Is my Understanding of Tobacco Correct?

[logs]

How can dryness be the enemy of flavor? The raw leaf that blenders use is stored dry in large crates and can sit in warehouses for months or years before being used. Just look at some of MacBaren videos explaining different tobacco types. Every one of those crates would contain nothing but flavorless leaf if dryness was the enemy

Here's one example:

 

[mso489]

Royal Yacht is an aromatic, perhaps plum flavored. Latakia is arguably an aromatic flavoring in itself. So the nomenclature here is shifty.

 

[MattRVA]

How can dryness be the enemy of flavor? The raw leaf that blenders use is stored dry in large crates and can sit in warehouses for months or years before being used. Just look at some of MacBaren videos explaining different tobacco types. Every one of those crates would contain nothing but flavorless leaf if dryness was the enemy

Here's one example:

It must take years for whole leaf tobacco to go stale in the proper environment. Good point.

 

[starrynight]

The only tobacco I haven't like dried out is Haunted Bookshop. I love this stuff fresh, but, after jarring it and coming back to it, it hasn't been as good--to me. Most everything else, like straight flakes, I will slightly rub out, and leave in the pipe overnight... Interesting to hear others do this too.

 

[bullet08]

Royal Yacht is an aromatic, perhaps plum flavored. Latakia is arguably an aromatic flavoring in itself. So the nomenclature here is shifty.

Latakia is smoked. But is it topped also? I heard that Lat is aromatic often. But smoking a leaf like a meat and spraying with food flavoring should have a distinction. Of course, if it's topped, then it should be an aromatic.

 

[TexJake]

Latakia is smoked. But is it topped also? I heard that Lat is aromatic often. But smoking a leaf like a meat and spraying with food flavoring should have a distinction. Of course, if it's topped, then it should be an aromatic.

I’m sure you could find examples of blends with Latakia that have noticeable topping, but one thing to note (as @mso489 mentioned above) - the verbiage here is becoming shifty.

Sorry to get kind of pedantic here, but it almost seems necessary -

Orientals (which is what the tobacco leaf that gets called Latakia is, except it also gets smoked and/or otherwise processed) are sometimes referred to as “aromatic” leaf. They can be VERY aromatic either before or while burning (think incense, herb, tea, spice kind of aromatic). The way the word aromatic is used to categorize the sauced-up sweet and smell-good blends today makes it a little confusing. Then there’s also just the use of the word by someone to describe something that they think just smells good… so the fact that you mentioned having heard that Latakia is often aromatic is a potential source for lots of confusion as to what was really meant by the statement.

It gets kinda silly to start chasing the definitions, and hopefully I didn’t add to the confusion.

To the original question - I have also taken advice from several very experienced pipe smokers to try drying out past where you initially think is “too dry,” and I’ve found a very happy sweet spot that is pretty darn dry, and I get plenty of wonderful flavor.

 

[sablebrush52]

So, I’m wondering if I have a correct understanding of pipe tobacco: aromatic tobacco can lose its flavor over time if it isn’t stored properly. If it dries out, it often can’t be salvaged. Tobacco that has no flavoring (virginias, latakias, and the rest?) added can be rehydrated and shouldn’t lose flavor over time? It can be aged and also salvaged. What about a blend like Royal Yacht? Are there exceptions?

Almost all commercially released pipe tobacco blends have flavorings added, whether as a casing early on or as a topping later on. Conventional wisdom, (whatever THAT is) holds that flavorings such as are used with aromatics will fade over a number of years. I just opened up a jar of a vanilla flavored aromatic I jarred up a decade ago and it's pungent as ever. So, it ain't necessarily so.

As a rule, Latakia does fade over time, but not always, and not a quickly as some believe that it does. What's fading is not the inherent flavor of the oriental leaf used, but the processing done on it. Some of that smokiness may fade, but then the flavor of the underlying leaf will come through.

Dried out blends can often be revived as long as they haven't gone stale. That doesn't mean that they're going to come back 100%, but 80% is considered a pretty good result, as long as the result tastes good. This varies from blend to blend. I've revived GL Pease Renaissance quite successfully, but GL Pease Haddo's Delight is resurrection proof. It gets, and stays, downright nasty.

The term "aromatic" nowadays refers to strongly flavored tobacco blends like vanilla, or cherry, mango, coconut, or apricot flavored blends. It used to largely refer to what are now called English/Oriental/Balkan blends because their component leaves were highly aromatic.

For some good informative answers to many of your questions, check this out:

G. L. Pease - Some Frequently Asked Questions