Presenting for your illogical taxation amusement:

Loose tobacco taxation:

Based on the “future-cigarette” theory. A Future Cigarette is a cigarette that’s not-yet-made but it’s tax is already paid.

If the Future Cigarette is ever made, it will be made by a manufacturer who worked for nothing and received no benefit.

Future Cigarettes necessarily weigh an exact and predetermined amount or the tax (which is already paid) will be incorrect and illegal.

Future Cigarettes are 50% tax but aren’t half as dangerous.

The fact that many pipe blends are in fact made with the same tobaccos as cigarettes didn’t take long to uncover, despite some initial controversy.  Flue cured, Burleys and Orientals make up a large part of the pipesters arsenal sharing the basic constituents of 90%+ of the popular cigarette and RYO blends.   Now a lot of pipe blends are unsuitable for rolling and stuffing cigarettes with and we’ll avoid these; the aromatics and Cavendished blends along with any and all over-cased and humidified blends.  The addition of excess sugars, Proplyene Glycol and other additives make for an uncomfortable and unsatisfying cigarette.   Other pipe blends are foreign to the majority of cigarette smoker’s taste’s and many might find them offensive, Latakia and Periques come to mind.

Finally there’s the physical differences, those that render some blends unsuitable for use in either stuffing and/or rolling DIY cigarettes.  The machines that the RYO smoker uses aren’t suitable for some and the blends themselves are unsuitable to be burned successfully in cigarette tubes and rolling papers.  We’ll stay away from these blends as well, most commonly Flakes, Stoved, Cavendished and Kaked products.  That leaves us with the preferable Ribbon and uncommon Shag cuts and the less than optimal Twist, Plug and Rubbed blends.  Ribbon cuts are similar to most RYO cuts but thicker and larger while Shags are a cut we’re already familiar with and ready-to-go.   Twisted, Plugged and Rubbed blends can be suitable depending on manufacturer and texture of the final product but the least desirable and most time consuming to prepare of the usable blends.

Many RYO smokers are looking for specific blends but in reality, there’s too many to count.  Instead of the hundred blends available to RYO consumers pre-S-CHIP, and what most are still accustomed to, the pipeosphere offers in excess of a thousand blends for RYO enthusiasts to explore and experiment with.  But where to start, well as above, Ribbons for starters.   This common pipe cut in an uncased and unflavored blend with none or minimal humectants can stuff perfectly right out of the tin.  A bit of drying is necessary, note:  anything that takes excessive time here might be and probably is overly cased.  Overly humidified, or blends cased in humectants such as Propylene Glycol (which is done to retain “freshness” or moisture) are uncomfortable and most likely unhealthy to inhale.  What we’re looking for here are the largley uncased Burleys, straight Virginia’s, VaPers (Virginia and Perique), Orientals and combinations thereof.  Another factor to consider is packaging.

Pipe tobaccos come tinned, pouched, bulk blends which are commonly “Glad-bagged”, and Twisted and Plugged, which are self explanatory.  Any cut can be packaged in any of these ways, including the Twists and Plugs.  Incidentally, speaking of Twists and Plugs, while these are time consuming, these are usually extremely smokable and have relatively little or in many cases, no humectants nor flavorings.  These are oftentimes the strongest and too uncomfortable for many cigarette smokers to inhale.  Tins, being the most expensive packaging, often hold the most desirable blends but the price per lb can easily exceed $70lb.  Unless you’re in love with a specific blend, tinned tobaccos should be reserved for the pipe smokers.  The packaging most RYOers should be looking for is the bulk selections.  Here is where we can get pipe blends at post S-CHIP prices of less than $30lb, and that’s for some premium tobaccos!  Blends like C&D, McClellen and Peter Stokebbye come to mind, although we’re in no way limited to them these are the blends I’ve gained the most experience with.

Got your Ribbon, Twist or Rubbed blend and are ready to stuff?  What to do now is dry the tobacco, and this is where many RYOers will make a common mistake.  Regardless of cut, pipe tobaccos are generally thicker and larger than any RYO cut the smoker will have had experience with.   The RYOer will be tempted to stuff the tobacco when it feels like his or her RYO did when it was ready and this is a mistake.  The pipe cut will have to be dried to where it feels too dry and markedly drier than any RYO should feel when stuffed.  In fact, the pipe cut should feel so dry as to make one think they overdid it, but this is when it’s ripe for stuffing.  Rollers need not be overly concerned with this part although a too-wet blend will be bland and slow to burn with less than optimal smoke output.   The machine will have a different feel when stuffing pipe tobacco, it will have a stronger than usual resistance that will “break” and the tobacco then shoots into the tube.  This doesn’t occur with every blend but the once the thickness of the pipe leaf is broken, the built up tension will practically feel like it’s stuffing itself at first.

Much of the worry and anticipation that this bill has caused wouldn’t have been much of an issue 30 years ago, not just because our government wouldn’t have (and didn’t) fleece it’s citizens in such an open and immoral fashion but because dual purpose tobaccos were more common.  I’ve even heard of triple use tobacco where a twist would be a satisfying chew in the morning and afternoon and the spent chew could be dried for use in the pipe or then further ground for rolling one!  The fact is the overwhelming majority of smokers wish to continue smoking but it is true that most would appreciate a little less expense and harassment.