American Snuff Company Cotton Boll Twist

Summary: This raw twist was designed for chewing, but offers a strong nicotine hit with a warm Burley flavor.

Much as any hobbyist pursues extremes, smokers have sought the American Snuff Company "Cotton Bowl Twist" for its reputed cosmic nicotine hit. While it is stronger than most blends by a long shot, it is not as far removed from classics like the European and English twists as some might like to think. When sliced and rubbed out, this very dry tobacco burns steadily like a Burley and offers up a robust flavor of natural tobacco with a slight buttery or oily flavor, possibly like overcooked restaurant oil. It mixes extremely well with other ingredients, taking on some of their flavor and injecting its own as a background note. The flavor reveals more its simple curing than a particular blend although the nuttiness of Burley is present. While this is an enjoyable smoke, the greater attention to curing on other twists, such as the Samuel Gawith skyrockets, calls to the palate.

Cotton Ball Twist is labeled as a chewing tobacco but I actually prefer it as a smoke. In days past ropes & twists were used for either smoking or chewing, a practice I still personally partake in. The moisture content this rope arrives in makes it well-suited for this use.

Appearance: Brownish black pigtail twist. Fat on the top loop tapering down substantially in gauge as it gets to the twisted end. The top section of the loop being aprox 50-52 gauge and the twisted end being slightly smaller then a cigarette.

Packing: Comes in rope form so expect the usual cut/clip rub-out to get it ready for the pipe. Some consider this an annoyance..I happen to like the ritual. I prefer to cut this into tiny cubes. Loads nice and easy that way.

Lighting: Lights easily but depending on your sample's moisture you may need to play around with either hydrate/dehydrate to get to your preferred case & proper burning characteristic.

Taste: Ahh..Nice pure clean flavor. By my taster that's the best word to describe it. Clean. No flavors. Just pure tobacco. This is good stuff. This stays true all the way down to the end. If you start tasting ash, check your pipe. The tobacco is gone. You won't be finding some clump of soggy dottle, this leaves behind nothing but dry ash. Cotton Boll burns cool and clean. I had to go out of my way, puffing like a locomotive to try and get Cotton Boll to even threaten a bite and even then it barely nipped. Room note was nice to me but I doubt this will be passing many wife tests..

Don't look for any hints of pepper/fruit/vanilla/red wine etc etc etc its just a pure clean tobacco and in my opinion that's its greatest strength. If your palette has become overloaded from VaPers, Lat bombs, Aro's or whatnot and you need a break, give this a try. To me its like the pipe equivalent of a nice tall glass of cold water. Refreshing and pure. While most of the time we're all enjoying our other flavors (been on quite a VaPer kick myself lately 🙂 sometimes its nice to just have a smoke..Four stars from me and this is always in my rotation for the reason listed above.

Oh yeah one more thing, the warnings of high Vitamin N content should not be overlooked, the force is strong with this one. I smoke non-filtered cigarettes and could drop half a can of Kodiak in my mouth without batting an eye. I can actually feel this one after finishing a pipe..those sensitive to the ole' saint nic need not apply

I added this brand and blend for one reason: it is (and I have confirmation of this from someone more knowledgable than I) hands down the strongest tobacco I have ever smoked. The Rustica I have had doesn't hold a candle to it, and 1792 and Brown #4 are child's play by comparison.

It's really an old-fashioned chewing tobacco rope, but many pipe smokers have given it a shot, just those pipe smokers who are fascinated by strong tobaccos, that is.

I cut some off, loaded a small pipe, and took one small puff after I got it lit. Didn't taste that much worse than Brown #4, but then I got a slight hint of things to come, a certain uneasy feeling.

One more puff, and my head was almost spinning, I had nico-nausea, and my heart rate went up. I let the pipe rest, then slowly took maybe three more puffs within 15 minutes?

I'm still here, but that stuff is not for me. I have never experienced such real (and scary) physical symptoms from a tobacco before, and do not want to experience them again.

I dumped the rest of the bowl, and the rest of the twist sits in a jar in my collection as a sort of museum-curio. Maybe I could sprinkle a bit into another blend some time, but I'm really afraid to open the jar, even after 9 months or so.

Beware. This, when used as pipe tobacco, is the Devil's weed. It could possibly send you...at least where you don't want to be. I am glad I tried it, because now I know the definition of "strong burley," but never again. Beware!

Alright ok I received this earlier as a gift at my local tobacconist due to a packaging defect and I'm a fan of twists, so I sliced it and rubbed it out in to my smallest pipe(Yes I smoked this, crazy!). Flavor wise it's similar to G&H twists or Sam Gawith's it has a familiar full tobacco flavor and a cigarish which was quite nice but was pretty bland to me overall. However! I just finished about half the bowl not 3 min ago and set it down as I'm struggling to type this, this stuff will turn you green and body slam you in a heart beat. Be careful not for the faint of heart this stuff is nuts! But I'm glad I gave it a go it IS the definition of an old fashioned "strong burley".....now what to do with the rest of it...Give it a try if you like but be warned! LOL

I was at my alma mater to enjoy a great college football game. As a joke on us guys who smoke pipes a "friend" of ours brought some of this for us to try. Well we all broke and rubbed it up and put it in our pipes. There were I guess eight of us in the parking lot puffing on this stuff. Well two of the guys started pukeing after about twenty puffs then two or three more tamped out there bowls as fast as they could. Three of us sorta liked this. Well we finished our bowls and me and another guy had to take Aleve for a raging headache about twenty minutes after finishing the smoke. I don't know what to tell you other than if you are smoking this and enjoying it.....well your more of a man than I am.

The old timers here in Tennessee and Kentucky chewed this tobacco. Commonly known as "twist", most chewed it but some smoked it and lived to tell about it. Be careful out there, you can get too much of a good thing, (this really will turn you green and upside down if you smoke it). If you want to smoke this, have at it, you are a braver man than me! : )

Excellent source of Vitamin N. Seriously this will put hair on your chest. It really makes one wonder how it is made. I feel like it might be made with some extra ingredients. Kinda sweet and doesn't dry very well. I only smoke this occasionally, mainly when I feel like getting punched in the gut. This must be what nicotine tastes like. I would like to try some mapacho to compare as this is generally agreed to be the strongest tobacco to smoke in a pipe. Definitely not for anyone without a good tolerance. Also worth mentioning I did have a bit of a scare with this one as I smoked some of this stuff. I got kinda nauseous and had some cold sweats and blurred vision. So yeah... A little bit goes a long way. Also good for blending when you want to add some strength. Use caution when smoking straight.

Love Love Love, cotton boll twist..... Primarily a “chewer” of this tobacco, I love it when my “pipe smoking friends” ask me for a bit to sample in their pipes when they discover that it doesn’t contain any sugars or other flavorings that will clog their pipes and lungs.... -they turn just as green smoking it as I did from chewing it the first time many years ago.... it never gets old.