Seattle Pipe Club: Luxury Blends Unlike Any Other
-
Kevin Godbee - Sep 9, 2017
- 8 min read
Jim Amash aka JimInks
When the fledgling Seattle Pipe Club held their first meeting in January 2001, the sole goal consisted of fun monthly evenings. This small, dedicated group of pipe smokers enjoyed each other’s company and discussed their mutual love of the gentle art that brought them together. Off topic subjects only further enriched their meetings and relationships, and the membership increased as the news got out that this monthly event was one not to be missed. In time, the club held summer picnics, annual dinners with awards and auctions, slow smoke contests, and invited special guest speakers from the most prominent members of the pipe community.
Joe Lankford was the right man at the right time for creating the Seattle Pipe Club blends. Joe and his wife Carolyn owned a tobacco shop in Dodge City, Kansas in the early 1970’s. This opportunity allowed him to begin blending on a small scale. In the early years he simply blended to please himself. The learning process included repeatedly smoking every known tobacco varietal independently so he could understand their inherent properties, and how they would interact with other tobaccos in the blending process.
Joe Lankford
This eventually resulted in his first creation, the Virginia based English mixture, Mississippi River, which was famously born in the middle of the night as he dreamed. He woke up, jotted down the formula, went back to sleep. The next morning, after he mixed up a sample, he decided he had the blend the way he wanted it. The ingredients were several Virginias with Oriental leaf, a pinch of Cyprian latakia and perique which Joe pressed to make the crumble cake form. Confident in his abilities, Joe decided he would only make blends that he would want to smoke on a regular basis. This was the point where Joe began to share his work with others.
Joe’s concoctions were originally given away to SPC members, who would urge Joe to accept money whether he wanted it or not. Pretty quickly, the demand exceeded Joe’s garage production capability. That changed in June 2007 when PipesandCigars.com introduced to market three of master blender Joe Lankford’s signature creations: Mississippi River, Plum Pudding, and Seattle Evening. With this forward step, SPC became the first and only club in America to truly create and market their own blends. An added benefit from the blends stunning success resulted in the Seattle Pipe Club becoming the best-known pipe club in America; a distinction that remains true to this day.
This article relates my long-time experience with the original eight blends that Joe Lankford created. Though they have all been well received in the pipe smoking world, I always felt the uniqueness regarding their creations, e.g., private club blends made public, deserved compilation in written form. I have carefully revisited each blend and updated my reviews for your consideration.
JimInks Rating 3.5 out of 4 stars
Mississippi River became the top seller in the line. In Mississippi River, the red Virginia is tangy, dark fruit sweet with a little earth, rather McClelland-like in that there’s a very mild ‘barbeque’ flavor present at the beginning. The stoved Virginias have a fermented sugary fruitiness. The Cyprian latakia is an important supporting player, adding a sweet smoky, musty woodiness that is obvious in every puff. The perique continuously offers some spice with raisin and fig notes in the background. The Oriental is also a minor player, not always detectable, but it is woody with a slight sour hit here and there. The strength level is in the center of mild to medium while the taste just approaches the medium mark. The nic-hit is shade past mild. It won’t bite or get harsh. Presented in an easily broken apart crumble cake, it may need a little dry time. It burns slow and clean, requires some relights, and has a well-balanced, rich and creamy smooth sweetness to the finish. There is just a little moisture left in the bowl. There is a very pleasant aftertaste and room note. This can be an all-day smoke. Those who are looking for a mid-strength English will find this highly enjoyable. It is truly a blend for all seasons.
JimInks Rating 4 out of 4 stars
In 2016, Joe got his hands on some well-aged, rare flue cured Virginias, and decided to experiment with the formula of the very popular Mississippi River mixture, resulting in a production called Mississippi River Special Reserve. My review details both the new version as well as citing the differences noticed between the two versions. I gave this four stars because of its heightened degree of intricate nuances.
The tangy, dark fruity, earthy red Virginia also has a smidgeon of ‘barbecue’ flavor as it forms the base of the blend. The stoved Virginias have a wine-like darkly sweet fruitiness and a little earthiness, and almost competes with the red for attention. The rare flue cured Virginia provides a hint of grass and some citrus in the background. The perique offers some spice with raisin and fig notes, and is a little more than a condimental addition. The Cyprian latakia supports the Virginias with a sweet smoky, musty woodiness. The Oriental is woody, lightly spicy, with a slight sour hit in places, and plays just below the threshold of the latakia. The nicotine content is just past the center of mild to medium. The taste level is medium, and the strength falls just shy of that mark. There’s no chance of bite or harshness present. The tobacco is an easily broken apart crumble cake. It was a little moist, but I did not feel the need to dry it. I recommend not totally rubbing it out. I broke off small pieces and dropped them into the bowl. It burns a mite slow, cool and clean with a very consistent, richly complex, deeply rich and creamy smooth, smokiness throughout the experience. It requires some relights, and leaves little moisture in the bowl. The lingering after taste is very pleasant, and has a stronger room note. It’s almost an all-day smoke for a beginner, and can be one for the experienced smoker.
In comparison to the original Mississippi River, I find this to be a little smoother and richer in flavor. Its sweetness has a mildly more fermented character than does the regular MR. The addition of the flue cured Virginia adds a pinch of extra complexity. I find the spice content to be a touch greater as well. Perfectly balanced, you’ll notice virtually all the inherent aspects of the tobaccos in every puff.
The use of a wide bowl will enhance your ability to capture all that this highly recommended blend has to offer.
JimInks Rating 3 out of 4 stars
Seattle Pipe Club introduced Deception Pass in 2015 when Joe, who had previously concentrated on English and Balkan mixtures, had a distinctly different blend style up his sleeve. This Virginia/perique blend is comprised of unsweetened black cavendish, red and stoved Virginias, a little Turkish ribbon and Acadian perique, and stands out as a singular entry in the SPC line up.
The base of the blend is black Virginia, which provides lightly tart, fermented dark fruit, earthiness and a little citrus. The mildly spicy, plummy, raisin and fig-like Acadian perique is a supporting player. There’s a little floral mustiness, some tingly spice and wood, a light buttery, creamy sweet and sour savoriness from the Turkish/Oriental that continually plays to your taste buds in small, but distinguishing role. The unsweetened black cavendish offers a little smoothing brown sugar. The strength and nic-hit are a step closer to medium than it is to mild. The taste falls a tad short of the medium threshold. It won’t bite and has no rough edges. It burns cool and clean at a moderate pace with a well-blended, varied, but consistent flavor from start to finish. The blend leaves little dampness in the bowl, and requires an average number of relights. There is a pleasant, lightly lingering spicy, savory aftertaste. This is certainly an all-day smoke that’s hard to beat.
Deception Pass is delightfully different from standard VaPer blends. Joe’s twist on the genre brings his point of view into full focus.
JimInks Rating 3.5 out of 4 stars
Rainier Levant was brought to market in 2016. This blend was Joe’s homage to the famous California blender Drucquer & Sons Levant Mixture, which was discontinued some years ago. It is the fullest Balkan blend in the SPC line up, as it is comprised of sixty percent Cyprian latakia.
The smoky, woody, earthy, musty Cyprian latakia is the lead component without turning this blend into a "lat-bomb". The earthy, woody, dry, buttery and creamy sweet and savory, musty, spicy, floral Oriental/Turkish (including Smyrna) is the second star in its firmament with all its inherent attributes in full display. The piquant, earthy, ripe dark fruity red Virginia is a complimentary varietal that you will always notice, especially the ‘fermented barbecue note’. The strength level is medium when you start and gets a tad stronger by the half way point. The taste is a step over the medium threshold. The nicotine will certainly get your attention as it is a little closer to medium than it is to mild.No chance of bite or harshness exists here as it’s cool smoking from first light to final puff. All the aspects I mentioned reveal themselves in every draw you take, which is the result of the superior blending in the creation of this meaty, flavorful invention. The burn rate is moderate. The tobacco burns cool and clean at a reasonable pace with a well-balanced, very consistent deeply rich flavor all the way to the end. There is a little dampness left in the bowl, and it requires an average number of relights. There is a pleasantly lingering musty, leathery, spicy campfire aftertaste and stronger room note. It’s not really an all-day smoke, but it’s repeatable. I find Rainier Levant works best as an after-meal smoke or to savor every puff as you contemplate the world you observe.
As revealed by these reviews, one sees that Joe’s goal is to develop savory blends that have nuance and character to please a discriminating smoker. Next month, the second installment of this article will focus on the other four luxury Seattle Pipe Club blends from Joe Lankford: Plum Pudding, Plum Pudding Special Reserve, Potlatch, and Seattle Evening. So stay tuned for more smoky latakia.
You can order Seattle Pipe Club blends from PipesandCigars.com and other fine retailers.
The author smoking a Charatan once owned by actor William Conrad
Seattle Pipe Club: Luxury Blends Unlike Any Other (Part 2)
Written by Kevin Godbee
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Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 604. Our featured interview tonight is with Jon David Cole. JD is the Owner/Tobacconist at The Country Squire in Jackson, MS, and he is the former co-host of the podcast, Country Squire Radio, which ended their 10-year run last year. We’ll have JD with the “From the Country Squire” segment talking about all the new things happening at the store and in the business in general. At the top of the show, we’ll continue our audio tour of Brian’s pipe collection.
Before we begin, I should tell you: this tobacco review is being written by an A.I. Not the fancy new GPTs or their ilk; no, this is last century’s meat-and-bone, all-organic model. To be fair, a large part of what we call knowledge is merely the accumulated perceptions and impressions gathered from a life wandered through, synthesized into a spongy mass of what-it-is-that-we-think-that-we-know. The algorithm for this prompt is simple enough: pump thousands of bowls of smoldering plant matter into a gaping maw, cross-reference the chemical sensations with all other matter previously ingested or inhaled, sieve it all through the diffuse and fractal twin lens of memory and emotion, and churn out a panoply of adjectives that attempts to convey the sensations to someone who hasn’t experienced it yet. Odds are that a diligently trained monkey could succeed half the time; if this reviewer nears fifty-one percent then that would qualify as an unrivaled success. 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A first whiff from the tin releases the aromas of shoe leather and hide glue in a base of clay soil with a campfire wafted over it like last night’s beach party. Once it’s been accustomed to oxygen again, subtle hints of sweetness poke through from the Virginias: lemon rind, light milk chocolate, the dregs of a peaty Scotch, and muddled cherry. Old regulars like fresh-sawn oak and tilled earth are there, of course, with distinct notes of truffle, creosote, damp peat, and pine bark mulch. As an aside, I’ve been re-potting my camellias and the similarity of aroma to the ericaceous soil mix is notable; the Katerini really brings the unique depth of its vegetal complexion when supported by the Rustica and afforded more voice in the mix. 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You know the olde saw: April’s showers bring May flowers.” Just to let you know, Pundit is all in on May and the flowers. Not that Pundit is a knowledgeable horticulturist, but walking about the woods on a bright sunny May day with wildflowers blooming and blushing whilst puffing a particular pipe is what spring is all about. So, to properly prepare in April, Pundit begins cleaning up several pipes that will make the wildflower walks this year. And never mind that I receive strange looks and snubs as I lean over to view up close and personal a beautiful wildflower and snap a photo. Pipe firmly clenched, natch. For good reason, spring brings to mind a couple of notable characters. First is the poet Robert Frost and his poem Birches. One could do worse than be a swinger of birches, is the last line of this wonderful poem about young boys climbing birches and bending them down to nearly touching ground. This lovely poem by the four-time Pulitzer Prize winner brings back memories of a crew of ragtag barefoot country boys swinging tall, spindly pine trees to earthly experiences. Yes, and falling from said pines, as well. Now, Pundit is uncertain whether or even if Frost was a pipe smoker. The history of this is a bit confusing. The other great original is one Yogi Berra, the Hall of Fame catcher for the New York Yankees, who played 18 seasons with the Bronx Bombers. He was a 15-time All-Star, a three-time American League MVP Award winner, and a 10-time World Series champion as a player. It is fairly well documented in photos that the great Yogi smoked cigars from time to time. The Baseball Hall of Fame calls Yogi “a cultural icon whose fame transcended the baseball diamond. “Yogi-isms” such as it ain’t over till it’s over and a nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore have found their way into everyday vernacular for baseball fans. This neatly brings us to Pundit’s favorite Yogi quote this time of year: When you come to a fork in the road, take it. Let’s just call Yogi baseball’s Phrase Laureate. I take the forks along the trails, looking for the rarest of wildflowers. Getting lost in the woods away from the madding crowds keeps dirty looks and slights shielded as I walk, huff and puff. That’s precisely what a pipe-puffing Pundit does on his May wildflower walks. You never know where you are likely to wind up, but you will know when you get there. My best Yogism, doncha know. You can thank me later. And the best pipe that takes me along on these nature walks? Why a White Spot, a Northern Briar, an Ashton, or a Cavicchi. At times I also attempt my best Holmesian pipe look with a Peterson Calabash shape with its iconic flared rim. Or all of the above, and then others tossed into the camera bag for good measure. It’s a big camera bag! And now that we have had a nice walk in the woods, it’s time for some Pipe Smokers of the Past. Starting things off is not a personality so far back in the past, J. Robert Oppenheimer, was born April 22, 1904, in New York and died Feb. 18, 1967, in Princeton, N.J. The famed so-called “father of the atomic bomb,” the Oppenheimer movie just walked off with a plane load of Oscars in this year’s tinsel town extravaganza. The biopic won seven, including Best Picture, Best Director for Christopher Nolan, and Best Actor for Cillian Murphy. Oppenheimer, celebrated pipe smoker and theoretical physicist, was director of the Los Alamos Laboratory in the thick of the Manhattan Project in World War II. The atomic bomb was fully enabled by July 1945 and dropped on Japan in August. It was the first nuclear explosion in history, created by bombarding neutrons with plutonium and uranium which resulted in a nuclear fission explosion. Uh, Pundit doesn’t profess to know fission from fizzling. Allegedly, one of Oppenheimer’s most famous quotes, Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds, was either around the time of the first bomb test in 1945 or shortly after. Another, softer quote from the great scientist, is Genius sees the answer before the question. And finally, author, Gunter Grass, winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize in literature, was born Oct. 16, 1927, in Danzig, now Gdansk, Poland, and died April 13, 2015, in Lubeck, Germany. Grass, also a poet, reportedly smoked Stanwell Extra Fine, an old Danish pipe tobacco popular in Germany, as well as W.O. Larsen Classic, Three Nuns, Mac Baren Navy Flake, and Dunhill Early Morning Pipe. I’m always astonished by a forest. It makes me realize that the fantasy of nature is much larger than my own fantasy. I still have things to learn—Gunter Grass. And a parting shot: Pipe smokers are the mind workers of the world!
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Not the same blends, but I’m aging a tin of Plum Pudding and another of Potlatch, and these reviews whet my appetite. That’s quite a photo portrait of the blender.
Great article, Jim. You captured Mr. Lankford’s blending alchemy very well. I await the next installment.
Thank you Jim, for the informative, and interesting article…It is much appreciated.
Yo Jinx – great writing about great topics. I’m really looking forward to your next installment about the great Plum Pudding. Too bad Pike Place is among the missing.
hp
les
Thanks for a wonderfully written and informative article, Jim.