What Makes Tobacco a Tobacco Pipe

[64alex]

This comes down from a thread I started few days ago trying to figure out how much tobacco pipe represents the total of tobacco use and if it is grown specifically for pipe use or a byproduct. It is clear a small % of total tobacco (and I would guess probably less than 1%) and it looks like it is for the most part not grown specifically to be tobacco pipe but byproduct of cigarette/cigar tobacco.
So now the question is, given the big difference between tobacco pipe and other types of tobacco, what is which makes tobacco a tobacco pipe. It is because only some leaves are selectively bought (I would hope the top quality ones), the way it is processed or what else?

And on a similar note, given that tobacco pipe on average delivers much less nicotine than other types, it is because how it is processed or how it is smoked (not inhaled deeply)?.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

If I understand the question, only two tobaccos are produced exclusively for pipes that I know of. That's latakia and perique; however, there is at least one cigar that uses latakia and a line of cigars that use perique. A few cigarettes used latakia and perique also. For the rest, the tobaccos are just grown and sold to processors to become a range of uses. Virginias and burleys are mostly used in the cigarette industry, Kentucky dark Fire is used mostly for chewing tobacco, but blended for a few cigarette blends like Drum and maybe a few more, then there are a whole range of burley fillers and burleys grown to be fermented for cigars, turkish and orientals for cigarettes... however, some select prime crops may be selected for use as quality pipe tobaccos among any of those.
Today, most companies contract the growing through cooperatives of sorts or just flat out corporate farmers. So, the choices for pipe tobacco might be becoming limited. However, before this new development of farming, tobacco was just grown and produced, and then auctioned to anyone for whatever reasons they wanted. It wasn't a clear cut, this is for one specific use, type of thing. With the exception of some cigar companies that grew their own crops and cultivated specific strains for their products.
Even in the late 19th century to mid 20th century, most tobacco was just marketed as "tobacco," and then you could buy it as a ribbon, a plug, or twist, cut it up and smoke it in a pipe, or chew it, or even break it down for cigarettes when papers became popular. It was also mid 20th century when flavorings were added to make chewing tobacco exclusive, or shag cuts were marketed for cigarettes. But, going back to the 17th century you find Dutch and Germanic companies adding flavorings to tobacco to make them more palatable for pipes also.
So, basically, there's no clear cut answer. Did I muddy that up for you, ha ha.

 

[seacaptain]

If I understand the question,

Big if. I'm lost. 8O

 

[cortezattic]

In All About Tobacco, by Milton Sherman, the typical American cigarette contains Burley, Virginia, Turkish, and Maryland tobaccos. To give a hypothetical ratio, he suggested percentages of 36:50:12:2, respectively.
As cosmic said, Latakia and Perique are rarely used. Another difference is that unlike cigarette tobacco, pipe tobaccos are frequently prepared at some point using pressure (flake), heat (stoving), fumigation, and a variety of cuts and/or combinations of cuts. If used at all, the casing (flavoring sauces) and topping flavors are usually quite different between cigarette and pipe tobacco.
This is merely what I gather from various sources. We really need an expert like Russ to jump in and be more definitive.

 

[mso489]

I don't know, but my sense is that pipe tobacco blenders nibble at the edges of the big cigarette and lesser cigar tobacco markets, and select and adapt the leaf they buy to their purposes. Pipe tobacco is a tiny market compared even to cigars, much less cigarettes. So it happens around the edges as it were. Along with Latakia and Perique, there may be a few tobaccos grown with the pipe tobacco market in mind, but it would be small and specialized. The only one that comes to mind is Tabac-Manil Semois, the Belgium burley variant, which to my knowledge is only grown as a pipe tobacco.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

It used to be that when setting around the pipe lounge and someone wanted to put down a blend, they'd say that it tasted like it was "swept up scraps from the cigarette factory." But, usually pipe tobacco, even the worst of it all starts off as the cream of the crops. Yep, even those Strawberry Daiquiri flavored ones with no tobacco flavors at all started off as the best of... But, for the life of me, I have no idea why. You could spray some of those toppings on grass clipping, and it would still taste the same. ::

 

[cosmicfolklore]

What Makes Tobacco a Tobacco Pipe

Wait, is this one of those riddles like, "If a plane crashed on the border with Canada, where do they bury the survivors?" Because on rereading the title, I don't think I answered how to make tobacco into a tobacco pipe. It sounds very zen.

 

[mso489]

I think the headline of this thread is meant to read: What Makes Tobacco A Pipe Tobacco. Maybe?

 

[64alex]

[I think the headline of this thread is meant to read: What Makes Tobacco A Pipe Tobacco.]
Yes. And the comment so far have been interesting. I am really trying to figure out what makes the pipe tobacco so different from the other types of tobacco starting from production to packaging. So far Cosmic has given some very good insight as well as mso489 and Cortez and as suggested we should have some expert as Russ to jump in to give more insight. I think this is really a fascinating topic.

 

[warren]

I guess the simple answer is, how it is handled. Different leaves are purchased, refined (processed) and blended for the end use. So, I guess it's the manufacturer who determines what is going into a pipe blend, cigar, cigarette, etc. Any tobacco can be used in the end products with varying degrees of profitability. Profit is the goal.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Piper smokers have always been notoriously less frugal as to what they smoked in their pipes than cigar guys or chewers. They were known to just put any old thing in there. Thus, when they would get into disagreements with their women-folks about something that was degrading, they'd yell, "Put that in your pipe and smoke it."

 

[mso489]

A real short answer on what makes tobacco pipe tobacco is processing and cut. Some bag tobacco is meant to do double-duty as pipe tobacco or roll-your-own, but most pipe tobacco does best in a pipe and not so much rolled. I was never a roll-your-own smoker (of any kind) but I think most pipe tobacco, the pieces are somewhat too large for a good cigarette. Roll-your-own folks may correct and/or clarify.