What are Goopers?

[Mister Moo]

Goopers are those aromatic tobaccos that may come in a pouch at the drugstore or, commonly, are seen in giant jars at the tobacco store. They usually have a description that sounds ridiculous and in the pouch/jar they smell like flowers, cookies in the oven, your favorite booze, fruit, candy or coffee. I remember my first gooper - it ruined my pipe for a year, made the bowl swampy for a week and steam-cooked my tongue and cheeks. OK, it was mostly inept pipery but, face it - a gooper is gooper.

Unapologetic gooper-smokers are also called goopers. The term was recently invented by a respected piper (Indiana's own Dan Kerr, dmkerr or DK) who was trying to come up with an amusing, yet faintly derrogatory, word for those aromatics that are more sugar, topping and propylene glycol than tobacco. The word is getting traction elsewhere. Thought it should be introduced here. I understand there are many pipers who are perfectly happy with burley soaked in PG, elderberry juice, peach daiquiri essence, vanilla-cucumber and cola (sold commercially as Captain Black) - fine with me. Don't get me wrong about goopers and the goopers who love them. There's a place for everyone and everyone in his place.

I had a brief gooper fling with Manassas (Grand Marnier) and Gettysburg (coffee) from Old Virginia Tobacco CO., probably blended and packed by C&D. I thought it killed in cob (for a while). Contrary-wise, Erinmore Flake, aka The Juicy Fruit of Pipe Tobacco, is certainly cased or topped but not at all a gooper.

Goopers. Not just for breakfast anymore.

[tmoran]

I like it! I'll have to add that to my pipe vocabulary.

[Griz]

I like it! I'll have to add that to my pipe vocabulary.

that would be a good sticky, pipe smoking definitions.

[Emperor Zurg]

that would be a good sticky...

Pun intended?

PS cherry bonbon is certainly a gooper but I must confess to enjoying a bowl of it every now and again... it's even better mixed with a coin of GH&Co black cherry twist.

[Griz]

Pun intended?

dammit.

i wish. nice catch.

[Mister Moo]

Pun intended?

PS cherry bonbon is certainly a gooper but I must confess to enjoying a bowl of it every now and again... it's even better mixed with a coin of GH&Co black cherry twist.

Better to confess now than be spotted, unexpectedly, in the wild.

[Tobias Lutz]

I let my aros sit under a lamp for a couple hours and even the goopiest OTC blend smokes fine for me. God help those who smoke them fresh out the tin/pouch.

[Branzig]

I despise goop in my pipes! Nothing makes me more upset haha.

I'm not down with the goop-da'doops. :playful:

[Emperor Zurg]

I let my aros sit under a lamp for a couple hours and even the goopiest OTC blend smokes fine for me. God help those who smoke them fresh out the tin/pouch.

Yeah, this one definitely needs drying. I jar it up and put the top of the mason jar on upside down so it doesn't seal, then ignore it for at least 6 months of preferably dry, winter weather.

It amazes me the amount of reviews I see for these PG soaked, flame proof aros where it says something to the nature of: "...moisture content was perfect right out of the pouch and burned to the bottom with no relights..." Yeah, RIGHT! and I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell ya. Make me an offer...

[Tobias Lutz]

Yeah, this one definitely needs drying. I jar it up and put the top of the mason jar on upside down so it doesn't seal, then ignore it for at least 6 months of preferably dry, winter weather.

It amazes me the amount of reviews I see for these PG soaked, flame proof aros where it says something to the nature of: "...moisture content was perfect right out of the pouch and burned to the bottom with no relights..." Yeah, RIGHT! and I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell ya. Make me an offer...

I'll trade you some oceanfront property just outside of Phoenix.

[fiddlegrin]

Fwahahahahahaha! Funny stuff Mr. Moo!


Hey, I just saw this post on a "Celebrity Rehab" website;



Hello, my name is Brian Williams and I'm a Gooper.

[Tony78]

There's a handful of goopers I do like on occasion but I dedicate a $5 MM cob for that duty.

[Haebar]

I've burned my tongue plenty of times on goopers, just thinking that it was what you had to put up with as a pipe smoker.
I still am partial to cherry blends and like some other aromatics if tastefully done. My first recognition of a gooper: 1983 bought a pound of E.A. Carey's golden ribbon cut that must have gotten stuck under the sprayer on the assembly line. It was so moist it was hard to imagine it burning. It would smoke but it was instant bite. I tried drying it to no avail; ended up throwing it out.

[Bruck]

Goopers are what turned me off of pipes when I was in my late 20s/early 30s. How can people smoke this shite, I wondered. And of course I didn't know any better bcs the internet consisted of ftp and telnet at the time, and the local tobacconist was the idiot stoner son of the real tobacconist who had recently gone to that great herf in the sky.

[JustTroItIn]

Goopers are what turned me off of pipes when I was in my late 20s/early 30s. How can people smoke this shite, I wondered. And of course I didn't know any better bcs the internet consisted of ftp and telnet at the time, and the local tobacconist was the idiot stoner son of the real tobacconist who had recently gone to that great herf in the sky.

Is this another Battle Creek story...or was it Jackson?

[Bruck]

Is this another Battle Creek story...or was it Jackson?

Nope, Royal Oak. Grew up there, then moved back in my late 20s. There was a nice tobacco store on 11 mile back in the day, but alas, ancient history. Now when I'm in town I usually just go to Wild Bill's which isn't too bad for a chain.

[Mister Moo]

Funny. Grew up in Hunt. Wds, high school in RO (1951-1969) then MSU. Been in NC over 30 years via Cincinnati and Saratoga Co., NY.

[Bruck]

I've actually found a good use for goopers - I use them as the flavor foundation for my homemade flake sometimes. Add a few leaves of VA, burley, cavendish, oriental, latakia, & usually it comes out pretty well.