Virginia Tobacco NOT from Virginia!?!?!
-
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
Recent Posts
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 541! We have a pipe personalities packed show tonight. We’ve been running two different series with two different prominent pipe collectors and authors. We have “Inside Fred’s Head” with Fred Hanna. He is the author of the book, “The Perfect Smoke”, and known for collecting straight grain pipes. The other series is a follow-up to Fred, “Rich Responds” with Rich Esserman. Rich has penned innumerous articles about pipes and tobacco for several publications, and he is known for collecting quite large pipes. We’ll be featuring the final remnants of those two series all in this show. As if that’s not enough, at the top of the show our segment will feature pipe artisan Jeff Gracik with another installment of “Ask the Pipemaker”. Sit back, relax with your pipe, and enjoy The Pipes Magazine Radio Show!
Via Press Release – JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI – January 18, 2023 – For the past ten years, Jon David Cole, owner and operator of The Country Squire Tobacconist, and Beau York, founder of the podcasting company PODASTERY, have been delighting pipe smokers worldwide with their weekly podcast Country Squire Radio. Long time listeners have enjoyed uninterrupted weekly content from the podcast including the celebrated pipe tobacco focused series such as TOBACCO TALK, PIPE CULTURE, SQUIRE SELECT whiskey and pipe tobacco pairings, and PIPE SMOKING 101 as well as the newer series geared to bring the spirit of conversations had over a bowl of premium pipe tobacco amongst good friends such as HALF BOWL HISTORY, FROM THE LIBRARY, and FATHER TO FATHER. As they approach the 500th episode this year, Cole and York have decided the time has come to bring the show to its conclusion with a live recording at The Country Squire in Jackson, Mississippi. “The amount of content for and by the Pipe Community is higher than ever before with newer pipe podcasts, instagramers, youtubers and more” Cole said. “We have enjoyed our tenure representing and at times shepherding a section of the community, but it’s time to increase the spotlight to this next generation of content creators.” Cole and York have often taken cues from their listening audience who, over the years, have made several trips to the famed Country Squire Tobacconist shop in Jackson, MS. This practice has been dubbed a PIPE PILGRIMAGE by fans of the show who have visited the shop that inspired many hours of listening pleasure. “We want to finish strong,” York said. “There is certainly no better way to do this than inviting all of our listeners, who are able to make the trip, to the Country Squire for the grand finale of the show in a Pipe Pilgrimage like no other!” York explained, “we’ll have music, share stories, and record the final episode of Country Squire Radio together, all while enjoying a one of a kind Pipe Tobacco and BBQ pairing of epic proportions.” The Country Squire Radio Finale will be held at the Country Squire, Tobacconist in Jackson, MS Saturday, March 4th. Tickets are on sale today at The Country Squire Tobacconist (thecountrysquireonline.com) For more information, visit CountrySquireRadio.com or listen to the latest podcast “Episode 490: The Time Has Come” from Country Squire Radio (Country Squire Radio on Apple Podcasts)
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 540! Our featured interview tonight is with Pete Prevost. Pete is a pipe maker and the President of the BriarWorks pipe factory in Columbia Tennessee. BriarWorks is a a pipe maker co-op with several other pipe makers, including Todd Johnson, who co-founded it with Pete. Brian and Pete will be talking about that as well as the up-coming 2023 Muletown Pipe Show which is held at BriarWorks. In a past life, Pete was the guitar player in the band Sanctus Real. Our music segment will feature one of their Grammy-nominated songs. At the top of the show, Brian will give us his comparisons between three different vintages of Sutliff’s Kringle Flake tobacco from the last three years. Sit back, relax with your pipe, and enjoy The Pipes Magazine Radio Show!
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 539! Our featured interview tonight is with Matthew McCranie. Matthew is the third generation from McCranie’s pipe and tobacco shop in Charlotte, NC. Matthew tells us of the founding of McCranie’s by his grandfather in 1979. There’s a fun Florida connection including inspiration from Edward’s Pipe & Tobacco in Tampa, and some streets named McCranie in Lakeland. We’ll also hear about McCranie’s long-running, highly popular tobaccos, and how things have evolved from the early days. At the top of the show, Brian will give us a recap of his pipe trading from the Chicago and Columbus pipe shows. Sit back, relax with your pipe, and enjoy The Pipes Magazine Radio Show!
It’s far from a closely-held secret that for years I’ve had a bit of a love affair with the old, Celebrated Bengal Slices. I fondly recall my first experience with it in the late 1970s when, on one of my almost daily visits to Drucquer & Sons, a fresh shipment had just arrived. There it was, in its beautiful gloss black, red and gold livery, dramatically standing out from its peers, calling attention to itself from its perch on the shelf behind the counter. “What’s that, in the black tin?” I asked Ken, who had become something of a tobacco mentor to me. “The Bengal Slices? It’s great stuff,” he said, pulling a tin from the shelf and handing it to me, explaining that it was a Latakia mixture with a difference. The ribbons were pressed in blocks and sliced, so it had to be broken up to prepare it for smoking. “You have to pack it lightly, or it’ll clog the pipe and become impossible to smoke when it expands. It’s got a little bit of scent added to it.” That last bit nearly put me off it; I was still recoiling from early experiences with heavily perfumed, goopy, pouched tobaccos that smelled better than they smoked. But curiosity, as it too often does, had its way with me, and I couldn’t resist the singular beauty of that tin. I bought it, dropped it into my satchel, and off I went. Later that day, I popped the lid and was instantly captivated. The perfect slices, standing at attention in a tight array, dark and mysterious, almost glistening with the same hues as the tin’s lid — black, red and golden. The aroma was rich and bold, ripe with Latakia, orientals and virginias. The scent Ken had mentioned, which I’d taken as a warning, wasn’t at all overbearing, but rather soft and seductive, beautifully integrated with the tobaccos’ natural aromas. It transformed what was basically a “typical” Latakia mixture into something that seemed more luxurious, even opulent. Though still fairly new to smoking flakes at the time, and certainly inexperienced, I had developed a bit of understanding of them. These were different, though — thicker, more robust looking. I gently removed one from the tin, placed it in my palm, and began teasing it apart. It took little encouragement for it to crumble into small fragments. As I filled my bowl, Ken’s counsel about packing forgotten (more likely arrogantly ignored), I looked forward to the first taste of my new treasure. Disaster! The charring light almost went okay, promising something good to come, but the tobacco soon went out, and stubbornly refused to light. Trying to get an ember going was the equivalent to a futile attempt to set fire to a brick of asbestos. Frustrated, I dumped the bowl, and started again, this time heeding Ken’s advice, allowing gravity to do the work. Much better. Even at first light, it was transcendent. The richness of the tobaccos, pressed and fermented in cakes, already set it apart from its ribbon-cut peers, but that scent! Soft and diaphanous, it didn’t clash with the flavor of the tobacco, but somehow enhanced it, bringing another layer, greater dimension to what was already something pretty special, and it remained throughout the bowl, never shouting, but whispering its presence. I was immediately smitten. The next time I was in the shop, I bought three more tins, something I would continue to do periodically through the years. At the time, I thought this was a truly unique tobacco, the only thing of its kind, but I would find out years later that it wasn’t the first, or the only, and that its story was both interesting and infused with dram of controversy. And, as it turns out, the fires of that controversy ultimately forged this tobacco into what became something so very, very special. The Celebrated Bengal Slices was originally made by Sobranie House exclusively for James B. Russell (JBR), and first found its way to market around September of 1977. But, as early as the mid- to late-1960s, Sobranie were making a similar product for Joe Zieve’s Smoker’s Haven in Columbus, OH. Joe wanted to bring something unique to the market, something that hadn’t been done before, so he had Sobranie, who were already making the Haven’s renown Our Best Blend for him, press the ribbons, age the blend in cakes, and cut the cakes into slices. This was different from the more traditional form of flake tobacco, made from whole leaf strips, and resulted in a product Joe called Krumble Kake. It was his intention that this tobacco be compact, like a plug, yet easier than a flake to prepare for smoking. It was a hit, becoming one of the shop’s most successful blends for decades to follow. The controversy finds us in the late 1970s, when JBR contracted Sobranie to make something similar for them. Apparently, it was a little too similar to Krumble Kake for Joe’s liking, and from what I’ve heard, his reaction was predictably cinematic, possibly going as far as threatening to discontinue his relationship with Sobranie over the apparent infraction, so JBR and Sobranie were forced to change the recipe. Whether or not the leaf formulation was changed is unknown, but the changes certainly resulted in that elusive scent joining the party. The Celebrated Bengal Slices was born. (Interestingly, JBR did not register the trademark until March, 1979, though the blend did appear in their catalogue in 1978.) When Sobranie shuttered in 1980, licensing the production of their blends to Gallaher’s, both Bengal Slices and Krumble Kake, being proprietary products, were not transitioned to the new manufacturer. Production of Krumble Kake and the other Smoker’s Haven blends moved to G.F. Germain on Jersey, while Bengal Slices was transferred to Manchester Tobacco Company, where it was produced until 1991, then making its final move to Denmark’s A&C Peterson. For whatever reason, the Danish product didn’t hold my affection like […]
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 538! Our featured interview tonight is with Rich Esserman. This is our third episode with, “Rich Responds” where we go back to a previous discussion with Fred Hanna, and Rich gives his take. Both Rich and Fred are prominent pipe collectors, researchers and writers on pipes and tobacco for several decades. They are both well-known and well-respected in the pipe enthusiast community. We’ll see where Rich agrees with Fred, and where he has his own take on different aspects of pipes and tobacco. At the top of the show Brian will talk about how to build up your tobacco cellar and what to do in the meantime. Sit back, relax with your pipe, and enjoy The Pipes Magazine Radio Show!
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.