Waiting Game

The introduction of our fourth beautiful and wonderful child has slowed my smoking a great deal. However, something exciting has occured and that will lead to a soon return to pipe writing as well as a review. I have found my local grocery store has begun to cary Velvet over the counter tobacco. I have more than a small fascination with over the counter blends, and I am not sure why. They really are not in any way cost effective, and with the internet a specialty or "boutique" blend can come about easier and even cheaper than the typical price one would pay for an OTC blend. Nevertheless, I love them. I think they connect me to an earlier generation of pipe smokers: those who didn't smoke pipes like we do, feeling like we are a minority, but those who smoked pipes because men just smoke pipes. What did they smoke? Likely one of the dozens of blends that were sold at every corner drug store! There are those I have liked less (Capt. Black, Bjokum Riff, Paladin). But I have also gotten a great amount of satisfaction from such classic american blends as Prince Albert, Carter Hall and Half and Half. Even some that I have been a bit indifferent towards like Sir Walter Ralleigh. I won't go so far as to say that I prefer OTC blends over my specialty blends (I have been smoking a great deal of Hartenstein Trail from Edwards in Denver lately), but I do know that as long as I cointinue to smoke a pipe I will always have one of my trusty old OTC blends on hand. How about you? Any dirty little sectrets in your enjoyment of cheap tobaccos?

SWR, Salt and Vodka

If I've ever lied to you, dear friend, I apologize. If I've ever misled you, I confess it and ask your forgiveness. However, I make it plain once more. I have not become so much a man of taste that the very simplest things have no allure to me! I picked up a pouch of this tobacco when stocking up on Carter Hall from the grocery. Hopefully, the CH won't be quite as dry as this pouch. This is a nice burley blend available over most counters that might have pipe tobacco behind them. This is most certainly in the ball park of Prince Albert and Carter Hall. It is nice and nutty. Not too bold and never terribly complex. A fine, classic American blend.

The critique? It is quite simple. At my local grocery store I pay around twice as much for this as I do for the comparable OTC blends. The result? I probably won't be picking up another pouch of this delightful blend. This is the standing problem with simple burley blends. It is difficult for burley blends to catch up in the "bang for the buck" area of life when compared to Prince Albert and Carter Hall. Not that there aren't some great ones out there. Cornell and Deihl have some fantastic burley blends that are crowd pleasers to say the least (I believe I even reviewed "Crooner" and know that I enjoyed it, once I learned how to work with the cubed burley). So, there you have it.

I have been spending some time refurbishing a set of 16 pipes that April got off of eBay. The process has been fun and has led me to invest in new reamers, tobaccos and alcohols. The last is not because the process is driving me to drink, but rather because I have been attempting to get the mustiness out of them as they sat unused for quite some time (even to the point of having cob webs all over them). The idea of filling pipes with salt and alcohol seemed strange and unwelcome to me, but tonight I have done that with the four best of the lot. I am hoping the strange residual taste and smell gets drawn out, however, after the intense reaming that they all received at my very hand I am interested to see. 8 hrs into the treatment the salt growing quite dark. The results are yet to be seen!