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!

Too cold to smoke...

I freely admit that I have been a bit pouty the last few days. I have young children and whenever they are awake I want to be with them. If then can come out while I puff merrily on my pipe then all is well and right with the universe. However, if it is too cold to bring them out into the frigid air then I cannot, in good conscience make them miserable to suit my desire to puff away, even at the finest tobacco. Additionally, if it is cold during the day, it is yet colder once the kids have gone to bed. This means that I am unable to enjoy my pipe nearly so much (even if I can get out to smoke it). Ah well, one more reason to be thankful for the spring and summer months.

I haven't been posting nearly as much here as I have been taking up much of my free time with my other project "Clandestine Pipe" on YouTube. (http://www.youtube.com/user/ClandestinePipe) Be that as it may, I have been wanting to write this message for a while. A new pipe came into my hands (actually several new pipes came into my hands in the last two months). But the one I wish to focus on today is a Mauro Armellini Church Warden pipe. It is my first church warden and I simply adore it. Here is a picture of it:
I love the bend as well as the "rodesian" shape to the bowl. It is the perfect sitting and sipping pipe. As much as the last few days have been too cold, we have had something of a reprieve from winter in the last few weeks, sometimes being to sit out and smoke in little more than a jeans and a light jacket. This bowl has been a steady companion, and fits the evening smoke perfectly. I have filled it most commonly with Dunhill's Nightcap, and have enjoyed it every single time. I have yet to write my article on Early Morning Pipe, but that will just have to wait, I still don't feel like I have come to a full enough understanding of EMP to be able to write on it coherently.

In any event this Churchwarden has already been a faithful companion on more than a few evenings of sitting and puffing and has made for great conversation amongst my brothers of the briar whom I smoke with most often here. So, with great thanksgiving I enjoy this pipe and the bag of Rivendale that accompanied it. Edward's Pipe and Tobacco in Denver wins yet another point. They always treat me well, and Bryan always remembers my name, but even better they always treat my mother and wife well when they go in to purchase something for me. It may sound a bit silly, but it means a great deal to me that they always are kind, gracious and respectful when helping the loving women in my life find "just the right pipe" for me.

Famous Pipe Smokers and their Tobacco

I received a beautiful birthday present of a church warden pipe (thanks Ma!) which I will feature in a future notice, but this post is inspired by my mother in a different way. She is apart of a series of postings dedicated to Kenneth Graham's master work The Wind in the Willows (http://fraiselachrymose.blogspot.com/) this is a wonderful book that weighs very heavily into what I view the perfect life to be like. She asked me if anyone smoked a pipe in that book. If memory serves, the Rat does. Even if he doesn't ever do it in the book (which I believe he does); he ever will in my mind. This got my mind rolling around the other famous pipe smokers who never told us. So I thought I would expose them, as well as the tobaccos that they smoke:

The Rat from wind in the willows smokes stoved red virginias, and some Frog Morton for a treat. Usually from his clay pipe (living near the river is a bit humid for briar) and when he is in the mood for a good sit from a larger calabash.

Pooh smokes mostly from a corn cob pipe, but occasionally pulls out an old rusticated pipe with an 1/8th bend in the stem. He smokes honey cavendish, of course.

Brave old Captain Nemo is fond of smoking Burley based blends in a straight billiard shaped pipe.

Chuck Norris, never to be outdone, holds the tobacco in his bare hand. Lights it with his burning rage, enjoys it in such a way as to not influence children to smoke, while deriving more pleasure from it than most mortals are capable of experiencing. He then delivers the only truly objective tobacco review that is available to humanity and posts it on tobaccoreviews.com using a different handle each time (so there is still some challenge for the rest of us).

Who else smokes a pipe and we don't know it? What do they smoke?

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...

Christmas Cheer

I've held off on trying this tobacco for a while now. But this

year the time had come. And I was unable to find it because my local tobacconist had not received his shipment in. So I bought a tin of last year's Christmas Cheer. Seeing as I bought it a year late, I figured I should review it a day late. Good logic, right? So here I am a day after Christmas, still enjoying wonderful Christmas Cheer. It is a beautiful smoke. Though I have no other years of "Christmas Cheer" to compare it to, 2009 is simply lovely. I didn't realize how very much I enjoyed Virginias until I tried this blend. I have had plenty of Virginias, this one just took it to a ne

w level for me.

I have written at least once about the importance of a good name for a tobacco. I am very responsive to advertising and am happy to mentally embrace whatever picture is offered by the title of a given tobacco blend. I must now moderate my previous view. I thought my imagination could overpower most any tobacco, but it turns out I was wrong. I recently tried some bulk aromatics that were so incredible terrible that even the witty names that they were given couldn't redeem the experience. Always having gone to Edwards before, I was used to bulk blends that weren't overly goopy, and tasted like tasty tobacco, rather than a mouth full of napalm death. I have not liked every bulk blend from Edwards, but they are mostly good and many of the aromatics are so lightly cased that they maintain the wonder of the tobacco.

Getting back to McClelland's Christmas Cheer. I notice that it is it seems almost trendy to give McClellands a hard time. I can't figure out why for the life of me. I have found them to be far the superior of many other "boutique" blends. Frog Morton is fantastic, this Christmas Cheer blend is beautiful. The three Oaks blends are miraculous. More investigation is needed, but I have to say that McClellands is a favorite tobacconist for me personally. I must also note that this tobacco has brought me a great deal of Christmas cheer for the last month, and I look forward to trying 2010 when the time is ripe.

On another note my new pipe came in. It was a miracle (and a testament to the greatness Virtual Smoking Lounge - www.virtualsmokinglounge.com) that it came before Christmas. It came and it was smoked on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. What pipe, you ask? It is the Bing's Pleasure from Savinelli:

It is a Balsa System filter pipe, which I thought I would immediately replace, but after 3 filtered smokes, I am resolved to try more (because they have been great). I ordered some extra filters (which Dave at the VSL makes very easy for the buyer). In any event a thoroughly enjoyed pipe, and in honor of finally moving a step closer to smoking like one of my pipe heroes (Bing Crosby) I watched the Bells of St. Mary's and Going My Way this weekend. Beautiful movies, absolutely uplifting and beautiful movies.

I loved the laid back and loving way in which Father O'Malley goes about his business of loving people and gently encouraging them to a better life, to better choices. I so much enjoy the balanced, loving and caring view that doesn't need to be right all the time, even when he knows he's right. He just gently tries to point people to where they need to be, and away from the danger that they are driving into. That gentle, cool confidence that takes him right where he needs to be and doesn't strive to fix everything, but rather facilitates things to be fixed of their own means. I want to be like that when I grow up.

Merry Christmas!

Picky Pipers?

I would not say that a healthy fear of making money is the average business owners problem. Though perhaps it may be the fear of the unwitting employee. My topic today is one that I would be interested to hear many responses from varied sources. We all, as pipe smokers, have our own way. For some of us it is more about the pipe, for others, about the tobacco. These are both fine and admirable. For some it is about the lore, and feel, for others it is about the experience. We all smoke pipes for different reasons, and may judge a pipe by wholly different standards when the day is done. That being said, how particular are you?

My mother-in-law wanted to buy a pipe for me this year for Christmas. This is actually one of my favorite exercises in life. Two of my favorite pipes, though they may not be my nicest pipes, are the two my wife picked out for me. One is a larger rusticated pipe (Eriksen) and the other is a smooth finish (unbranded). Both 3/4 bent stems. The first large rusticated one reminded her of a teddy bear, thus naturally, was meaningful to me. The second was "more intellectual and academic" and made her think of C.S. Lewis (something of a hero of mine). I like that, I like the idea of people picking out the pipes that they think suit me, or fit my personality.

The checker at the store they went into, however, claimed that "You should NEVER buy a pipe for a pipe smoker! It's FAR too personal!" And thus cost herself a sale. Hmm...This seems silly. Isn't the best thing to do to say, "I would be happy to find a pipe I'm sure he will love, but just in case I would keep the receipt. Pipe smokers can be finicky." Seriously, it's like someone bottled stupidity and anointed this poor clerk's head with it to make sure that no money was made that day. I couldn't understand it if I wanted to.

That being said, how picky of a smoker are you? Every pipe I own has its own character. Certain tobaccos work better in certain pipes. This is just the way of things. I don't even think I can make correlation between nicer pipes and nicer tobaccos working exclusively in them. Could someone buy you a pipe, or would you rather have the money to pick it out on your own? Is the value of a pipe sentimental or is it purely based on quality? Inquiring minds want to know.

Teaser: I just bought a new pipe from Dave at the VSL. It relates to one of my favorite iconic pipe smokers. A free smiley face emoticon goes to the person who can guess who that iconic pipe smoker might be. It should be here in a week or so...

First impression: this guy is top notch. Friendly, helpful and more than fair with pricing. Check it out.

http://www.virtualsmokinglounge.com/index.html

or on his Youtube Channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/VSLDavid

Black Gold

Truthfully, I don't know if I would ever have tried this tobacco had it not come so highly recommended to me! When thinking of the words "black gold" I would have happily applied it to coffee, or to oil, even to a Blackberry telephone (never really got into it as the trackball always seemed to get messed up), but a tobacco that could be defined by its mere monochrome coloring doesn't seem to promise quite enough to draw my attention. This tobacco, available in bulk from Hiland Cigars (www.hilandscigars.com), is described as: "Medium to full aromatic cavendish. Rare Green River Burley is the only tobacco used in this blend. The process is top secret!" Of course there is a challenge given in this description, and while I have some guesses, I wouldn't want to make them public, as they are bordering on the ridiculous! But onto the tobacco review.

This tobacco was recommended by PipePastor, (Youtube channel page - http://www.youtube.com/user/PipePastor). Finally, I put in my order and waited. First thing's first I must say the gentlemen at Hilands Cigars were helpful and shipped quickly, even responding personally to my questions. Before going on with my appreciation of the tobacco I have to share (with permission) PipePastor's instructions to me before I packed my first bowl (which was, consequently, a total success):

"Open it carefully. Take your time. Smell the box, feel the moist weed in your hands. Squeeze it and feel it stick together like chocolate cake crumbs. Rub it and smell it as it releases the "love". Pack it classically, holding your pipe bowl so that your first finger and thumb overlap the top of the bowl a little. Gravity fill it to the top of your finger and thumb. pac it gently down till it's almost half way down the bowl. Repeat but this time pac it a little harder till it's almost at the same level as the first. Repeat one more time and pac it a little harder till its just below or level with the pipe bowl. Then char it good, around 10 - 15 puffs making sure the flame hits the tobacco evenly. It will expand alot and some will spill over the edge of the bowl. Not to worry, they are behaving themselves Christianly, gladly giving their lives so that you can get an excellent first light. Now tamp rather hard, while puffing around 5 times. Tamp again, and do the same. One more time and do the same. Now you're ready to enjoy the whole bowl without it going out with frequent tamping due to the moistness and expansiveness of the tobacco. Take your time, breath a little through your nose and see if you can pick up all the glorious nuances of taste and smell."

I would hope that the care with which this introduction was written helps explain just how much a tobacco can mean to us. It was written with the care of someone introducing an old friend to a new friend, knowing that the mutual acquaintance will enrich everyone involved. So, in case you were wondering, I had absolutely no chance of giving this tobacco an objective review. But since I don't believe there is much value in objective reviewing in the realm of pipe tobacco (movies, books, coffee or any other matters of taste) I won't hesitate to move forward!

This is an aromatic to beat all aromatics. Regular readers of this blog will know that I have no bias against aromatics, and don't even suffer from the the tongue bite that so many report when smoking aromatics (and I thank the Lord for the tongue that I have!), so this comes from a lover of non-goopy aromatics as a preset preference. This tobacco is an absolute delight. There is a wonderful fullness of taste that simply coats the mouth beautifully. The aroma as it burns, and is breathed out the nose has the decadent and rich flavors of chocolate and vanilla together (my two favorite aromatic flavors), combined with a great tobacco flavor in the burley.

This will probably not become the only tobacco I will ever smoke (as stated in previous posts, I am too much of a tobacco whore, and I'm not looking to commit!) however, I can firmly say that I have no intention of ever being caught without this tobacco, henceforth. This has become (in only a few short weeks) my "go to" tobacco for parties, smoking groups, Bible studies. This has become the tobacco that my pouch has been full a few weekend trips and long drives, and when I do bring it to groups with other pipe smokers I find the people I smoke with emptying out their bowls of whatever else they are used to to get another bowl of this in.

I wouldn't want to oversell this tobacco, but I must share one more note. When tobaccos are rated words like "room-note", "flavor", "strength", and "flavoring" are used (as seen at "tobaccoreviews.com") however there is another category that I would like to add. The name "aftertaste" has such a nasty connotation, however I would prefer to call it the "echo." The Echo of this Tobacco is miraculous. The taste of frosted chocolate stays on the tongue and permeates the mouth. I came in from a nice bowl of this tobacco and my wife offered me a brownie and I declined feeling like I had already had too much desert today, because the taste was still so vivid from 30 minutes ago. Then I realized that tobacco was calorie free and had my brownie with all the more pleasure! (how did I get so chubby again?) I actually even detect a note of this a day after often times (this is two toothbrushings and 3&1/2 meals later, mind you!) and the taste is simply delightful.

I am excited to know that there is yet more "gold" at the end of this rainbow as there is also a "Black Gold Plus" which, evidently, has some Virginia flake in it. So that means that there is yet another adventure ahead when I am finished with the half pound of "Black Gold" that I am enjoying! I will, of course, update when I make the leap!

Both of these tobaccos are available from Hiland's Cigars (as mentioned above) and are available in half pound increments and up, and well worth it! Here are the links:

Black Gold: http://www.hilandscigars.com/bulk-pipe-tobacco/aromatic-blends/black-gold.html

Black Gold Plus: http://www.hilandscigars.com/bulk-pipe-tobacco/aromatic-blends/black-gold-plus.html

Deepest thanks to PipePastor for his fellowship, thoughtful words and great recommendation! And a happy Thanksgiving to every pipe smoker, cigar smoker, and then to everyone after that in alphabetical order!