What is Chewing Tobacco / Scrap Tobacco?
Chewing tobacco (also known as chew, chaw ) refers to a
form of
smokeless tobacco furnished as long strands of whole leaves and consumed by placing a portion of the tobacco between the cheek
and gum or teeth and chewing. Unlike
dipping tobacco, it isn't ground and must be mechanically crushed with the teeth to release flavour and
nicotine.
Unwanted juices are then expectorated. Historically, chewing tobacco was the
most prevalent form of tobacco use in the United States until it was overtaken
by cigarette
smoking in the early 20th Century. Tobacco in this form is now largely confined
to rural and especially Southern areas of the United States.
There are several types of chewing tobacco
Loose leaf tobacco is sweetened and packaged loose in aluminum lined
pouches. The chewer simply takes a portion directly from the pouch. This is the
most widely available
Plug tobacco is press formed into sheets, with the aid of a little syrup,
mostly molasses, which helps maintain form as well as sweeten. The sheets are
then cut into individual plugs, wrapped with fine tobacco and then packaged.
Individual servings must be cut or bitten directly from the plug.
Twist tobacco is spun and rolled into large rope-like strands and then
twisted into a knot. The final product is much lower in moisture than plug or
loose leaf tobacco, and historic varieties could be smoked in a pipe as well as
chewed. This was the most common form of chewing tobacco in the 18th and 19th
centuries.
Chewing is one of the oldest ways of consuming tobacco leaves.
Native Americans in both
North and South America chewed the leaves of the plant, frequently mixed with
the mineral lime.
The Southern U.S. was distinctive for its production of tobacco, which earned
premium prices from around the world. Most farmers grew a little for their own
use, or traded with neighbours who grew it. Commercial sales became important in
the late 19th century as major tobacco companies rose in the South, becoming one
of the largest employers in cities like Durham, NC
and Richmond, VA. Southerners dominated the tobacco
industry in the United States; even a concern as large as the Helm Tobacco Company,
headquartered in New Jersey, was headed by former Confederate officer
George Washington Helme. In 1938
R.J. Reynolds marketed eighty-four brands of
chewing tobacco, twelve brands of smoking tobacco, and the top-selling
Camel brand of cigarettes. Reynolds sold large quantities of chewing tobacco, though that market peaked about 1910.
A historian of the American South in the late 1860s reported on typical usage in
the region where it was grown, paying close attention to class and gender:
In the U.S., chewing tobacco was culturally associated with sports, especially
baseball,
for much of the 20th Century, but now its use by participants is almost
universally banned at organized sporting events.
Chewing tobacco remains popular in the American South and continues to spark
controversy even today
Common Chewing Tobacco Brands
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