Out of the Ashes

Balkan Sobriety

By G. L. Pease
It’s a fact. I’m no historian. This is clearly evidenced anytime someone asks me a question like, "When did Balkan Sobranie disappear from the US market?" I know it happened within the last decade, but that’s about as specific as my memory gets. A historian would remember when things like this occur, accompanied by the context of the event, important influences that led up to it, and the event’s aftermath, and could paint a fairly elaborate picture of the mechanisms behind it all, the whys and hows and whens of the event.

Certainly, something as important to the pipe world as the disappearance of a justifiably celebrated tobacco blend is a subject that I, as someone in the business, should be able to recall in an instant, and perhaps even expand upon with some windy, byzantine tale, told in hushed and reverent tones, replete with florid language, a colorful parade of adjectives and an archaic vocabulary. I cannot do this. I can scarcely remember when my own brands appeared or disappeared, or, for that matter, what I had for breakfast last Tuesday. I am, and always have been, a little historically challenged.

Put That in Your Pipe

New Sherlock Holmes Makes Pipe Smoking Cool … Again

… But we already knew it was cool …

By Ethan Brandt
Imagine that there is a chain gun blasting away about 20 feet in front of you. Its target: You. How do you respond? By lying down and calmly smoking a pipe, of course! At least, that’s what you would do as Robert Downey, Jr.’s rendition of Sherlock Holmes.

Naturally, this is quite a new situation for Sherlock Holmes, as is easily recognizable by even the most casual of fans. However, no matter which Sherlock Holmes we are discussing, whether he be portrayed by Robert Downey, Jr., Jeremy Brett, Basil Rathbone, Benedict Cumberbatch, or even if he is simply a character on a page, we can be sure that he will have a particular item: a pipe. The pipe, even more than the hat, coat, and magnifying glass, is a signature of Sherlock Holmes. It defined him. The question that is rarely asked, however, is how did Holmes define the pipe?

Pipe Manufacturer & Retailer Spotlight

Scandinavian Tobacco Breathes New Life into Lane Limited

By Kevin Godbee
As you may already know from previously reading in these pages, Lane Limited, the 122-year old tobacco company, (that may be best known for Captain Black Pipe Tobacco), was sold to Scandinavian Tobacco Group of Denmark, in January of 2011. Reynolds American Inc., finalized the deal to sell the company in March of the same year.

Typically, when pipe tobacco companies or brands take on new ownership, many pipers become skeptical that their favorite pipe tobacco blends will stay the same, or even remain available. There were some concerned reactions earlier this year when the sale was announced. However, it was soon realized that Lane Limited was in much better hands with STG. Scandinavian Tobacco Group was already the largest pipe tobacco company in the world, versus Reynolds American, which put a quite low priority on pipe tobacco. (Lane Limited also produces roll-your-own tobacco and small cigars, but for the purposes of our audience here, we will concentrate on pipe tobacco.)

Pipe & Tobacco Reviews

G.L. Pease JackKnife Ready Rubbed Tobacco Review

By E. Roberts
It speaks highly of the blender’s art to offer two incarnations of essentially the same blend, with each displaying a distinctive character of its own. When JackKnife Plug was released in January 2011, it quite literally took the pipe world by storm—supplies were immediately sold out, not to be replenished for several weeks owing to a production delay exacerbated by severe winter weather. Released nearly a year after the plug, in November 2011, JackKnife Ready Rubbed offers the exact same leaf in the exact same amounts as its predecessor, though in a tumbled ribbon form that is a perhaps more approachable presentation. In Greg’s own words:

The blend is identical, with one small exception. The plug is constructed with a core of brights, and the darker tobaccos surrounding it. This allows the brights, theoretically, to express themselves with more purity in the blend. They’re not under as great an influence from the fire-cured and red tobaccos. Doing this with the [Ready Rubbed] wouldn’t work well, because of the way the tobacco clumps, so the blocks are not stratified in this way. The same tobaccos in the same measures are just layered and pressed for the same length of time, then the blocks are sliced and tumbled. It’s the same technique used for the Old London mixtures.

Tobacco Policies & Legislation

Much Ado About Flavoring: Part One

By C. R. S. Lyles
Imagine the scene if you will.

It's Christmas time, the bitter chill of the wind has driven all warm bodies into the glow of their light-strewn and Santa Clause-d houses, and as the youngest daughter of the family crawls up onto her grandfather's lap to hear "The Night Before Christmas" for the very first time, Grandpa strikes a match and brings the flame down to the bowl of his pipe.

Now, while the various nanny-state and health crusaders of this country might portray this portrait as picturesque up to the point that Grandpa lights up, Paul Creasy, current Chairman of the Pipe Tobacco Council and General Manager of the Pipe Tobacco Division of Altadis USA, explains why this scene remains as Norman Rockwell as it gets from beginning to end.

"[When it comes to pipe tobacco], you can usually make the argument that 'Look, do you really want to ban Grandpa's pipe?', and normally, people will say "Well no, that wasn't the intent of this law -- we were really going after something else."

Members

Newest | Active | Popular

Zarkonus

registered 2 hours, 29 minutes ago
Mrwyzard

registered 7 hours, 44 minutes ago
Vivachloe

registered 18 hours, 24 minutes ago
Cadavers

registered 20 hours, 37 minutes ago
Silverpelican

registered 1 day, 1 hour ago
Rafaelsodre

registered 1 day, 5 hours ago
Danielmd07

registered 1 day, 8 hours ago
Blish

registered 1 day, 9 hours ago
Cdombek

registered 1 day, 11 hours ago
Pipesandbikes

registered 1 day, 16 hours ago
Smokinchick

registered 1 day, 16 hours ago
Szyzk

registered 1 day, 17 hours ago
Brent76

registered 1 day, 20 hours ago
Mattb

registered 2 days, 10 hours ago
Trusto1

registered 2 days, 12 hours ago
Rico

registered 2 days, 14 hours ago

Ask G. L. Pease

Ask G. L. Pease January 2012 (Volume 9)

By G. L. Pease
As I sit down to compile this month's column, I'm smoking a lovely little Peter Heeschen briar, in his signature P shape, filled with a prototype blend that I've been obsessing over for some time, and which is finally approaching the point where I am ready to move it towards production. Now begins the process of finalizing everything. Scaling batches from what I do to the final form can be, um, interesting. When I work on new blends, I do everything in small quantities, so there are often some minor changes that have to be made before taking the product live. It's an exciting part of the process for me, but can be rather nerve-wracking, as well. Not often, but sometimes, I'll get the first "productized" samples, and find it so different from what I'd become familiar with that I end up doing a lot of head-scratching while attempting to figure out how to bring things back on track. It's turns out this is a strangely inexact science, really. What works in tiny, precisely measure quantities, made in my underground laboratory doesn't always translate to large, precisely measured quantities, made at the factory. It usually goes relatively effortlessly, but sometimes, it's the little things that end up being amplified to more dramatic distortions at production volumes. And, even after having been doing this for over a decade, when I'm at this point in the development cycle, I always feel like I'm starring in my own private episode of Fear Factor. So far, I've managed to make it to the final cut of each season, but it doesn't get any less uncomfortable to know that something could go wrong. Blame it on gamma rays, and their effect on Man in the Moon Marigolds. (Apologies to Paul Zindel.)