Da Aydin von StarkeZigarren ein riesiger Pfeifentabak-Fan ist, hat er sich auf der InterTabac 2024 mit den Größen der Pfeifentabakbranche getroffen und ausgetauscht. Jeremy Reeves gehört natürlich zu diesen namhaften Größen – wer sich mit Pfeifentabak beschäftigt, ist ihm sicherlich schon einmal begegnet.
Umso mehr war es für Aydin eine aufregende Erfahrung, und wie er sagt, hatte er ein echtes „Fanboy-Moment“ während des Interviews. Neben vielen interessanten Einblicken in seine Tätigkeit als Headblender bei Cornell & Diehl spricht Reeves ausführlich über die Unterschiede zu anderen Pfeifentabakherstellern und gibt wertvolle Empfehlungen, insbesondere für Einsteiger.
Übrigens: Das Video zu diesem Interview ist auf dem StarkeZigarren-YouTube-Kanal verfügbar.
Aydin: Mr. Reeves?
Mr. Reeves: Yes.
Aydin: It’s nice to meet you for the first time here at InterTabac. Is this your first time at the event?
Mr. Reeves: No, it’s not. I’ve actually been here for the last three years.
Aydin: Nice. My second question – how are you doing today?
Mr. Reeves: I’m doing quite well. Maybe another cup of coffee, and I’ll be even better.
Aydin: And what are you smoking today? Have you had anything lately?
Mr. Reeves: I’ve been working on a new blend. I’m not quite at liberty to talk too much about it, but yes, I’ve been smoking that recently. I haven’t had anything this morning, though—meetings and things.
Aydin: I smoked the Union Square, and it’s absolutely beautiful. I loved it! It was my first time trying it, and we will definitely order some. StarkeZigaren has traditionally focused more on cigars, but now we’re increasingly getting into pipe tobacco and pipes. Could you tell us about Cornell & Diehl? You are the head blender, right? Could you tell us a bit about the company?
Mr. Reeves: Yes, I’m the head blender and director at Cornell & Diehl. My responsibilities include ensuring that we have the tobaccos we need to create our blends. That means sourcing all the necessary ingredients and making sure our blends are executed properly. I lead a team of blenders who make the tobacco in my absence and handle the majority of the day-to-day manufacturing. In that regard, my position is a bit like an executive chef—the menu is designed by me, the ingredients are sourced by me, and the recipes are carried out by a team of absolutely fantastic and skilled blenders who have learned from me. We also have a packaging department that takes our blends and packages them in various sizes. We have machinery that processes the tobacco—pressing and cutting flakes and ready-rubbed tobacco, among other blending components. It’s quite a bit of work, but it’s a lot of fun, and I’m really proud of it. I enjoy leading such a great team.
Aydin: I bet!
Mr. Reeves: Yes, I really enjoy it and I’m proud of the team I get to work with.
Aydin: Another question. Here at Starke Zigaren, we are essentially the „nerds“ of the industry—we love our cigars. We are deeply in contact with the growers, the blenders, and we know everything about the soil, climate, and everything else. So, when we decided to get into pipe tobacco, there was no doubt that we would include your products. Can you tell us about how you balance innovation and creativity with maintaining history and tradition in your work?
Mr. Reeves: Oh, yeah. By virtue of making pipe tobacco, you’re already part of a historic tradition. But within that, there are always new ideas. There was a time when no one had ever tried putting X, Y, or Z into a blend—someone had to be the first to add vanilla, for example, or to use Perique in a pipe blend. So, even when we innovate, we’re still part of the tradition. It’s about taking the same ingredients and materials that other pipe blenders have been using for a couple of hundred years and making something that’s unique and compelling. I think that innovation is itself part of the tradition of pipe tobacco.
Aydin: What would you say makes Cornell & Diehl different from other pipe tobacco makers?
Mr. Reeves: We don’t rely heavily on humectants like glycerin or propylene glycol. These don’t feature prominently in our blends.
Aydin: So, fewer additives?
Mr. Reeves: That’s right. You’ll notice that our flakes are more delicate. You can’t throw them against the wall and expect them to stay intact—they’ll break apart, but that’s because we don’t use binding agents. We rely on the natural sugars and oils of the tobacco to form the flake. We find this allows for less interference during fermentation, and it’s a more natural process. We also don’t vacuum-seal our tins, which means there’s a bit of air in there that’s slowly consumed by the microbes over time.
Aydin: Micro-fermentation, isn’t it?
Mr. Reeves: Yes, exactly. Our tins yield more striking results. If you age a tin of Cornell & Diehl, you’ll find that after a year or two, a lot more transformation happens compared to other tobaccos.
Aydin: So, would you say it’s best not to cellar the tobacco or transfer it to another jar?
Mr. Reeves: Yes, that’s right. Once the tobacco is in the tin, it’s in its own little ecosystem. When you open the tin, you’re introducing a new environment and disrupting that process. The longer it stays in the same conditions, the more consistent the fermentation process will be. The purpose of cellaring is to take tobacco as it is now and experience a completely different product in 10 or 15 years. But every time you open a tin and introduce new oxygen, you halt the ongoing process. I recommend aging the tobacco in the tin. However, if it’s bulk tobacco in a plastic bag, I would transfer it to a jar, since plastic is porous and allows the volatiles produced by fermentation to escape, which can affect the flavor.
Aydin: What would you recommend to someone starting out with pipe tobacco from the Cornell & Diehl line?
Mr. Reeves: I think a lot of beginners start with aromatics because they open a jar and the tobacco smells like apricots or vanilla, and they expect that flavor. However, beginners often experience tongue bite and find the flavor doesn’t match the smell. Also, many beginners come from smoking cigarettes, so they need to learn the right cadence and how to pack a pipe properly. I think Latakia mixtures are actually a great place to start. They have a very prominent flavor, they’re not too strong in nicotine, and the flavor is easy to find—you don’t have to puff hard to taste it. Latakia is forgiving in that way. But in general, I recommend that new smokers explore many different kinds of tobaccos and blends. Once you find something you enjoy, stick with it for a while and really get to know it before branching out further.
Aydin: I’m a huge Virginia/Perique lover—what would you recommend for someone like me?
Mr. Reeves: I absolutely love Red Carpet. It’s a Virginia and Perique flake that we produce. I also really love Sunday Picnic, which is a Virginia, Oriental, and Perique blend.
Aydin: Do you know if it’s available in Germany yet?
Mr. Reeves: Maybe not yet.
Aydin: We should change that!
Mr. Reeves: Yes, Sunday Picnic is a beautiful blend, and it ages so well. I had the pleasure of buying back some aged tins from a customer of mine who passed away, and I had some Sunday Picnic that was about 10 years old. It had transformed—it was almost jet black and smelled like dried fruit. It was incredibly rich and deep, almost like a fruit roll-up. I highly recommend aging it. Also, Bayou Morning Flake is another excellent one, and it’s available in the EU.
Aydin: What would be your recommendation for someone who has to pick just one raw tobacco to smoke for the rest of their life?
Mr. Reeves: Oh wow, that’s a tough question. I’m torn. I would probably go with an Oriental. There’s a very special Izmir that we use, which is grown in Thailand, and I love smoking it straight. It might be something I could suffice on, on a desert island.
Aydin: Nice.
Aydin: Thank you so much, Mr. Reeves. It was a real pleasure meeting you.
Mr. Reeves: Thank you!