]

With some renewed interest and discussion in mojo I figured I would report my experiences here to avoid cluttering other threads. Since my mojo is already fermented, it has a very stable shelf life and does not seem to go bad. I made approximately one gallon of "base juice" about one year ago that I'm still using and it's still good.

A little bit seems to go a long way. I'm not trying to get pineapple, rum, or vanilla flavors in my cigars however. I'm looking for chemical reactions that smooth the smoke and make the cigar more enjoyable sooner and the mojo does work very well there. So far I have only used it on filler, I will try it on wrapper at some point in the future. I may consider using a glycol to let the flavor of the mojo come through some, but I may not as I tend to prefer a natural tobacco flavor.

 

[Hopduro]

A little bit seems to go a long way. I'm not trying to get pineapple, rum, or vanilla flavors in my cigars however. I'm looking for chemical reactions that smooth the smoke and make the cigar more enjoyable sooner and the mojo does work very well there. So far I have only used it on filler, I will try it on wrapper at some point in the future. I may consider using a glycol to let the flavor of the mojo come through some, but I may not as I tend to prefer a natural tobacco flavor.

Being picky...
I think what this is doing is acidifying ammonia to ammonium salts and thus "aging" the tobacco, which is interesting to me. It seems unlikely that the added sugar is fermenting in our humidor at under 70 degrees... but maybe!

For science... I might just make up a stock solution of citric acid and alcohol/water to prove that this is the only contributing factor. Should be a fun experiment! To Amazon!

Also, apparently polyethylene glycol is better at carrying flavors

Awesome that your mojo stays stable... hooray booze!

 

[blisscigarco]

We've posted here and in various places casing lists from big-tobacco. Here's a short one low on chemical names with some useful ideas, which I found someplace online. Probably most of us mojo fans have messed around with various things from this list:
apricot extract
Acetic acid
Brandy absolute
Caramel
Carob bean extract
Cocoa extract
Coffee extract
Glucosee
Honey Casing
Lactic acid
Licorice extract
Menthol
Molasses
sugar cane
Plum juice/concentrate
Propylene glycol Humectant (i.e. PG)
Rum, dark + Rum, white
Spearmint oil
Sugar, invert + Sugar, white
Vanilla extract
Vanilla oleoresin

 

[Marc L]

mojito at about 12 minutes.

 

[Gdaddy]

Interesting how he says they sell the tobacco NOT fermented to the government and they use chemicals. He uses a natural 'mojito' method.

 

[blisscigarco]

I wish the dude had asked, "What chemicals?" and "How did you find out about that?" because after watching ~100 of these campesino videos I've never seen that mentioned before.
Also, I kinda wish I could get some pre-fermented leaves and had the capacity to ferment so I could try some proper petuning based on these classic petune blends; because hitting it with the mojo after fermentation just ain't the same thing as what these campesinos are doing. As we've been discussing for 2+ years.

 

[BrewinHooligan]

I have a few friends trying to grow some leaf they intend to send to me raw. I then plan to ferment it, we will see if they can get a decent crop.

 

[blisscigarco]

I have a few friends trying to grow some leaf they intend to send to me raw. I then plan to ferment it, we will see if they can get a decent crop.

Awesome! I have some family out in Oklahoma with a ton of land. The dude wants to try growing some tobacco but has yet to convince his wife of the morality of growing the green death.

 

[BrewinHooligan]

Awesome! I have some family out in Oklahoma with a ton of land. The dude wants to try growing some tobacco but has yet to convince his wife of the morality of growing the green death.

What mama don't know, don't hurt her...

 

[Jim D]

So if I made a small batch of mojo a year ago and left it in a small spray bottle, at room temperature the whole time, it should still be good, right?

 

[BrewinHooligan]

So if I made a small batch of mojo a year ago and left it in a small spray bottle, at room temperature the whole time, it should still be good, right?

As long as its not fuzzy and doesn't smell like rotten ass it should be ok

 

[Dominican56]

Finally had aged my vanilla beans in rum what I think was long enough to get decent extraction. Probably let my pineapple chunks soak in water almost 2 weeks and could tell my smell and taste that it had begun to naturally ferment. Got my mojo mixed up and gently sprayed my ligero from Jorge that I have in my working stock. Holy hell does it smell amazing now!! Gonna bunch up a mold full of my marshmallow blend and excited to try the blend with mojo to compare. Didn't add any glycerin or polyglycol so not sure how detectable it will be, especially since I only plan to spritz the ligero but if any other filler needs a little extra moisture it will get mojo instead of water.

Did it work well in the blend?

 

[Gdaddy]

As long as its not fuzzy and doesn't smell like rotten ass it should be ok

Heck, rotten ass may be what we're looking for!

The secrets of the mojo... The biggest thing I've learned doing my simplistic mojo's is that when trying to make tobacco sweet by adding sugar, after fermentation, is not a good thing. When any sugar product gets added the tobacco takes on a wonderful sweet, raisin like odor. However, when burned it turns very acrid and bitter tasting. The opposite desired effect.

Adding sugars prior to fermenting may be for a different reason other than sweetening. By adding sugars it supplies fuel for the enzymes to eat.

I learned making pizza dough... that a bit of sugar added to the flour is to give the yeast food to eat. As they consume the sugars they burp and fart causing the dough to rise. These burps and farts add the unique flavor to the crust. The addition of sugar is NOT to sweeten the crust. I think it may be the same for tobacco.

Another very important 'secret' I believe is used in the cigar industry. Back in the 1800's they used a product called 'Oil of Havana'. It's use came with warning... "it is dangerous and is a deadly poison". This seems to be a solution 'mojo' made from the stems of the leaf. (Stems carry the most nicotine which is very poisonous.)

Watch the videos... they save the stems in big piles but they never explain why they save the stems. The stems are cooked down and made into a secret solution and sprayed on the tobacco prior to fermentation. "Pure, fine oil of Havana is the great secret in producing fine goods" (Bentley).

Watching the video of the 'The fabulous story of Puro' they make quick mention of the tobacco being sprayed with a "tobacco solution" prior to fermentation. I believe this method IS the secret to the fine Cuban tobacco giving the cigars an extra boost of flavor. The special 'volcanic soil' in Cuba being responsible for the unique flavor of Cuban cigars is a wonderful story of misdirection creating the illusion that only Cuba has exclusivity of the 'only soil in the World' that can produce these special flavors. I don't believe it and I think it's a myth being repeated over and over (so it must be true).

The secret mojo they produce and spray on the the tobacco is the real secret of Cuban cigars. (People want to kill me when I say this. Literally kill me for ruining their fantasy. Like telling them there's no Santa Claus or something.)

 

[BrewinHooligan]

Heck, rotten ass may be what we're looking for!

The secrets of the mojo... The biggest thing I've learned doing my simplistic mojo's is that when trying to make tobacco sweet by adding sugar, after fermentation, is not a good thing. When any sugar product gets added the tobacco takes on a wonderful sweet, raisin like odor. However, when burned it turns very acrid and bitter tasting. The opposite desired effect.

Adding sugars prior to fermenting may be for a different reason other than sweetening. By adding sugars it supplies fuel for the enzymes to eat.

I learned making pizza dough... that a bit of sugar added to the flour is to give the yeast food to eat. As they consume the sugars they burp and fart causing the dough to rise. These burps and farts add the unique flavor to the crust. The addition of sugar is NOT to sweeten the crust. I think it may be the same for tobacco.

Another very important 'secret' I believe is used in the cigar industry. Back in the 1800's they used a product called 'Oil of Havana'. It's use came with warning... "it is dangerous and is a deadly poison". This seems to be a solution 'mojo' made from the stems of the leaf. (Stems carry the most nicotine which is very poisonous.)

Watch the videos... they save the stems in big piles but they never explain why they save the stems. The stems are cooked down and made into a secret solution and sprayed on the tobacco prior to fermentation. "Pure, fine oil of Havana is the great secret in producing fine goods" (Bentley).

Watching the video of the 'The fabulous story of Puro' they make quick mention of the tobacco being sprayed with a "tobacco solution" prior to fermentation. I believe this method IS the secret to the fine Cuban tobacco giving the cigars an extra boost of flavor. The special 'volcanic soil' in Cuba being responsible for the unique flavor of Cuban cigars is a wonderful story of misdirection creating the illusion that only Cuba has exclusivity of the 'only soil in the World' that can produce these special flavors. I don't believe it and I think it's a myth being repeated over and over (so it must be true).

The secret mojo they produce and spray on the the tobacco is the real secret of Cuban cigars. (People want to kill me when I say this. Literally kill me for ruining their fantasy. Like telling them there's no Santa Claus or something.)

Well with my mojo, the pineapple juice has naturally fermented so there is very little natural sugar left, it's more of the acidity doing sciency things to smooth out the harshness of young leaf

 

[Gdaddy]

Well with my mojo, the pineapple juice has naturally fermented so there is very little natural sugar left, it's more of the acidity doing sciency things to smooth out the harshness of young leaf

Agreed. The cigar tobacco is naturally high in alkalinity. The addition of citric acid would help drop those numbers and smooth the tobacco. Pineapple is very high in citric acid and is probably the main reason for an improvement.

How long do you let it ferment before using it?

Did it improve the flavors?