Presbyterian Pipe Tobacco

Presbyterian Pipe Tobacco is a blend that has a very Scottish history. Sometime before World War One, Alfred Gale Sr., who was a noted tobacconist at the time, produced this blend for the Very Reverend Dr. John White.

Dr. White was a notable minister of the Church of Scotland and was influential in Scottish politics for a number of years. Originally, Dr. White gave this tobacco no name, preferring to enjoy it himself and only getting it from Mr. Gale. However, he would later share this blend with a friend, Stanley Baldwin, around 1923.

Stanley Baldwin, who would later be known as Earl Baldwin, was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom three times, enjoyed the tobacco so much that he suggested the Presbyterian name it still carries to this day.

Production of this tobacco stayed with Mr. Gale until 1956 when it was first acquired by an outside company. The rights and recipe were then sold a second time, this time to Planta in 1981. Planta would continue to make it until 2019 when they were acquired by Mac Baren, who took over the manufacturing of this blend.

When looking at what is in Presbyterian tobacco, you will find a comfortable mixture of leaves in a coarse cut. You get Oriental and Virginia tobaccos, along with a slight amount of Latakia to go with it. This gives the blend a pleasant room note, smelling of cocoa and spice. There is no added flavoring to this blend, so everything you taste is from the tobacco itself.