Ghosts of Previous Pleasure

One of my favorite pleasures of pipe smoking is the day after.  Early in my pipe smoking life, and for probably the first several years after, the day following a pipe was marked by a thoroughly charred, gritty mouth.  This was because I had not yet learned to appreciate my pipe.  Taking large, greedy puffs, I attacked my pipe smoking much like a lioness may attack some fleetfooted prey.  The result?  The smoke died and took my tongue with it.  Some years of wisdom changed the experience.  Now pipe smoking is left with few, if any undesirable mouth feelings (especially when dealing with well known pipes and tobaccos that have become old friends).  The enjoyment of the tobacco at its own pace, in gentle sips, has given me great reward for some years.  The mystery of the chemistry I cannot explain.  But one of my favorite experiences is the slight hint of aftertaste as much as 24 hours after. Even after several brushings and mouthwashings (two to be exact) and two good meals I can still detect a hint of everything I smoked the night before.  I love these surprises!

Last night I enjoyed three bowls of tobacco with a dear friend.  Today I was reminded of the pleasant and meaningful conversation we shared by tasting in turn the richness of the first bowl of Dunhill 965, the frank beautiful simplicity of a bowl of Velvet and the full sweetness of Black Gold Plus.  With the memory of those sweet tobaccos coming in turn the memory of the gentle and genuine conversation drifts to and fro like gentle puffs of smoke on the evening breeze.  What a blessed thing to enjoy a pipe and the company of another dear like-minded brother in Christ.  What a great blessing this!

Back to the Bowl

The time has come.  So may things have distracted me from my beloved tobaccos.  Cold weather has forbidden the long self-indulgent hours of pipe puffing.  As I continue to age I make stranger and stranger priority choices.  It simply isn't worth being physically uncomfortable to enjoy a pipe.  However, there are always a few bowls on shoveling days.  This, still, holds no candle to the evenings with a cup of tea and a pipe burning quietly away.  Our fourth child is finally on his feet, and this means that there are more opportunities for him to be a bit more independent and mommy is less tired so daddy gets increased opportunities to enjoy the blessed tobacco weed.

So much excitement for this smoking season.  I have three tins that I have stored up and am waiting to try, two of which are new!  I have a tin of Nightcap that is waiting to be opened and I cannot wait to return to that sweet latakian goodness again.  Additionally I have some Dunhill Standard Mixture which is a great excitement to me as I have loved 965 and London Mixture.  So much joy ahead!  Finally, I was given a tin of Rattray's Bagpiper's Dream, which I have decided to love, because I love bagpipes and am an amateur bagpiper.  And so it goes.  Let the smoking begin, and hopefully, the pipe blogging!

Burns Supper

The Burns Supper was simply lovely.Haggis gets a bad rap, but is actually quite tasty. Truly a delight. Good food, good company, good poetry and a pipe. Oh and good whiskey. Tough to beat that!

Christmas Pipes

Presbyterian Mixture and Squadron Leader

Alas, so long between posts. And yet, we do what that for which the spare moments are provided! The Presbyterian mixture experiment was a success. The final conclusion (of mine)is that Presbyterian mixture is an excellent, high quality tobacco, perfect for an everyday smoke. It falls very well into the wonderful category of Dunhill 965 and others that would never fail to satisfy at any time of day. I never did find anything shocking or striking about this blend, just pure, sweet enjoyment. It is a solid blend, and well worth trying if you are a fan of virginias. Very much enjoyed.

To add to that I had an opportunity to crack a tin of Squadron Leader. Because I bought a rectangular tin I expected this to be a flake tobacco, however, it is ribbon cut. The tin offers a beautiful mix of dark tobaccos and lighter tobaccos. I am told there are some orientals in this mix, and I believe it is so, but it is not a "Latakia forward" blend. The orientals are looming in the background giving it a nice depth, but they are easy to overlook if I'm not paying attention. This is another blend that I would classify with 965 and Presbyterian mixture as being a good, solid, all-day smoke. Pleasant and not overwhelming at any point. If I had to gauge this tobacco against the others I would have to say that it runs third to 965 and Presbyterian, but very nice. I don't think I would keep all three around all the time, but I will always want to have one of the three on hand. It makes for nice variety.

Finally, I have been having another go around with Edward's bulk blend "Coco Creme". This is a blend that I very much enjoy. A sort of natural-aromatic that has a nice cavendish flavor and then the nice creamy finish that tastes and smells remarkable of chocolate. Truthfully, I find my chocolate smoking urge more fulfilled in Black Gold, but this is a nice blend unto itself. I have on my list of "someday" Bob's Chocolate flake, and if the opportunity arises I would like, one day, to mix up some of Jeoffre's Chocolate Manhood. However, those goals are down the road somewhere. Coco Creme has it's charms, to be certain, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for the particular experience it provides. However, the one looking for the goopy "I just smoked a mars bar!" experience may find greater satisfaction elsewhere. Where that is, I could not say. However (while not at all goopy) Black Gold is always a winner for the pipe smoker with a sweet tooth.

Thank you, Chris!

Probing the Presbyterian

It is time for a new adventure.  My pipe smoking seems to hit a sharp rise when the weather begins to cool.  Plus it gives me more reason to work from home as a pipe aids the issues of the working day tremendously. But what of the adventure?  This will be an adventure in pipe dedication, an adventure in dedicated pipe smoking and most importantly an exploration of one of my favorite simple pleasures.  Having been raised in a Presyterian church (though not a very "serious" one) this tobacco has always had some allure.  I don't, however, think of the cutting edge, pop-worship media orgy in which I was introduced to the word "Prebyterian."  I think, rather, of simple joyful people.  In simple clothes.  I think of great men like Jonathan Edwards, Charles Hodge and John Calvin.  While I have many serious reservations with many of the assumptions of Reformed theology, these were great men, and they constitute part of my reason for wanting to enjoy this tobacco.  So is that it? Just another of my sentimental psuedo-tobacco review? NO!  That was just the preamble!

I did pick up one other little item:

This spool is the latest addition to my collection of pipes.  I don't know if I have mentioned how much I love corncob pipes but I do.  I currently have four (the Legend, General, a stubby, and now a Spool). I have given a few away over the years, lost one and retired a small handful as well.  I love just about everything about the cob.  The looks, the smoking experience, the price, the comfort, everything.  I own other pipes because I like briar and clay as well!  This pipe, however, will have a high calling indeed.  This will be the Presbyterian Cob.  I am going to try to smoke nothing but this tin until I am through it, and do so in no pipe but this pipe.  And I plan to document this experience, if it turns out to be worth documenting. So here goes:

Smoke #1:  Just breaking in the pipe. The spool gets hot around the middle, as one would expect, and breaking in a pipe is never the most pleasant experience for me.  But I had to get it out of the way.  In spite of the general inconvenience of breaking in a new cob the tobacco did occasionally make it's way through.  It is a nice tobacco taste.  I can see why Mark Twain would find another ("a worthless man") to break his in for him!  Though little more could be said about how much I really experienced it, as the taste of the cob really muddled things.

Smoke #2:  (While writing).  Still some break in taste, however more of the tobacco is coming through today.  Some nice light flavors.  I like the mellowness of this tobacco and it seems to capture some of the beautiful austerity and seriousness that I associate with the Christ-loving Presbyterians of ages past.  There seems to be quite a bit of a nicotine punch, but that may just be that I have been smoking less of late.  Never a good decision!

So there it is, dear reader.  Thank you for visiting.  Fear not, I will not bore you with too much repetition in this series as I imagine the smoking will plain out as I learn this new pipe and this new tobacco.  However, I want to really dedicate some time to this classic of pipe tobacco enjoyment.  Sometimes it is good to read a book very quickly so as to draw the pith out of it.  Other times, one can sit an enjoy every word, every sentence and become engorged in it.  This is the experience that I am hoping for!