How to Make Clove Cigarettes or Kretek

Last Updated: June 1, 2022 Approved

Since clove cigarettes are now illegal to sell in the U.S., you might be wondering how to make your own! Which, by the way, is perfectly legal. This is a tutorial for how to flavor your tobacco and prepare cloves to make a delicious and highly customizable clove cigarette. Also for use in a pipe.

Steps

1
Gather your looseleaf tobacco and whole cloves. Depending on how much clove you like, you can do a clove:tobacco ratio of anywhere from 1:3 to 2:3. Any more than that and it will not burn properly. Use Ceylon cloves if you can find them, one source is www.penzeys.com. There is a taste and smell difference.^{[1]
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2
Start to prepare the cloves for inclusion. A clove is actually a dried flower. Cut between the sepals (four little points) and petals, which are just the little ball at the end (see diagram). This will usually make a surprisingly clean cut if done with patience and a good sharp paring knife. If you like the exploding end do this, otherwise don't bother^{[2]
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3
Do not worry if the petal-ball breaks in half or thirds - this is actually good. The characteristic crackling sound of kreteks is actually the petal-ball burning, which is why we try to leave it either intact or in large pieces. It is also where the onomatopoetic Indonesian word "kretek" comes from! Coarse grinding the whole clove does a good job, and it still crackles nicely^{[3]
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4
Take the leftover calyx/sepal section and place them in your mortar and pestle/coffee grinder/rocks and ground. Whatever you're using to grind them. As opposed to the petals, we want this part to be ground up finely so that it will burn properly. Djarum Blacks were predominantly ground cloves, a very course grind. An electric coffee grinder ran for about 20 seconds is about perfect^{[4]
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5
Mix it all up with the amount of tobacco you have chosen. Here is what the proportions should look like for a 1:3 clove:tobacco ratio.If you are using a table top injector, do not bother pre-mixing, load 1/3 tobacco, a layer of ground clove, then another third tobacco^{[5]
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6
Done! However, if you want to flavor the entire mix, which is what most kretek companies do, you will want to proceed to the next few steps.
7
Get practically any liquid - coffee, tea, orange blossom or rose water, extracts such as vanilla and almond, and alcohol all work and taste very nice! So pick your liquid and add it at the ratio of approx. 1:8 liquid:dry ingredients in a bowl. I think I probably usually use about 1:7, but it depends on how strong you want it, how long you want to wait, and what you're using to dry it.^{[6]
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8
Let your mixture sit for 1-3 hours, possibly more. The dry ingredients will absorb the flavors during this time.
9
Spread the mixture onto a cookie sheet to dry in your oven with only the pilot light. Mix it up time to time so that it dries evenly. Time to dry varies, but it can be just a little crispy when you take it out.
- Another option is to put the mix in a Pyrex/heat-safe bowl in a fondue set. Make sure you stir the mixture more often, as it is hotter and thus dries more quickly. Sounds crazy but it works!
- Yet another option is to just let it sit out in the air, but this takes a while.
10
Final product! Don't be surprised if your mixture darkens after adding a darker liquid. (Not every part in the image is individually labeled. i.e. The petal-balls are labeled, but not all of them. The ground clove is labeled, but not all of it, etc.) Time to roll it up or pack a pipe! Mmm, Enjoy!
11
If you are using an injector, stay away from the cheap hand held. Also on choice of tubes, use a Vera Cruz Nocturne (brown color, almost like a Djarum Special), or a Vera Cruz Midnight (Black almost just like the Djarum Blacks). A sprinkle of ground nutmeg also works to get it closer to the Djarum Blacks. If you really like the sweetness those had dip the filter end in a solution of saccharine water. Saccharine is available at most grocers, in tablet form, just grind up and dissolve, let the cigarette dry overnight before smoking.
12
Real clove cigarettes DO NOT use saccharine! The Filter dip mixture is actually sugar, maple and licorice. Real kreteks do not use any artificial ingredients, and have prided themselves in that aspect.

Warnings

It is legal to possess and create your own.

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It is illegal to sell tobacco without a license; this is for personal use only.

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It is also illegal for a merchant to sell clove and other flavored cigarettes.

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This is not in any way for minors.

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Clove cigarettes are no safer than traditional tobacco-only cigarettes.

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Things You'll Need

Looseleaf tobacco (can be bought at smoke shops) American Spirit in the blue can is a nice light low tar tobacco
Whole dried cloves (any grocery stores. However, cloves are often much less expensive at ethnic grocery markets than mainstream grocery stores.) www.penzeys.com, bulk Ceylon Cloves match flavor fairly closely
Sharp knife
Mortar and pestle or spice grinder. A coffee grinder or food processor would probably work. a cheap electric coffee grinder can be had at most retailers for less than $20
Rolling papers or a pipe to enjoy the finished product Vera Cruz rolling tubes, either Nocturne or Midnight. Also a good tabletop injector works the best
optional (only for use if you intend to flavor the mix):
- Liquid flavoring of some sort
- bowl wherein to mix and dry contents
- heat source