The Tobacco Shop
Pipe Tobaccos
We offer a full range of special house blends, from the ever-popular fragrant Danish Cavendish style tobaccos and traditional American Burley blends to the finest English mixtures and Matured Virginias. In addition, we have an excellent selection of tinned tobaccos including Ashton, McClelland, Rattray's, Dunhill, Butera "Royal Vintage" pipe tobacco, Gawith and Esoterica Tobacciana. Custom blending is available. Let us know what you like and we'll find just the right blend for you.
Types of tobacco used in smoking mixtures
There are two major types of pipe tobacco grown in various "belts" across the eastern part of the country.
Most Burley is grown in Tennessee and Kentucky. This type of tobacco has less sugar in the leaf and, when air-cured and processed properly, this nut-brown tobacco can be very mild although somewhat stout. The natural nutty flavor and distinctive richness of this type of tobacco appeals to many pipe smokers who have smoked for many years or those smokers who are accustomed to the well-known "commercial" blends. Our Burley blends are of the finest quality are much cleaner than what is commonly available.
The finest Virginias are mostly grown in West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Ranging in color from the zesty, sweeter Golden and Orange Virginias, to the richer, less sweet Orange-Red and Black varieties. Virginia leaf contains more natural sugar than Burley tobacco. When flue cured, it makes for a zesty and colorful addition to a Burley or Cavendish blend and improves the burning quality. When painstakingly processed in a variety of ways and then thoroughly aged in a cake form, this type of pipe tobacco is not only beautiful to look at, but a pleasure to smoke. In general, they have flavors ranging from zesty sweet, citrus-like, and cedar-like overtones of the lighter colors to slightly toasted and nutty flavors of the milder, yet more robust, dark and stoved types.
Cavendish is not a variety of tobacco, it is a style of processing. American and Danish Cavendish blends usually start off as Burley. Burley will soak up flavorings better than Virginias. The leaf is often steamed, which mellows the strength and allows more flavor sauces to soak into the leaf. Popular flavoring agents include vanilla, fruit, whiskey, rum, wine, honey, chocolate, coffee and liquors.
Maryland is much like Burley, and is sometimes used in pipe tobacco blends.
Perique is grown in a small area in St. James Parish, Louisiana. It is a pungent, partially fermented tobacco often blended with Matured Virginias. It enhances the sweetness of the Virginias and provides some richness.
Orientals (Balkan, Macedonian, and Turkish) are grown in a region from Greece and Turkey to Syria and Cyprus. They are a small leafed variety of tobacco and are often used in English Mixtures and Matured Virginias. Their light nutty to woody flavor compliment the sweetness of Virginias and the smoky-sweet flavor of Latakia, a smoke-cured variety of this type.
English Mixtures are Virginia based, often stoved Virginias, usually laden with Latakia and other Orientals. This type of mixture is for the true connoisseur and the stuff pipe dreams are made of. They are somewhat of an acquired taste. But once you get used to the complex mixture of sweet, nutty, woody, smoky, sometimes leather-like flavors of these blends, and their better smoking qualities, there is no turning back.
