-
Kevin Godbee - Jun 1, 2011
- 6 min read
By Russ Ouellette
Virginia or Brightleaf or Flue Cured … whatever you want to call it, it’s one of the most widely used strains of tobacco for pipe smokers. You’ll find it in Latakia blends, aromatics and even Virginia blends (who knew?). It’s a versatile leaf with characteristics that make it suitable for a wide variety of purposes, but how much do you know about it?
Virginia flue cured tobacco originally came from … North Carolina. A farmer found that when a batch of leaf was exposed to high heat, the tobacco turned yellow and that it had very desirable characteristics. Over time, a method was developed to be able to consistently grow and cure what became known as Brightleaf.
Virginia tobacco has a high sugar content with relatively low oils. This makes Virginia the compliment to Burley, which is high in oil, but low in sugar, so they may both be used in a blend to create balance. There are a number of types of Virginia, and each has unique properties.
Yellow Virginia is usually the sweetest kind, being lemon to banana yellow and having a noticeable acidity to it with distinct citrus notes. Bright Virginia usually is a mixture of yellow and orange, possibly with a bit of red, and is less sharp than yellow, but with a little more depth to the flavor. Orange is a touch less sweet still, and has more of a hay-like quality, and red is more toasty with bread-like notes and noticeably less sugar. The term "brown Virginia" usually refers to matured flue cured. To mature the leaf, heat, pressure, aging or any combination thereof may be used. This normally deepens the flavor and increases the nicotine content. Finally, stoved Virginia is actually (typically) yellow Virginia that is roasted on a metal surface until it turns black. This caramelizes the sugars and brings out a fruitiness that can add a nice dimension to a mixture.
Brightleaf is often used to make flake tobaccos, as the combination of heat and pressure brings out wonderful properties. Many flakes will have a pouch aroma of dried fruits like prune, fig or date, sometimes with a hint of chocolate, or it may even take on a baked goods scent. The flavors of flake pressed Virginia become more intense, robust and deeper with a muted sweetness. Some Virginia flakes pack quite a hefty dose of Vitamin N, although many do not. The Lakeland-style Virginias usually have a "kick".
Due to its high sugar content, Virginia can burn a little hot, and if you don’t keep your puffing slow and intermittent, you might wind up with a serious case of leathertongue. This "nip", however, is not the same as tongue bite, which is a cramping type of sensation caused by a chemical reaction. This is one of the reasons that Virginia flakes are popular, as you can slow down the burn rate by keeping the individual flakes more or less intact when loading your pipe. Virginia/Perique blends have quite a following, not only because the combination tastes good, but also because the slow and cool burning Perique can tame the heat of a Virginia quite well.
As I had mentioned earlier, the first recorded examples of Brightleaf came from North Carolina, but it also is grown from Maryland down through the Carolinas, and in other states as well. It is also grown in Canada, a number of African countries, from Central America to Brazil and in Europe and Asia. Since it grows reasonably well in even poorer soil, it is one of the easier strains to cultivate. Of course, the flavor will vary depending upon where it’s produced. American flue cured, for example, tends to be quite sweet, but some of the African is less so, and would be used where a "drier" flavor is desired. How the name "Virginia" wound up being used to describe flue cured Brightleaf isn’t totally clear, as Virginia is only one of many mid-Atlantic areas which produce it, and the state was never the biggest grower of the leaf; but through common use, the name has stuck, so Virginia it is.
Virginia plants are actually very attractive, with beautiful bell-like flowers somewhat like a lily. For general use, the buds are removed to allow more nutrients to go to the leaves. The ones that are left to flower are normally used for their seeds, for future germination.The leaves are relatively small, ranging from a little over to a little under a foot, and shaped like an elongated football. This gives the plant a somewhat lower yield than, say, Burley, but top grade Virginias can fetch a decent price.
Virginia tobaccos are used in pipe tobacco, cigarettes, shisha (hookah tobacco), chew, snuff and snus. The natural sweetness allows for fewer additives, especially in cigarettes. Under the old British Commonwealth tobacco laws, only liquor could be used to flavor tobacco. Since liquor would probably not be very effective as a casing or topping for cigarettes due to their higher combustion temperature, naturally flavorful tobacco needed to be used. Dunhill, Rothman’s, Craven ‘A’ and DuMaurier made very popular all-Virginia cigarettes, and Canadian brands such as Export ‘A’ (under Commonwealth rules) were flue cured based as well. Sweet Virginias and fragrant Orientals are among the few types of leaf that can be used without much in the way of added flavors, and so have been often used for cigarettes. Less flavorful tobaccos like white Burley and Maryland are used by manufacturers in countries that permit added flavors.
I love working with flue cured tobacco, as it’s a great way of sweetening, mellowing or balancing a blend, and although most Virginias are cased, it doesn’t require a strong casing to mitigate its negative properties, such as excess acidity or sharpness. As I run through a list of some of the great all-time pipe tobaccos, I can’t think of too many examples that don’t contain at least a modicum of Brightleaf.
McClelland is known for their amazing Virginias. Their Christmas Cheer is an annual must-buy for a Brightleaf fan, and their 5100 is the archetype of a red Virginia Cavendish. Many other iconic tobaccos such as Rattray’s Hal O’ The Wynd and Marlin Flake and Lane’s MV-1000 are Virginias.
Call it by whatever name you prefer, Virginia is usually one of the first elements to be considered in putting together a blend, and I enjoy loading a bowl of straight red, red and stoved, or yellow and red from time to time, without adding any other tobaccos. And if it weren’t for the accident of exposing leaves to high, indirect heat, we wouldn’t have Virginia tobaccos today. I guess that not all mistakes are bad.
|
Russ Ouellette is the blender/creator of the Hearth & Home series of tobaccos for Habana Premium Cigar Shoppe and www.pipesandcigars.com in Albany, NY. He has been a pipe smoker and blender for over 30 years, and enjoys feedback from the pipe smoking public. You can reach Russ at russo@pipesandcigars.com or by calling 1-800-494-9144 on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 9 am to 5 pm and Friday from 1 pm to 5 pm. |
Written by Kevin Godbee
More Pipes and Tobaccos Articles
19 Responses
Smokingpipes.com Updates
6 Fresh Winslow Pipes |
9 Fresh Dunhill Pipes |
108 Fresh Savinelli Pipes |
3 Fresh Emiliano Pipes |
24 Fresh Rossi Pipes |
Recent Posts
Ok, so it’s that time of year, as we all know. Family feasts, houses, yards, and big trees festooned with lights and dangling ornaments, just high enough to keep the cats from reaching a paw into the greenery. It’s also the time of year when your pipe-smoking-significant other makes vast hints about a new pipe. That’s to be expected since he or she was a good boy or girl during the year. Yes, ladies smoke pipes, too. Oh, you want an example? Okay, try Actress Greta Garbo, Millicent Fenwick, Mary Frith, and my late grandmother (who died when she was 93) dipped snuff and smoked a cob occasionally. So now that we have settled that the gentler side of life will puff a pipe too, let’s move on to the upcoming biggest holiday of all. Of course, that huge event is brought to us by the hefty fellow in a red suit, puffing his pipe all the way in a sled filled with presents, being led by a reindeer with a red nose. Or some such. That’s Santa Claus, of course. Becoming a bit more serious, Christmas is such a wonderful time for families and friends. It’s also quite special for pipe puffers. For many of us, this brings up a nostalgic look back to our pipe-smoking or cigar-smoking friends who have died during the current year. A great journalist pal whom I often joined in a local brick-and-mortar pipe and cigar shop. I puffed my pipe, and occasional cigar, as he enjoyed a cigar. He died in October and will be missed. On the happier side of things, Christmas is also a time when mind workers of the world renew their collections with fresh additions. Pundit included. A French passion has overtaken Pundit, from reading more Albert Camus, a heavy cigarette smoker, as were many French intellectuals of a certain time. Instead of cigarettes many of us prefer the more relaxed enjoyment of pipes for that “calm and objective judgment” in the comings and goings of the world. This brings me to French pipes. While visiting France once in the long ago, I happened by a “Tabac” shop in Paris, Tabac Des Vosges. I purchased a beauty of a Chacom bent. I also later bought a Ropp made from ancient briar. To learn more about the dawn of briar pipes and beginnings, take a peek at a well-done piece by Davin Hylton in Pipe Line on April 12, 2023, on Saint-Claude, France, the birthplace of briar. Also in the long back when, on a cold Christmas afternoon, Pundit wandered into an Atlanta bricks and mortar pipe shop to look around. There, resting in an enclosed glass counter was an exquisite Comoy. An older gent, smoking a beautiful bent, asked me if I wanted to look at that pipe. It had a $100 price tag. A college student working for a grocery store chain to help with college tuition at the time, Pundit didn’t have one hundred cents, let alone a C note! I declined and found a $5 basket pipe. A Christmas tradition had just begun. Since that early time, Pundit has made it a holiday ritual to either reward himself, or a special friend, with pipe or tobacco. A Claudio Cavicchi would be nice. Just sayin.’ And now for a couple of December-born Pipe Smokers of the Past: Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born on Dec. 30, 1865, and died on Jan. 18, 1936. I always prefer to believe the best of everybody; it saves so much trouble—Rudyard Kipling. Martin Van Buren, born Dec. 5, 1782, and died July 24, 1862, U.S. President, 1837-1841 As to the presidency, the two happiest days of my life were those of my entrance upon the office and my surrender of it—Martin Van Buren. And one more note to recall a deceased World War II veteran who loved William Somerset Maugham, the author. Maugham, a pipe smoker, was born in Paris, France, on Jan. 25, 1874, and died on Dec. 16, 1965. One cool afternoon as the veteran and I talked while sitting in his backyard patio, he looked off into the distance as if studying something. Nothing in particular. Just looking. He turned to me and said if I wanted to learn about life, “read Somerset Maugham.” I did. It wasn’t until late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say, ‘I don’t know’ –W. Somerset Maugham And now a Parting Shot: Any day with an old friend with pipes and tobacco is a good day.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 637. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Nate King. Most people know of Nate as an excellent pipe artisan. He also has an honorary Master of Pipes degree from the Chicagoland Pipe Collectors Club, and is a member of the prestigious Confrérie des Maitres Pipiers de Saint-Claude. To be inducted into the Confrérie, this past May Nate travelled to Saint-Claude, France with master tobacco blender G.L. Pease, who was also inducted. It was quite a time in France, and at the ceremony. We’ll hear all about those adventures on the show. At the top of the show we’ll continue the virtual tour of Brian’s pipe collection with six of his Satou Dublin-shape pipes.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 636. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Barry Kane. Barry started smoking a pipe in 1961 when he was 14-years old. Back then it seemed like everybody smoked, and you could buy pipes and tobacco just about anywhere. Barry is a true old-school pipe smoker, sticking to just one blend. See if you can guess which one before listening. At the top of the show Brian will give his take on Scandinavian Tobacco Group’s purchase of Mac Baren and Sutliff Tobacco and their announcement that they will be shut down.
There’s a pipe in my collection that I cannot bring myself to smoke, though I’ve had it for more years than I care to recall. It’s old, or shall I say, well experienced; that experience, that oldness came to it long before it was in my possession. The pipe is an old Comoy’s Grand Slam from the 1940s. The shape (#93), a slightly canted, stack billiard (sometimes referred to as a Belgian) is right up my alley, and it’s a beautiful example of it. It came to me with some wear and tear; nothing unusual for an old pipe, but more the signs of one that has been well loved, smoked a lot, treated as a favorite tool, cherished, in a sense, by frequent use. It’s the pipe equivalent of a vintage car that’s been driven a lot, enjoyed fully and maintained adequately, rather than one kept in a spotless garage, dusted and detailed weekly, brought out only for leisurely Sunday drives, or to be ogled behind the ropes at the next Concours d’Elegance. When it arrived, those uncounted years ago, it wanted a little restoration. Nothing dramatic needed to be done to it, but the stem was oxidized, the finish a little dingy. The cake was even and fairly thin, and the airway was relatively clean, both signs that its previous owner cared for it, but the bowl’s surface was a little drab and dull. It took little effort to reveal its beauty, to show the lovely contrasted stain and interesting grain beneath the old wax. I often think I should do before and after photos of pipes that I work on, but those thoughts always come after the work’s been done. This one would have been a great illustration of how years of handling that can sometimes make a pipe more beautiful, can other times make it just look grungy. Once I’d cleaned up the externals, it was time to address the inside bits. I approach this a little bassackwards, I realize. It would be more sensible to take care of the inside before addressing the outside, but it’s how I roll. If an old pipe isn’t pretty to look at, it’s unlikely that I’ll care much about it, and cleaning is usually the hardest part, or at least the most boring part of any restoration for me. Alcohol and pipe cleaners. Lots of pipe cleaners. That’s why I leave it for last. Sometimes, I’ll even give a pipe a test smoke before a deep cleaning, just for a point of reference. I gave it a sniff to get an idea of what I was up against, and it stopped me cold. There in that bowl was an aroma that I had not smelled in decades. My head was instantly filled with memories of being in the back room of a fabled Berkeley tobacconist’s shop where I stumbled upon a few jars of long discontinued blends. One of them, a blend called Forty and Eight, had the most engaging and unusual scent of any tobacco I’d stuck my schnoz into. It was sweet, but not in a candy store way. There were none of the usual vanilla, cherry, berry or anise notes of typical aromatics, nothing that could be compared to aftershave or deodorant soap, but something almost musky, a little earthy, something exotic. The shop’s owner couldn’t tell me what was in it, how, or where it had been produced. The old blend had been retired before he’d bought the place. The printed catalogue gave no clues, either, other than being overprinted with the word “DISCONTINUED” in bold, rubber-stamp type. (And, I don’t recall it as being “highly aromatic” as the description indicates.) There was still quite a bit in the jar. Being, at that point, an intrepid explorer of all kinds of tobaccos, whether I thought I’d like them or not, I had to give it a try. It was burly based, but also comprised a good measure of virginia leaf, and maybe some other varieties; I didn’t have enough experience at the time to really pick it apart. But, that aroma was unlike anything I’d experienced before or since. It was something now completely lost to time. Until it wasn’t. Memories are powerful things, and there is no sense more tightly bound to memory than our sense of smell. One whiff was all it took to carry me back in time, conjuring a vivid recollection of something long submerged in the inky depths of a subconscious mind. Look, I know as well as anyone that pipes are meant to be smoked, and that many feel it almost sacrilegious to have a pipe and not set it to its intended task. In this case, I simply can’t. I won’t. Ever. Rationally, I am fairly certain this pipe would probably be a great smoke. It was too well loved by its previous caretaker to be anything less than that. My choice not to smoke it is an emotional one, not something rational. Of the thousands of pipes that have passed through my hands over the years, this is the only one to create such a singular and vivid, almost Proustian recollection of temps perdu, of lost time. It revivified a long dormant memory that is mine, and mine alone, and that’s enough. I keep it in a drawer with other old English pipes. In some ways, it’s nothing special, just a nice old pipe. I don’t lavish it with any particular care that arguably befits the hidden treasure that it holds. It’s not in a special box, or displayed preciously in a glass cabinet. Every once in a while, I take it out, point my nose bowlwards, and every time, those memories return just as powerfully as they did the first time. I have no idea how long it’s been since its last owner smoked it, but in the years I’ve had it, there seems to have been very little degradation of the aroma, and that’s […]
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 635. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with James Ravenwood. James is the boutique tobacco blender of Ravenwood Blends. His blending started out as a fun hobby, and he now has professionally packaged commercially available products with some great tin art. Part of his interest in pipe smoking goes back to fond memories of a retired Navy Veteran that lived on his street while he was growing up that would sit in his driveway smoking a pipe all day. Later, in 2011 he began smoking pipes and soon after started experimenting with mixing different tobaccos. His other hobby, that he has been doing for 30 years, is photography. He takes wonderful photos of outdoor spaces, and still life pictures of pipes and tobacco. You can see them on his Instagram @thebriarfellowship. At the top of the show we’ll have an Ask the Pipemaker segment with renowned pipe artisan Jeff Gracik.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 634! Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Warren Ertle. Warren is an extremely accomplished musician with a PhD in music. He started early as a percussionist in sixth grade. Later his grandmother got him a cheap Casio keyboard which he taught himself to play. He started playing in blues bands in high school, and has been a pianist with jazz big bands for years. Even though he was already a professional musician, he took his first real piano lesson when he enrolled in college with his studies in classical music. He is of course a pipe smoker. At the top of the show we will have an Ask the Tobacco Blender segment with Jeremy Reeves. Jeremy is the Head Blender at Cornell & Diehl, which is one of the most popular boutique pipe tobacco companies in the USA.
Thanks for a marvelously well written discussion of this mainstay tobacco variety. Your knack for organization and clarity make it both an informative and an entertaining read. It is amazing how many blend variations are possible based on cultivation region, processing technique, and mixing proportions. Fascinating stuff, Mr. Ouellette!
Great article. I knew that Virginia, like a lot of other tobaccos, was transplated into many different areas including different countries, but I never knew it was started in North Carolina. Kinda makes you wonder why they didn’t call it North Carolina. At any rate, I love my aromatic Virginia based blends. Thanks for giving me a better understanding of the leaf.
Excellent info. The high quality articles being posted here are really making this site one of the top tobacco resources.
Very informative. Thanks, Russ!
interisting article.
Great article Russ! I can’t wait for other articles explaining other types of leaf.
Thanks, as always for sharing your knowledge Russ. Bit by bit we become more informed
great job.
One of the best explanations on Virginia leaf terminology I have read to date. One more question for you Russ:
What is ‘fermentation’? Is it different from curing and aging? My thought is that fermentation is different than both and it has to do with sweating out undesirable chemicals and compounds, akin to controlled composting (at this is what I’ve read about cigar leaf). I do not know what fermentation does to the taste (besides taking out undesirable flavors) or if burley is fermented.
Great stuff Russ ! Very informative
Fermentation is the chemical breakdown of organic matter, usually through the use of heat, bacterial action and/or pressure (which helps to generate heat). Making wine, compost, maturing tobacco and tea leaves are all examples of fermentation. Burley is fermented when processed for cigars (Parodi and DeNobili toscani-type cigars are made from fermented Kentucky and Tennessee Burley (I believe that the tobacco is actually triple-fermented). Fermentation is also a part of digestion, which answers the question “Why does cigar leaf smell like manure?”
Russ
Thank you Russ. What, if any, Virginia leaf is fermented? Any examples I can try in a H&H blend to distinguish from Virginia leaf not fermented?
The brown Lakeland Virginias are, more or less, fermented, and the Acadian or Cajun Black tobaccos (think McClellan’s Royal Cajun) are Virginia that has been smoked (fired)and fermented in much the same way as Perique. I will have a fermented Virginia at some point, but it takes quite a while to process
Russ
If my history classes of long ago serve me correctly, the term “Virginia” (from whence I came) was applied to this particular strain of tobacco, because of the original “Virginia Territory”. This “territory” encompassed all of the mid-Atlantic states mentioned in your article, plus what we know now as Kentucy, Tennessee, Ohio, etc. all the way up to and including Wisconsin. The “territory” also included the Carolinas, the primary source. As you probably already know, Richmond, Virginia was the pinnacle of purchasing, processing and distribution of many tobaccos and their products, I.e.Philip Morris, Sutliffe, Larus Brothers, just to name a few, from the beginning of discovery and settlement (Jamestown, Williamsburg, Yorktown, etc.). Anyway, I hope this might clear up the reason “Virginia Tobacco” is deemed “Virginia”.( If this explanation isn’t true to fact, I didn’t submit this. )
Thanks for that great information rxman!
this site is quickly becoming the Alexandria Library of Tobacco. Thank you Russ!
Ah Virgina’s! One of my favorites!
Great article and thanks!
Great article and helps me in knowing what plant is what has i grew both burley and a variety or virginia and never knew which was which, so top marks old son.
Great article , i just have to add that the extension reach Argentina,where a lot is grown for export,mainly to Europe.
Very cool article. I love learning the history behind our hobby and everything that went into it. Thanks, Russ.