Virginai comes in an almost infinite variety red, brown, black, lemon, orange, wheat orange-red etc.
All Virginia tobaccos have a high nicotine content because they typically are grown in nitrogen rich soils.
It is the mildest of all blending tobaccos but because it has the highest natural sugar content by itself it can often burn hot.
It is used in almost all blends as it burns well.
Its characteristic is a natural sweetness but certain types have to steamed or stoved to eliminate their tannic acids which can impart an acidic taste.
BRIGHT Virginia - is from the Carolinas and is normally very pale in color almost white.
There are generally two main families of raw pipe tobacco, namely Virginia and Burley.
Virginia and Oriental tobacco belong to the same type, as they both have high sugar and aromatic content. Virginia has a pH value of about 4.5, which in chemical terms means sour. Burley has a pH value of about 7, or neutral. These main types are broken down into various subtypes, which are described below.
Throughout history Virginia tobacco has been highly valued, and today it is the most widely used base tobacco in pipe tobacco mixtures. The popularity of Virginia is owing to the high natural sugar and aromatic content in its leaves. These natural ingredients give Virginia tobacco its sweet and aromatic taste.
The Virginia plant develops leaves 20 cm to 50 cm long. Virginia tobacco is harvested in several stages, as the leaves are plucked individually when they are ripe. The ripening takes place on the plant, and the leaves are harvested when they take on a yellowish color. After being plucked, they are gathered in bundles (10-12 leaves per bundle) and hung on rods in barns to dry. Most Virginia tobacco is flue-cured (dried by warm air), which means that the temperature during the five-day drying process slowly rises to about 80 degrees Celsius. Flue-curing is a precisely controlled drying process in which the relation between temperature and air humidity draws out the natural qualities of Virginia tobacco. The colors in flue-cured Virginia leave range from light yellow to mahogany.
We buy Virginia tobacco in the form of a whole leaf, strip and hand strip, which means that the stem has been removed.
The best Virginia tobaccos come from countries where the temperature is about 35 degrees Celsius in the growing period, with about 90% relative humidity. Mac Baren gets its Virginia tobacco from USA; the states of Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia; the African countries of Malawi and Zimbabwe and Brazil.