Pipe Tobacco

Pipe tobacco is tobacco prepared for smoking in a pipe, and it differs from cigarette tobacco in two respects: it is noticeably more coarsely cut and kept noticeably moister. Neither of these two properties is arbitrary. Leaf cut too finely packs tightly in the bowl and restricts airflow; leaf that has lost its moisture burns quickly and is spent before it can release its flavor.

Nearly all commercial products are made not from a single leaf variety but from a combination of several varieties in set proportions; this combination is called a blend.

The Leaves That Make Up a Blend

Behind hundreds of blends stand a limited handful of core leaf varieties. Virginia is processed by flue-curing, has a high natural sugar content, and forms the backbone of most blends. Burley is air-cured; low in sugar, slow-burning. In the US, roughly seventy percent of Burley production takes place in Kentucky and twenty percent in Tennessee; outside the country, Brazil, Malawi, and Argentina are cited as the main producers.

Latakia is a leaf taking its name from the Syrian port city of Latakia. It is first sun-dried, then left in aromatic wood smoke; Cyprus production uses species such as mastic, myrtle, and Aleppo pine. The resulting smoky character is considered too dominant to be smoked on its own, so Latakia appears in a blend only in accent quantities. Production has over time shifted its weight from Syria to Cyprus. Oriental tobaccos, native to the eastern Mediterranean, meanwhile bring dried-herb and spice notes to a blend.

Cavendish stands apart from this list because it is not a variety but a method: leaf is pressed into a cake, fermented under fire or steam heat, then sliced. It is most commonly applied to Virginia and Burley. Its name is generally accepted to come from the 16th-century English mariner Sir Thomas Cavendish.