Rare (Or getting There) Tobaccos

[hoosierpipeguy]

Whether it's worth it, or not, is up to you. I personally cannot imagine paying a premium for Frog Morton or just about any so called unobtainable when there are so many blends readily to reasonably available that are so much better. The grass really isn't greener. If you have several hundred pounds cellared and still have disposable income, then by all means, try some of the rare blends. If not, you'd be much wiser to spend your money on building your cellar with blends that sell at MSRP. The way things are going, before long, they all may be unobtainable and you'll wished you had built your cellar.

 

[Briar Baron]

Embers...I nearly choked on my tea when I saw that photo!

Those are exactly the tobaccos I love and I even have the same tobacco jar you have in the background! (Japanese one made in the 1950s)

 

[foursidedtriangle]

Yes it is worth it in some cases. Frog Morton cellar is the best tobacco ever made, how much would you pay for that though? Penzance is actually good, worth the hype. Again your call on how much is too much but trying it once is a good idea.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Penzance is actually good, worth the hype.

At around $3.75/ounce, it's not a bad one. Good for pepping up flat blends and aros too.

 

[tavol]

IMO price and in particular rarity adds massively to the taste of a blend, at least for a lot of pipe smokers. All psychosomatic you understand.

 

[Chasing Embers]

IMO price and in particular rarity adds massively to the taste of a blend

For me it's just the opposite. Anything over $5/ounce becomes very unappealing.

 

[ophiuchus]

Forgive me if this topic has been beaten to death by n00bs like me before.

Please, don't be sorry. Beating topics to death is what we do here. :wink:
I'll only reiterate the wisdom already expressed here: Forget Dunhill. Forget McClelland. They're gone. There's too much all else around to waste your time and money on dead brands.
Take a look at Seattle Pipe Club, Hearth and Home Mid-Town. Pick up some War Horse. Peterson and Savinelli sell good pipe tobacco as well as pipes. Read the lists above (and the ones that may follow).

 

[ophiuchus]

Oh, yeah ... and try some Mac Baren HH Old Dark Fired, regardless! ::

 

[sablebrush52]

Frog Morton cellar is the best tobacco ever made, how much would you pay for that though?

To you that may be true. To many others it was either nothing special or disappointing. As a crossover blend it had serious fans. It also had a great many who found it nasty. And this is the point. Some discontinued blends were real stars to some, or even many, pipe smokers. None of them were stars to everyone. I still have the Frogs in one of my bins because I don’t like them.

As much as I enjoyed smoking State Express London Mixture or Craven’s Mixture, nothing I tasted is worth spending hundreds of bucks for a tin, especially when I can enjoy a perfectly satisfying smoke for 10% to 1% of the cost.

Some people derive a great deal of pleasure from owning rarities because they’re rarities. I understand that perfectly. I own some rarities in terms of pipes and tobacciana, and a few tobaccos as well, but never as an end in itself, and not for “sucker” prices.

I sure as hell wouldn’t suggest to a beginner that he/she need seek out extinct blends to enjoy smoking a pipe. It’s BS, and it’s both unhelpful and unproductive BS as well.

 

[jpmcwjr]

What sable says, especially the last sentence.

 

[spartacus]

As a fairly new pipe smoker I wouldn't pay inflated prices for something I haven't tried. Fortunately, I have had the opportunity to try a lot of the unobtainable blends in pipe clubs and as gifts from forum members.
I chased two blends in the beginning. FMC and HH Vintage Syrian. Given my time smoking a pipe now I have smoked just over 300 blends. If I had it to do over, I would not have stocked up on those blends. Especially now since they are going for much higher prices than I paid. As my taste change and refine somewhat I wouldn't put those blends in my top ten. Top fifty yes! I wouldn't shed a tear if I never had the opportunity to smoke those blends again. There are so many great blends that are available now. I would find blends that are available that you like and spend the money there.
Now in a pipe club when I smoke an well aged McLelland blend, I just enjoy it for what it was. I'm not in that mindset of chasing some blend down the rabbit hole.

 

[thedudeabides]

Sable, as per usual, has it right. When I started in this hobby, I hunted what was rare. Some of it I really do enjoy, so I'm glad that I went to the trouble, but I also admit that some of it I wanted to try - and to "have" - because it was rare and I thought it would be "cool" to have a stash of the "good stuff" that was hard to find. The old adage, however is true, you cannot have your cake and eat it too, so once you have the rare stuff, you may find that you sit on those tins, knowing that replacing them could be impossible, or at least, very expensive and/or time-consuming.
For example, I'm still wondering what fortuitous circumstance will lead me to crack open that old tin of Three Nuns.... or will I die knowing I "had it?" Boy, that sounds grim - not my intention : )
It can be fun to find something rare and pay a fair price for it, or even sometimes to overpay to have a unique experience, but it is far wiser to invest the time to try a lot of blends that you can easily find and determine your tastes and preferences first. With that approach, you can establish a cellar for which you can a) pay a fair price, b) add to and replace tins over time, and c) base any splurges on rarities upon your well-established tastes.
PS - I will say, in my defense, that I didn't pay obscene prices, I just invested the time to hunt.

 

[alaskanpiper]

"For example, I'm still wondering what fortuitous circumstance will lead me to crack open that old tin of Three Nuns.... or will I die knowing I "had it?" Boy, that sounds grim - not my intention : )"
Maybe when you open a tin like that, that IS the fortuitous circumstance..... ::
PS excellent username

 

[dmcmtk]

PM sent.

 

[jzbdano]

Everyone has come to this hobby/obsession/addiction a different way. I first tried a pipe after smoking cigars regularly for a year and a half. Pipe tobacco is relatively inexpensive compared to a $3-8 cigar so cost was not a hurdle I've ever stumbled on for the tins I considered buying. I did a lot of browsing and research, on forums primarily, to find the tobacco that I might like best. It's part of the fun for me in this hobby. In my research I read McClelland ages very well and VaPers age into a raisin/plum/mushroom goodness so the first VaPer I purchased a month after starting the pipe was a 100g tin of McClelland St James Woods dated 1998 from Pipestud for $48, this was spring 2016. I didn't need to be an experienced pipe smoker to really enjoy such a fine tobacco. Since then I've learned better technique and I shelved the Petersons for Castellos and meers and I enjoy smoking much more. I smoke @10 times a week split between cigars and pipes, the ratio varies seasonally. I have quite a bit of tobacco in my cellar that I have bought on recommendation/impulse that I will never smoke. This fact disturbs me a little. The longer I've been smoking the fewer blends I make time for. I have enjoyed almost every one of the 200+ blends I've tried but I wouldn't buy 90% of them again and probably won't smoke half of them again. I quit trying new blends from most of blending houses because everything I have tried from them is not for my tastes and I would rather be satisfied with what I like rather than disappointed in something new. Everyone needs to find their own way. I'm glad I found pipestud early in my smoking days, his advice was very helpful and it was way easier to pick up a tin back then. I'm grateful to Sable for his forsite warning us in the summer of '17 that smaller blenders like McClelland were at the greatest risk with the deeming regulations. These are some of the reasons I like what I like. If I started over again it would be different because what's available today is different than what was available a few years ago. One thing that wouldn't change is the desire to find the best tobaccos for my taste.

 

[the85boro]

cigrmaster has my favorite tobaccos all listed. WOW

 

[cigrmaster]

boro, that means you have very good taste. :mrgreen:

 

[krizzose]

Chasing down some unobtainium very expensive discontinued blends is fine if you want to try them and can afford it, but I would just caution any new smoker who might be chewing up his tobacco budget that could be spent stocking up on widely available blends. There’s also a clock ticking on tobacco prices and availability, and getting as much as you can when you can get it is always a good idea.
I’m creeping up on a 20 year supply (assuming I don’t materially increase my smoking rate) of what are my favorites that I can still buy. Now I’m making a little more room in my budgeted purchases for cheaper bulk blends that I know I like (I’m looking at you, PS Cube Cut) as a little extra insurance. Even so, I’m feeling the pressure not only of increasing regulations and taxes, but also the very real possibility that more states may cut off shipping of tobacco products like Washington does.

 

[thedudeabides]

@alaskanpiper - As one of the others on this thread have said, once you have been here awhile, post about something you would like to try (or trade for), and likely one of the many nice folks on this forum will work something out with you. Note that some of the ones that act the crabbiest actually end up being the nicest...

 

[foursidedtriangle]

I do not agree with Sable. Full disclosure I have been smoking for 2 years only but FMC and Penzance are far superior tobaccos and worth trying at least once especially early on so you have benchmarks of how good tobacco can be.