Pipe tobacco is in the end a consumer product that is somewhat subject to the vagaries in the manufacturing process and sourcing of the tobacco in a specific region or state. As an roll your own lifestyle smoker we thought it would be helpful to make you aware of a few issues that are not always talked about in the industry.
Don’t scrimp on cigarette tubes (paper) or filters. If you are in a pinch using tubes or papers from a convenience store will work. But, if your intent is to use these kinds of lower cost tubes in machine production environment with associated production volumes experience has taught us this will probably not work out well.
Whether you are using a machine injector or a pure play high volume cigarette rolling machine a lower grade of tubes will not hold up to the pressure inherit in the manufacturing process – some percentage of your cigarettes will burst as you try to produce them or worse fall apart when you fire them up.
Also, lower cost tubes can taste harsh and the burn characteristics can be poor too, with an uneven burn produced as you smoke the cigarette.
Recognizing pipe tobacco has a certain shelf life in spite of what some manufacturers tell you. In our experience and based on talking with thousands of customers the last ten years a good pipe tobacco will stake “smoke-able” for 30-90 days and that’s assuming its a well made product and it has been stored properly.
Yes. you can revive pipe tobacco that has dried out on you and pleas review our video below pulled from our YouTube channel.
Here are the three types of pipe tobacco:?
Aromatic pipe tobacco: during the actual manufacturing process “casings” are added to the tobacco depending on how the manufacturer wants to impact the flavor.
- “Casings” is just an industry term for flavoring agents and these can range from the ordinary to the mundane: rum, apple, chocolate, vanilla, cherry, strawberry, blueberry. The volume of the actual casings also define whether or not the pipe tobacco is categorized as semi-aromatic or just lightly aromatic.
- Using casings as an additive or flavoring agent is a common industry practice and don’t believe all of the marketing materials “around” organic – this designation is commonly thrown around by some manufacturers and it may not mean a whole lot. This is of course true for many consumer products, not just pipe tobacco.
Non aromatic pipe tobacco: as the term implies, this is pipe tobacco that derives all of its flavors and aromas purely from the actual tobacco, with no extra ingredients.
- In some cases the tobacco may be fermented or aged to give it more sweetness. A basic mild sweet tasting Virginia tobacco can taste dramatically different based on not only how it is aged but also how it is stored across the retail distribution process.
- All of our pipe tobacco products are stored properly in a temperature controlled warehouse; this is not always the case with some retailers and this can and does impact the flavor of the pipe tobacco you are buying.
English blend pipe tobacco: up until the late 1980’s additives of any kind were not allowed in tobacco made in the UK – over time the term evolved to mean non aromatic tobaccos in general, whether or not it was or is accurate for certain manufacturers is a difficult issue to “run to ground.”
- Like aromatic or non aromatic terminology, this descriptive phrase is not always accurate as it could or should be.
Today a real English blend is considered to be any pipe tobacco blend that contains just oriental sourced tobaccos, with a mixture of Latakie, which helps to define whether the pipe tobacco is mild, medium or a full bodied rich tasting “classic” English blend.
- Here in the U.S. this term; i.e. “English blend” is somewhat more loosely applied to a broader type of pipe tobacco. Frankly, some manufacturers use the term more for branding than as a definition of the taste of the pipe tobacco.
As we share with many of your on the phone, pipe tobacco and cigar selection is always a subjective process. If you are early in the process of selecting a pipe tobacco product or a cigar give us a call. All of our staff are either pipe tobacco or cigar smokers and we are knowledgeable about the products we sell.
This blog post about "Pipe Tobacco" was first published on our website here https://windycitycigars.com/blog-cigar/five-issues-every-pipe-tobacco-smoker-needs-to-know-to-live-large/
This blog post about "Pipe Tobacco" was first published on our website here https://windycitycigars.com/blog-cigar/five-issues-every-pipe-tobacco-smoker-needs-to-know-to-live-large/
