Burley tobacco is a light air-cured tobacco used primarily for cigarette production. A low-sugar, high nicotine, slow-burning tobacco with a very subtle flavor. In pipe tobacco, burley is often used as a base for aromatics or to modify the burning characteristics of a blend. In the United States it is produced in an eight state belt with approximately 70% produced in Kentucky. Tennessee produces approximately 20% with smaller amounts produced in Indiana, North Carolina, Missouri, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia.
Stoving (the process of literally cooking the tobacco) darkens a tobacco and changes its taste, usually reducing tongue bite. Humi-discs can be soaked in distilled water and kept with your tobacco to rehydrate dried tobacco or to help keep new tobacco fresher for longer… check the humidifier after a couple of days and re-soak as necessary. Dunhill 965 was discontinued in the UK in 2018, however Peterson of Dublin relaunched this classic tobacco range under their own name. The name may have changed but the recipe is EXACTLY the same – it is made from a blend of brown Cavendish and light Orient tobaccos with a little Latakia leaf which when combined offers a cool smoke. Captain Black remains one of the best-selling Pipe Tobacco in Cans brands in the world, together with Davidoff or Erinmore.
Electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) and electronic non-nicotine delivery systems (ENNDS), commonly referred to as e-cigarettes, are devices which heat a liquid to create an aerosol which is then inhaled by the user. The main constituents of the solution by volume are propylene glycol, with or without glycerol, and flavouring agents. E-cigarettes do not contain tobacco but are harmful to health and are not safe.
Often ice, cough-drops, milk, or fruit juice is added to the water. Traditionally, the tobacco is mixed with a sweetener, such as honey or molasses. Modern hookah smokers, especially in the US, smoke “me’assel”, “moassel”, “molasses” or “shisha”, all names for the same wet mixture of tobacco, molasses/honey, glycerine, and often, flavoring. This style of tobacco is smoked in a bowl with foil or a screen (metal or glass) on top of the bowl.
These torquettes are put into barrels under extreme pressure, and allowed to cure in their own juices (which collect as run-off at the top of the barrels). Over the course of many months, these bundles are periodically “turned”, and then placed again under pressure in the barrels. Without any air to interact with the tobacco, Perique ferments anaerobically, producing the distinctive taste. Oriental tobacco plants characteristically have a great deal of small leaves. The finished product ranges in color from yellow to brown, and is strongly aromatic. Its smell is reminiscent of used horse bedding, which could possibly explain why it’s often mixed with Latakia.
Old, well-smoked meerschaum pipes are valued by collectors for their distinctive coloring. 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 (sometimes called a “ghost”). Many smokers will not go so far, but might dedicate pipes to certain blends or types of tobaccos. One set of pipes for, say, Cavendish blends and another set of pipes for aromatics and Orientals.
For this reason, clay pipes in particular are often held by the stem. Meerschaum pipes are held in a square of chamois leather, with gloves, or else by the stem in order to prevent uneven coloring of the material. Many modern briar pipes are pre-treated by the manufacturer to resist burning. Another technique is to alternate a half-bowl and a full-bowl the first several times the pipe is used to build an even cake. With care, a briar pipe can last a very long time without burning out.