Next year with some proper strain seeds, i might give it shot. But then i want the Nicotiana Rustica/ wild tobacco [highest alkaloid content/ 9% vs 3 % in N. Tabacum] , Latakia also powerfull [which was in Dutch snuff Tobacco] or the Dokha variety which was unknown till know.
Latakia is more of a curing process than a strain. It's cured with wood smoke. It's strong enough, but not uber strong (in alkaloids). It does have a strong taste and is a condiment tobacco. If you're just looking for strength, good old Burley is a pretty strong tobacco. It's very alkaline, which will freebase the nic and make it stronger.
I've never grown Rustica, although I always meant to. Ya, it's supposed to be real strong.
If you grow tobacco (tabacum, anyway), it will taste like shit when first dried. There are numerous ways to cure. There is the aforementioned smoke cure, flue cure for Virginia tobacco, and fermenting. Fermenting is kinda the basic thing needed.
For cigars, the leaves are piled in heaps and the internal temp is monitored. When it get too hot (140 degrees F) , the pile is taken apart and restacked. Many people make a curing chamber and keep the temp at around 120 with high humidity for around 6 weeks which does about the same thing. All these break down nasty tasting compounds in the leaf.
When I grew, I took the easy way. If you just stack the tobacco loosely in boxes (or hang it) for a couple/few years, it will accomplish the same thing. Just age it. There are varieties which will cure faster like Yellow Twist Bud (about a year), but good old Kentucky Burley takes a few.
There are places online to buy whole leaf tobacco. About $20 a pound, it's a steal. No additives, obviously, and already cured. What I did was buy that the first year while I started growing. Do a search for whole leaf rustica tobacco and you'll find some for about $20/lb.
I quit a few years back and need to keep that up at my age. Gave my leaf away for a few years but just had a backyard fire which I threw my last boxes of leaf onto. Made the neighborhood smell like tobacco (smelled good) and had the neighbors curious.
I was a pipe smoker. And a good old corn cob is the best and coolest pipe there is. Ask Mark Twain. Plus, a cob kinda fit me as the hippiebilly I am. (Sorry JasperKent, I've said that for years)
"Nicotiana rustica is called mapacho in South America. It is often used for entheogenic purposes by South American shamans,[7] because of its high nicotine content and comparatively high levels of beta-carbolines, including the harmala alkaloids harmane and norharmane" [WIKI]
Found the MAO-inhibitors, so they do exist in Tobacco plants.
Harman and norharman exist in all tobacco, higher in Rustica.