I have read that some "pipe tobaccos" sold in shops is actually just regular rolling tobacco but marked as pipe tobacco for tax reasons.
With the prices of cigs going through the roof, does anybody have any insight into what particular brands this applies to or whether the entire thing is a load of shite.
Google and rudgwicksteamshow.co.uk are popping up with US specific stuff or outdated info so any help is appreciated
Try searching for "shag tobacco". You'll find a fair few websites that emphasise that it's absolutely illegal to make rollies with their tobacco, which is a bit of a clue.
>>463700 >Due to some hand rolling smokers using shag tobacco for hand rolling purposes, HMRC have taken action to stop this abuse of the tobacco taxation.
>HMRC have defined that any tobacco where the strands are less than 1.5mm will be taxed as a Hand Rolling tobacco. All shag tobacco produced as of January 2011 will be cut above 1.5mm.
>This is a pipe tobacco and is taxed accordingly. It is a criminal offence to use shag tobacco for hand rolling and we do not endorse this.
Look at this Twist Tobacco. Strangely familiar, huh?
>>463711 Off the top of my head and out the back of my arse, I'm gonna guess tobacco manufacturers negotiate and lobby the politicians enough to protect their industries, while public health benefits from increased tax funds.
How many people quit from increased cost, decresed advertising, etc?
How many people know you can buy tobacco cheaper (and cleaner, apparently) simply by purchasing a slightly larger cut?
There's probably a net benefit somewhere with only managable losses to the tobacco companies.
Probably classism. Cigars and pipes are smoked by respectable middle-class gentlemen who can be trusted to make their own decisions, but cigarettes are for proles. For decades after cigarette advertising was banned on TV, you could still advertise cigars and pipe tobacco.
Around my way, a few older men still chew twist. You couldn't smoke down the pit, so chewing tobacco used to be the norm. I admit it does look rather unsavoury.
Pipe tobacco is not cheap so I can't imagine there's any benefit to claiming that rolling tobacco is actually pipe tobacco.
Now are you asking if it's possible to use pipe tobacco as rolling tobacco? The nature of pipe tobacco is so different to rolling tobacco that my simple answer is a straight up no. It's kind of like confusing wine and beer, but of even more inconvenience to you. My detailed answer is there probably are pipe tobaccos which wouldn't fail in a rollie, but you'd waste lots of time and money trying to find out what works. So just start smoking a pipe, alright?
>Pipe tobacco is not cheap so I can't imagine there's any benefit to claiming that rolling tobacco is actually pipe tobacco.
Rolling tobacco is subject to excise duty at a rate of £412.32 per kg. "Other tobacco" is only taxed at £173.68 per kg. Consequently, the cheapest pipe tobaccos are about half the price of the cheapest rolling tobaccos.
>there probably are pipe tobaccos which wouldn't fail in a rollie
Many types of "shag tobacco" are clearly designed to be as close as legally possible to rolling tobacco. They have to be cut a bit coarser than rolling tobacco for tax reasons, but otherwise they are rolling tobacco - a Virginia or Virginia/Burley blend with a relatively mild flavour.
You can buy a 15g pouch of Kendal Gold for £6.25, which isn't exactly a huge gamble; it is very obvious that people are using it for hand-rolling.
It's a fair assumption. I imagine a rollie made with actual pipe tobacco would be fucking grim, it just happens that there's a weird kind of "pipe" tobacco which exists purely as a tax dodge.
>>463732 What does that even mean in this context, how bad an idea?
Growing tobacco in the UK, even as a hobby, requires written permission from some government body - you have to tell them how much you intend to grow and for what purpose. I can't remember which exactly but it's on t'internet.
People selling seeds say:
Is it legal to grow tobacco in the U.K?
Yes, it is completely legal to grow your own tobacco as long as it is to be smoked by yourself, however the usual duty obligations still apply once your tobacco is in a form in which it can be smoked. There are laws that you must adhere to should you want to sell the tobacco you have grown.
What are my responsibilities for tax on home grown tobacco?
There is no such thing as legal duty free tobacco, as duty is calculated by the weight of tobacco that is produced. The duty on tobacco products is set every year within the annual budget. There is duty to be paid for every kilo of rolling tobacco produced and every thousand cigarettes produced, as well as duty on the sale price of tobacco products. It is your responsibility to volunteer this duty once you have processed your home grown tobacco into a form in which it can be smoked. Home growing tobacco is still however a good way of obtaining very cheap tobacco.
nothing about up-front declarations.
Goodness knows how vigorous the enforcement is for a bit of homegrown.
Given the vast quantities of cannabis being grown in Britain, I think the chances of a customs man coming knocking because you've harvested and smoked your own tobacco are basically zero.
Growing tobacco is quite easy; growing and curing tobacco that you'd actually want to smoke is considerably more difficult. Far from impossible, but it's a bit like making your own wine - it takes a lot of practice and failed attempts to get a finished product that is just about tolerable.
>Growing tobacco is quite easy; growing and curing tobacco that you'd actually want to smoke is considerably more difficult.
This. I visited a tobacco plantation in the Caribbean once, and the way they dry and ferment the leaves into the finished product was very elaborate, in a way that you'd probably have trouble replicating on a small scale at home.
I have some tobacco plants, GV I think. I put minimal effort into growing them and they've done quite well. Sown at the wrong end of last summer and survived the winter in hydroponic substrates with no nutrients. I put half of them outdoors last month and those are suffering despite having coped with snow but some are soldiering on and the ones not yet outdoors are fine.
They're not visibly all that different to other, ornamental Nicotiana that people grow here either. They get quite big, mind. Need about as much space as a medium size Christmas tree.
>>463724 I was thinking more that about 90% of pipe tobacco wouldn't work in a rollie, see pic related. Straight up ribbon cut yellow Virginia would probably work fine though, now that you mention it.
I've mostly quit smoking for vaping, I only get the urge to smoke when I've had a drink or some particularly stiff stimulants. But that being the case maybe it'd be fun to smoke in a more indulgent fashion.
What do you do with a pipe? Do you just get pipe baccy and stuff it in and light it?
>>463775 >What do you do with a pipe? Do you just get pipe baccy and stuff it in and light it?
Pretty much. There're probably techniques to packing it, but fuck that you'll learn as you go. Some like to make a game of keeping it lit with the least possible effort, ie nursing the cherry till there's nothing left to burn. Using a match is much easier than a regular lighter, also (though a free burning fuel lighter would probably be good).
Also pipe tobacco is much stronger than rolling - smells great but I believe you're not meant to actually inhale it.
Seriously though, not to patronise you but it's generally a bad idea to start smoking if you're not already. Appart from the obvious drawbacks, you'll have a dry mouth and bad breath every moring that doesn't clear with water or a tooth brush. Your gums will begin to recede before long, which is mildly painful like a minor tooth ache. You'll get pastey skin, headaches, and possibly even sleep apnoea.
I've been smoking semi-regularly for almost a year now (>>/fit/3128) and I regret starting. Not so much for the health issues but the cost, stigma and addicting effects. At this point to give up is only as difficult as I make it, but I am making it difficult by having nothing else in my life that so reliably gets me out of the house. I finished a pack earlier today, it'll be about 2 days before I start thinking about buying again. When I do start thinking about it, I remind myself that it's a self perpetuating activity and I'm not really getting anything out of it other than feeding a light addiction and making it worse. I mean, I do enjoy many of the cigarettes but it's just not worth keeping the cycle going.
>Seriously though, not to patronise you but it's generally a bad idea to start smoking if you're not already
I already smoke maybe a pack of cigs a month, generally I'll buy a pack on pay day and have half of them with a few beers every other weekend. Before that I was a maybe 10-15 a day rollie smoker, but the vape has got me off being a full time smoker.
It's not ideal but believe me cigs are the least of my worries when it comes to addictive drugs.
>>463775 Pack it fairly tightly, but not so tightly that's it's hard to draw through. You've got to be able draw through it with your nose, if you breathe in through your mouth you'll burn your mouth, and if you can't draw breath with your nose then the ember just isn't going to stay lit. Some like to singe the top of the tobacco and then tamp it down gently before relighting to get a proper ember going, but you don't necessarily need to do that. And you don't inhale it like a cigarette, you just need to let the smoke circulate in your mouth. I recommend doing it when you've had a solid meal and you're not in a hurry to do anything else.
The main benefit is the variety of tobaccos and their flavours, as well as it being a slow and easygoing experience, otherwise it has all the other problems that come with nicotine and with smoking.
