Tobacco Manufacturers & Pipe Smokers In The USA.

[philobeddoe]

When I was a little kid in the 70's I used to see plenty of old guys smoking pipes al fresco, but in the last 20 years or so I've probably seen maybe...5 or 6 pipe smokers in the wild, other than those inside a tobacconists. Here (central Indiana) I see vapes constantly and less so cigarette smokers as of late, cigars have dropped off in the last ten years or so; for a few years in the late 90's and early 00's I saw men smoking cigars about town, but this has kind of disappeared, with the cigar boom. There isn't a large hipster population here, so we never really had an uptick in trendy pipe smoking....unfortunately, as any pipe smoker is ultimately good for the hobby. Well, at least that's the view from the rural Midwest.

 

[woodsroad]

It just seems odd to me that a country with such a rich tobacco heritage would only have 'modern' producers of our much loved product. What happened and when?

The answer to that question is not 42, although it may well as be, as 42 is the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. Perhaps it is a derivative of 42, such as "American corporate law and tax structure encourages maximizing the return to investors", and, as we all know, pipes and pipe tobacco are not terribly efficient at maximizing much of anything, besides pleasure and pleasure only pays if it can be accomplished quickly and efficiently, which pipes and pipe tobacco are notable bad at.
Someone may have a more succinct answer, but as the great British beer critic Michael Jackson once told me, "Efficiency is the enemy of pleasure"

 

[mso489]

'Glad to hear sable' stand up for Sutliff. I thought some mutation had moved my taste buds between my toes or something, because I've found a number of Sutliff blends good. Their currently discontinued (?) Westminster, not the GLP version, always struck me as a good blend, some of the best "all day" English, and I liked their Balkan 957 and various of their tobacco forward aromatics, especially some of the seasonally named ones. I think people too often have the price of the tin in mind influencing them on what they taste.

 

[mrmotoyoshi]

Sutliff 1849 is a fine blend.

 

[bigpond]

I especially appreciate Sutliff, who produce some of the best blends for other names, in part because of the ignorant posers here who love to excoriate Sufliff while extolling their personal favored blends, unaware that their favorites are made by Sutliff. The ignorant posers here are very amusing when not boring.

What else do they make?

 

[pappymac]

I especially appreciate Sutliff, who produce some of the best blends for other names, in part because of the ignorant posers here who love to excoriate Sufliff while extolling their personal favored blends, unaware that their favorites are made by Sutliff. The ignorant posers here are very amusing when not boring.

Which is one reason I keep coming back to this forum. The entertainment value alone is worth it.

 

[pappymac]

It just seems odd to me that a country with such a rich tobacco heritage would only have 'modern' producers of our much loved product. What happened and when?

That's probably because most of the old tobacco companies have been bought and sold so many times. The owner gets old and the children are more interested in the money they can get from selling. It's sold and merged with another company and the name gets changed. I've also seen it with breweries. Every region of the United States used to have small breweries. They got bought up by a bigger brewery, which in turned got bought up by a bigger brewery and for cost savings the smaller lines goes out of production.
Falstaff, Schlitz, Hamm's for example were all major players in the 60s and 70s. None exist anymore.
I'm sure its that way for tobacco. Just look at all the once famous blends that are no longer available.

 

[ericusrex]

I think Sutliff makes the H&H Signature line...maybe the SPC blends too since the cans are the same.

 

[leonardw]

My estimate (based on various sources) is about 1.5% - 2% of the adult male population, so roughly 2 million plus pipe smokers.
Manufacturers

McClelland

Sutliff

C&D

Daughters and Ryan

STG Lane

Altria
By manufacturers I'm referring to companies that actually process and produce the tobacco (vs. blenders)

 

[mawnansmiff]

"I've also seen it with breweries."
Pappy, I can see the analogy with breweries. Here in the UK many small regional concerns were swallowed up by the big brewing giants only to have production cease so as to promote their own (often inferior) products...all very sad really.
"so roughly 2 million plus pipe smokers."
Wow Leonard, that really is a surprise. I would have guesstimated a considerably higher figure 8O
Regards,
Jay.

 

[jaygreen55]

Pappymac, there should only be a proliferation of craft tobacco blenders in this country as there has been a proliferation of craft breweries producing fine beer in almost infinite variety. The brewers you mentioned only went out of business because they sold carbonated piss in a bottle or can and called it beer

 

[deathmetal]

The population clock gives us 322 million people as of January 1, 2016:

https://www.census.gov/popclock/
That puts 1% at 3.2 million, if we accept official figures which are almost always low, so 2% would be 6.4 million smokers.
I can believe that.

 

[mawnansmiff]

Brett, that is much closer to the figure I had in mind. Thanks for doing the maths ::
Regards,
Jay.

 

[woodsroad]

Sutliff makes Bengal Slices, War Horse Bar and War Horse Green.

They know what they are doing!

 

[blendtobac]

If we assume that the lowest estimates and highest estimates are inaccurate, let's just pick 3.5 million as a number. An interesting side note to all of this is that, if, as our sales indicate, around 95% of pipe tobacco falls into the aromatic category, that leaves 175,000 pipe smokers who gravitate toward non-aromatics. Not a very large number in the grand scheme of things.
Russ

 

[elpfeife]

I believe Leonard said adult male population. Not the total population.

 

[mawnansmiff]

"that leaves 175,000 pipe smokers who gravitate toward non-aromatics. Not a very large number in the grand scheme of things."
That's a pretty scary statistic if correct 8O
Regards,
Jay.

 

[aldecaker]

There may be only 175,000 of us, but at least we buy boatloads of tobacco.

 

[pipesmokingtom]

around 95% of pipe tobacco falls into the aromatic category

Probably true, but that's likely including a lot of blends the average Joe-pipe-smoker wouldn't necessarily consider an aromatic, although they are topped in some way, no?

 

[pappymac]

The brewers you mentioned only went out of business because they sold carbonated piss in a bottle or can and called it beer

That may be your opinion jaygreen55, but if you look at the history of beer in this country, both Falstaff and Schlitz were in the top 4 or 5 breweries in the early to mid-1960s. They weren't at the top because the customers thought the product was carbonated piss in a bottle or can. The were selling the type of lager which was popular among beer drinkers at the time. And I will tell you for a fact, that my father and his friends would grab a Falstaff before a Budweiser anytime. When Falstaff became unavailable, they switched to Schlitz.

The went out of business because of bad management decisions which lead to lower profits so they had to sell out. Pearl was a Texas regional beer which went through the same thing. Now Texas has Shiner - and some of it taste very similar to Pearl.
There used to be a proliferation of small time blenders in this country. They were found in brick & mortar tobacco shops which actually created their own blends instead of just renaming bulk tobacco from the major pipe tobacco companies. Now they are being forced out of business by the FDA.