Tasting and Rolling Your Own Tobacco

Simply known as a pipe, a tobacco pipe has a simple purpose – for smoking tobacco. Pipes have evolved over the centuries to suit the preferences of each era. Pipe smoking is the oldest form of traditional tobacco smoking known to man. A smoking pipe is not a sophisticated device, and it has a chamber (or bowl) for the tobacco. From the chamber, a thin hollow stem (a shank) emerges, culminating in a mouthpiece.

The quality of a tobacco pipe may depend on if it is made by a machine (as in the briar models) or if it is handcrafted by renowned pipe makers. These handmade models are often highly prized and are mostly a collector's item. 

Tasting your tobacco through a pipe is a highly regarded practice among smokers. It shares this honor with rolling tobacco (shag). Shag or rolling tobacco also goes by other names such as loose tobacco, rollies, or baccy. It refers to tobacco that is finely cut. It is the conventional tobacco for rolling your own cigarettes. 

The name itself – shag – comes from the finely cut strands that look “shag” fabric. Shag fabric used to be of poor quality. There are various types of cut, but the majority of shag blends use a hybrid of cutting styles to keep things interesting. The most common cutting style is loose cut. There’s also krumble kake, flake, and ribbon cut.

Some shag blends even mimic pipe tobacco. A cigarette of shag tobacco can be called a roll-up/dole-up, a rollie, or hand-rolled. They contrast with pre-processed cigarettes (straights or tailor-mades).

Making your own cigarette gives you the liberty to determine the strength of tobacco you consume. RYO tobacco comes in pouches or tins that may include cigarette tubes or rolling papers.

There are tax implications in the US, for rolling your own tobacco. There is a personal tax exemption for people who make their own ciggies and tobacco, according to the Internal Revenue section of the tax code.

In Europe, European Union regulations on nicotine and tar levels do not apply to rolling tobacco. There are a lower tax and price on hand-rolling tobacco, and it is around fifty percent of the tax on packaged cigarettes. In the Netherlands, for instance, up to fifty percent of the cigarettes people smoke, there are roll-your-own cigarettes. Yet, in countries where it is expensive to obtain rolling tobacco and where cigarettes are cheap, few people indulge RYO cigarettes.

That said, rolling your own cigarettes remains a growing attraction to smoking enthusiasts around the world.