This youtube video shows how sailors used to make their own perique (not the Louisiana pipe tobacco, but a compressed roll of pipe tobacco): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Sqhu11WjC4 In the video, the man explaining how it is made says that the tobacco leaf is taken off the stem, and the stems were sent back to tobacco factories to be ground into snuff. I wonder if snuff is still made mostly from stems. I thought that stems had less nicotine, particularly towards the base of the leaf. Using stems and floor sweepings would definitely keep the cost of production down, but it might have a different scent/flavour than the leafy part. Anyone out there have knowledge of this? Roderick?
I always used to chew the stems that I got off my homegrown tobacco. Decent nic hit, but no matter how scented the leaf was, the stem itself never seemed to be on par. The stems tasted like nothing really, so i was mostly doing it for the nicotine.
Snuff is made either from leaf, stalk or a mixture of both. Irish is traditionally made using stalk (or a high percentage of stalk). Santo Domingo used to be made entirely from Cuban leaf with the rib stripped out. Most gros and demigros snuffs comprise of both shorts and smalls, viz: a mixture.
@Roderick I did not know that, as I had assumed that most Snuff was made from the stem and not leaf Tobacco. As much as I thought I knew about Snuff, this proves I have a long way to go in learning about it. Humbling, but entirely necessary.
For some reason I feel almost certain that Starr is made from stems alone. It’s ground very fine–even for a scotch–and I think with stems you would need to do that. On the other hand, it’s pretty high in nicotine so maybe I’m wrong.