What Did You Smoke Today? (Pipe Edition)

First pipe of the day is Dunhill's reissue of Dark Flake. The tin note is a combination of molasses and stewed plums, the flakes moist but difficult to remove in a single complete piece, somewhat crumbly. After drying for about 45 minutes I used the fold and stuff method to load the bowl of a MM Country Gentleman. After a two match light it burned well, slowly but evenly. The emphasis here is truly on the dark Virginia with Perique well in the background. It really hit it's stride about a quarter of the way down with a spiciness that was hard to identify, perhaps ginger but not what I'd expect from Perique. There was absolutely no bite and it burned well to the bottom of the bowl. As a Va/Per this fell kind of flat for me, but if dark Kentucky is your cup of meat you may enjoy this. I didn't dislike this but was a bit disappointed. I expect more from Dunhill.

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Originally Posted by AndyCAYP

Gentlemen! I hope everyone is well, and season's greetings!

After a bit of prodding by @Haebar and @WNYTONY I figured it was worth popping in to play catchup. I have been busy; busier than I ever could have imagined. Smoking has taken a backseat to raising my now 7-month-old daughter, and dealing with a back injury hasn't helped, but I did manage to spend some time a few weeks ago in the smoking lounge/library of the club I belong to... I took my Parker Super Bruyere and a Polish-made beauty I picked up on eBay a year or so back and enjoyed some 1998 Capstan and 2003 Hamborger Veermaster.

I'm hosting a dinner party on New Year's Eve. My wife and daughter will be passed out by 9:30PM so I told my buddies that we'll head over to the club to end the evening with a smoke. Since we'll be full of roast lamb and egg nog (which has already been resting in the beer fridge for four weeks) I figure I'll need something like Royal Yacht to serve as dessert. I'll probably pull out the Stanwell HCA for the trip.

So, after leaving the tobacco business and after putting a cease-and-desist on new acquisitions due to a cellar already overflowing with more tobacco than I know what to do with, I haven't really paid attention to new blends. The bug, of course, is biting me and I probably won't be able to make it much beyond Spring before placing an order (hopefully by then I'll have more time to empty out a few more tins). I was hoping to get opinions on the following:

Dunhill Dark Flake
War Horse Bar
War Horse Green
GL Pease Regents Flake
Drucquer & Sons Blairgowrie

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Good to hear from you! Happy Christmas to you and your family!

I've got my eye on that War Horse Bar and Green. Thinking of ordering a few tins while they have the bar in stock.

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Originally Posted by Branzig

Where is Tobias at these days?
He hasn't returned a single email I've sent him in months

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Maybe he's mad at you :)

He checks in here occasionally, but he says he's been busy with a lot of stuff lately.

Having a nice cobful of Penzance. Was traveling the past couple days, been a long week, nice to get my medication :)

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Originally Posted by Bruck

Maybe he's mad at you :)

He checks in here occasionally, but he says he's been busy with a lot of stuff lately.

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He could be! Lord knows I have a way of pissing people off without really trying lol.

Still to damn cold to smoke. With wind I'm looking at -7 or so right now out there. Guess my pipes will be resting for a long while.

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Another bowl of Dunhill Ye Olde Signe in a Mark Tinsky rusticated 6 panel apple. I really, really like this tobacco.

Stanwell Vanilla to start this snowy morning off in my one and only MM Eaton cob. Seems to smoke pretty decent for a three dollar pipe.

Sent from here.

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Originally Posted by Pugsley

Another bowl of Dunhill Ye Olde Signe in a Mark Tinsky rusticated 6 panel apple. I really, really like this tobacco.

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Stop it! Stop it I say!! Now you with your Olde Signe and @Pipe Smoker with his Solani 656!
MUST... NOT... PLACE... ORDER...

I don't NEED any more tobacco blends to cellar!!!!!

No time to smoke a bowl today (I shouldn't even be stopping to post) but took a supplement because the weekend is likely to be baccy free as well; tucked a coin of Sweet Rum Twist 'twixt the cheek and gum.

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Originally Posted by FireTom

Stanwell Vanilla to start this snowy morning off in my one and only MM Eaton cob. Seems to smoke pretty decent for a three dollar pipe.

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That's the beauty of Missouri Meerschaum; the cheapest cob smokes as good as any $100 briar. Another nice thing is that a fifty cent fill smokes as long and as satisfying as any +$8.00 cigar IMO. I guess YMMV on that though... but it works for me.

Hearth & Home Chestnut in a Peterson 314

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Originally Posted by Emperor Zurg

... Another nice thing is that a fifty cent fill smokes as long and as satisfying as any +$8.00 cigar IMO. I guess YMMV on that though... but it works for me.

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You're definitely onto something there, Emperor. Even the most pricey pipe tobacco is still cheaper than smoking an average cigar a day. I still love my cigars though :)

A bowl of Davidoff Scottish to finish out my night.

Sent from here.

OJK in my Tsuge pot, and Lane Andullo in my Sav bully.

Managed to have small bowls of Bryan's Shelf English, and then McClelland Holiday Spirit.

Loaded my Bruce Peters with Great Outdoors since I aint going outside unless ya pull me out there !
Looking at a bowl of Proper English in a Brigham brand pot to follow.

Pegasus in a MM cob with lucite stem. My favorite burley, so darn tasty and just right all round...

FINALLY had time to hit the pipe! Hopefully tomorrow, I'll get a cigar in after a few weeks.......

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Some McClelland Blackwoods Flake in a Grabow Starfire billiard.

C&D Billy Budd in a Jost Supreme....

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Originally Posted by Emperor Zurg

Solani 656

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You actually do need this one. Trust me.

It isn't something you necessarily have to cellar becuase I kind of think of it as a "treat" tobacco myself. But it is the best of the best when it comes to burley IMO.

About to go shovel again. It's a blazing hot 20 degrees out right now so I'm pretty excited. I can actually light up a pipe! Think I'm going to go with OJK in a MM General. I may pass out from the vitamin N, but this time of year I gotta smoke what I can when I can!


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Had a few cobfuls of 5 Brothers while splitting some wood this p.m.

Sutliff Voodoo Queen in a MM cob

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Originally Posted by Bruck

Had a few cobfuls of 5 Brothers while splitting some wood this p.m.

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Every time I hear about someone splitting wood it makes my back hurt and makes me glad I have a pellet stove.

Sent from here.

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Originally Posted by Bruck

Had a few cobfuls of 5 Brothers while splitting some wood this p.m.

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Originally Posted by FireTom

Every time I hear about someone splitting wood it makes my back hurt and makes me glad I have a pellet stove.

Sent from here.

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Anymore, if you catch me splitting wood, it's because I'm pissed and that's a good way to burn aggression.
On the other hand I don't get Po'd often but when annoyed or happy I'll light up a bowl and play a game
of chess against the computer.

EITC Officer's Club to end my night.

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Sent from here.

Shoveling snow again. This time another cob but loaded with HH Egg Nog.

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Fixing shelves and rearrainging furtiture, Swiss BBK loaded with SPS Sunrise.

Had to clean the garage, adjust things so that the snowblower was easy to get to in case the snow gets any deeper, park the car for the season/bring out the Jeep for the season, and do a light surface shoveling of the back steps, so I enjoyed a bowl of cherry a la @Bruck from a nice package he sent me a few months back, in the MM cob, and then a bowl of Carter Hall in the Tim West.

And that's how you smoke with a 7 month old in your life. Just fit it in while you're outside in blowing 20 degree weather. My feet are still cold.

Lane BL/WB in a Peterson 314

21 degrees this morning, which calls for vitamin L.

So in the Sav bully went a generous helping of Pembroke.

Dunhill Elizabethan Mixture in a Dr. Grabow White Briar......

Puffing the last fill from my tin of Solani 656, Aged Burley Flake. Such an awesome tobacco!

And still savoring yesterday's lunch-- a big plate of tender, tasty sauerbraten at Kaiserhof, my favorite San Diego restaurant.

Puffing the first fill from my just-opened tin of Fribourg & Treyer Cut Virginia Plug. This light brown flake, lightly topped, is soft-smoking, with a rich, tasty flavor. After years of experience with it, it's my favorite topped Virginia.

Hearth & Home Mazatec in a Marxman straight billiard

Drying out a a bowl's worth of 'stick cut' Bright CR Flake.

I was jarring up 1/2 kg of this the other day and the last few flakes wouldn't fit in the jar so they got transferred to a temporary jar to be destroyed by fire in the near future. Today is the near future. Didn't like this flake much when I first tried a sample but that's no surprise; I find I generally don't like any blend the first time I try it... takes half a dozen bowls or so before I can render a judgement. However, it showed promise so I bought a box from Smokingpipes to cellar. This will be bowl #2 of Bright CR Flake. This one will be 'bone cracking dry' as @Branzig put it.
[/rambling]

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Still not a fan of this flake. Tastes like dry hay or straw with a little pepper here and there and an annoying floral note from the painfully obvious Lakeland topping. Some of the reviews I've looked up mention fruityness. I don't taste anything fruity at all; if I did, I'd probably like it more. That's what I look for in a Virginia; sweet, fruity and/or citrusy. So far this blend reminds me of cigarettes minus the taste of burning paper.

Going to crack a Briney Melon Gose and see if the pairing helps bring out something positive in this weed.

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well so far the pairing hasn't done anything for the smoke but it sure has brought out some nice flavor in the beer

A bowl of Smoker's pride Rich Taste that I bought recently with a free gift card from Cigar.com. Read Jimink's review of it and thought I'd give it a go. I think it's great, and you can find it for 10 dollars a pound or less. Arrived dry which I like as 1. it means more tobacco and 2. no/very little PG/humectant presence.

Sugarlands Honey in a leather clad French Ambassador pipe....

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Originally Posted by Emperor Zurg

...and an annoying floral note from the painfully obvious Lakeland topping. Some of the reviews I've looked up mention fruityness. I don't taste anything fruity at all; if I did, I'd probably like it more. That's what I look for in a Virginia; sweet, fruity and/or citrusy.

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It's funny, becuase I sometimes feel like a bit of Lakeland Snot actually amplifies fruity notes...with that being said, if you're smoking beef jerky (I'm looking at you ropes and dark flake) then no amount of Lakeland will bring fruit tones out. Just flowery beef jerky.

Of course, I've yet to smoke a Lakeland Snot I haven't liked yet... so maybe my taste buds are just tainted.

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Originally Posted by Branzig

It's funny, becuase I sometimes feel like a bit of Lakeland Snot actually amplifies fruity notes...with that being said, if you're smoking beef jerky (I'm looking at you ropes and dark flake) then no amount of Lakeland will bring fruit tones out. Just flowery beef jerky.

Of course, I've yet to smoke a Lakeland Snot I haven't liked yet... so maybe my taste buds are just tainted.

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I like the stuff Samuel Gawith calls 'Lakeland', the stuff Gawith Hoggarth uses... not so much.

However, it seems some folks enjoy that Geranium Rose or whatever it is and some don't. I'm definitely in the "don't" category on that. I've never liked the smell of rose scented things either, be it perfume, air freshener, candles, incense or whatever. I don't really even like the smell of actual roses all that much.

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Originally Posted by Lostmason

Anymore, if you catch me splitting wood, it's because I'm pissed and that's a good way to burn aggression.
On the other hand I don't get Po'd often but when annoyed or happy I'll light up a bowl and play a game
of chess against the computer.

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I like playing with chests.....errrr.....chess while getting wood. And that's all I'm going to say about that!......

Half & Half in a MM cob