Esoterica Dorchester in my Savinelli Champagne bulldog.
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Esoterica Dorchester in my Savinelli Champagne bulldog.
Was in the mood for a bowl of straight, uncomplicated burley, so I went digging through my cabinet looking for something with a little age on it when I came across a tin of Hal o' the Wynd with a date of December 2008 on it that I didn't know I had. The search for burley ended. It's HOTW in a Savinelli Tundra 315 EX Prince with an ugly dried snot colored stem, and I'm in heaven.
Over the weekend, I smoked some straight Izmir to get a handle on what it adds to the party.
I mainly got some white pepper spice and a numbness on my tongue. I'll delve into it again, I'm sure.
A few years back I bought a number of tins of HOTW from a guy who was giving up the pipe. Many of them had 5+ years of age on them and I quickly blew through them. At the time, the one from Dec. 2008 was only two years old, so I put it in the back of the cabinet and forgot about it. Makes me wonder what else is hiding behind the mountain of tins in there.
I gave up keeping my tobacco physically organized. Instead, I keep a spreadsheet which has one page for each tobacco. That page has one line for each tobacco purchase with a column for number of tins remaining from that purchase, a column for purchase date, and a column for location of the box containing them. E. g., loft or window seat, etc. At the bottom of the page is the total number of tins of that tobacco type.
In addition, I have a "summary" page that has a line for each tobacco, and a column for the total number tins remaining. And at the bottom, the sum of all of the tins in my stock. When that sum falls below 300 tins, I place an order for the most-needed tobacco.
The spreadsheet has a few other bells & whistles too, but I won't go into those.
Dunhill Elizabethan Mixture in a sandblasted Il Ceppo billiard.
Eight year old Hal o' the Wynd in a virgin MM Country Gentleman. I love the added flavor that comes from a new cob when I'm smoking a straight burley or Virginia, but with this beautifully aged Va/Per it's like smoking in a heavily ghosted pipe and detracts from the enjoyment. Live and learn.
SPC Mississippi River in a Peterson Block Meer with a large mug of Moca Java. The draw is a little tighter than I like but I'm a bit nervous about trying to drill out the shank in a meer.