Aren't English Blends Aromatic by Definition?

[ericusrex]

I mean, while they aren't (usually) sweet and goopy, the do almost always contain latakia. And latakia is a tobacco that's been infused with a foreign flavor. While the infusions are of completely different flavorings, aren't cavendish (for instance) and latakia in the same class of flavored tobaccos?

 

[Chasing Embers]

Yep.

 

[woodsroad]

As with anything, definitions are paramount. One could argue that since nearly all pipe tobacco is flavored in some manner, that all pipe tobacco is aromatic. Or even that since all pipe tobacco has an aroma...

 

[Chasing Embers]

Aromatic did used to mean the sent of the leaves as opposed to flavored tobacco. Over time, the terms became fused.

 

[jvnshr]

From that point of view, Virginia blends are more aromatic than any other type I guess.

 

[mso489]

Good point. Terminology in pipe smoking is somewhat impressionistic. The history is that the English prohibited flavored tobacco but not, for some reason, Lat, so English blends were grouped as non-aromatic. As is often true, if you look at things more closely, the language is a "tribal" tradition among pipe smokers rather than a term of scientific truth. A true non-aromatic would be not flavored by anything but tobacco leaf, but only a few examples of leaf or blend would qualify. Air-dried burley might come close.

 

[blendtobac]

Terminology has certainly morphed over the years. "English" tobaccos, as MSO said, used to mean tobaccos without a significant flavoring, but over the years, it came to mean blends with Latakia, probably due to the popularity of 965, Nightcap, and the like. "Balkan" wasn't even a term back when I started out (in the 70s), "Aromatic" was a term that often included Latakia blends, but has changed over time to mean a flavored tobacco. "Cavendish" used to mean either a toasted tobacco, or ones that had been flavored, pressed, slice, and tumbled out, but now companies will use the term for flavored tobacco. Basically, pipe terminology is decided upon by common usage and the influence of the marketers of the manufacturers.
Russ

 

[ericusrex]

Thanks Russ (and others too!) As a blender, how do you define "aromatic?"

 

[warren]

Russ: Well put. Words mean something indeed. They mean what the speaker meant and then, what the listener interprets. If a tobacconist tells you a blend is "English", you must ask him his definition of "English' to know if you are both speaking the "same " language.

 

[jaytex1969]

If a tobacconist tells you a blend is "English", you must ask him his definition of "English' to know if you are both speaking the "same " language.

And, if an eBay seller say "like new" you must also ask HIS definition of "like new"..... 8O

 

[unkleyoda]

 

[sablebrush52]

Aren't English Blends Aromatic by Definition?

Yes. And once upon a time English blends were referred to as aromatic tobaccos. These days we refer to aromatics primarily as those blends which have a fruit flavored topping or other flavoring like vanilla, molasses, or treacle.