The history of hand-rolling tobacco takes us on a fascinating journey through various places and cultures. Gain a new appreciation of your rollies.
The hand-rolled cigarettes we know and love have a rich, varied history going back thousands of years. Materials, techniques, and social customs have evolved, but the basic tradition remains unchanged. Trace the roots of rolling tobacco and gain a new appreciation of a craft that is both ancient and modern.
Hand-Rolling in the Americas
Archaeological finds in Mesoamerica and South America indicate humans began using tobacco for ceremonial purposes more than 12,000 years ago. The Aztecs stuffed the dried leaves of the sacred plant into cane tubes or hollow reeds, while various groups in Mexico, Central America, and South America crushed tobacco leaves and rolled them in maize husks or leaves. While groups in the north cultivated and used Nicotiana rustica, those in the south used Nicotiana tabacum, which was introduced to Europeans during the Columbian Exchange.
European colonisation saw tobacco become the Americas’ most profitable export crop by the 1500s. Tobacco use in Europe gained further impetus after English merchant John Rolfe planted a hybrid of various strains of N. tabacum in Virginia in the 1600s. While some native peoples continued to hand-roll tobacco in vegetable wrappers, many colonists preferred smoking pipes. The 20th century saw the development of various innovations and hand-rolling tobacco accessories, such as those available at the Black Swan Shoppe, from the manual cigarette rolling machine first patented in the 1970s to the flavoured rolling papers, cards, and sprays of more recent decades.
Hand-Rolling in Europe
Tobacco was introduced to Europe in the 1500s and the Ottoman Empire in the early 1600s. The Spanish smoked N. tabacum while the British smoked the harsher N. rustica.
It wasn’t until the 1600s that Europeans began hand-rolling tobacco into cigarettes. This happened because the Spanish town of Seville had a monopoly on cigar production. Beggars began picking up the remnants of used cigars, unrolling them, and re-rolling the leftover tobacco in newspaper. It wasn’t long before this practice spread through the Spanish working class and into Italy and Portugal.
Initially associated with the poor, hand-rolled cigarettes became more respectable in the late 1700s. British and French soldiers encountered and started hand-rolling tobacco into cigarettes during the Napoleonic Wars. 40 years later, soldiers from these countries became familiar with Turkish cigarettes during the Crimean War. Within a few decades, British smokers largely switched to hand-rolling unmixed Virginia tobacco, while American smokers preferred blends containing some Turkish tobacco.
Hand-Rolling in Asia
Portuguese and other European sailors introduced China, Japan, and other parts of Asia to tobacco in the mid-1500s and early 1600s. While it was customary for the upper classes to use smoking pipes, the working classes smoked either pipes or hand-rolled tobacco.
After tobacco began to be cultivated in India in the late 1600s, workers on tobacco farms rolled scraps of cured tobacco in tendu leaves and tied them closed to create hand-rolled cigarettes called beedi. Given their humble origin, beedi remain associated with the working classes.
Tobacco: A World Crop
Initially cultivated as a sacred plant in the Americas, tobacco was taken from its native home to countries with different soils and climates around the world. The plant has been hybridised to create the variety of strains available at the Black Swan Shoppe, which, like grapes used to make wine, develop characteristics reflecting their local environment.
What’s more, as various people’s palates developed in response to available foods, something similar happened regarding tobacco. The result is a cornucopia of hand-rolling tobacco types and blends, from plain Virginia and American shag containing Virginia and Burley, through to Turkish blends and heavy Dutch blends containing Kentucky, Latakia, and Paraguay tobacco.
With all this in mind, you’re set to embark on new journeys of discovery and appreciation of cultural significance and craftsmanship when you next hand-roll tobacco!
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