alPol05
Well-Known Member
Learning about pure tobacco, blending and pipe smoking.
Two weeks ago I received another shipment of tobacco from Whole Leaf Tobacco (https://wholeleaftobacco.com/main.sc). This time I ordered 1 pound of each: Flue Cured Virginia "Lemon," Flue Cured Virginia Red Tips, Perique from St. James Parish Louisiana, and Latakia from Cypress.
For all new visitors to this forum, I will briefly show and comment on each package and show a bit of shredding.
Here is an important statement from WLT website: “Whole Leaf Tobacco is all natural, unprocessed tobacco leaves. We sell only the highest quality American-grown tobacco, imported cigar tobacco, genuine Virginia Bright Leaf, genuine Kentucky Burley, and genuine imported Turkish Tobacco at the best prices anywhere. All of our tobaccos have been fully cured traditionally for each type.”
Lemon Virginia
Lemon Virginia comes in a vacuum-sealed bag. The bag is vapor-proof and made from a poly-nylon.
Lemon Virginia fascinated me from the day I read about it. I was searching the Internet for pipe tobacco recipes and found interesting samples on this forum. Here is the link: http://fairtradetobacco.com/threads/3926-Pure-Tobacco-Pipe-Blends-You-Can-Make. Many recipes call for Lemon Virginia.
Shredding this leaf is an easy exercise. I learned it here on this forum. When I shredded this leaf for the first time about two months ago, I used a regular kitchen knife. It worked OK, but despite sharp knife, I was tearing the leaf somewhat. I was prepared better this time. Mezzaluna Knife ("half-moon" in Italian), made by Swiss firm Kuhn Rikon has a 6-inch blade, is convenient to hold and is very sharp. I can rock the blade instead of “sawing,” like with a kitchen knife. The cuts are clean and cutting requires much less pressure on the blade.
The result is a wide and short ribbon. In the final blend, this kind of cut assures cooler and easier burn.
Virginia Red Tips
My first read about Red Tips didn’t tell me much, and I was hesitant to buy it, but only because my understanding of a leaf and its position on the stock was nonexistent. Here is a description from the WLT site: “Flue Cured Virginia RED TIPS are from the uppermost leaves of the plant. These leaves are ripe/ripe which means the leaves are over mature and have started to break down. In that the leaves are overripe, there is a very high sugar content to them. This tobacco can be used straight and has great tobacco flavor and is actually quite mellow.”
After I purchased a bag of this leaf and tried it, I wrote a review, and it is here: http://fairtradetobacco.com/threads/7989-Piping-Notes-01-Virginia-RED-TIPS.
Virginia Red Tips package comes in a vacuum-sealed plastic bag. The bag is vapor-proof and made from a poly-nylon.
I roll a fat “cigar” and cut it into thin slices. Then I cut across and, just like with Lemon Virginia. The result is a wide and short ribbon. In the final blend, this kind of cut burns cooler and easier.
[Continuing in the next post...]
Two weeks ago I received another shipment of tobacco from Whole Leaf Tobacco (https://wholeleaftobacco.com/main.sc). This time I ordered 1 pound of each: Flue Cured Virginia "Lemon," Flue Cured Virginia Red Tips, Perique from St. James Parish Louisiana, and Latakia from Cypress.
For all new visitors to this forum, I will briefly show and comment on each package and show a bit of shredding.
Here is an important statement from WLT website: “Whole Leaf Tobacco is all natural, unprocessed tobacco leaves. We sell only the highest quality American-grown tobacco, imported cigar tobacco, genuine Virginia Bright Leaf, genuine Kentucky Burley, and genuine imported Turkish Tobacco at the best prices anywhere. All of our tobaccos have been fully cured traditionally for each type.”
Lemon Virginia
Lemon Virginia comes in a vacuum-sealed bag. The bag is vapor-proof and made from a poly-nylon.
Lemon Virginia fascinated me from the day I read about it. I was searching the Internet for pipe tobacco recipes and found interesting samples on this forum. Here is the link: http://fairtradetobacco.com/threads/3926-Pure-Tobacco-Pipe-Blends-You-Can-Make. Many recipes call for Lemon Virginia.
Shredding this leaf is an easy exercise. I learned it here on this forum. When I shredded this leaf for the first time about two months ago, I used a regular kitchen knife. It worked OK, but despite sharp knife, I was tearing the leaf somewhat. I was prepared better this time. Mezzaluna Knife ("half-moon" in Italian), made by Swiss firm Kuhn Rikon has a 6-inch blade, is convenient to hold and is very sharp. I can rock the blade instead of “sawing,” like with a kitchen knife. The cuts are clean and cutting requires much less pressure on the blade.
The result is a wide and short ribbon. In the final blend, this kind of cut assures cooler and easier burn.
Virginia Red Tips
My first read about Red Tips didn’t tell me much, and I was hesitant to buy it, but only because my understanding of a leaf and its position on the stock was nonexistent. Here is a description from the WLT site: “Flue Cured Virginia RED TIPS are from the uppermost leaves of the plant. These leaves are ripe/ripe which means the leaves are over mature and have started to break down. In that the leaves are overripe, there is a very high sugar content to them. This tobacco can be used straight and has great tobacco flavor and is actually quite mellow.”
After I purchased a bag of this leaf and tried it, I wrote a review, and it is here: http://fairtradetobacco.com/threads/7989-Piping-Notes-01-Virginia-RED-TIPS.
Virginia Red Tips package comes in a vacuum-sealed plastic bag. The bag is vapor-proof and made from a poly-nylon.
I roll a fat “cigar” and cut it into thin slices. Then I cut across and, just like with Lemon Virginia. The result is a wide and short ribbon. In the final blend, this kind of cut burns cooler and easier.
[Continuing in the next post...]