Cigarette companies snap up most of the Turkish leaf production, and the remainder is made into a generic Turkish blend. This is the Oriental tobacco (often referred to as “basma”) that one finds either in bulk, or in ready-made blends. 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.
The authors interviewed 147 families, primarily in and around Wilkes and Rockingham Counties,
North Carolina, and Richmond and South Richmond, Virginia. Long forgotten today, tobacco bag stringing was a common activity in many
communities. The chunky broken flakes have an appearance similar to certain Mac Baren and Amphora tobaccos. I also tried cube cutting with kindling on top but that didn’t make much of a difference. Mechanically Bag End burns contentedly slow, cool, and evenly supporting the blender’s assertion of a prolonged relaxing experience; that it was.
In some cases, you might notice an improvement, in others, the result will be anything but satisfactory. The jars will seal fine without the “pop” of the slight vacuum that results from cooling. At harvest time, the wilted leaves of the tobacco are hung up to dry for two weeks, stripped of hard veins, and packed into bundles (called torquettes).
So naturally I wanted to try some of the available themed blends out there. So far as of 2021 the only easily obtained commercial versions are Pipe Tobacco from The Country Squire and Just for Him. This blend did not have the complexity and depth that I expected, however, I smoked it brand new.
Heating tobacco that you like is not a good idea, as it will change the character of the blend. Blenders do it in specifically controlled ways – stoving, panning, steaming – to alter the characteristics of the leaf before, and sometimes after blending. But, if you like the way the tobacco “comes together” now, you may be less than happy if you nuke it.
Okay, so we really only kept them around for our own smoking pleasure, but the voice of the masses have spoken and we were strong-armed by you all into sharing. So now we’re offering one of the largest selections of premium pipe tobacco in the area. Each bag comes with fresh seal technology, or as we like to call it, sandwich bag technology.