If Bill Clinton's presidency taught us anything, it taught us to shop at The Gap and smoke cigars. The former, shopping at The Gap, is great for snappy dressers; to the clotheshorse, The Gap is like Heaven, but with more V-necks. However, the latter, the smoking of cigars, is where a real sense of image and personality is conveyed, a sense of image and personality that can't be conveyed merely by wardrobe.
For those of you who have smoked cigars for years, even before Clinton's publicized endorsement, chances are you've smoked something called black tobacco. And, chances are you are not sure of what black tobacco exactly is.
If black tobacco was simple, it would be easy to get away with a very brief explanation....Black Tobacco, a Gemini, hails from volcanic soil, and enjoys long walks on the beach, knitting, and being stuffed in pipes.
But, black tobacco isn't simple, and people have spent years trying to grasp some of its complexities.
In a Nutshell
The history of black tobacco is very much based on folklore: it is based more on word of mouth than scientific evidence. Just as Paul Bunyan was a cornerstone of conversations around campfires of yore, so was black tobacco, its legend passed down from generation to generation by farmers and cigar makers.
Black tobacco, while it can technically be grown nearly anywhere, most often thrives in areas marked by humid, hot climates. Its characteristics, while growing, are also dictated by whether the tobacco is grown in the sun or grown in the shade. Black tobacco that is "shade grown" tends to be thinner and finer, and is usually used as a wrapper. "Sun grown" tobacco, on the other hand, exhibits more strength and body and meets its destiny as a filler.
Black tobacco also maintains uniqueness in that a lot of hybridizing goes on, managed by tobacco farmers. In the oldest story of all time, boy tobacco leaf meets girl tobacco leaf, farmers have bred tobacco plants in an attempt to cultivate a variety of strains. This breeding has bred positive results with hybrids that are easier grown, better tasting, and more resistant to disease.
A Joint Effort
Harvested earlier than other types of tobacco, many varieties of black tobacco are grown around the globe. There are, however, only 40 varieties that are most common. These are grown in a handful of places on our planet including Africa, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Honduras, Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua, the United States, Peru, Costa Rica, the Philippines, and Cuba (who knew they made cigars?).
The number of locations that grow black tobacco allows for it to maintain distinct varieties as no two places produce the same tobacco leaf. Providing evidence for the "nature versus nurture" argument, the same black tobacco seed will grow up to become different in flavor, body and aroma when grown in different locations around the world.
Name that Stogie
One thing that adds to the confusion surrounding black tobacco is the process in which cigar makers will create and use their own names for the black tobaccos they are selling. They might name the tobacco based on how the seeds were cultivated, or they might name the tobacco based on what the seeds really are. Sometimes they will use acronyms, or abbreviations, such as "B-138," whereas other times they will base the name on the region where the tobacco was grown, such as "Bahia." And, of course, sometimes they will just use a family name by naming the tobacco leaf after a grandparent.
Black tobacco, as far as tobaccos are concerned, is a smoky subject. While some things are known, there is still a lot more to learn, but that can be said for almost anything. In the meantime, what we do know about black tobacco is surely good enough for most of us to stick in our pipes and smoke. |
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