Are you confusing it with Connecticut shade?
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Method versus seed.
This is how I understand it:
Broadleaf is a seed that yields a big broad leaf.
BL is usually grown in Pennsyltucky or Connecticut. I like the PA BL, grown by Amish right up the way here in Lancaster county, where they have a rich black silty soil. You get a broad strong leaf with toasty flavor, CT broadleaf tastes a bit milder, cause of their different soil. Makes a dandy strong wrapper, but nowhere near so delicate as when grown beneath shade.
Shade is a method of growing tobacco.
It's shaded beneath muslin cloth in order to make the leaf grow thinner. CT shade combines the big broad leaf, with the milder flavor, thinner. In Ecuador, they have fields where they don't even need muslin cloth, cause it's always cloudy at the base of the Andes. Of course, the soil differs, so the flavor differs. Nor is the color so attractive.
So, CT shade is CT broadleaf grown under shade. Usually comes from the sandy loam of Windsor Valley, where the leaf derives a mineral flavor. Has a super delicate texture, & that's why we love it for wrapper.
You could plant the same broadleaf seed in my muddy back yard & grow it under cloth, but the flavor would be different. Because of recent CT minimum wage laws killing the baccy farms, the big leaf companies encouraged the Lancaster Amish to grow shade. I talked to a couple of them... Lancaster Leaf wasn't willing to pay enough to warrant the trouble. I saw several experimental plots; but nothing seems to have caught on.