Now that we’ve finally slugged our way through what turned out to be another crazy year, I think we all can agree that we’re really looking forward to and hoping for marked improvement for the entire world in 2026. We need greater minds than mine to fix our problems, so I’m just going to discuss my small little niche world of pipes and tobaccos and offer some of my own ideas as to what we will see in our hobby over the next twelve months.
Regarding tobacco, there has been a definite trend toward rounding up the best Virginia leaf we can find, corralling it in our cellars and hoping for the best as we let it age. We have plenty of wars around the world, and we still have a bad one going on in our hobby, too. Because of the war on tobacco by the tobacco Nazi’s, it is indeed getting harder and harder to find quality pipe tobacco. Tobacco farming, once a monstrous and booming industry starting in the post WW II era, is getting smaller and smaller every year.
Here in the USA, there used to be areas of the country where growing tobacco was truly a huge industry. As an example, the largest tobacco belt in North Carolina was, and may still be, the Eastern Belt. It once contained approximately 65 tobacco warehouses, situated in approximately two dozen market towns beginning on the north side of the South River, and extending northward. Literally millions of tons of Virginia and Burley tobacco were harvested in the Eastern Belt combined with the North and South Carolina Border Belts and the Old and Middle Belts. Tobacco growth was spectacular due to the rich red soil in that region, and the Eastern Belt featured very rich and somewhat sandy soil that actually used to be under the ocean, and had absorbed minerals that were, and still are, major reasons why both Virginia and Burley tobacco thrive by being grown there.
To give you an example of how growing pipe tobacco has dwindled to where it is today; back in the 1960’s and 1970’s, Edgeworth Sliced pipe tobacco alone was produced to the tune of 7-million tons annually. Today, Edgeworth Sliced isn’t even being made, and the entire tobacco growing regions of the USA annually produces about 7-million tons of tobacco used in ALL of the blends currently being produced in our country, and maybe even less since McClelland’s is now out of business.
What we are now seeing and will continue to see in 2026 (and beyond, in my humble opinion), is a continuation of these trendy “Small Batch” Virginia blends that we are currently seeing come from blending houses such as Cornell & Diehl in the USA. There are also a few companies outside of the USA that will make small batches of a particular blend such as Orlik in Denmark, Kopp in Germany and Germain in England. In Germain’s case, it’s not so much the “Small Batch” special blend releases as it is the fact that their staple Virginia and other blends are being produced and exported in “small batches,” on a very irregular basis, and that’s why those blends (such as the Esoterica line), are and will continue to be hard to get. It is my belief that thanks to all the younger people who are jumping into the pipe smoking scene, production and distribution of quality pipe tobacco will expand again. I sure hope so!
Speaking of the younger people; over the 25-years that I have been selling pipe tobacco; I’ve picked up a lot more business from the 25 to 45 year old crowd over the past couple of years than I have ever had before. And I usually get the same answers when I ask them why they make purchases from my website. The opportunity to smoke some truly great tobaccos that are no longer made was almost always the main reason, and that made me feel good.
Moving on to pipes. Frankly, 2025 was an interesting year for pipe selling with the explosion of new pipe makers and the growth of selling their pipes on Instagram and other places. The established makers who have an easily recognizable name, were able to get a lot of selling done online through either their own websites, or the major ones like smokingpipes.com, or both. But the newer pipe makers who really have no recognizable name, are relying on pipe shows, eBay, Instagram or Facebook to hawk their pipes in order to gain name recognition. Without knowing anything about the pipe maker, his or her mentoring process, word of mouth about the smokability of their pipes, etc., it is still not easy for them to make a sale. And let’s face it, while photos of a pipe made by a little known maker may show a handsome pipe, looks alone doesn’t make the pipe a good smoker. What about the quality of the briar used? What about internal engineering? What about the quality and comfort of the stem? All of these factors go into whether the pipe smokes well or does not. With testimonials hard to come by, these little known makers will continue to find avenues for sales growth as they grew up with the electronic age and are taking advantage of it. So, let’s hope that in 2026, we’ll be able to see more of these younger and talented newcomers make the best of the electronic age and be able to prove that what they have to offer isn’t just “smoke and mirrors.”
Here’s to a great New Year for our hobby in 2026!
Steve
