The Oldest Available Pipe Tobacco Blend

[anthonyrosenthal74]

I've been planning on ordering a tavern pipe for some time. I'm actually surprised I haven't done so yet, as they are quite affordable. I just think it would be kind of nice to kick back, perhaps while watching a movie like The Patriot, or Last of The Mohicans, and really getting into the period... perhaps I'll wear attire true to the period such as a tri-corner hat lol. Anyway, if I'm going to do this, I think I should do so while smoking a blend that's been around for a good long while. I understand Grousemoor has been around since the 1790's so I suppose that's a blend that's going to be quite similar to what people may have smoked in a clay pipe back then. But what are some other blends that have stood the test of time? What blends could be close to what Benjamin Franklin may have smoked? Or what men in a tavern whispering among themselves of revolution might have smoked? :D

 

[northernneil]

If you're trying to find a ture to the past pipe experience, around the time period you are referencing, I think you would need something like a North American Aboriginal peace pipe ceremony. I know those are still practiced today using traditional tobaccos such as kanikinihk (not sure about the proper spelling). But I'm pretty sure the tobaccos smoked during the 1800's were processed very differently than any tobacco processed today.

 

[jgriff]

I think alot of the original Sam Gawaith & G&H blends started as snuff. I don't think pipe tobacco blends really started until the second half of the 19th century. Before that. I think tobacco was just something bought in bulk (or home grown). I think Ben Franklin probably would have taken a whole leaf tobacco and tore it into smokable pieces. If you wanted to be really authentic, I would get a whole leaf virginia or burley and go to town. Otherwise, a straight virginia or Sir Walter Raleigh are probably the closest I can think of.

 

[judcole]

I doubt if anyone tore up a leaf 200 years ago, but tobacco processing has changed so much, I doubt if there is much around that is close to what they smoked then, either.

You might want to look at Iwan Ries; they have been around a very long time,and I know some of their blends go way back. But even then, we are talking early 20th century.

 

[piperl12]

I heard Ben was partial to 1Q but then I failed American History beings as that I am a Canuk :rofl:

 

[pitchfork]

There were definitely processed tobaccos around in the 18th century. Ropes have been around since at least that long -- they even appear in engravings and illustrations from the period. Plus, by the 1790s (or earlier), Europeans were well familiar with different varieties of Oriental tobaccos, including Latakia, Yenidje and others. I say the 1790s because I've seen a travel account from then that discusses these tobaccos.
I don't think there were distinct brands or blends available in the eighteenth century (at least none that we know about), but what tobacco was around was highly processed.
Of course clay pipes were very common throughout the nineteenth century, so even a nineteenth-century blend (like Grousemoor) would be appropriate in a clay.

 

[pitchfork]

OK, I take back what I said about 18th-c. brand names. Anthony, maybe you should be smoking "Martin's Best Virginia":

Or "Hiatt's Fine Mild Old Virginia":

 

[iwbiek]

If you wanted to be really authentic, I would get a whole leaf virginia or burley and go to town.

yeah, and lose your lunch.

 

[jgriff]

You won't lose your lunch. It's not raw tobacco. Whole leaf is still cured and dried. People buy it for RYO cigarettes all the time even today.
Thinking about it, Franklin probably would have smoked the expensive re-imported English brands which still wouldn't have been blends but single varietal leaf. But the less wealthy were using generic whole leaf well into the Civil War as chew or pipe tobacco.
There are some guys around here who used to work in the tobacco industry and did smoke the uncured tobacco....and said it would make you lose your lunch.

 

[lraisch]

My understanding is that Samuel Gawith has been making pipe tobaccos since 1792. One of the machines they use has been there since their founding and they bought it used!

I imagine that their 1792 blend or any straight Virginia would be reasonably authentic.

 

[buster]

I don't know about blends but aren't ropes and twists very old styles of tobacco?
http://www.leafonly.com/braided_tobacco_twists.php
https://mistersnuff.com/catalog/twist-tobacco-c-186.html?osCsid=699e882833d9a55da480c50a28b2894b

 

[tarak]

I was going to suggest a rope or twist. Word on the street is they are Nicotine monsters though.

 

[anthonyrosenthal74]

Thanks everyone. I was under the impression that Samuel Gawith had been around that long as well. As of now I'm narrowing it down to the Samuel Gawith Grousemoor, 1792, or perhaps a Gawith & Hogarth rope such as the Brown Irish X. I'm not afraid of the nicotine, I smoke cigarrettes (cutting down and working toward quiting). Since SG's machine was used I have to imagine other companies were preparing pipe tobacco before 1790 so I suppose their blends were somewhat similar to other popular blends of the day that may have been around for some time. Looks like my quest is possible. Thanks again everyone for your input :D

 

[daytonsean]

If you plan on going with the 1792 flake, pick a pipe for it and dedicate it. It's fairly good but mighty hard to get rid of.

 

[anthonyrosenthal74]

That's what the clay pipe is for, Sean. I heard they don't ghost.

 

[pylorns]

Thinking about it, Franklin probably would have smoked the expensive re-imported English brands which still wouldn't have been blends but single varietal leaf. But the less wealthy were using generic whole leaf well into the Civil War as chew or pipe tobacco.

He may have some - leading up to the problems, but also remember he spent much of his time during the war in France. Tobacco was such an important commodity during that time that we (Franklyn) used it to obtain loans from France to help finance the war.
Now as far as American Pipe Tobacco:

1760: BUSINESS: Pierre Lorillard establishes a "manufactory" in New York City for processing pipe tobacco, cigars, and snuff. P. Lorillard is the oldest tobacco company in the US. From here:

http://www.historian.org/bysubject/tobacco2.htm

 

[misterlowercase]

I've recently been reading Tobacco Culture: The Mentality of the Great Tidewater Planters on the Eve of Revolution, a great book if you're interested in such things.
Here's a little bit about typology ---
Two major types of tobacco constituted the bulk of the crop grown in Virginia from about 1650 to the 1730s: sweet-scented and Orinoco. The milder, sweet-scented tobacco was unique to Virginia and traces back to about 1650, when Edward Digges planted seeds of the Orinoco variety of tobacco on Digges Neck, a tract of land he had acquired on the York River. There the soil was sandy and poor, but the leaf was what the Old World had been waiting for: light-colored, aromatic, and mild. ED or E. Dees tobacco, as it was known (for Digges's initials on the hogsheads), demonstrated that the differences in soil quality were as important to the product as the differences in tobacco varieties. Soon every Virginian was trying to produce this sweet-scented tobacco.
Sweet-scented tobacco was considered by the English to be the best in the world, but the stronger Orinoco found a market in continental Europe. Ultimately, Orinoco became more popular even with English smokers—in 1735, a London merchant wrote to John Carter that tobacconists there had found "among the common Tobacco … some as good as the most celebrated crops." Thus the tobacconists were using better grades of Orinoco instead of sweet-scented and their customers were still buying the product. By the end of the eighteenth century, Orinoco tobacco dominated the market.
------------
To be authentic as possible, you'd have to avoid any flue-cured tobacco, so 1792 is a good choice because it's fire-cured, however, it's African leaf from Tanzania which wouldn't have been available back then...
...you may be able to source tobacco from a historical society, like Jamestown or Williamsburg, I have no idea...
One good bet for the American style may be something like this:

http://www.lilbrown.com/p-9336-cotton-boll-plug-single.aspx
Or maybe look for period tobacco via reeactor suppliers?
Regardless,

sounds like you'll enjoy the experience however you see fit, as it's the mental aspect that's most important anyway.

 

[pitchfork]

To be authentic as possible, you'd have to avoid any flue-cured tobacco

So most tobacco was air-cured back then, or fire cured? If air-cured, then that basically leaves burleys and darks for authenticity, but burley wasn't developed until the 19th century. Were darks being planted back in the 18th century?

 

[iwbiek]

ugh, do not care for 1792. that tonquin ruined it for me.
my tastes are not so refined that "ghosting" has ever been a problem for me.

 

[anthonyrosenthal74]

Thanks for that link misterlowercase I'm definitely going to read that. :D