Seattle Pipe Club Mississippi River Tobacco Review
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Kevin Godbee - Nov 2, 2011
- 6 min read
By Adam J. Smith
Tin notes: Rich Virginias Pressed Tobacco Spiced with Oriental leaf Latakia, and Perique. The source of Mississippi River! The way Joe tells it, it all came to him in a dream. Joe blended for 25 years before coming up with this, his first blend. Everything else was…unsmokable, says Joe. So one night, Joe wakes up from a sound sleep, grabs a pencil by the bedside and scribbles a recipe from his dream. He even dreams tobacco! Morning comes and he uses the notes to create a Virginia blend like no other. Mississippi River is born. The rest is history in a tin. Ask Joe if you don’t believe me. Members beg for this blend. It’s a little embarrassing. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
I sat down to write this review with something specific in mind for my introduction. I was going to weave a yarn about the Mississippi River, and how it has affected the growth of the United States; both literally and metaphorically. I was going to quote great literary works, penned by side of the Mighty and Muddy, that have helped to shape our modern society. I was going to talk about the different regions this great river flows through, as it weaves its course south, passing through only 9 states; but more ideologies and lifestyles than one could write about keeping to the constraints of a single article.
But I’m not. Why you ask? Well, to be completely honest, it’s my own damned fault. I ran out of time. I’ve been sitting on these notes for a month now, but didn’t actually sit down to write them into something cohesive until prompted by Kevin (by the way – this is my way of apology for stretching to the deadline).
Now I find myself sitting in front of my PC, trying to come up with something entertaining to say that will do this wonderful tobacco justice – and wouldn’t you know it, I’ve run into that brick wall that is known as "writers block". And they say good things come to those who wait…
Alas; I am sure that none of you are here to read about my current propensity towards laziness, nor are you hear to listen to me ramble. You are here to read about the third and final offering in the Seattle Pipe Club series. So, without further ado;
I initially expected this to be a straight up Virginia, or perhaps a Virginia/Perique blend; to complete the trifecta of custom blends created by the Seattle Pipe Club. You can understand that I was somewhat taken aback when I first cracked my tin, and took a deep whiff of spices ala allspice, nutmeg, and clove carried on a hint of almost melon-like fruitiness. Over-stimulating your olfactory senses through over-exposure will reveal hints of caramel, and finally the tang of well cured Virginia leaf.
Well the offering is reported to be pressed, it seems that this soft cake does not often survive the brutality of the postal service – especially when travelling internationally. Close inspection of the soft, course cut leaf reveals a beautiful melange of dark browns and milk chocolate tones shot through with coppery bronzes. This blend definitely requires some drying time out of the tin – I found that an hour plus provided the best results. Like most pressed blends, this tobacco responds well to a simple gravity fill and quick tamp, unlike most pressed blends however, don’t expect to have a ton of dust left over to add as kindling.
A prelight "puff" will bring very mild hints of caramel sweetness.
With the false light, one is hit with a big hit of sweet grassy flavours mingling with brown sugar, with a barely detectable underlying saltiness. This blend does take a bit of work to get lit, and I find that the charring light often requires three or more matches. As one progresses through the first third of the bowl, the blend brings sweetness not unlike cantaloupe, caramel and toasted marshmallow with bold earthy tones. Slight nuances of pepper and salt dance fleetingly on the edge of the palate, never fully developing into a strong, constant flavour. The smoke has a marked buttery feel, and produces voluminous clouds with little effort.
As you pass through the midway of the bowl, the caramel like sweetness deepens to a strong toffee-like flavour, with notes of raisin. This rounds out the flavour profile, bringing an almost spicy alcohol flavour, like a Hot Toddy. I find the salty nuance all but disappears at this point, while the rich earthiness begins to take on an almost cigar like note.
Through the heel of the bowl, the flavour profile undergoes an almost miraculous change. The depth and complexity ramps up; notes of grass, oak, and pepper ride on earthy, musty tones of wet soil. A plummy, almost tea-like sweetness develops; intertwining with a citrusy sour note and slight hints of herbs; not unlike a big mug of real root-beer.
And fear not – the issues I have with the false light are just that – issues with the false light. This blend burns just fine from about 75% to heel. Yes, it requires the occasional relight. It’s not a cigarette. Deal with it!
The room-note on this blend is quite pleasant; and not only to me (for a change). The melon- and grass-like notes are transferred to the latent smoke, and on occasion hints of raisin and plum can even be detected. Along the same lines, this blend doesn’t tend to leave much in the way of a latent post-smoke odour – I note this only because my wife walked in on me not half an hour after finishing a bowl, and did not notice any lingering odours in the room.
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When it comes to nicotine, this blend delivers. Well spiked with Perique, this is a tobacco that deserves respect from all but the most hardened smokers. While it certainly didn’t send this snuff-taking, chain-smoking reviewer into the nicotine fits, it didn’t leave me reaching for a cigarette post-smoke.
To summarize, this is a wonderful blend highlighting the sweet end of the Virginia spectrum, while offering up subtle complexities from the supporting characters. While it does tend to bite when pushed, this tobacco behaves very well in the bowl and would make a great introduction to Virginia/Perique blends. I should note that I don’t detect the Latakia listed on the tin in this blend – perhaps my usual tendency towards strong English and Balkan blends has deadened my tastebuds to small quantities of the dark leaf.
In my last review (Hearth and Home Marquee Series Black House), I offered up an analogy comparing tobacco to food. Following those lines, I would have to say that Seattle Pipe Club Mississippi River blend is the desert tray and post-meal cocktail. While I personally find this blend too sweet for my all day smoking needs, it has found a solid place in my rotation when my sweet-tooth starts to tingle. A welcome addition to the cellar; and certainly not an offering to be missed by the VaPer crowd.
I highly recommend it!
I would also take a moment to thank the fine folks at the Seattle Pipe Club and at PipesandCigars.com for making these three blends available to us. Kudos to you, gents!
– Adam J. Smith
Give us your review, or read others reviews – Mississippi River Tobacco Reviews
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Written by Kevin Godbee
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Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 635. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with James Ravenwood. James is the boutique tobacco blender of Ravenwood Blends. His blending started out as a fun hobby, and he now has professionally packaged commercially available products with some great tin art. Part of his interest in pipe smoking goes back to fond memories of a retired Navy Veteran that lived on his street while he was growing up that would sit in his driveway smoking a pipe all day. Later, in 2011 he began smoking pipes and soon after started experimenting with mixing different tobaccos. His other hobby, that he has been doing for 30 years, is photography. He takes wonderful photos of outdoor spaces, and still life pictures of pipes and tobacco. You can see them on his Instagram @thebriarfellowship. At the top of the show we’ll have an Ask the Pipemaker segment with renowned pipe artisan Jeff Gracik.
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! 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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. 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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. 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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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Yet another great review Schmitz…
As a Latakia-phobe I was especially grateful that you noted that it’s faint or inconspicuous — but that also you might have become inured to it. For guys like me who avoid the stuff that’s a ton of help (well, $10’s worth, anyway). 🙂
Great review, I’m going to have to try this!
Great review Adam. It makes me want to give it a whirl and,well, thats what a review should do. so kudos to you!
planing to order some within my next order, great review which got me thinking of increasing 2oz to 6oz