Quote Originally Posted by c.ortiz108 View Post
Curiouser and curiouser.... So ultimately a lot of these brands will be traceable back to a few manufacturers and therefore presumably the same factories, meaning some are probably identical or close (the equivalent of "seconds").

TR = tobaccoreviews.com. Apologies for the obscure abbreviation.

I guess I glossed over the part about the nic buzz through his fingers! I'd been reading a news article about medical marijuana a few minutes earlier, so I was probably stoned....
Evening Chico,

It was my business to quickly assess the level of a smoker by their words or small actions and this fellow seems to be a new arrival who is infatuated but has little foundation in fact. Fellows like this love the story and in the absence of detail they fill in the blanks.

Yes, there are a limited number of manufacturers and many brands (faces). These manufacturers usually make tobaccos under brand names that they own as well as brands that they're contracted to make. The Rattray's name, for example, was never owned by McConnell but he made the tobaccos for them under contract for the better part of a century. Unlike pipes, there are no seconds in tobacco. If there's a bad batch it's discarded. It comes down to how each manufacturer buys their leaf and processes it and there's a similarity across their brands and faces in quality and to some degree, content..

Tobacco Review is written by individual smokers who may or may not know the facts in any given situation. Until you can confirm what you read there (or elsewhere) put a question mark next to it .