Cigar blend and author shape.

[riverchaopraya]

These are my two favorite things right now. I've tried and liked Cornell & Diehl's Billy Bud, and I have nurtured a crushed on author shape pipes. But I found out I don't really know what actually is the so-called cigar blend. Billy Bud is described as having chopped cigar leaves in it. But what's the different between cigar leaves and pipe tobacco leaves? Aren't they from the same tobacco plants? Also, what defines the author's shape? For me, it's somewhere in between the prince and the apple; with straight or slightly bent stem. Is this correct? Thank you.

 

[romeowood]

I too have been a little confused about 'cigar leaf' appellations. Cigars will often note 'honduran leaf', 'connecticut wrapper', 'cuban seed'; pipe tobaccos stick to virginias, cavendish, latakia, perique, 'orientals', etc. Can someone explain the whositwhatsit?

 

[admin]

There are many different varietals of tobacco grown in many places around the world that have different soils, climates and weather patterns.
Often times it is easier to grasp tobacco growing and production if you are familiar with wine. There are many different types of grapes grown all over the world and processed in different ways that each yield a different result.
Typically, cigar leaf comes from Central & South America and the Caribbean (for the most part), there is also Sumatran, Ecuadorian and Connecticut cigar tobacco.
These areas yield a different type of tobacco than places growing tobacco that is more commonly used in pipes, such as; The U.S.A. (North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, Louisiana), Canada, Brazil, Turkey, Paraguay, and many other places.
Cigar & Pipe tobaccos are processed differently too. There may be differences in methods of harvesting, fermenting, aging, and storing.