Hi --Welcome aboard Bob, hope you enjoy your stay here. I'v not tried home grown tobacco, I quit smoking cig's about 9 months ago however. What are the differences between homegrown and store bought cigs? I know the additives are awful, but how's the taste / other stuff compare?
88malice, I will never go back to smoking commercially produced cigarettes again unless I run out of homegrown, and even then I will probably buy bulk lbs of uncut, uncured leaf to be certain there are no additives used to cover up the taste.
I've been selling my tobacco seeds at Flea Markets and handing out my homegrown cigs for people to taste. They respond very well to the taste. It seems milder at first, but you get used to the flavor fast and they do have more nicotine in them than the over-processed commercial brands. I smoke a lot less now.
The taste will vary by the strain of tobacco you use and the blend you make with them. Virginia/SilkLeaf vars have a very mild tobacco taste. To get a stronger tobacco taste, you blend in burley or turkish or both at a 10-20% rate. The more you add in, the stronger the tobacco flavor. There are other varieties that taste distinctively like cigars, such as the Havanas. Pipe tobacco and chew/dip/snuff/snus can be made of the Virginia/Silk Leaf because the flavoring added overwhelms the tobacco taste anyhow.
I know it's hard to describe tastes using text, but that's about as close as I can get!
Bob