Cavendish People, Cavendish

Cavendish is, as you probably know, not a variety of tobacco, but a way of processing tobacco. American style cavendishes tend to be burley, and heavily cased, so they are really a variety of aromatic. English cavendishes tend to be Virginia tobacco, not heavily flavored, and are used in various blends. Dutch or Danish cavendishes tend to be more lightly flavored, but still are flavored.
Newminster's Black is simply an aromatic, it seems to me, so would be up for discussion as an aro. I don't smoke "cavendishes"m as such; smoked a bunch of Troost Special and Sail Yellow and Ivory back in the day.

With me Cavendish is also getting attention http://dutchpipesmoker.wordpress.com/2013/03/25/candy-cavendish/

I've always been partial to Sutliff PS Black Swan.

Cavendish is everywhere, both as an aromatic and as a blending tobacco. If I remember correctly, it is in the ever

popular 1Q, and I think in Dunhill's Mixture 965, and so many others. I received a nice big bulk bag of Altadis

B-20 black cavendish as a gift, and I find it pleasant, not goopy or flavorless. I also recommend Atlatadis B27

Smooth Black and Golden Cavendish. Cavendish tends to stay lit, delivers fulsome smoke, burns fairly slow

for long deliberative smoking sessions, and usually has a fair to good room note to keep those around you

happy. I love my snappy complex English blends, and the subtlety of Balkans and Virginias and Burleys, but

Cavendish (it IS a process and not a kind of tobacco leaf) has its own separate charm, whatever the origins of

the leaf used might be.

Yes, Dunhill's 965 has cavendish. As does Penzance and many of the other Esoterica English/latakia blends.
Rattray's also uses black cavendish in a number of their blends. Dark Fragrant is virtually all black cavendish, with a pinch of perique.
Bob

I think cavendish is unfairly maligned by many smokers, some of whom like to boast how they would never smoke cavendish or allow only "uncased" or "natural" tobacco to pass their lips (showing an amusing degree of ignorance by claiming such a thing). The problem is that too many American blenders seem to have figured out how to boost their profits by taking lesser quality tobacco, subjecting it to the cavendish process and then dousing it in goopy syrups, thus producing the notorious genre of bulk "American aromatics."

But cavendish doesn't have to be that way. For one thing, there are plenty of good aromatics out there that use higher quality leaf as well as better quality flavoring agents (applied in reasonable amounts). Unflavored black cavendish can make a delicious base tobacco, and when added judiciously to an English, Balkan or even a Va/Per the effect can be profound. Two Friend's "Redwood," for instance (which was created by C. Tarler and Greg Pease) is one of the best presentations of cavendish I've ever experienced. It's basically a very stout Va/Per, but a generous quantity of red virginia cavendish is added to increase the sweetness and smooth out the smoke. This ability to "smooth out" a blend is, in my mind, the best attribute of cavendish. It can tie a blend together, reduce bite and tame any harshness. As others have pointed out, it's often been used in latakia-forward blends for much the same reason. 965 and the Balkan Sobranie White are two classic examples, with Northwoods being a great contemporary English mixture that gets it right.

It's also worth noting that one can subject just about any tobacco to the cavendish process. For instance, I believe that the original Frog Morton gets its unique qualities from subjecting both the virginias and the latakia to the process. A lot of guys are convinced that the Frog is some kind of closet aromatic, but I sincerely believe (based on some home blending experiments) that they simply applied the cavendish process to the latakia, creating an exceedingly sweet and mild English that's different from everything else on the market. I'm not a huge fan of the Frog, btw, because it is FAR too mild, but I do appreciate it for what it is.

Anyhow, enough of my rambling! You asked for our favorite cavendishes, so here's my short list:

Northwoods (English)

Redwood (Va/Per)

Shortcut to Mushrooms (latakia-based aromatic)

Haddo's Delight (Va/Per)

Smokies Smoke-Ease (a Gatlin-Burlier house Englsih blend that is heavy on the orientals)

Autumn Evening (red VA cavendish-based aromatic)

Good analysis, doctorthoss. Cavendish is a staple of so many fine blends, and the better examples are

quite pleasing on their own.

For me, cavendish is a processed condiment tobacco in some of the blends I enjoy.
It is rare indeed that I smoke something that's all or most all cavendish so, of course, it's not something I look for or pay much attention to most of the time.

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Likewise.

A flake - like SG FVF - is not a cavendish. Note these definitions, from http://www.tobaccopipesdictionary.com/

Cavendish Cavendish is a method treating tobacco, not a type of tobacco. Cavendish is mainly produced from Virginia and Burley tobaccos, and happens by steaming the tobacco, and then storing it under pressure for several days (or weeks), to allow it to ferment.

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Flake A type of tobacco produced by being compacted under great pressure and heated for days at a time, producing cakes of tobacco which when taken from the press are guillotined into thin slices.

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A cavendish is steamed before it is pressed, where a flake is not.

A cavendish is steamed before it is pressed, where a flake is not.

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Not entirely true. FVF IS steamed. But like rogermugs says, only for a fraction of the time. Samuel Gawith tends to steam their tobaccos a lot.
And in the 'ol days English cavendish (NOT English black cavendish) was made without steam which made the process similar to that of flakes. Only the pressing time was longer.
So I guess sometimes there is a thin line between cavendish and flakes.

Then I guess the definitions in the pipe dictionary don't go far enough. ::

I have a question on cavendesh I love the taste esp the black variety but I find most of the ones I smoke tongue bite the hell out of me Ive tred drying more smoking slower etc can any one help me with this or suggest better blends Ive tried lanes IQ, McClealand black vsnilla cav , and all the captain black blends .Im a bit new to cavendesh so any help or advise would be appreciated I o like both the room note and tase just not having my mouth destroyed lol ty

Ty Mike I shall definalty seek out a plain black cavendish seeing as the blend i had i did like and in not overly into cased tobaccos if i can avoid it any brand suggestions or recomendations esp easily available one its slim picking in my area

Maybe you should try this one: Planta Black Vanilla. Planta proud themselves on having tobaccos that don't bite. and I must say, Black Vanilla never bit me..

TY Arno sounds interesting may have to order some and bonus upon reading the reviews it comes in flake

I'm very new to pipe smoking and it's tobacco. But I have to say that the very first tobacco I've smoked was a Cavendish. I bought it at the B&M. It's a bulk called Seville. It is my first love