Early Blends?

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rayje589

Can't Leave
Nov 28, 2012
358
0
So I've been playing some Assassins Creed 3 (takes place around the revolutionary war for those who are maybe a bit older and dont pay attention to video games) and noticed they feature pipe smoking. This got me thinking... What kind of tobacco blends were they smoking back in the day? I tried a few google searches but couldn't turn up anything. Any thoughts or ideas what early pipe smokers were in fact smoking?

 

judcole

Lifer
Sep 14, 2011
7,149
32,928
Detroit
As I understand it, "blends" as we know them did not exist then. They did have cavendish, which is a form of processing, not a type of tobacco.

Sam Gawith started business in 1792, so that's not too long after the Revolution.

 

May 31, 2012
4,295
34
More than likely it was an air-cured twist of Nicotiana Rustica, maybe similar to this sold at one of those re-enactment supply shops:

http://www.gggodwin.com/prod-326.htm
Here's a classic horn from the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park:

http://www.nps.gov/museum/exhibits/revwar/image_gal/gucoimg/guco1588pipebox.html

guco1588pipebox.html

Jefferson records that 9,787 pounds of tobacco were made at "Moncello" in 1768.
1770-1790: Tobacco remained the chief crop at Monticello during this time period.
1776: AMERICAN REVOLUTION Along "Tobacco Coast" (the Chesapeake), the Revolutionary War was variously known as "The Tobacco War." Growers had found themselves perpetually in debt to British merchants; by 1776, growers owed the mercantile houses millions of pounds. British tobacco taxes are a further grievance. Tobacco helps finance the Revolution by serving as collateral for the loan Benjamin Franklin won from France--the security was 5 million pounds of Virginia tobacco. George Washington once appealed to his countrymen for aid to the army: "If you can't send money, send tobacco." During the war, it was tobacco exports that the fledgling government used to build up credits abroad. And, when the war was over, Americans turned to tobacco taxes to help repay the revolutionary war debt.

 
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