What Did You Smoke Today? (Pipe Edition)

[JimInks]

Watch City Christmas Past 2014 in a 1978 smooth pointy bottom three quarter bend Sir Brent, shaped like a check mark.

[Aguineapig]

D&R Rimboche S.J. in a straight 5th avenue cob. Such a nice, affordable blend. develops in the bowl just like a VA should, and man that Perique is smooooooth.

[JimInks]

2012 Orlik Golden Sliced in a 1984 black sandblasted straight Dunhill Shell 4103 Billiard.

[JimInks]

MacBaren Symphony in a slight bent black pattern etched 1979 Lorenzo Lorsan Sigma tilted top with a gray swirl colored stem.

[NeverBend]

G&H Louisiana Flake, courtesy of @tmoran. I was expecting more of a tonquin/bourbon flavor from the casing it's supposed to have. I need to try another bowl to judge it on it's own merits now that I know it's more of a straight up VaPer.

Hi Chico,

Louisiana Flake isn't cased, it has a top sauce and the difference between the two methods is pretty substantial. Casing is the infusing or processing of tobacco with aroma(s) while top saucing is adding a scent to a (mostly) finished tobacco.

Top sauces burn off during smoking with some affect to the aroma while casing is an integral part of the tobacco so that the aroma is heavily noted. You might say that casing is an attempt to make the tobacco smoke like it smells while top saucing attempts to add a flavor note.

Tonquin, like coumarin, is an extract of the tonka bean and, in my experience (McConnell) it’s a stand alone saucing agent. Specific companies tend to use one or the other. McConnell and Sobranie used a coumarin based solution, generally without other scents. 1792 Flake is sauced (pretty heavily) with tonquin but I don’t detect it in Louisiana Flake (a favorite tobacco of mine).

It’s nearly impossible to miss the casing in a tobacco while top sauce detection seems to be based on the individual. I seem to have a threshold, below which I’m only vaguely aware of it and above I smell it more intensely but some smokers smell any top sauce.

Pete

[c.ortiz108]

Hi Chico,

Louisiana Flake isn't cased, it has a top sauce and the difference between the two methods is pretty substantial. Casing is the infusing or processing of tobacco with aroma(s) while top saucing is adding a scent to a (mostly) finished tobacco.

Top sauces burn off during smoking with some affect to the aroma while casing is an integral part of the tobacco so that the aroma is heavily noted. You might say that casing is an attempt to make the tobacco smoke like it smells while top saucing attempts to add a flavor note.

Tonquin, like coumarin, is an extract of the tonka bean and, in my experience (McConnell) it’s a stand alone saucing agent. Specific companies tend to use one or the other. McConnell and Sobranie used a coumarin based solution, generally without other scents. 1792 Flake is sauced (pretty heavily) with tonquin but I don’t detect it in Louisiana Flake (a favorite tobacco of mine).

It’s nearly impossible to miss the casing in a tobacco while top sauce detection seems to be based on the individual. I seem to have a threshold, below which I’m only vaguely aware of it and above I smell it more intensely but some smokers smell any top sauce.

Pete

Thanks - very informative. I didn't know any of that, and thought topping and casing were interchangeable terms. So far straight VAs, VaPers etc. are just too subtle for me, and it's the Oriental/Latakias I'm appreciating most. I'm going to give LA Flake another try soon. In fact, maybe I'll smoke a few VA blends in a row to try to figure them out better.

So is there a difference between the coumarin and tonquin flavors, considering they come from the same bean? And which McConnell blend(s) use it?

[JimInks]

Part way through this bowl of Peter Stokkebye Nougat in a 1975 medium bend sandblasted looking, smooth on the sides yellow Pioneer meer.

[NeverBend]

Thanks - very informative. I didn't know any of that, and thought topping and casing were interchangeable terms. So far straight VAs, VaPers etc. are just too subtle for me, and it's the Oriental/Latakias I'm appreciating most. I'm going to give LA Flake another try soon. In fact, maybe I'll smoke a few VA blends in a row to try to figure them out better.

So is there a difference between the coumarin and tonquin flavors, considering they come from the same bean? And which McConnell blend(s) use it?

I don’t believe that you were alone in thinking that casing and top sauce are interchangeable terms. The difference can be illustrated by burley that readily accepts flavors and is the base for most aromatics and virginia that doesn’t (readily) accept flavors and in consequence is usually top sauced instead.

This is a great explanation of coumarin: Coumarin wiki

I don’t know how tonquin is derived but I assume it to be a different method from coumarin, perhaps not an extract but rather a ground part of the tonka bean made into a solution.

I notice tonquin far more than I notice coumarin or possibly it’s used more liberally. I found that in McConnell and Sobranie mixtures the coumarin enhanced the natural aromas and added a binding faint sweetness that tastes integral to the leaf rather than artificially added. The result is a smooth, rich smoke and I doubt that anyone will duplicate the classic mixtures from these companies without using coumarin. McConnell and Sobranie used the best leaf and knew how to use coumarin as a top sauce to great effect.

I don’t know of any company that still uses coumarin. McConnell used it until they closed in 1989 but I don’t know about Sobranie. McConnell made their own line, Rattray’s, (my brand) Elephant & Castle, Ehrlich’s, Charatan and others. Some of these marques have been made by Kohlhase in Germany since 1989 but without coumarin (evident in the first German tin of Red Rapparee that I tried). Not all McConnell made mixtures used coumarin, but most of the English and Balkans were sauced with it.

Coumarin mixtures seem to age well, at least for a time, but the underlying tobacco may not. Tobacco packed under pressure ages faster than when packed loose. Latakia loses potency quicker than virginia, so very old latakia mixtures packed under pressure, like the 50-gram Sobranie #759 (black) start going downhill (imo) after about 8 years. It’s possible that coumarin actually degrades the tobacco and certainly McConnell and Sobranie didn’t make mixtures in the 1980s with the expectation that they’d be stored for many years.

I smoked hundreds of tins of McConnell (and Sobranie) so if coumarin is dangerous I’d probably have already grown another head.

I think it’s very normal to prefer latakia mixtures in the first years of smoking, it’s a big and direct flavor and they’re generally more forgiving with things like a tight pack than virginia. Flakes are a little more difficult to become comfortable in smoking but it’s nothing more than practice.

Pete

[JimInks]

Almost finished smoking G&H Rich Dark Honeydew in a straight 2014 MM Pride Legend.

[JimInks]

Dunhill My Mixture BB1938 in a full bend black pebble finish 2001 Rinaldo Lithos YY8 Titania Silver Line egg. Running low on this blend now.