Pipe tobacco labels can read like a foreign language: Virginia, Perique, Latakia, Cavendish, flake, plug, broken flake. Once you know what each term means, though, you can pick up almost any tin and have a fair idea of how it will smoke. This guide covers the main tobacco styles, the different cuts and how to handle them, and how to keep your tobacco in good condition.
Virginia: natural sweetness
Virginia tobacco is flue-cured, dried with indirect heat in closed barns. Smokingpipes.com explains that the process preserves the leaf's natural sugars, and flue-cured Virginias can reach 22% sugar or more. That's why they're prized for sweetness, with hay, bready and sometimes fruity or citrus notes. The colour grades run from bright and golden, harvested lower on the plant, through orange and red to mahogany. Pressing and heating (often called stoving) darkens Virginias and deepens their flavour.
- Rub out: roll the flake gently between your palms until it breaks into loose pieces, then fill your pipe as you would with a ribbon cut. The harder you rub, the finer it gets.
- Fold and stuff: fold the flake across the grain, fold it again along the grain, and push it into the bowl. Leave a little room below the rim, as it will expand.
- Roll and stuff: roll the flake lengthways with the grain and push it into the bowl.
From our shelves, Samuel Gawith's Full Virginia Flake and Best Brown Flake are pressed and baked Virginias, and Charatan's Virginia Three Year Matured and Peterson's University Flake are also built on Virginia.
Virginia/Perique: a pinch of spice
Perique is one of the rarest tobaccos in the world. According to Smokingpipes.com, it's processed only in St. James Parish, Louisiana, and fermented in oak barrels under high pressure for around a year. The result is pungent, fruity, earthy and spicy. It's rarely smoked on its own. Traditionally it makes up only three to five per cent of a Virginia blend, used like seasoning to add depth, strength and a hint of dark fruit or pepper. Blends that pair the two are known as "VaPers". Peterson's Balkan Mixture and Robert McConnell's Glen Piper both include a touch of Perique.
English and Balkan: the Latakia blends
Latakia isn't a variety of plant but the result of a process. Oriental leaf is cured over smouldering wood fires for months, until it turns black and smoky. Smokingpipes.com records that Syrian Latakia, the original, ceased production decades ago and that today's Latakia is fire-cured in Cyprus. It brings a campfire, peaty character that Smokingpipes.com likens to a peated Scotch.
Smokingpipes.com defines an English blend by the presence of Latakia, usually alongside Virginia and often Oriental (Turkish) leaf. "Balkan" is used loosely. Some use it for blends dominated by Latakia, others for blends where Oriental tobaccos lead. Good examples include Samuel Gawith's Squadron Leader (Virginias, Latakia and Turkish leaf), its Latakia-forward Commonwealth Mixture and Skiff Mixture, Peterson's Old Dublin, and the traditional English mixtures from Robert Lewis and Chieftain.
Aromatics: flavour added
An aromatic is a blend with a non-tobacco flavour applied late in the process, often called a "topping". Many are built on Cavendish, which is a process rather than a type of leaf: tobacco is treated with heat and pressure to bring out its natural sugars, and it takes on added flavours readily. Makers may also use a "casing", a flavouring applied earlier to the leaf. Aromatics are known for a pleasant room note. Samuel Gawith's Black Cherry (Morello cherry) and Celtic Talisman (kirsch and vanilla), Peterson's Sunset Breeze (amaretto) and Robert McConnell's Maduro Superb (navy rum) are all aromatics.
Burley and dark-fired: the earthy side
Burley is air-cured rather than flue-cured, so it keeps very little sugar. Smokingpipes.com puts the average at around 0.2%. Its character is nutty and cocoa-like rather than sweet, with a peppery edge, and it often forms the body of American-style and aromatic blends.
Dark-fired tobacco, most famously from Kentucky, is cured over smouldering fires to give a rich, smoky, bold leaf. Cornell & Diehl describe it as a "condiment leaf" that adds depth to Virginia and Burley blends. Peterson's Irish Flake combines air-cured, flue-cured and dark-fired leaf in equal parts, and Samuel Gawith's 1792 Flake is a full-strength dark-fired flake with a tonquin scent.
Understanding the cuts
- Ribbon cut: the most familiar form. Long, thin strands that are easy to fill and burn evenly. Shag is an even finer ribbon.
- Plug: a pressed block of tobacco that you slice yourself, as with Peterson's 3P Plug. Smokingpipes.com describes it simply as "uncut flake".
- Flake: tobacco pressed into a cake under high pressure, then sliced into thin, flat pieces. Pressing lets the flavours marry.
- Broken flake and ready rubbed: flakes that have been partly or fully broken up for you, somewhere between a flake and a ribbon.
- Cube cut: small cubes, usually cut from flake. You can make your own with a pair of scissors.
- Rope, twist and curly cut: leaf spun into a rope. Curly cut is the rope sliced into coins, the round equivalent of flake.
How to prepare flake
Flake puts some people off at first, but there are three easy ways to handle it:
If the tobacco feels damp, Smokingpipes.com suggests leaving it out for a few minutes to dry before filling.
Tin or pouch?
Factory-sealed tins are the best way to keep tobacco fresh, and unopened tins can be stored as they are in a cool, dry place. Pouches are convenient and often good value, but they aren't airtight enough for long-term keeping. Once opened, a tin also stops preserving the tobacco perfectly. For either, a glass jar with a good seal, such as a Kilner or Mason jar, is the simplest way to keep your tobacco in good smoking condition.
Storing and ageing tobacco
Keep tobacco somewhere cool and dry, out of direct light. Smokingpipes.com notes that sugar-rich Virginias and Perique tend to improve most with age. Aromatics generally don't improve much, though their flavours may soften. Unopened tobacco keeps ageing while sealed, and Smokingpipes.com notes that ageing stops once the container is opened. It also suggests checking stored tins every year or so, and opening any that show pinpricks of rust. If tobacco has dried out, it can be brought back with careful rehydration. But very dry tobacco loses some of its complexity, so a good jar is the better answer.
Shop the guide
You'll find Samuel Gawith, Peterson, Charatan, Chieftain, Robert Lewis, Kendal, Rattray's and Robert McConnell in our pipe tobacco range. Pair them with a Peterson from our pipes collection and pick up pipe cleaners and other essentials in accessories. You can see everything together on our tobacco and pipes page, or come and talk tobacco with us at 57 Market Place, Long Eaton.