Aromatic or not

[mattmars]

As a newb to pipe smoking and tobaccos, I keep reading about having a pipe for aromatics and one for non-aromatic. My question is (and please forgive me), what makes a blend an aromatic? Is it the type of tobacco? Is it the additives? Right now I'm smoking Captain Black White but want to explore more tasty blends. Thanks in advance.

 

[romeowood]

An aromatic is a "flavored" tobacco--the flavoring accomplished through

1. "casing" (simmering) the tobacco in a sauce of food-grade flavors, sugar, and/or booze;

2. "topping", which is the same type of sauce sprayed on the tobacco after processing, just before packaging;

3. the addition of non-tobacco aromatic components such as tonquin, deertongue, or the Lakeland style essences which contain geranium, bergamot, rose, etc. Lakeland styles have a distinctive floral/soapy tone.
Note that all tobaccos are processed to some degree with preservatives, sugars, and sauces; when it gets to being a "flavor", it becomes an aromatic. Make sense?

The Cap'n would be an aromatic.
If you'd like to step up to premium aromatics, I would suggest anything from the Peterson line or CAO to begin. They run toward fully aromatic flavor but are based on good leaf. From there branch out to offerings from Cornell & Diehl, MacBaren, et cetera--every tobacco producer has aromatics and they run the gamut of flavor.

 

[mattmars]

Thanks for the information on that romeowood. I had read some information about casing and toppings and it made some sense. Let's say I want to buy a tin of something online, can I tell by the ingredients if it is an aromatic? For instance, if I look at Frog Morton OTB it has Latakia, Perique, Oriental and Turkish would that tell me that it is not an aromatic since it doesn't say anything about "flavors". I would like to smoke both aromatic and non-aromatic in separate pipes to prevent ghosting. I just want to make sure I'm "doing it right".
Thanks again for the great breakdown on aros

 

[sherlock]

Whether you smoke aros and non-aros in different pipes is completely up to you, its not a matter of right and wrong. Some people like to smoke all kinds of tobaccos in all of their pipes, it just depends on the person. The only rule in smoking a pipe is that you enjoy it.
Most of the time when your buying tins the description will say aromatic or s specific flavor, like cherry. If your not sure ask around here, the shop, or look it up on a tobacco review site. Here are links, http://luxurytobaccoreviews.com/ and http://tobaccoreviews.com/

 

[loborx]

I simplified the whole thing by dedicating about four pipes to English/Balkan blends and all the rest of my pipes to anything else.

 

[romeowood]

There are a number of reasons why you shouldn't worry overmuch about it, matt, not the least of which is the fact that you will be stricken by PAD (Pipe Acquisition Disorder) and accumulate more pipes more quickly than you'd ever imagined in a short enough time :lol: But yes, check out the tobacco review sites as well as the 'What are you smoking" thread here for some inspiration and just keep exploring. Due to new regulations it's verboten for tobacconists to say a tobacco is "flavored" in many localities, as this would surely lead our children on the short path to death and destruction (not really, but the lawyers would have you think so). They'll often speak of "essences", "a little something extra" or other euphemisms to describe a flavored tobacco. Really there are thousands of choices, so don't worry about feeling overwhelmed and just do as much sampling as you can--you'll find where your tastes lie and fully enjoy the pursuit.

 

[jpbass]

[/quote]Due to new regulations it's verboten for tobacconists to say a tobacco is "flavored" in many localities, as this would surely lead our children on the short path to death and destruction (not really, but the lawyers would have you think so).

It's like the old Tobacco Purity Act all over gain, only this time initiated by the nanny state liberals to save the children.