2019 PCA Magazine

38 PCA The Magazine | JULY-AUGUST 2019 PREMIUMCIGARS.ORG PEOPLE HAVE BEEN NOTICING , ever since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reared its head three years ago with draconian new tobacco regulations, that the creative output of pipe-tobaccomakers has slowed. This unfortunate result had of course been predicted. Indeed, there were justified fears that the end of the “golden age” of pipe-blend creationmight be at hand. The cigar industry, by contrast, does not appear to have suffered the same fate, at least to the same degree. Hardly a week goes by that we do not hear of new premiumcigar labels coming tomarket. But offerings of new pipe blends have slowed to a comparative trickle. Leaders in the tobacco industry give various reasons for the disparity, but these mainly come down to resources and political friends: cigar people simply havemore ammunition for challenging government overreach than does the pipe-tobacco industry—ammunition that takes the formof both political clout and spending power. So it is heartening, in the face of the hand we pipe smokers have been dealt, to find Sutliff Tobacco of Richmond, Virginia, forging ahead with new blends, including the resurrection of Amphora and the development of additional Joe Langford blends for Seattle Pipe Club—and lately, two new John Cotton’s Double Pressed crumble cakes, in both Virginia and Kentucky varieties. Moreover, it is especially interesting to take notice of the regulatory workaround that Sutliff has discovered, which is making way for a new route to innovation in pipe- tobacco blending. With Double Pressed, Sutliff has taken previously registered and approved blends that it already had in its stable and put them through an additional press treatment to tease out entirely new flavor profiles from familiar leaf. JeremyMcKenna, president of Sutliff, says the double- press treatment causes such acceleratedmaturing and melding of the tobaccos that in the end he could claim, “There is no other product like it on themarket.” Sutliff, having been around since 1849, brings to the table a lot of FDA-approved tobacco recipes to work with—550 approved tobaccos in all. (Retailers looking at a Sutliff price list only see about 200 blends represented because Sutliff likes to keep plenty of material in its back pocket for future development.) The firmwas purchased six years ago by industry powerhouseMacbaren Tobacco of Svenborg, Denmark, and the two firms in combination amount to a P synergetic partnership that can draw upon vast experience and resources for maximizing creativity and reach. JonathanWood, Sutliff’s vice president of operations, says, “I feel themost important tool that we have at Sutliff andMacbaren is our almost 300 years of combined experience in the pipe tobacco industry, whichmeans preparation and foresight that has allowed both companies to survive.” A deep and experienced bench alsomeans plenty of talent to call upon when a new, high-priority project requires research. All leaf procurement is handled byMacbaren’s Henrik Halberg, who travels the world searching for the best grades of tobacco. McKenna says: “Instead of just taking cut tobacco and pressing it twice, a process done at Sutliff’s facility in Richmond, we decided to bring inMacbaren’s master blender Per Georg Jensen. After a lot of discussion, we determined that it would be best to take the finest whole, hand-stripped leaves and first hot-press them in Denmark [a process that uses steam, which helps mellow the tobacco]. After that first press, the tobaccos are cut into beautiful flakes and run through a process that breaks the flakes up and converts them to a ready-rubbed format. These ready-rubbed tobaccos are then boxed and shipped to Richmond where Sutliff presses the leaf under 30 tons of pressure for 48 hours, turning the loose tobacco back into a block which can be cut into crumble cakes for packaging.” “I feel the most important tool that we have at Sutliff and Macbaren is our almost 300 years of combined experience in the pipe tobacco industry ....” - Jonathan Wood