Amerika

Pipe smokers talk reverently of certain blends even a century after their inception. One such blend is Dunhill Nightcap, a variety of the “English blend” — Virginias, (originally Syrian) Latakia, and “Orientals” or Turkish-style tobaccos — which tastes like a spice cookie set on fire.

Nightcap adds one twist, which is the inclusion of Perique, a type of fermented Burley pioneered by a French cultivator who saw Amerinds fermenting tobacco by packing it in hollow tree trunks. He improved on the process and created one of the most enigmatic tobaccos known which has a spicy dried fruit flavor and exceptional strength.

What makes Nightcap stand above the rest may be the Dunhill treatment of the Latakia, a fire-cured type of tobacco. Whether they simply saturate it with moisture to condition it, or some of the dust is lost in the slicing process, the Dunhill Latakia is spicier and less odorous than most Latakias.

There are other variants of the English blend. The “Scots English,” for example, incorporates unflavored Cavendish, which is tobacco steam-roasted to a dark tone and gentle flavor. The “American English” mixes in Burley, warming up the flavor and giving it a nutty backdrop, like Christmas cookies with walnuts.

However, it occurred to me at one point that Latakia is the stinkiest tobacco ever invented. Formed of tobacco cured with the smoke of herbs and possibly burning camels, it gives off a thick cheesy stench of exotic outhouse decomposition when burned. Women are notoriously averse to it.

At first, your blender tried lightening up the English by subbing in some Burley and dark fired Kentucky Burley into the Virginia, Latakia, and Orientals mixture. This was not bad; however, it gave rise to a thought: what if the Latakia was replaced by other fired-cured tobacco, dark fired Kentucky Burley, entirely?

This gave rise to the “Confederate English”: a tobacco that combines the pride of the South, namely dark fired Kentucky Burley, sweet brown Virginias, and rich Perique with the basic English blend formula.

• 30% brown Virginia^{1 2}
• 50% dark fired Kentucky Burley^{1 2}
• 10% Turkish Orientals^{1 2}
• 10% Louisiana Perique^{1 2}

Mix these thoroughly in a large metal bowl with clean hands. Jar it and set it aside for a few weeks. You will find the same tangy flavor as in a traditional English blend but without the herbal essence of the Latakia, instead having a molassesy and smoky wood flavor. Measurements are by weight.

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