The Next Step

Could this be what beautiful tastes like? I never would have known! It is no secret that Dunhill tobaccos have returned. The return of Dunhill tobaccos has been much celebrated by the internet pipe smoking community, and with good reason. I am told by word of mouth type sources that Dunhill used to outsell every other brand of tinned tobacco available. This was the experience of one Tobacconists down in Denver, anyhow. I, however, took Dunhill tobaccos for granted, never trying one before they left us. No one told me how good they were, or sang their sweet songs until they were already quite gone. I chanced upon a tin of London Mixture some months ago and was impressed to no end. But, as those closest to me will tell you, I am easily impressed.

I have often wondered if it is a bad thing to be easily impressed. I have to admit I am a bit overawed by this amazing world, by the amazing and wonderful people in it. It seems like there is no charge for being amazed with life. I'm not sure what people gain out of being difficult and ornery, but that's not my problem here! Perhaps I just watched Pollyanna too many times as a child, but if you meet me, you can make a wild guess that I like you, and am interested in what you are going to say next. Call it a character flaw; I'm not changing.

But back to the tobacco. So I finally got my hands on a tin of Nightcap and a tin of Early Morning Pipe. I just got it today, so this is a "first impression" review. I smoked the Nightcap, because it is night. I am very strict about observing the tobacconists wishes of when he or she thought that said tobacco was to be enjoyed.

I didn't expect much. People often romanticize anything once they can't get it anymore. It is so safe to say, "That was the best tobacco ever!" Once you can't get it anymore. I think it also lends fodder to the whiny negative hearts who always long to look back and find the best things in memory and the worst up ahead. I personally believe the best tobaccos are yet to be made, but enough religious talk!

This tobacco is delicious. It is smooth, yet full bodied, the blend virginias and latakia is perfect, beautiful, wonderful. The tin aroma smells very similar to London Mixture. This is a query that I have had for some time. It seems that tobacconists manage to maintain a thread of consistency through wildly different blend. C&D's tobaccos all have a strange (but lovely) Cornell and Deihl aroma. MacClelland's tobaccos are famous for having a vinegar, or ketchup aroma when the tin is first popped. If you were to hold a pouch of fresh Prince Albert under my nose and then one of Carter Hall, I would never be able to tell the difference (both Middleton tobacco). However, it may just be the result of some similarity in the blends, in this case.

This tobacco smokes extraordinarily well. Truly a delight, cool and smooth, and it only required one relight (this is usually a result of a tobacco that I know well, but in this case it smoked easy). The bowl (standard size) that I smoked in took around an hour plus to smoke, and there was still some noticeable doddle after all that. (I had to go in, as my toes were cold). In any event, I would invite you to try it, if English blends are your speed. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I look forward to enjoying Early Morning Pipe tomorrow at 5:30 am - SHARP.

My prediction: I predict that those of us who never tried it before will say: "WOW! This was great, but I will continue to smoke my other tobaccos as well!" and those who enjoyed these tobaccos before will begin soon to pine for "old" Dunhill and to talk about how they were before. This will leave everyone wondering if they aren't really after the feeling that they had those years ago, rather than the tobacco...

A Long Absence and a Trip to Stonehenge

I am not certain that I can claim any good excuse for not posting to this blog recently. I have been enjoying some great new tobaccos recently, and have been thinking what I would write about them. I have also been enjoying some great pipe related fellowship and appreciating the people with whom I can appreciate a good pipe together. My current dream is to find a person that I can share a pipe and a game of cribbage, dominoes and/or backgammon. But I will have to be patient.

I recently spent an evening with a Bible Study/pipe circle that I enjoyed for many years. This group of fellows could not be beat for great conversation and like-minded enjoyment of tobacco and of the Word. Being there and chatting as if no time had passed at all made me think in no small part as to what heaven will be like. This too, however, is a matter for another time. What is on my mind at the moment is: Stonehenge.

I have three major tobacco reviews I am waiting to post, but all in good time, this is the first and foremost. My most avid reader went down to Edwards and boldly picked a blend for me to try (in a large quantity, no less!). The choice: Stonehenge! (Cue the dancing midget and 12" tall replica of Stonehenge descending from the ceiling). This is a great blend. It has that familiar hint of my favorite of all flavors: vanilla! But is mostly a really great lighter blend of tobacco. It doesn't have the same burley flavors that Black Watch has, however it is about the same level (or a bit less) of vanilla. Having tried some really nasty goopey aromatics, I appreciate Edward's natural aromatics a great deal! Just a taste of topping over the more abiding sense of great tobacco. One must be careful as the bowl continues as there is a bit of bite for the careless or "fast smoker", however, if you respect the blend it gets nice and intense about half way through the bowl. I would say it almost becomes pensive, brooding, and serious.

I suppose the parallel to THE Stonehenge (but only in my mind) would be the fact that upon seeing it for the first time everyone is awestruck, amazed and tickled at the curiosity of it...then we begin to wonder about the original purpose for which it was build? Oh, I'm sure we have figured it out, we're just so smart now, aren't we? But if you know, please don't tell me. I am having more fun wondering. Perhaps it was the first bird house that man started and got bored of halfway through construction. Perhaps it was giants playing with their parents dominoes. I could certainly imagine that in the absence of cards this would be the closest these men could come to making card houses. I like the idea of people with enough extra time that they would want to figure out how to put some rocks up on their ends and set others on top of it. I can just see them getting the villages together to dig up the rocks move them all to the top of the hill and saying to themselves, "I hope this whole calendar idea works, but if it doesn't, everyone else will have a heck of a time figuring out what we were doing." It certainly beats the massive wasting of time on the internet!

Additionally, if you would like to get some of this tobacco, you will have to go to the Edwards in Denver, Colorado. For some reason that is fully beyond my comprehension each individual store orders the same bulks AND THEN ARBITRARILY RENAMES THEM! This means that you can't go into your local Edwards and say "give me a pound of Stonehenge" because they will look at you like you have the wrong sort of substance in your pipe! What is yet more uncanny about this process is that they are afraid to tell you any information at all about what the tobaccos make up the blend or give you any sort of code by which you could locate the tobaccos at another Edward's store! It's the funniest, most self defeating thing I've seen in a while! But if you can find the one in Denver, Stonehenge is worth a try!

Thanks, Ma!

My son has the best "thanks" in the world (in my humble opinion). He looks up and beams at me and fires off a quick "den-kyoo" (with the accent on the "den"). As he is one year old this is adorable. My mother, and possible the only one who reads this blog, gave me some fun money and this is one of the things I bought (I also bought another Greek New Testament, as my old one is getting ragged). This is the first Mac Baren tobacco I have ever had. It was reviewed well, and I still am not sure what makes something a "navy flake" but I believe it means that it is pressed with molasses, honey or some other natural sweetener. Whatever the case, it's good!

The flakes themselves are dryer than some others that I have had (perhaps it's the tin that I got), however they pack and smoke wonderfully. A fold, a fold and I'm off to singing with the Village People ("in the Navy..." but smoking this tobacco doesn't seem to get me a tan at all!). I often wonder about the amazing power of the naming of tobacco. Given the fact that our government restricts tobacco advertisement so heavily (a policy I respectfully disagree with) a great deal of the selling power is wrapped up in the name.

Pipe smokers are a romantic sort (or at least I am) and are really being sold an experience, rather than just some dried leaves that come from different parts of the world. I often find myself rolling the name over in my mind as I enjoy a bowl of tobacco. Even one that I have had quite often. When I smoke Frog Morton I drift hazily back and forth between a smoke in the swamp with the dignified character on the front, and the Middle Earth Shire village for which tobacco was named. And yes, "The Frog" does a wonderful version of "the rainbow connection."

Smoking Rattray's Black Mallory (usually from my clay pipes) I find myself being gently carried into a proper English pub to enjoy the Virginia and Latakia that permeates the air. The sweet vanillas of Edward's Black Watch, take me back to many nights of friendship and Bible studies with by brothers in Denver. The wonderful flavors of C&D's Bayou AM and Bayou PM send me thinking of a peaceful repose on a Louisiana Dock after a full dinner of pine needle pie and sweetened gator stew. And I do tend to enjoy them at their recommended times.

Would I come up with any of the associations if I was given an unlabled baggie of tobacco? Certainly not. But I can be honest: sell me a dream, a vision, a fantasy. Sell me a picture that I can see with my tongue, a smell that will take me somewhere and show me something new...I'm buying. Vulnerable to advertising: yes. But I'm still buying!

Navy Flake is delicous, sweet and fun. Long, slow, cool burning and sweet. Such a nice delicate sweetness that it demands to be breathed out the nose as often as it can be. Pleasant and to the point. It isn't something that I would want to smoke inattentively, there would be too much to miss, and I think the Nicotine level would catch me by surprise if I wasn't careful. Great for a long night's smoke, one flake takes me more than an hour and a half to get through, if I smoke continuously. 3.5 oz of that is going to go quite some ways. I'm excited! (music fade out... "in the Navy...")