Pipe Tobacco: Difference between revisions

"G. L. Pease Tobacco has become the hallmark of the new era of tobacco blending. A boutique producer, Greg Pease takes an artisanal approach to tobacco, evoking days gone by, when the great shops all had a blender on hand. It is obvious when talking with Greg that he is passionate about his vocation and feels a deep connection with tobacco. Read on to see it in his own words." -- Jon Tillman. Read Jon's [[Conversation With Greg Pease]].

Depending on the casing used, tobaccos can become very sticky. Some producers use humectants to maintain a specific moisture level in the final product. You'll hear people talk about PG, or propylene glycol, the most commonly used humectant these days. It's generally spoken of in rather disparaging terms, thought it's not the PG that deserves the condmenation, but the blending houses who use it with reckless abandon. If the tobacco won't dry out, PG is likely the culprit. In small quantities, it does its job well. In large quantities, it produces a sticky, wet smoking, pipe clogging weed that should never see the inside of a pipe.

Raw tobacco, frankly, usually doesn't taste very good, and has poor smoking characteristics. Very few smokers have ever experienced tobaccos, especially virginias and burleys, that do not have SOME sort of casing applied. It's not the casing that turns smokers of “pure” tobacco off; it's the flavourings. When used delicately, they enhance the flavour of the tobacco itself. When used heavily, as in most American style aromatic tobaccos, they can overpower the underlying tobacco flavours.

Latakia (Arabic: تبغ اللاذقية) is a specially prepared tobacco originally produced in Syria and named after the port city of Latakia. Now the tobacco is mainly produced in Cyprus. It is cured over a stone pine or oak wood fire, which gives it an intense smokey-peppery taste and smell. Too strong to smoke straight, it's used as a "condiment", especially in English and some American Classic blends.

By definition, "Orientals" are those tobaccos indigenous to the eastern Mediterranean region, including the various "Turkish" tobaccos and latakia. An "Oriental blend" contains at least one and often several of these tobaccos.

The process by which this tobacco is produced pre-dates Columbus. The Choctaw Indians of (what would later be) Louisiana would make it by pressing it into hollow logs with a long pole, and securing it with weights.

It was close! But things look better. Because Perique grows in a very small area within the St.James Perish in Louisiana, hurricanes and other variables in the weather can effect the entire crop for any given year. The economy of the region is also a factor. Perique farmers have passed their lands and knowledge on to their families for 150 years, but farming Perique is very labor intensive, and the profits are small. Many in the younger generations of these farming families have taken jobs in nearby plants. Perique is now farmed by only a few small operations between 1/4 acre and 10 acres. Only Percy Martin, the largest producer processes the crop commercially, and he is under contract with the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co, which buys all of his tobacco for cigarettes. A handful of the remaining producers do some pre-processing, but the only other producer of Perique has been the L.A. Poche Perique Tobacco Co., which came close to closing in 2005.  At that point it looked bleak for Perique until Mark Ryan and Steve Coley stepped in, forming a new company, Coley Ryan Tobacco Enterprises, which stepped in and bought L.A. Poche. They had lots of help from Neal Poche, and Dudley LeBlanc, who is the second largest grower of Perique after Martin. With Poche and LeBlanc's help, Ryan and Coley learned the unique processes, and have committed themselves and their company to to the future of Perique. It would appear that Perique's future is as bright as it has been for some time. (see Pipes and Tobacco Magazine, Summer 2006 issue, page 40).  

It is often said by pipe smokers that they will dedicate certain pipes to certain tobaccos. This makes some sense in that tobaccos do leave some residual taste in any pipe they are smoked in. Many of us will not go that far, but might dedicate pipes to certain genre's of tobaccos. Virginias for instance. Often one will not smoke Latikia blends in their pipes dedicated to Virginas.  

Another area of interest is that certain pipes seem to smoke better with certain tobaccos, certain genre's or certain cuts. Along those lines, Tarek Manadily has written an interesting articale called [[Pressed Tobaccos and Flake Pipes]].

A: Vacuum sealing is great for vegetables and coffee, but is pointless for tobacco. Tobacco needs some air to be locked in with it , at least to begin with, in order for it to age. A perfectly vacuum sealed container will likely keep the tobacco "fresh," but it may not really age the way we expect it to. I'm more than a little suspicious about the heavy plastic "bags" used by most of these machines. They hold moisture in just fine, but they really don't prevent gas exchange, and I'm not sure they're truly able to stand the test of time. Tins are best. Jars are a close second. The special high barrier bags we used for a while for our 8oz packaging have several layers, each designed to be impenetrable to a different sort of molecule. I've conducted extended tests with this material, and am satisified that the tobacco will age nearly, if not as well as in the tins, at least for the short term. They are only slightly evacuted to facilitate packing and sealing. For best long-term aging, though, I still recommend tins.

A: I design all my blends with aging in mind. Barbary Coast, being based on Burley, is probably the blend that will benefit least from long cellaring, though the flavors WILL continue to meld over several years, and there's enough virginia leaf, as well as perique, to afford some significant change. The cigar leaf in Robusto may peak after 5-7 years, but the Virginias and oriental leaf will continue to develop increased complexity. All the rest will improve for 10, 20, 30, 40 years or even longer. Ask me again at the turn of the next century...

*tabaky.cz - page with rewievs (CZ,SK,PL) [http://www.tabaky.cz website]