Tobacco Town

Casing & Flavoring

Casing – A process in which a casing mixture is made and applied to the tobacco to help smooth out the smoke as well as act as a base flavor. Each manufacturer will have their own unique casing recipe and will typically apply it before final flavoring. Popular casing ingredients are licorice, corn syrup, and sugar. There are two methods for casing tobacco:
- Dipping - Tobacco is dragged through a trough of casing and the excess is squeezed out of rollers. This applies a great deal of casing to the product and is essential to the production of plug cut style tobaccos. Cubes, slices, and some of the more traditional styled products are also dipped.
- Spray Cased – Tobacco is run through a cylinder and casing is sprayed onto the product. This method is the most common casing method today. Tobaccos cased under this process tend to be fluffier than dipped tobaccos.

Flavor – Blended tobaccos, are almost always treated with flavoring agents to enhance their natural taste. The flavoring process – employing such ingredients as sugar, honey, licorice, or fruit extracts – is governed by formulas which are perhaps the most carefully guarded industrial secrets in the tobacco business. Flavoring is applied to cased tobacco, and some typical flavors include vanilla, rum, whiskey, or cherry, to provide the “Top Notes” of the blend.

Few pipe tobaccos marketed today consist of a single kind of tobacco. In almost every case, pipe tobacco is a blend of several varieties. Tobaccos generally fall into six basic categories with their own distinct qualities and characteristics.

Burley: More Burley is smoked in pipes than any other kind of tobacco, for experts consider this type, grown mainly in Kentucky and Tennessee, to be the finest pipe tobacco in the world. Its popularity is due to its excellence, its flavorful taste and the fact that it mixes readily with other tobaccos. Many quality pipe blends (like ours) contain a high proportion of choice Burleys, which can be identified by their light brown color.

Virginia: This is a pleasant tasting tobacco grown in several Southern states, which mixes well with Burley or is good as a stand alone varietal. Sweet and high in sugar, Virginia tends to burn faster than Burley types.

Latakia: Grown in Syria and on the island of Cyprus, its stems and leaves are cured to produce a strong, smoky flavor. Latakia is a primary tobacco used in “English” style blends.

Perique: A slow-burning variety often referred to as the “salt and pepper” of the trade, because it is mainly used for flavoring and aroma. This type is very mild and pungent, and is popular in English Style tobaccos. Perique is unique in that it can only be produced in a small area near New Orleans (St. James Parish).

Turkish: A number of kinds of tobacco grown in Turkey, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East are known as “Turkish”. These mild and fast burning tobaccos are commonly used in more exotic English style blends and some cigarette blends. Many English and Balkan blends use Turkish extensively.

Black: Burley tobacco that has been steamed for over 48 hours to achieve its color and exceptionally mild smoking characteristics; the tobaccos used are normally from the Green River section of Kentucky. It is not technically a type of tobacco, but it is used as such.

Borosilicate Glass

Borosilicate glass is a type of glass with the main glass-forming constituents silica and boron oxide. Borosilicate glasses are known for having very low coefficients of thermal expansion (~3 × 10⁻⁶ /°C at 20°C), making them resistant to thermal shock, more so than any other common glass. Such glass is less subject to thermal stress and is commonly used for the construction of reagent bottles. Borosilicate glass is sold under such trade names as Simax, Pyrex, Endural, Schott, or Refmex.

History

Brosilicate glass was first developed by German glassmaker Otto Schott in the late 19th century^[1] and sold under the brand name "Duran" in 1893. After Corning Glass Works introduced Pyrex in 1915, the name became a synonym for borosilicate glass in the English-speaking world.
The European manufacturer of Pyrex, Arc International, uses borosilicate glass in its Pyrex glass kitchen products;^[2] however, the U.S. manufacturer of Pyrex kitchenware uses tempered soda-lime glass.^[3] Thus Pyrex can refer to either soda-lime glass or borosilicate glass when discussing kitchen glassware, while Pyrex, Bomex, Duran, TGI and Simax all refer to borosilicate glass when discussing laboratory glassware.
Most borosilicate glass is colorless. Colored borosilicate, for the studio glass trade, was first widely brought onto the market in 1986 when Paul Trautman founded Northstar Glassworks.^{[citation needed]} In 2000, former Northstar Glassworks employee Henry Grimmett started Glass Alchemy and developed the first cadmium Crayon Colors and aventurine Sparkle colors in the borosilicate palette.
In addition to the quartz, sodium carbonate, and aluminum oxide traditionally used in glassmaking, boron is used in the manufacture of borosilicate glass. The composition of low expansion borosilicate glass such as those laboratory glasses mentioned above is approximately 80% silica, 13% boric oxide, 4% sodium oxide, and 2-3% aluminum oxide. Though more difficult to make than traditional glass due to the high melting temperature required (Corning conducted a major revamp of their operations to make it), it is economical to produce. Its superior durability, chemical and heat resistance finds excellent use in chemical laboratory equipment, cookware, lighting and, in certain cases, windows.

The History of Tobacco in the United States

In 1609, John Rolfe arrived at Jamestown, Virginia, and is credited as the first settler to have successfully raised tobacco (commonly referred to at that time as "brown gold")^[14] for commercial use. The tobacco raised in Virginia at that time, Nicotiana rustica, did not suit European tastes, but Rolfe raised a more popular variety, Nicotiana tabacum, from seeds brought with him from Bermuda. Tobacco was used as currency by the Virginia settlers for years, and Rolfe was able to make his fortune in farming it for export at Varina Farms Plantation. When he left for England with his wife, Pocahontas a daughter of Chief Powhatan, he had become wealthy. Returning to Jamestown, following Pocahontas' death in England, Rolfe continued in his efforts to improve the quality of commercial tobacco, and, by 1620, 40,000 pounds (18,000 kg) of tobacco were shipped to England. By the time John Rolfe died in 1622, Jamestown was thriving as a producer of tobacco, and its population had topped 4,000. Tobacco led to the importation of the colony's first black slaves in 1619. In the year 1616, 2,500 pounds (1,100 kg) of tobacco were produced in Jamestown, Virginia, quickly rising up to 119,000 pounds (54,000 kg) in 1620.
Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, tobacco continued to be the cash crop of the Virginia Colony, as well as The Carolinas. Large tobacco warehouses filled the areas near the wharves of new, thriving towns such as Dumfries on the Potomac, Richmond and Manchester at the fall line (head of navigation) on the James, and Petersburg on the Appomattox.
Until 1883, tobacco excise tax accounted for one third of internal revenue collected by the United States government. Internal Revenue Service data for 1879-80 show total tobacco tax receipts of $38.9 million, out of total receipts of $116.8 million. 'The Republican Campaign Textbook, 1880.' Statistical Tables, P 207.
A historian of the American South in the late 1860s reported on typical usage in the region where it was grown:^[15]