Pipe Tobacco

Pipe tobacco is tobacco prepared for smoking in a pipe, and it differs from cigarette tobacco in two respects: it is noticeably more coarsely cut and kept noticeably moister. Neither of these two properties is arbitrary. Leaf cut too finely packs tightly in the bowl and restricts airflow; leaf that has lost its moisture burns quickly and is spent before it can release its flavor. Nearly all commercial products are made not from a single leaf variety but from a combination of several varieties in set proportions; this combination is called a blend.

The Leaves That Make Up a Blend

Behind hundreds of blends stand a limited handful of core leaf varieties. Virginia is processed by flue-curing, has a high natural sugar content, and forms the backbone of most blends. Burley is air-cured; low in sugar, slow-burning. This makes it well suited both as a base leaf and as a flavor carrier. In the US, roughly seventy percent of Burley production takes place in Kentucky and twenty percent in Tennessee; outside the country, Brazil, Malawi, and Argentina are cited as the main producers.

Latakia is a leaf taking its name from the Syrian port city of Latakia. It is first sun-dried, then left in aromatic wood smoke; Cyprus production uses species such as mastic, myrtle, and Aleppo pine. The resulting smoky character is considered too dominant to be smoked on its own, so Latakia appears in a blend only in accent quantities. Production has over time shifted its weight from Syria to Cyprus. Oriental tobaccos, native to the eastern Mediterranean, meanwhile bring dried-herb and spice notes to a blend.

Cavendish stands apart from this list because it is not a variety but a method: leaf is pressed into a cake, fermented under fire or steam heat, then sliced. It is most commonly applied to Virginia and Burley. Its name is generally accepted to come from the 16th-century English mariner Sir Thomas Cavendish.

Processing and Flavoring

Flavoring is done in two separate stages, and the two are frequently confused. Casing is applied before the cut, in the form of a sugar- and flavor-carrying solution soaked into the leaf; because it sits within the leaf's structure, it retains its presence throughout the smoke. Top dressing, on the other hand, is sprayed onto the surface after the blend has been assembled; being made of volatile compounds, it largely disappears once the tobacco is left exposed to air. Most tobaccos on the market are considered to be cased to some degree.

The most common classification of blends also stems from this distinction. Those carrying a pronounced flavoring are called aromatic; those whose taste comes purely from the leaf composition are called non-aromatic. The line is not always sharp; many lightly cased products fall between the two definitions.

Cut and Storage

Cut styles fall into two logics: the leaf is either chopped directly, or first compressed and then sliced. The most common of the chopped forms is ribbon, arriving as strips roughly one and a half to two and a half millimeters wide; the very finest of these is called shag. In pressed tobaccos, the leaf is turned into a block under heat, steam, and pressure: the block itself is called plug, and the thin slices taken from it are called flake. Rope, twisted like a cord, is likewise used by being cut into thin discs. Cut determines not just appearance; it also dictates how much preparation the tobacco needs before being packed into a pipe and how fast it will burn.

Whatever the cut, pipe tobacco dries when it comes into contact with air, and leaf that has lost its moisture also gives up a significant portion of its flavor. This is why storage takes place in tightly sealed jars or sealed containers.