Carolina Red Flake originated eight years ago when Jeremy Reeves, Head Blender at Cornell & Diehl, was researching new leaf to be the main component for C&D's Red Virginia blends. He needed something that was similar enough to the previous Red Virginia that it would not alter the blends, but he also took the opportunity to explore some exceptional leaf whose flavor profile was different and might be a good candidate for potential special projects. "I'm always open to try samples of good tobacco," he says. "You can sometimes be very pleasantly surprised."

His leaf suppliers sent samples. One of those samples particularly commended itself and did indeed pleasantly surprise Jeremy. He decided to highlight its unique qualities with Carolina Red Flake, and it established an institution.

Carolina Red Flake has become one of the most popular Small Batch releases from Cornell & Diehl, and this year again celebrates the unique qualities of Red Virginia, which can offer an incredible range of nuanced flavors.

The first two releases employed the original grade of Red Virginia, which was the blend's inspiration. "After that," says Jeremy, "we used a couple of other single-grade varietal Virginias, and then I began experimenting with blending high-quality red Virginias that had different attributes for a fully Red Virginia Flake."

Again for 2024, Jeremy has utilized different grades of Red Virginia from different farms and crops to achieve a particular smoking experience. "Carolina Red Flake has always been a way to explore the cool versatility and unique attributes of upper-stalk, mature, and overripe tobacco, which I think is pretty profound. It can really go in so many different directions."

Jeremy finds parallels between Red Virginias and different types of tea. "I think that Virginia tobacco, in particular, is very much like tea, especially when compared to cigars. I would place cigars in a category of being sort of like rum or like coffee where there is certainly a degree of variation, but within the rum or coffee categories, I don't find nearly the degree of variation, nearly the wild swings of flavor and mouthfeel and aroma possibilities that I find in tobacco for the pipe.

"... a way to explore the cool versatility and unique attributes of upper-stalk, mature, and overripe tobacco"

"And I think that tea is similar. You can just have so many different wild swings and variations in flavor profiles that I think that pipe tobacco is a good analog; Red Virginia is also very versatile. It can hit deep, earthy notes. It can offer really robust nicotine strength and an oily character. It can evoke elements of floral or spice notes. It can strike these hay or bready kinds of tones. It can be overtly palpably sweet; it can be tangy; it can really run the gamut. When you have different grades of upper stalk leaf that have different characteristics, you can create entirely new flavor profiles using components that are technically of a similar family of leaf using them the same way that you would use components that are of different families of leaf."

Jeremy employs several Red Virginias in this year's blend for Carolina Red Flake in the same way that he would use multiple components for other blends. It may be a more narrow range of leaf types, but within that range, there's still a wide variety of flavor possibilities.

Stalk Position

Leaf position on a tobacco stalk makes a difference. For Virginia tobaccos, which are flue-cured, the brighter leaf is found at the mid-way height of the plant and is picked early in the season. "Those leaves reach maturity earlier in the growth process," says Jeremy, "and if you pick them at the right time, they will be the sweetest and have a more mellow nicotine content." One effect of this harvesting is that all the energy in the plant formerly invested in the mid-leaves now pushes upward to the leaves at the top of the stalk.

"By harvesting the lower stalk leaves, you're allowing the plant to really just saturate the leaf that is left at the top of the stalk with oil and with nicotine, and those leaves get the most direct sunlight. They end up being very robust in nicotine by comparison to the leaves from lower stalk positions."

These leaves also end up being more tattered and weather-beaten than lower leaves. Like old flags, they flap around in the wind and begin to wear. "There's an interesting saying with Red Virginia: it is pricey because it is rare; it's only a small percentage of the overall crop. It makes up about 10% or 12% of the overall crop yield, but it's also part of that lower percentage because it's the upper third of the plant. You would think it would comprise 30% or so, but that's not so because to get those overripe, really deep-colored leaves that have all that rich flavor, they also get very tattered." Without the structural protection of the lower leaves, and because of their position high on the plant, they are more subject to damage.

... all the energy in the plant formerly invested in the mid-leaves now pushes upward

"When a leaf is blowing around, it's not stopped by the leaf or groupings of leaves from lower down. It's flapping around with nothing to stop it. So you get a more weathered leaf, and you end up losing a lot of lamina [the flesh of the leaf, neither vein nor midrib] from the tips of the leaf. So darker Virginias are not only rare because they make up a small percentage of the overall crop, they're also even more rare because of the weather time that they experience and the overall degradation and loss that is involved in getting that overripe leaf. So their yield at the end is much less. You have a lot more loss."

While some leaf is more structurally sound at harvesting, raw Red Virginia leaf is beat up. It is not beautiful. "It's not a perfect pristine leaf. It is tattered and has sunspots on it and has a very weathered appearance in the field, but the characteristics that it can produce are highly sought-after and highly valued. It's weathered and worn and has achieved a deeper flavor and a more robust nicotine content because of the time that it has spent on the stalk continuing to mature and age."

Tips: One of Three Varietals for 2024

"This year, we used North Carolina tips from crop year 2022: TA-22, with 13.53% sugar content. We've used this leaf in the past in Carolina Red Flake. These tips are a true tips grade. They're from the fourth priming — the fourth stage of leaf harvesting while the plant is still in the ground. There are really only a couple of farms in North Carolina that even do a fourth priming. Most flue-cured farmers do three primings. They do their lugs, which are the leaves that are lowest on the stalk, and then do their cutters, which are the mid-stalk, and then they do their leaf, which is the grading term for your upper stalk."

The lowest leaves don't get enough sunlight to mature and they experience little in the way of photosynthesis. If they are left on the plant, they will be valueless, pale leaves that the plant will waste energy on maintaining. "If you know the plant is going to spend energy and resources keeping that leaf alive," says Jeremy, "you can just pick it and take it out of the equation, leaving the plant with more energy and resources to push toward leaves that will actually grow into something useful and flavorful."

The tips are at the very top of the plant and contain newer growth. They are small but enjoy a lot of direct sunlight. "They aren't quite as big as the other leaves in that upper third of the plant that have grown quite large because they've been on the plant longer, but they are going to be intense in their flavor. They just grow a little smaller, and they have an element of some of that brighter Virginia flavor. Some mahogany leaf will have almost a creosote element, just this dark roasted kind of flavor from literally baking in the sun. And your tips will hint at that, but they will have a little more vibrant sweetness and an intense flavor, but not as intensely deep."

Jeremy says that the flavor profile reveals itself in an intense spectrum. "You have elements of that really deep-roasted, earthy dark flavor and elements of a raisiny sort of sweetness. But then you also have a little bit of a brighter note. Often it can come off as citrus. Sometimes it can come off a little bit more like cantaloupe. And to me that's where I find the sweet element of these tips, in this particular lot of tips. It reminds me of the mellow, rounded, honeyed sweetness of cantaloupe."

Georgia Leaf

Another Red Virginia component in Carolina Red is a particular leaf grown in Georgia. "It has a really unique sweetness," says Jeremy. "It is pleasant to smoke straight, but it is intensely sweet. So it provides kind of a single note and is just a little monotonous. But used in a blend, this leaf can really help to kick up and accentuate the sweetness without becoming overpowering. So that is the next Red Virginia in the blend: this Georgian from crop year 2019."

"Tips grow a little smaller, and they have an element of some of that brighter Virginia flavor"

Jeremy says that its primary purpose is to emphasize and support the sweeter aspects of Red Virginia leaf. "Overall, Red Virginias do offer sweetness but tend not to be very overt in that sweetness. That's where you find brighter Virginia and the higher sugar content that those mid-stalk leaves have where the nicotine has just begun to saturate through the plant."

There is an inverse relationship between nicotine and sugar content in tobacco: the higher the nicotine level, the lower the sugar, and vice versa. "In this Georgia leaf, you have lower nicotine and a lot more sugar, which is an energy source for the plant to grow quickly and to continue to mature. So when you pick those mid-stalk leaves, you're really capitalizing on the amount of sugar that the plant has stored."

Overall, Red Virginia is sweet, but not to the extent of Bright Virginia, which can be as high as 30% or even more. Typically, Red Virginia is 8%-10% sugar, but the crop utilized for Carolina Red is higher than normal. Interestingly, one of the determining factors in final sugar content is the amount of rain a particular crop experiences.

"This Georgian leaf must have been grown in an area that got a lot of rain," says Jeremy, "because while it is still an upper stalk position leaf, it's actually at 17% sugar."

Blended Leaf

The third component in Carolina Red is a blend of Red Virginia leaf and tips. "It's a mix of tips and leaf in a red/orange range, again from North Carolina. It adds a spicy element to the blend. Think of the tips as having a fruity character with a touch of molasses and the Georgian leaf as delivering a sweet element.

"... when you pick those mid-stalk leaves, you're really capitalizing on the amount of sugar"

The blend of tips and leaf from North Carolina delivers a zesty spiciness to overlay the sweetness of the other components. "All together, there is a tart element, a sweet element, a spicy element, and an earthy element that is almost salty. The combination reminds me of a snack I frequently enjoyed growing up in New Mexico: honeydew with a spritz of lime juice, a little salt, and a sprinkle of cayenne pepper or chili powder."

Pressed Into Flakes

"As with all of our flakes, once we have gone through all of the leaf by hand and made it ready to blend," says Jeremy, "we weigh it out in the correct proportions on our blending tables, mix them together, and add moisture."

From there, the tobacco is loaded into what's called a swing press to form blocks. Those blocks are then wrapped, labeled, and dated and go into holding presses for seven days. After seven days of unrelenting pressure, the blocks are cut into bars, which are subsequently run through a flake cutter. Once the flakes are cut, the tobacco is ready to be packaged into tins.

"... there is a tart element, a sweet element, a spicy element, and an earthy element that is almost salty"

Carolina Red Flake 2024 may be considered a minimalist blend especially appealing to Virginia enthusiasts, but it possesses a complexity and nuance of flavors to satisfy those who lean into Aromatics as well. It's rich, deep, and earthy with hints of dried fruit and citrus, and its sugar and nicotine content encourage frequent revisiting. Excellent immediately from the tin but also replete with aging potential, it's a blend to stash away for the future, when it will continue to surprise with its depth, its fluid and satisfying mouthfeel, and sweetly kaleidoscopic delivery of interesting and savory flavors. Cornell & Diehl's Small Batch: Carolina Red Flake 2024 is available Tuesday, September 24 at 6:00 p.m. ET.