2019 PCA Magazine

PREMIUMCIGARS.ORG JULY-AUGUST 2019 | PCA The Magazine 39 Jensen says development of the Double Pressed blends requiredmore than a year of trial and error. “We started out with an idea and found the tobaccos that we thought would make these blends unique,” he says. “But as always we didn’t hit it right, not right from the beginning. The blends were developed over a period of 14months, a time during which smoking and correcting were done constantly.” As the development phase progressed, Double Pressed samples also got distributed among some of themembers of the local Richmond, Virginia pipe club, the Conclave of Richmond Pipe Smokers, LinwoodHines among them. “I’ve smoked a certain favorite Virginia flake for 25 years, so that was my standard for comparison,” he says. “I found the double-pressed Virginia to be an entirely richer experience. For me, it’s like having a liqueur at the end of the evening— maybe not something I would want to have in large quantities day after day, but it should work well for today’s pipe smokers who are smoking smaller bowls or who are smoking only a few times a day.” The “Double Pressed” concept itself is really the brainchild of JonathanWood. McKenna says, “Jonathan, having pressed tobacco for several years and seeing the growth in popularity of the crumble cake format, started brainstorming. If all the crumble cakes that we currently produce—Seattle Pipe Club blends, Bengal Slices, etc.—are so good and so popular, how can we do evenmore?” For his part, Wood, who will mark his 20th anniversary with Sutliff next year, says: “Honestly, the idea came about as I was mowingmy lawn. Since I have a family, this is my quiet time, and it allows the creative juices to start flowing. Knowing the success of the crumble cakes, I began to wonder what would happen if we pressed tobacco that had already been through the pressed process and how that would change the blend.” Experiments immediately got under way with the extensive help of Jensen and Pipes and Cigars master blender Russ Ouellette. (It was actually the involvement of Ouellette and Pipes and Cigars that led to the decision that the newDouble Pressed tobaccos would be launched under the John Cotton’s name as a private label for Pipes and Cigars.) Everyone on the teamwas eager to find out: What would really happen if they pressed and then re-pressed tobacco? What would the sugars do, particularly in the Virginia leaf?What would happen from the additional melding of Kentucky and other premium tobaccos? Only testing could tell them. After the original product was designed and the first batch produced, samples were sent to Ouellette, who immediately fell in love with both the concept and end products. “In the case of the Virginia, we used a Virginia flake that consists of a combination of red and bright Virginias After the original product was designed and the first batch produced, samples were sent to master blender Russ Ouellette, who immediately fell in love with both the concept and end product.