What Did You Smoke Today? (Pipe Edition)

[Haebar]

Smoking a blend called "Smoky's Flake and Perique" from a local smoke shop in a Sunrise Featherweight apple.

[Haebar]

Smoking some GH Kendal Dark in a Dunhill billiard (the top one in the picture). The silver band is not original and was added to repair a crack in the shank.

[Emperor Zurg]

Burning a bowl McClelland 2015 and sipping a rum toddy.

[Haebar]

Bowl of G&H Rum flake and a bowl of G&H Louisiana flake the past couple nights. That'll probably be it for the week. Got other things to do...

GH Louisiana flake is in my top five favorite blends; almost ordered another pound of it yesterday from Mars Cigar, but I remembered how much tobacco I already have.

[Haebar]

Smoking some more GH Kendal Dark in a Dunhill Tanshell billiard; seems to be a group 3 or 4 but can't tell because all of the nomenclature has been buffed off. You can just barely see Dunhill and some other faint markings. It smokes okay if you don't let it get too hot. If the bowl gets too hot, you have to hold it by the shank.

[Emperor Zurg]

GH Louisiana flake is in my top five favorite blends; almost ordered another pound of it yesterday from Mars Cigar, but I remembered how much tobacco I already have.

I really like the non geranium G&H blends for the most part. They're pretty much my go-to blends most of the time... if I could say I actually have a go-to blend. Probably the reason being that while I don't like the papery taste of most burleys, whatever burley G&H uses doesn't seem to have much if any of that loathsome, wet newspaper taste. I'm not a fan of their perfumed blends. In fact, rum flake has too much of it when it's fresh - it's all I can taste. However, I've found that if I jar up a pound in a quart Mason with the lid disk upside down 'the essense' will have mostly escaped - at least down to a tolerable level - after a year or two.

Maybe I should take a minute to set out another bowl of Louisiana flake for later today...

[Haebar]

I really like the non geranium G&H blends for the most part. They're pretty much my go-to blends most of the time... if I could say I actually have a go-to blend. Probably the reason being that while I don't like the papery taste of most burleys, whatever burley G&H uses doesn't seem to have much if any of that loathsome, wet newspaper taste. I'm not a fan of their perfumed blends. In fact, rum flake has too much of it when it's fresh - it's all I can taste. However, I've found that if I jar up a pound in a quart Mason with the lid disk upside down 'the essense' will have mostly escaped - at least down to a tolerable level - after a year or two.

Maybe I should take a minute to set out another bowl of Louisiana flake for later today...

I like most of the GH blends, even the English ones. The rose geranium is something we agree on, but I love Tonquin bean flavor. I don't recall experiencing the wet newspaper taste in burley; will keep an eye out for it now as I am now a burley lover. I remember you mentioning it years ago here, but doesn't turning the Mason jar lid upside down result in dried out tobacco?

Currently smoking John Patton Oriental Dusk in a Sunrise Natural Dublin.

[Emperor Zurg]

The rose geranium is something we agree on, but I love Tonquin bean flavor.

As do I. It's the reason I enjoy SG 1792 flake. Does G&H have any particularly tonquin-heavy blends that aren't too perfumey that you'd recomend?

I don't recall experiencing the wet newspaper taste in burley; will keep an eye out for it now as I am now a burley lover.

Well I wouldn't suggest you do this as it will probably ruin your appreciation for burley but...
Put about a 1 square inch piece of plain corrugated cardboard in your mouth and chew on it for a while. You will get familiar with the wet soggy cardboard taste. Now - or maybe the next day - go smoke a bowl of... oh... Solani Aged Burley Flake. Which actually has a lot of nice sweetness and nutty flavor to it, but to me it tastes like all that sweetness and flavor is carried on a soggy piece of cardboard.

I remember you mentioning it years ago here, but doesn't turning the Mason jar lid upside down result in dried out tobacco?

It can, you have to keep an eye on it. However, G&H blends tend to come pretty wet anyway and a quart jar of flake takes a long time to get too dry with the lid on, albeit upside down. Seems the perfume must be more volatile than the water, especially since most blends have at least a little PG added and that tends to hinder the drying-out process a bit. I really enjoy Rum Flake but fresh it was way too perfumey for me. I had it sitting with upside down lid for about a year and although it did dry out some it never got too dry. I can't even detect any Lakeland in it anymore. It's become (yet another) one of my favorites.

[Emperor Zurg]

1792 Flake and a glass of white wine

[Haebar]

As do I. It's the reason I enjoy SG 1792 flake. Does G&H have any particularly tonquin-heavy blends that aren't too perfumey that you'd recomend?



Well I wouldn't suggest you do this as it will probably ruin your appreciation for burley but...
Put about a 1 square inch piece of plain corrugated cardboard in your mouth and chew on it for a while. You will get familiar with the wet soggy cardboard taste. Now - or maybe the next day - go smoke a bowl of... oh... Solani Aged Burley Flake. Which actually has a lot of nice sweetness and nutty flavor to it, but to me it tastes like all that sweetness and flavor is carried on a soggy piece of cardboard.



It can, you have to keep an eye on it. However, G&H blends tend to come pretty wet anyway and a quart jar of flake takes a long time to get too dry with the lid on, albeit upside down. Seems the perfume must be more volatile than the water, especially since most blends have at least a little PG added and that tends to hinder the drying-out process a bit. I really enjoy Rum Flake but fresh it was way too perfumey for me. I had it sitting with upside down lid for about a year and although it did dry out some it never got too dry. I can't even detect any Lakeland in it anymore. It's become (yet another) one of my favorites.

The Louisiana Perique Flake may have tonquin without the floral scent. I think St. Bruno and Condor have some tonquin in the topping. I just finished up a half-pint jar of some GH Kendal Dark and didn't detect much Lakeland scent or taste at all. And if I left it out longer than 30 minutes, it would get a little crispy, but it's almost a shag cut. Sounds like the lid trick provides a tool for slow-drying as well as off-gassing of unwanted scents.

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Smoking a bowl of Five Brothers in a Country Gentleman with a "forever" stem.