Christmas at Sea
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Kevin Godbee - Jan 7, 2014
- 7 min read
E. Roberts
The holiday season, even to the most even-keeled among us, can be a time of added stress. First there are the social obligations, which, while generally enjoyable, can overextend their demands on our time. Then there always seem to be several projects of the utmost importance that one has to juggle at work around now, and many long nights spent at the office or the workshop, on the road or on the farm. There is however a silver lining to be found, friends, for you and I have discovered the peace that a well-packed pipe and just a little bit of solitude provide, offering a spiritual recharge as anodyne to the holiday hustle and bustle.
I’ve spent a lot of time this season reflecting on the concept of the past and what draws us to it; why we, as pipe smokers, are perhaps predisposed to a keen fascination with what used to be. There is some merit to the notion that our hobby is just a touch anachronistic. The pulse of society and daily life is hypertensive, geared toward instant gratification. Pipe smokers quietly buck that trend, with the time-consuming, elaborate and ritualistic consumption of Our Lady Nicotine. The basics of our pastime are largely unchanged since man first carved a pipe out of stone in the mountains of Peru some 10,000 years ago; yet now, in the Internet Age, we’re experiencing a resurgence of interest in it propelled by the new concepts of online socialization. Never in our history as a species has so much information been so freely available to so many, and we pipe smokers passionately utilize it to decipher the age and provenance of historied estate pipes and long-out-of-production tobacco tins. Estate pipes in particular are an exemplar of our fascination with the old. Unlike most antique collectors, pipe smokers are likely to actively employ the acquisitions of their collection—and that, by setting flame to them! By comparison, imagine using your priceless Ming vase to collect spare change and pocket lint.
I amuse myself with such mental diversion as I sneak off on Christmas evening to crack open a most treasured gift just received from my sweetheart: a first edition of The Second Jungle Book, by Rudyard Kipling. It’s a handsome clothbound volume, midnight blue with gilt stamping and edges, and it has that wonderful tactile patina of looking and feeling and, importantly, smelling old. Searching my tobacco shelf for a fitting accompaniment, Mac Baren’s Navy Flake seems a wise choice. I’ve been smoking it for a few days and have really settled into an appreciation for its burning characteristics, body and flavor. The next task is to select a pipe, which also presents itself as an easy choice: a newly acquired Dunhill Zulu, in the Ruby Bark finish. The pipe has smoked wonderfully already, and I think running a few drams of this easily-maintained flake through it will serve the breaking-in process well.
“I have some friends, some honest friends, and honest friends are few; // My pipe of briar, my open fire, A book that’s not too new.” -Robert Service
The book is not too new indeed; it’s dated 1895, and the crisp pages transmit the feeling of age regally as they’re thumbed, with their old-style glare gilding feeling slick under my fingertips. The tobacco is neither too new; a 2012 vintage of the blend introduced in 1965, one of Mac Baren’s most classic offerings. It’s a burley-based blend, highlighted with bright flue-cured Virginias from Africa and a bit of the Mac Baren Cavendish added as a final touch. The tin aroma, when first opened, was brightly floral with overtones of lavender and honeysuckle defining the top of the tobacco scent; now that it has settled down for a week or so, it has mellowed to a fresh hint of the prior sweetness, but is every bit as appetizing. The pipe, too, has a couple of years already under its belt, being a 2011 piece that I generously gifted to myself this Christmas. In the spirit of giving, and remembering that it’s the thought that counts, I was kind enough to wrap this up and put it under the tree, which, for some reason, caused extensive and prolonged eye-rolling from the aforementioned sweetheart. I’ll save the topic of trying to understand women for a future article, however.
He is Fear, O Little Hunter, he is Fear!
The tobacco, like the book, offers the regal presentation of days gone by. The rectangular 100-gram tin is stout and compact, with the burgundy-bordered white field displaying the name and Mac Baren crest in very understated Danish fashion. Under the lid, heavy and embossed gold-foiled paper leaves are wrapped around the precisely stacked flakes, two piles of uniformly 1½ inches by 3 inches, sliced to a 1.4 mm thickness. I marvel at how tightly packed the tigerstriped cross-sections of tobacco are, and recall that Mac Baren leaves their flakes under pressure a full thirty days, which must aid making such accurate and thin slices. The Virginias, mainly of the drier African variety, play support here for the burley, though they stand a bit forward in the tin note of fresh wildflower and grassy hay. The burley is mild in aroma, lacking the stronger chocolaty notes of some American burleys, but very well balanced to dictate the tempo and body of the smoke with a great, creamy mouthfeel from the light through to the heel.
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Mac Baren’s precision-cut flakes.
Preparing flakes for the pipe is one of the more enjoyable rituals of the way we consume our weed. The cylindrical bowl of the Zulu, just over ½” by 1¼” deep, is perfect to accommodate one flake, folded into thirds, stuffed with a light twist and a tamp of the stray ribbons. I find that the Navy Flake is only faintly moist straight from the tin, at the appropriate level to carry all the flavor of the smoke yet burn quite easily without being rubbed out, and without requiring dozens of matches and an acetylene torch like some other navy flakes (Penzance, I’m looking at you). No, this stuff goes in easy, and I find it far more satisfying and with a greater dancing interplay of flavors when smoked whole flake.
And the snake shall be your watchman…
A proper charring light is crucial to the success of any attempt to smoke whole flake. One should strike the match, wait a few seconds, then apply it to the tobacco with a few hearty puffs to singe the top in its entirety; stoke and nurse the fire for a few moments, then summon the willpower to set the pipe down to cool for several minutes, no matter how good it tastes—and the peppery top of the charring light does taste good with this blend. I go to the kitchen and fix myself a cup of Earl Grey in the meantime, letting the tobacco settle a good six to eight minutes. Returning to the easy chair, settling back into the blanket and propping the book on my knee, I find the bowl ripe for the true light. One of the many characteristics that recommend this blend is its ease of smoking, and I sail through a solid forty minutes of reading before a relight is necessary to finish the last of the bowl. The flavors are full yet not challenging, with the light hay and floral top bowl making a gracious segue to a creamier, slightly spicier mid bowl, marked by faint woody notes, roasting almond, a hint of thyme and cardamom, and a room note that carries in it a trace of blackcurrant. The Mac Baren Cavendish of steamed and sugared burley picks up in the middle bowl as well, lending a rounded sweetness to the body and mouthfeel. The effect is hypnotic as I read of the further exploits of Mowgli, Baloo and Bagheera. Kipling was a favorite author as a child, and the inspiration for my own travels in India. Reliving the vivid imaginings of the stories I read in my youth, now with a pipe and cuppa as companions, is a Christmas gift in itself.
And we be comrades, thou and I
After tapping out the ashes of the first pipe, barely warm in my hand, I deliberate for only a minute before deciding another pipefull is in order. The Zulu is performing like a champ, smoking slow and cool with an easy draw, and the Navy Flake is really making it sing. The tea is warming and cleansing to the palate, and the tobacco is very well balanced to suit. The Virginias are mild in sugar content, and thus quite gentle to the tongue, never threatening a bite nor encouraging smoking too hot. There is only the very slightest hint of that trademark Mac Baren sweetness of maple sugar; just enough to know it’s there. A second bowl sees me through a few more chapters, and a third carries me to the end. The end of a bowl, the end of a night, the end of Christmas and the year, well spent retreating into these old stories in an old book, enjoying an old blend.
Because we loved him with the love that knows but cannot understand.
SPONSORED LINK: More Info on the Mac Baren Website
Written by Kevin Godbee
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Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 634! Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Warren Ertle. Warren is an extremely accomplished musician with a PhD in music. He started early as a percussionist in sixth grade. Later his grandmother got him a cheap Casio keyboard which he taught himself to play. He started playing in blues bands in high school, and has been a pianist with jazz big bands for years. Even though he was already a professional musician, he took his first real piano lesson when he enrolled in college with his studies in classical music. He is of course a pipe smoker. At the top of the show we will have an Ask the Tobacco Blender segment with Jeremy Reeves. Jeremy is the Head Blender at Cornell & Diehl, which is one of the most popular boutique pipe tobacco companies in the USA.
Soon now, supposedly, our neighborhoods will shift from grinning pumpkins, skeletons in various assortments, and zombies dashing about to pretty reindeer, angels, and flashing lights illuminating homes with sparkling stars and laughing, scurrying Santas. But, lest we forget, there is the turkey season, fancy pie aromas wafting from kitchens, and a national pardon of a big Tom Turkey. Remember, now, that only one of these holiday personalities is a pipe smoker. And that is the hefty, bearded fellow in a bright red suit sitting in a sleigh with a herd of deer hitched up and ready to streak across the globe, bringing tidings of joy and many presents. Ok, the scene is set for the next couple of months, right? So, before we get too far off the beaten path, let’s just take a deep breath of fresh autumn air, shall we? Ahh. That’s better, isn’t it? What’s got the Pundit in a snit is not all the Halloween spooks who came a-jostling for candy. Or the wild turkeys gobbling in the backwoods or all the fuss and feathers over the big one—Christmas. No, it is that we might need to take note of all the little things that mean so much to us. Like a good sunrise (seriously, Pundit has not gone all Pollyanna.) Mayhaps we need to appreciate more of what we have than what we have not. Or something like that. Like, a good pipe in the morning with coffee as the dawn brings us coolish weather now that we have flipped the calendar to autumn. But it also brings beautiful leaves that have become a spectacle of technicolor in the wind. It is the little things. The rereading of an enjoyable book and finding something you did not see or learn in the first go-round. Or a stunning phrase you commit to memory with the re-read, while smoking that favorite pipe. And you notice a superior puff that just seems to be different. It’s in the air and the seasons of meaningful little things. It’s aromatic! Or perhaps it is that sense of satisfaction knowing and appreciating you made it to another day. With the world in a kind of rinse-and-repeat history, reminiscent of a Shakespearean play, it is perhaps a good moment to remember some of Pipedom’s philosophers whose cogent thoughts brought light to clear a path in the mists of confusion and confounding opinions. Ok. No gloom and doom. Just some down-home thoughts. Think of times in the past when history was running off the rails. It took our pipe-smoking thinkers (the mind workers of the world) to speak of better pathways to more light. Think for a moment, with a pipe in hand, these wizards of the world and word: Albert Einstein, J. R.R. Tolkien, Mark Twain, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edwin Hubble, Bertrand Russell, C. S. Lewis, and Jean-Paul Sartre. All learned and enlightened. They offered wisdom instead of storms of meaningless roads to nowhere. All while smoking their pipes! Maybe especially with the help of their pipes in the art of thinking and philosophy. Recall the words of Mr. E=MC2 when he said, “I believe that pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgment in all human affairs.” Amen and amen! Dealing with world-rattling events takes a calm and objective view of things, to the Pundit’s way of summing it up. You just don’t go messing around with quantum physics without a calm and objective approach, methinks. Or as the extraordinary physicist Robert Oppenheimer said after he and a team in the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos Labs developed a way to split atoms into bombs during World War II. “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds,” said Oppenheimer referring to the development of the first nuclear bombs dropped on Japan. It must be pointed out that Oppenheimer was more of a cigarette smoker than a pipe smoker. Nonetheless, pipes were part of his personality. Now, if you have read some of the great authors of the past and present, their pipes were always nearby. Reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle can be a three-pipe problem at times. S. Lewis and Jean-Paul Sartre require time with your pipes to reflect on the existential problems and solutions these authors provide in learned novels and other narratives. Or take Edwin Hubble and Bertrand Russell, philosophers of another world. Pipes are required for reading. The quantum lode of ideas Pundit is attempting to sort out is that our pipes are relaxing and stimulate our thoughts and creativity. Especially in these last months of the year. Many times Pundit has had that light bulb flick on while smoking my beloved pipes. And friends in Pipedom, it ain’t easy to turn on the lights in Pundit’s rock pit head. Now it’s time for a quote from a Pipe Smoker of the Past. Shelby Foote was born Nov. 17, 1916, in Greenville, Miss., and died June 27, 2005, in Memphis, Tenn. A fact is not a truth until you love it—Shelby Foote. A parting thought: It is said that famed Southern author William Faulkner carried a packed pipe in a coat pocket wherever he went. That’s one effective way to deal with workday conflicts and confusion. A calm and objective judgment in our everyday human affairs, as the quantum man said.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 633. Our featured guest tonight is Jon David Cole. JD is the Owner/Tobacconist at The Country Squire in Jackson, MS, and the accompanying online store. We’ll have JD and Brian talking about what’s new at the store and in the business in general. At the top of the show, Brian will discuss tobacco growing, what happens to the leaf, and provide updated information on where tobacco is being gown today. Tobacco production originated in the United States and we were once the #1 producer. It’s quite different now.
Well there’s nothing like a touch of the plague to usher in the changing season. Leaving the airport just when the first advertisements for all things pumpkin spice began to appear—lattes, muffins, shampoos, trash bags, and myriad other concoctions—so, too, my ability to breathe freely disappeared. The unfortunate side effect of losing one’s sense of taste and smell for weeks is the utter inability to enjoy tobacco. Not that I consider myself an expert on anything but my own tastes, but be forewarned that this review was made with mildly impugned sensory equipment. Just when a comforting pipe was most needed, its comfort was denied. Be that as it may, the road to recovery found me limping along on one lung this past month, trying to wrest the particulars of two blends on offer from Sutliff: the latest 175th Anniversary blend, Silver Quarter, as well as their spooky seasonal Maple Shadows II. Silver Quarter is a new style on offer from Sutliff, their first coin-cut blend. Naturally a Virginia-Perique, it is enhanced with a traditional core of black Cavendish. In the tin it holds much promise, with a lightly bready and very woody, if ever-so-slightly sour, aroma. After some time acclimating to air, the bouquet softens further and offers hints of the burley with some chocolaty notes wafting through the more dominant dry grassy aspect. The tin art is of a coin-style bas-relief bust, presumably of a founding Sutliff brother, à la The Old Boss On the reverse of the tin we find the blend’s description: Reflecting on Sutliffs 175 years of tobacco excellence, we came across a brand that embodies true value, SILVER QUARTER. This name pays homage to Sutliffs roots, the legacy of two brothers who popularized pipe smoking in the burgeoning mining society of San Francisco. We celebrate this heritage with a coin cut composed of the finest African Virginias, complemented by a core of Perique and Black Cavendish. The tin notes are, forgive the pun, on the nose for a good VaPer blend: mild tart sweetness peeking out from behind dried hay and slight chocolate undertones, with a lightly tannic finish of weathered oak. It is always a joy to prepare a coin cut, my preference being to put a few in my palm and vigorously warm my hands together to fully break them apart. These well-formed discs pack and light easily, and smoke with little prodding to the end of the bowl. For technical points it scores well—it smokes light, and it’s easy to tend the ember. While it gets sharp after a few quick bowls, pacing should be heeded to easily smoke down to the heel without inviting bite. Of the flavor, though, I am left a bit wanting. There are tart and high notes aplenty, but very little of the lemony citrus I would anticipate, as well as scant midtones; they tend more toward the red wine-vinegary and sour. The flavors are muted, also, lacking the sweetness and piquancy of other marques—the small measure of Perique tickles the nose now and again with peppery hints, and there is a smidge of a deeper sweetness to be found in the Cavendish from puff to puff, but overall it lacks some dynamism. The Virginias, to my palate, come off a bit on the dry side, and here they dominate the blend. The aftertaste and mouthfeel are neutral, again evincing more of the dry, woody, tartly tannic end of the spectrum. The blend has plenty of polish, but not enough depth or richness (*yet) to make it a standout. Here, comparisons are inevitable: Luxury Bullseye Flake has more sweetness, both from its Virginia as well as its Cavendish, and a better finish; Davidoff is similar but with a pronounced umami that is absent here; as for Escudo, I haven’t had any fresh tins lately so it would be unfair to compare. 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With a sweet coffee or tea to accompany, the aftertaste of the maple is reinvigorated on the palate […]
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Vegas Baby The show started out strong on the 14th floor hospitality suites hosted by the Vegas Pipe Show and Smoking Pipes as well as room hopping to carvers, estate sellers, and vendors to pre-game for the festivities. If you’re interested in what that looks like I’ll refer you to last years pipe show round up. I circled with Brian Levine to get the totals in comparison to last year: This year’s show numbers: 108 Exhibitor tables, 445 attendees, 3,250 Raffle Tickets, 100ish dinners, 172 Rooms in the Hotel. Last year, by comparison, 107 exhibitor tables, 425 attendees, 2,200 raffle tickets, 104 dinners, and 175 rooms on Friday and Saturday nights. We were at capacity, basically, when it came to vendor tables and the dinner, so there is no physical room for growth at this point except for attendees. That said, we filled that smoking lounge to the brim. New Carvers Spotlight Garret Woo (Pipes by Woo) How long have you been carving? 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James: What is the craziest thing you’ve seen at this show? Garret: The first thing that comes to mind is the table over there with C-Pipes with the shapes and the size and petiteness and the intricate details they did. You can check out what Garret is working on by going to his Instagram. Stefan Cashwell James: how long have you been carving? Stefan: about 3 years. James: What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen at the show? Stefan: The Adam Davidson pipe with the clear shape and the bamboo—I don’t know if it’s 3D printed or what, but it’s amazing. James: What’s your favorite shape to do? Stefan: That’s a tough question. I think they’re all the same shape, but what’s fascinating is that Dublin, volcano, and blowfish are all the same depending on how you turn them. Playing with that, with all its variations, is a lot of fun. My favorite accent to use is also horn; it’s finicky, but it’s a great accent on pipes. You can check out Stefan’s work on his Instagram. Science: Meet Pipes I chatted with Chris from the San Diego Pipe Club; he started off doing stem replacements for estate pipes but also improved the airflow. James: How are you doing 3d printing? What is the thought process? Chris: It’s a 3D-printed pipe with a briar insert. The design is a calabash meets a Peterson system meets a metal Falcon/Kirsten radiator style. It is a bottom draft smoking bowl like a radiator like those metal pipes. The inside chamber is a calabash. The stummel and accent rings in the stems are all 3d printed. The insert is briar, olive wood, or I have the potential to use meerschaum as well. This idea came about through the San Diego Pipe Club, wanting to see if we could 3D print a pipe and being curious about the technology; I have a printer and design ability, so here we are. James: What’s the type of plastic you’re using? Chris: It’s all PLA plastic, a renewable potato starch plastic that is food-safe. 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Chris said he was able to use this to slow down his cadence, which, of course, could mean you could get a slow-smoke training pipe to teach yourself to perform better. If you’re interested in learning more or want to check one out, you can contact him on Instagram: Copper Beard Pipe Works The Negative Space The show was buzzing about one specific pipe, which had everyone guessing how it was made. I chatted with Adam Davidson briefly about it. James: How did this idea come to fruition? Adam Davidson: Smokingpipes.com had an expo back in August open to all of the makers they carry. The theme was to make a pipe utilizing bamboo. Given that the last time we had the expo I made a smooth Almond with three bamboo shanks, […]
Sounds like a wonderful experience indeed!
It’s so much like those moments I have while sitting back with a favorite pipe friend or even a new pipe and one of my favorite blends while enjoying a book or magazine or even just listening to some of my favorite classical music on the CD player.
Such is the enjoyment of the pipe and a good tobacco.
“….marked by faint woody notes, roasting almond, a hint of thyme and cardamom, and a room note that carries in it a trace of blackcurrant.”
Bill is smoking on a totally different level than I am.
I just happened to smoking a bowl of this when I read the article. It’s an aesome blend I think the author summed it well when he said:
“There is only the very slightest hint of that trademark Mac Baren sweetness of maple sugar; just enough to know it’s there.”
That slight sweetness is what I personally look for in a tobacco and is what I love about Mac Baren navy Flake.
Great review.
Thanks (I think) kc 😀
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@natibo – it’s been quite a pleasure really getting familiar to a single blender these past few months. It all started way back after last year’s Chicago show, with [url=http://bit.ly/BLBreview] the Burley London Blend review [/url] , particularly poignant now that it’s going the way of the dodo.