What's the deal with Cube Cut tobacco?

[Blackbeard's Delight]

I was at a tobacconist this week and picked up an ounce of "Cube Cut" tobacco. It's exactly what it sounds like... hard little cubes of tobacco, instead of the regular brown shred I've grown to enjoy. It seems pretty easy to load and smoke, and it knocks out of the pipe at the end real easy.

But I have to imagine it's probably cut like that for another reason though...? Is it made for some special kind of pipe or something? Anyone know what that is all about? Just curious...

Until I find a better answer I'll assume it's made just for The Borg to smoke...

[2b1ask1]

I think you are supposed to break it up (rub it out) and then smoke it.

[Kentos]

I have read of people chopping flake into cubes, but I didn't know it came tinned like that. What was the name of the tobacco?

[Commander Quan]

Nothing special is needed to smoke it either scoop a bowl full into your pipe or gravity fill it. Only tamp when the pipe is about to go out. I'll often cube cut flakes to smoke.

[jwhite]

I cube cut many plugs and its the primary way a smoke Cob and Grousemoor plugs, its just a different cut and different cuts affect the burn and flavor of a tobacco. As Derrick suggests a flake that is then cross cut will give you a cube cut. I cut a semi thick flake off the plug and then cut across to give me a cut that's easy to load and light but keeps many of the slow burning flavor characteristics of a stuffed flake.

[joshua1970]

usually it's a burley - at least in the blends I've experienced it in (GLP barbary Coast and a few of teh Cornell & Diehl blends)

i just pack it up and puff away as normal....


for actual flakes and discs, I usually rub them out but sometimes (if I'm smoking a straight bowled pipe (non-conical bowl) I'll roll the flakes so they fit into the bowl and just rub enough to top it off and get a decent light going - seems to add to the flavor but might be psychosomatic???

just gotta be sure they are filling the bowl loosely enough that excessive tamping won't create a tobacco jam ;)

[Blackbeard's Delight]

Ok, so it seems like it's just another way to process the tobacco then, and not for any specific reason other than a different way. I will say I like it a lot, actually. So far it's been impossible to over-pack... the cubes are pretty dense. It's super easy to load the pipe... just scoop and go. And when you're done, knocking out the ash and whatnot is super easy, nothing sticks to the bottom of the bowl. Seems like the batch I got is pretty dry too, or at least it doesn't seem to juice up the neck at all. I would definitely pick up a cube cut bacci again in the future!

I picked it up at Leavitt & Peirce in Harvard Square in Cambridge, MA. It was one of the many house blends in big glass jars that you can order from and they weigh out on their 100 year old scale (it looks 100 years old... the store has been in business since 1883). It was called "L&P Cube Cut." They are really nice there, you can lift the lid and sniff any blend they have, and they have said you can try a free bowl and step out to smoke it if there's a blend you are curious about. I have always been on my way somewhere so I have never taken that offer to date.

Oh, not to sound like an advertisement for the place, but they sell pretty much anything a B&B member would want... plenty of razors, shaving brushes, soaps, a shelf of open after-shave samplers (where I got my first whiff of the Vegetal!). Then there's plenty of other manly things... cool chess sets, money clips, cool pipes and lighters, artisan soaps, etc. If you live in the Boston area you may want to check it out!