To Mix or Not to Mix

I have spent a great deal of time thinking about what pairings may be good or bad.  This tobacco with that tea, and this beverage with that type of leaf.  I suppose that is all well and good, not meaning to criticize the great pairings of the past, but I have been in an interesting funk lately.  Firstly,  I have been enjoying more than a few bowls of Hartenstein Trail.  This is a great full flavored latakia blend from the Edwards Tobacco in Denver.  Excellent smoke in a multitude of different bowl sizes.  Cool smoking and a great low nicotine level that makes it particularly perfect for before bedtime smoking.  Worth every moment.

The second thing that I have noticed is that I don't find myself wanting to pair my smoking with my tea/coffee drinking lately.  I have stumbled across some great flavor combinations in the past for sure, but I have been more interested in the tobacco by itself.  Coincidentally, I have also been interested in the tea and the coffee by themselves as well.  It seems that adding anything to the equation means that I will (of necessity) pay less attention to either of the things I am tasting individually.  I imagine, as things warm up again I will ease back into pairing my puffs with my beverages, but for the moment I am enjoying the simplicity.  What say you?  Do you enjoy things more in pairs, or one experience at a time?

Perseverance, Killarney and A Cuppa

Just cracked this tin about a month ago.  If memory serves I have now had about eight bowls of this tobacco.  It is a nice 'baccy, with an awfully nice smell (both in the tin and in the room).  The Carmel Creme flavor is nice, and the tobacco is high quality.  Here is my issue: every time I enjoy a bowl I get a mild bite.  It's in the first half of the bowl.  The next half is much nicer, even than many other tobaccos.  I don't know if it will be one that I will buy again.  I had expected something along the quality lines of "Irish Flake" (I realize the vast differences and styles that make this expectation unfair).  Nevertheless, I am determined to try this in yet a few more pipes, and treat it a bit carefully.  How often do you push through with a tobacco that the first blush isn't everything you hoped for?

In other news I see Chris at the Daily Briar (http://thedailybriar.blogspot.com/2012/01/dublin-or-bust.html) making some unbelievable pipes and this lights the fire for a higher level of involvement yet the problem is distinct: I am no craftsman.  So the next goal would be tobacco, but I am no farmer and am certainly not patient enough to persevere through the curing process.  However, I found something a bit less involved with a similar level of DIY reward: Coffee Roasting!

I have friends who have successfully done this for some time, and my time had come.  So I ordered a popcorn popper (cheapest accurate method of home roasting - I'm told by www.sweetmarias.com) and it seems to be the case.  However, the five pounds of unroasted coffee came a days before the popcorn popper.  Being as impatient as I am I looked for other "home roasting methods."  While no one particularly advocated it it turns out the roasting can be done on a stove-top with such things as cast iron pans or a wok.  It's messy, unscientific, but FUN!

Here is the process in pictures:

Raw Green Beans from CoffeeBeanDirect via Amazon

Some roasted and unroasted beans together

The Final Product

Said Product in a jar

  So, there were no pics of the actual roasting (there is a lot of stirring, smoke and crackling).  It was fun, exciting and interesting.  It is entertaining to get to go from "I read about this" to "Is that what the interwebs were talking about?"  You may notice that the roast is anything but even.  The black beans were between darkly roasted and a bit burned.  I figured this batch would be a throw away, but quite to the contrary it tasted nice, sweet and complex.  It was a victory, if only just.  When I had gone through this amount the popper still had not arrived, so I decided to try a wok and a lower temperature.  It went a bit smoother BUT I was hoping to go a bit darker and so I wound up with more smoke.  It will be interesting to see how that one turns out tomorrow (the coffee is supposed to set and gas off for 12 hours or so).

Anyhow, it's been a great and tasty adventure so far.  Highly recommended.  I won't be "going pro" but I do find the cost-benefit analysis comes out VERY high on the investment of time here.  You can do it.  Go for it.  Future project: finding the best roast to pair with a pipe.

Giving it Away

Have you done your pipe duty?  I find that I am something of an evangelistic pipe smoker.  I don't mean to be, I just have a tendency to want to spread understanding for the great benefits and pleasures of pipe smoking.  It comes rather naturally.  In a recent discussion with a friend I determined that he needed to enjoy the "thinking tool" of a pipe.  Upon finding out that he was open to the idea I made the "starter kit".  This kit included a country gentleman Missouri Meerschaum (a dear favorite of mine), and two very user-friendly starter tobaccos (Black Watch from Edwards and Black and Gold from Altadis).  I directed him to a couple of "how to" videos on youtube.  I feel as if I failed in the one major aspect of sharing that first smoke with him, nevertheless sometimes we do only what we can.

I find people are interested in pipes, and in pipe smoking.  How do you answer their questions?  What would you put in your "starter kit" for a new smoker?  Greater men than I have taken the time to eschew the virtues of pipe smoking, but I earnestly believe the world would be a slightly better place if more people enjoyed a quiet evening, in a thoughtful spot, with a bowl full of good tobacco.

This One

This is my first pipe acquisition in months and months.  I was drawn to a couple of things about it.  First I love the bulldog/rodesian shape.  Second, I love the ebony stain.  Third, I love the slight bend.  It should be here in a few days and I can't wait to try it.  As an added bonus, Smokingpipes.com threw a tin of Peterson tobacco in as part of a Peterson promotion.  Irish flake, here I come!  I really enjoyed the last tin of Irish Flake that I had. That's a tobacco that will really get you up in the morning.  It's going to be an Irish Christmas, for sure!

Pipe Depression

I'm not depressed, I am simply pipe depressed.  I haven't wanted to have a pipe in weeks.  I have had a few bowls, but mostly for fellowship's sake (that is with company).  My tobacco stores are drying out, though I am taking some time to care for them.  My thoughts have simply been elsewhere.  When I have smoked I can only stand to smoke my personal 'magic tobacco' Black Watch.  I call it my personal magic tobacco because no matter how many tobaccos I try, and no matter how delicious they are, Black Watch is the place of my continual return.  It is my True Tobacco.  

It is not universally well reviewed.  I have shared some with many friends with hot, cold and totally ambivalent response.  Yet this is the only thing I want to smoke right now.  This is strange.  If you follow the blog you know that I have always had an insatiable lust for new tobaccos, new blends and new experiences.  Yet it seems that I am settling comfortably in (for the time being, at least) to my old standard, the first tobacco I ever really fell in love with. 

I think the "depression" will go.  I have felt a surge in the last two days to enjoy a pipe (though only Black Watch).  Yet it seems strange to me that I can involuntarily lose interest in something that has brought me so much pleasure and thoughtful opportunity.  I imagine the recent increase in volume at work and at home have contributed.  Yet, there it is.  Please tell me, is this experience known to you?  I'm not worried (as much as I am slow to accept the idea that pipe smoking is terribly damaging, I do believe moderating it at times is productive) it just seems quite strange to me.

Where has the love gone?  Russia and Rome.

In the past months I have read (or been reading) War and Peace, The Metamorphoses (Ovid), and the Brothers Karamazov.  I have found them all so interesting and appealing that I have not wanted to leave my indoor room to go out and interrupt my reading with smoking.  Quite interesting in deed.  I won't bore you with my thoughts on the books, but sufficed to say I wouldn't draw a moment of them back and plan to look at each again in the course of my life.

I leave you with one other summer literary discover on my most recent jaunt through Walden by Thoreau:

Light-winged Smoke, Icarian bird,

Melting thy pinions in they upward flight,

Lark without song, and messenger of dawn,

Circling above the hamlets as thy nest;

or else, departing dream, and shadowy form

Of midnight vision, gathering up thy skirts;

By night star-veiling, and by day

Darkening the light and blotting out the sun;

Go thou my incense upward from this hearth,

And ask the gods to pardon this clear flame.

Tell the Story and Don't Rush

One of my favorite moments in C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia is found in "A Horse and His Boy" (I could not pick a favorite moments, nor even narrow it down to a top 50).  However, the two horses and their respective humans meet and resolve to tell confide their stories to one another and Bree (the horse mentioned in the title) invites his new friend Aravis to tell her story.  "And don't rush, I'm feeling comfortable."  I think I love smoking pipe in part because it encourages storytelling.  I love hearing a good story, not a gossipy story, but a story about an adventure.  I recently had a great opportunity to hear a great story.


  I was smoking my church warden filled with 3 Oaks by McClelland and my friend his 1/2 bent rusticated pipe with Irish Flake.  We had a pot of Golden monkey loose leaf tea and there was very little wind.  It was warm but not hot (a welcome change) and the stars shone brightly.


  While pipes smoked and cups steamed I heard all about an incredible adventure in Hungary.  About a people untouched by the power of the gospel who got to hear.  About the surprises and unexpected turns of events that worked out to be even greater adventures of greater impact.  The whole affair was the finest way I could imagine spending an evening.  I could have listened to the story all over again.  We closed the evening catching up on summer reading.  Unrushed conversation over a cup of tea and a pipe is easily one of life's great and simple pleasures.

A New Pipe and Three Oaks

I love the cob. Perhaps it is the dog days of august, the heritage of being an American pipe smoker with what I view to be the most thoroughly American incarnation of pipe smoking. Mark Twain, General MacArthur and so many others have seemed to enjoy this wonderful vehicle for tobacco, and so do I. So on my trip down to Denver I bought a "Country Gentleman." Unfortunately the bark was not included, but I would have loved to have a bark pipe stand! I like the straight stem and I am certainly working my way up to either a "freehand" cob or a MacArthur cob. However, I can hardly find time to finish a bowl in my general cob so that may have to wait. Either way, great smoker, no surprises.
On top of the fact that I love the cob, I also love McClelland tobaccos. Frog Morton being previously reviewed and much loved, this is another Latakia blend by MacClelland. Note: I got the yellow one (syrian latakia) not the white one. Tin description:

Rare Syrian Latakia, with its renowned mellow smokiness, is balanced with naturally sweet Orientals and aged Virginia leaf to create a satisfying blend reminiscent of classic Syrian Latakia blends of old. Formulated by Tad Gage to reflect the character of original Three Oaks Pipe Tobacco, it tantalizes with intriguing differences.

So, you can pick up that this is a "copy blend". It seems like there is some satisfaction in saying things like "I hate copy blends" or "I normally don't like copy blends." However, none of those things would be true. I have never tried the blends they are trying to copy, so I have no gauge for that. Furthermore, I think it is funny that people have a problem with blends that seek to replicate a previous blend. Musical concerts are filled with pieces that have been done well before and we seek to do them well again. I don't mind in the slightest when a brewery attempt to recreate a recipe that they have loved. It seems quite natural to attempt to attain something similar to a great blend of days past. In fact it seems to me to be a rather noble goal. Just like making seeking to make a new blend is a noble goal.

That aside, this tobacco is a great smoke. Delicious. It is my impression that McClelland has a distinct edge when it comes to Virginia tobaccos and virginia blends. I still have never been bothered by the "ketchup" smell, but it does have that nice "McClelland Aroma." In comparing it to Frog Morton it has all of the same advantages of the great virginia tobaccos, and more latakia taste. Where I would give Frog Morton to a first time tobacco smoker and recommend it to anyone who was interested in testing out some English blends, Three Oaks seems a bit more specialized, less accessible. It is nice and full, sweet and spicy. Not too strong, and worth smoking. I don't know if I will buy more when it's gone, but I haven't regretted it for a shadow of a moment.