PROJECT MEMBER

PROJECT STORY

01.Background

Are there any tobacco leaf materials that can generate enough taste and aroma just by heating them?

As the development of heated tobacco products (HTP) was in progress by the R&D Group, there were requests for tobacco leaf materials that could bring out the full taste and aroma of tobacco leaves just by heating rather than burning them, and so research and development for this purpose was started in 2007. At that time, much of the research and development work carried out at the Research Center was performed on domestically-cultivated variants, with the purpose of strengthening their resistance to disease and reducing harmful and potentially harmful constituents (HPHCs) released into the smoke.
“Since we had completely new goals this time, even now I remember feeling great excitement, as well as a strong sense of responsibility and duty.”
This is what the project members said when looking back at the start of development.

This project began by conducting an inventory and confirming the tobacco types which had the desired elements first of all. The JT Group has a storage of several thousand seeds of tobacco plants. According to the members, “By referring to past research materials, we were able to select the best variety used in the current Gold Leaf production at a very early stage.”
Meanwhile, research on production technology from the viewpoint of cultivation and curing methods to strengthen the richness of taste and aroma was promoted at a rapid pace in parallel with variant selection.

02.Approach

Abandonment of this project at one time

As part of the research on production technology, test zones were established with various standards for fertilizer amounts and implementation timelines, as well as harvest timing, and investigations were conducted on the optimal cultivation conditions.
Basic data is first collected from laboratories or greenhouses and verified at test field areas, and then demonstration tests are held at actual leaf tobacco production areas, with activities scaled up in stages, under normal procedures. However, these steps were all implemented in parallel with each other to move forward with development as quickly as possible in this project.
Tests related to crop cultivation are affected by weather and cultivation environments. These cause variations in the data, making it difficult to reach an optimal solution. Composite statistical analysis of large amounts of test data accumulated over several years made it possible to identify the best cultivation conditions in this project.

This allowed variant selection to be completed and production technology to be established after roughly four years, but the project then approached a huge turning point. The initial goal of its application to products ended up being cancelled.
The project members continued researching and developing them, however, because the completed tobacco leaf materials were notably different from general materials. Therefore, the project members had the strong desire to apply the technology that had been created to some form of output.

At the same time, the project members communicated not only between themselves but also with related departments actively. They tried to gather opinions on the next new developments and products and to disseminate the fruits of research which was conducted in the Research Center.
Furthermore, repeated discussions with related departments made it possible for appropriate understanding to be gained at each work site.

03.Results

Their research bore fruit, and completion as a product was achieved.

After this, the ongoing initiatives finally bore fruit, with Gold Leaf adopted as a specialized refill for Ploom TECH and Ploom TECH+, and released for sale in 2019.

The project members looked back on their thoughts from when the commercialization of Gold Leaf was completed.
“The adoption of our research results in the new products as a main material allowed us to provide the new products to many consumers, which gave all members a feeling of joy with no equal. ”
The results of this project also led to increased motivation for the research team.

The variety for Gold Leaf was actually a kind of leaf known as JT-S Burley-01, which had been the subject of research several decades earlier for strengthening resistance to disease, but had not been released under that purpose. Since the seeds and records from that time had been retained, it was possible to revive it in the age of tobacco vapor products.
We could re-confirm the importance of carefully keeping resources such as seeds and records obtained from research. This is because it is not always right to evaluate and judge these resources based only on the present condition, as elements such as consumer needs, the status of regulations, and product configurations change with the times.

However, the reality is that compared to our knowledge on cigarettes, our knowledge on leaf tobacco suitable for new product types such as HTP is highly insufficient. The project members spoke about the importance of active efforts for communication with related departments, and of incorporating new knowledge and demands.
“We had many opportunities to communicate with other related departments within the JT Group, and the personal network developed through this project is extremely valuable even in my current work.”

It can be said that Gold Leaf, a leaf tobacco for our new age, was born from the research and development driven by accumulation of basic knowledge at the Research Center as well as mutual understanding through communication with related departments and production farms.