"I have been guilty of several monographs. They are all upon technical subjects. Here, for example, is one 'Upon the Distinction between the Ashes of the Various Tobaccos.' In it I enumerate a hundred and forty forms of cigar, cigarette, and pipe tobacco, with coloured plates illustrating the difference in the ash." (SIGN).

Obviously, given the enormous amount of references to it, tobacco is a very important supporting character in the Canon. Whether Holmes is studying it, writing about it, or smoking it, it seems to always be wafting in the background. But to properly explore the world of tobacco, we must first look into the processes and types of tobacco. From there, we can explore types of pipes (the most popular form of consuming tobacco in the Canon), touch upon cigars and cigarettes, and then properly explore the tantalizing tobacco references in the Canon.

Tobacco, dried and cured leaves of of the nightshade family, was traditionally smoked by many Native American cultures. Mayans of 1,500 years ago smoked tobacco and used it as snuff. In their civilization, it was thought to have magical powers. Tobacco contains nicotine, a stimulant. From Native American cultures, the practice of smoking tobacco spread eastward via seamen to Europe. The cigarette was introduced in 1828 in Spain, but it did not eclipse the popularity of the cigar and pipe until the early 1900s.

When the leaves of these plants are grown, they are harvested in one of two ways. "Cut" tobacco is when the entire plant is harvested by cutting the stalk off at the ground. "Pulled" tobacco is when individual leaves are pulled off the plant as they become ripe. After harvesting, leaves are sorted into quality types.

The leaves are then cured to reduce the moisture content in the leaves from 80% to about 20% by one of several different methods. Tobacco can be fire-cured (often over low fires with aromatic woods to infuse aroma and body), heat-cured (smokeless) by flues, air-cured (usually hung in a roofed, open-sided building to dry for 4-8 weeks), sun-cured (where leaves are exposed to the sun to remove most of their moisture before being air-cured), steam-cured (as in Swedish 'snus'), or a combination of these methods. There are countless varieties of tobacco plants that are cured using these different methods. For instance, "Brightleaf tobacco" is heat-cured, "White Burley" (or "Burley") is air-cured, "Virginia" tobacco is flue-cured, and many "Oriental" tobaccos are sun-cured.

All tobacco varieties belong to the Nicotiana genus including Nicotiana Tabacum and Nicotiana Rustica. Varieties vary from the small-leaved aromatic tobaccos to the large, broad-leaved cigar tobaccos or "Shade Tobacco." Perique, an extraordinarily strong flavored tobacco, is made only in St. James Parish in Louisiana and has a complicated curing process. Other types of famous tobaccos include Latakia (Cyprus and Syrian grown tobacco fire-cured with aromatic woods), Kentucky (fire-cured Burley tobacco), Havanna, and Cavendish (flue or fire-cured Virginia tobacco undergoing a special curing process).

Tobacco varieties used to make snuff, chewing tobacco, and to fill cigarettes, cigars, cigarillos, and pipes must be cut depending on its use. And, of course, there are several different ways to cut it, including plug, loose, flake, twist, curly cut, bird's eye, ribbon cut, shag, and crumble cake.

Plug tobacco is when the leaves are pressed (by large presses exerting great force) into slabs about 3/4 cm thick. This makes it easier to transport, store, and infuses certain taste qualities into the tobacco. This was the most common method of cutting tobacco for over a century, when transportation could take many months.

Plug tobacco molds were sometimes placed in the bottom of the mold (for chewing or pipe tobacco) which would imprint the symbol or name of the manufacturer. A sheet of molds was 12" square, and each mold produced 24 plugs. A blank tin was placed on top, pressure was applied, After leaving the curing room the tobacco was sheared into plugs, wrapped and boxed for sale. Bar Plug tobacco was sold sold by vendors to consumers in inches. Tobacco companies supplied stores with plug tobacco iron cutters to make measuring and cutting easier. Plug cutters were common from the 1800s to the 1940s, and they came in many different styles and shapes Individuals could also buy simple (and less precise) cleaver style tobacco cutters for home use.

Flake cut, Navy Cut, or Cut Plug was plug tobacco cut into broad, thin slices. A flake is a thin layer about 1-1.5 mm thick produced by cutting a slab of pressed tobacco.

Cube Cut is when pressed tobacco is cut into 3-5 mm thick slices, and then those are cut crossways so that tobacco cubes are made.

Crumble Cut cut tobacco is Flake tobacco whose slices are stacked in piles and cut crossways to a width of 1-1.5 mm. The mass of tobacco cubes that is formed in this way is once more put under the press and again cut into slices. The result is that a slice of tobacco crumbles into small fragments with the minimum of effort.

Twist (Bogie, Pigtail, or Rope) cut is actually rolled and was originally chewed by sailors on wooden boots where smoking was a fire hazard. Much like a cigar, tobacco leaves of different types are placed on one another, plaited, and covered with a wrapper leaf. Originally, this was one of the most common types of finished tobacco as it could be cut and smoked, chewed, or rasped to a coarse powder and snuffed. The roll is about 1-2", and it is extremely strong and sweet.

Curly Cut and Spun Cut tobacco is when a twist (see above) is prepared in the shape of a roll 1-3 cm in thickness, left to mature, and then cut into thin slices resembling coins.

Bird’s Eye (mentioned briefly in SIGN) is when the tobacco is prepared and cut by the Curly Cut method, then partially rubbed. As a result, little ‘coins’ of 0.5-0.7 cm diameter resembling Birds’ eyes remain in the rubbed tobacco.

When all of the above types of tobacco are being prepared for the press, Loose Cut tobacco is separated and skips press stage, going directly to "casing" where it is rolled in a special drum with natural additives, matured, and shredded into strings with a diameter of 1.8mm.

Ribbon Cut, as its name implies, is a long, even, thin strip of tobacco made by cutting the leaf lengthwise. Ribbon cut was the forerunner for the cut used for cigarettes (industrial and hand rolled) and cigarillos depending on the width of the ribbon. Originally, Ribbon Cut had a width of up to 2 mm. Medium (or Fine Medium) Cut is of a slightly smaller width than the traditional "Ribbon Cut." This is currently the most universal type of cut, being slightly smaller than Ribbon Cut and much larger than the ultra-fine Shag cut. Shag (or "Fine Cut") is the smallest cut possible cut (including widths as small as .5 mm), and it would only be smoked in very small pipes.

The famous "shag" tobacco of the Canon was much coarser than today's shag, and it was considered inferior to other tobaccos. Alan Smith in "A Three Pipe Problem (Pipes & Tobacco, Summer 1999) notes that shag was "manufactured of the strongest and very worst kind of leaf, and [was] chiefly consumed by the poorer classes." It was very strong and odorous.

There are also artistic cuts (Wild Cut, Exotic Cut and Hand Cut) where the cut is characterized by the irregular width of the tobacco ribbon. It resembles the tobacco cuts of the past that were made by hand rather than machines.

"This is Grosvenor mixture at eightpence an ounce," Holmes answered, knocking a little out on his palm (YELL). I have been unable to find mention of a Grosvenor mixture although, considering the thousands of mixtures there must have been at that time, this isn't abnormal. Indeed, in addition to all the standard tobacco shop mixtures, tobacco shops could also create a special blend for any customer demanding one.

As for Holmes, he smoked "Black Shag," described above. This would have been cheap, coarse, and strong tobacco. Although not directly mentioned in RETI, he is still clearly smoking black shag (an odorous tobacco) as "his pipe [was] curling forth slow wreaths of acrid tobacco." Clearly our Holmes was not a connoisseur of fine tobaccos - he was addicted to the nicotine and the more of it, the better. A current tobacco company, McClelland's (est. 1977), has a 221b series including a "Black Shag." But the "Black Shag" they have marketed since 1978 is not the black shag of Holmes, for it has more flavors and is more exotic than any Holmes would have smoked. He often ordered his black shag from Bradley's, also the tobacco shop that Watson ordered his cigarettes from.

In STUD, Watson notes that he smokes "ship's." This is a coarse, strong, and rough-cut flake, likely a generic seamen's tobacco possibly rolled into a twist (see above). In his article "140 Different Varieties," John Hall notes that Watson smokes the "'ship's' tobacco that your great, great grandfather smoked--"not for those of weak constitution. It's almost odourless and tasteless, but the mere act of inhaling gives a blast of nicotine to the back of the throat which makes your eyes water." After noting the more generic ship tobacco, Hall also puts forth the supposition that it might also be "'Schippers Tabak Special' made in the Netherlands." But I think it is more likely that it is the generic ship tobacco, likely in a twist. Watson probably took to it on his return voyage from India while passing time with the crew. By the time of CROO, Holmes notes that Watson smokes "that Arcadia mixture of your bachelor days." The Arcadia mixture was an expensive, high-grade tobacco. Watson probably tired quickly of the novelty of the ship's mixture and potency. As a man of the gentler arts, he appreciated a lighter, richer tobacco than the shocking, heavy tobacco primarily made for the nicotine content. He may have even smoked Arcadia before taking on ship's, and then returned to it after tiring of ship's tobacco. Arcadia was one blend sold by Carreras Ltd. of London. Hall believes the switch from ship's to Arcadia might have been made after Watson met Mary Morstan, his future wife "because a refined lady would not take kindly to the rank stench of corded plug, particularly when smoked by the man she intended to marry."

McClelland's Arcadia

McClelland's Black Shag

McClelland's Honeydew

McClelland's has an "Arcadia" mixture out in addition to "Honeydew" which is mentioned in CARD. The container used to send the ears to Sarah Cushing had contained half a pound of "honeydew." After curing, honey can be added to tobacco to give it a unique flavor and to prevent its drying out.

Persian Slipper

And where does one put all of this tobacco? For Holmes, in a rather unconventional place, namely in the toe end of a Persian slipper (MUSG, NAVA, EMPT). Near the fire and open, this would have inevitably dried out the tobacco. As Henry Zecher says in his "Sherlock Holmes and the 21st Century" , "By keeping [tobacco] in his Persian slipper, or in pouches over the mantle, he kept it perpetually dry, which caused it to smoke faster and hotter than normal."

He did, however, have a few more conventional tobacco pouches to hold his tobacco when he was traveling as evidenced in DEVI and in DYIN when Watson notes he "came to the mantelpiece. A litter of pipes, tobacco-pouches, syringes, penknives, revolver cartridges, and other debris was scattered over it." Watson also stored his tobacco in a tobacco pouch (CROO).

Tobacco Pouch

Information for this article was culled mainly from the following sources, among others.

Curing Processes
General Information
Cutting Info
Tobacco Info

Please note: Tobacco use carries significant risks to develop various cancers, strokes, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.

For more information on tobacco and the Canon, the definitive article online is John Hall's 140 Different Varieties.