Are These the Glory Days for Number of Blends?

From what I have read and heard, we are in a "Golden Age" of tobacco varieties. At the same time, I hear about disappeared leaf varieties and increasingly scarce condiments (e.g., Deer Tongue). I hope someone will be able to give a satisfactory answer to your question, for both our sakes.

Yes.... Yes they are!

SFTH (shooting from the hip)...I suspect the sheer number of blends is greater now than at any previous time. Even if not, the number of blends with global distribution and availability has to be greater than in times past. There may have been X number of blends being made in 1900, say, but if you lived in Cow Poke, Missouri or whatever, you probably only had a few of them actually available to you.

I'm not a pipe tobacco historian, but after taking a quick look at TobaccoReviews.com the short answer would have to be yes. There are currently reviews of 5,298 blends on that website. Granted, a lot of those blends are no longer in production, but wow! An unbelievable amount of variety and selections these days. Yes, the internet has changed everything for us to the point that the selections can be overwhelming at times. But in a good way. Like kids in a candy store way. :D

As one who lives in rural Colorado now and working in a pipe shop about 20 years ago, yes. Even working at a pipe/cigar shop, where the owner was really more of a pipe man, there is no way to match the availability of blends today. I know people rue the passing of some blends or the unavailability of others — 20 years ago, Esoterica was easily available from the store at which I workws — this is fun. Again, the proprietor of the shop sold a ton of cigars, but his heart was in pipes. We had plenty of bulk and plenty of tins — a very cool place — but there couldn't have been more than 100 blends. As a previous poster has noted, just go to one of the big sites on the Net.
Now, since I live somewhere that is 100 miles from the nearest B&M, I love the availability of the Internet and forums likes these. How the heck would I find good tobacco without the www? I also love the rise of the blenders. Even working in the store 20 years ago, would I have heard of the Seattle Pipe Club and Plum Pudding? I probably would have heard of Greg Pease, since I was in the San Francisco Bay Area. Russ Oullette — sp. — back east? Probably not, and that would have been sad because I love Larry's Blend.
It is a good time to be a pipe smoker.

Many of the great old classics have bitten the dust, for sure.
Many mighty fine new blends have come on the market over the last decade.
To all of the current tobacco blenders of the world, I say' Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!

Yes, and that is why 63% of forum members are hording blends.

I think Pitchfork is about right on. Now if we were living in London in the '20s and '30s, we probably would have had just as much choice, that being the noontide of classic piping. Now we have the diversity of choice and don't have to live in the same postal code as the Dunhill factory to have it.

hoarding!

Click to expand...

. I thought I was just uncontrolled when it came to TAD.

For folks like us who are not only pipe smokers but collectors and aficionados of tobaccos it's safe to say that YES! We are living in the Golden Era of available pipe blends. There are still many, many folks out there that smoke a drugstore pipe and pouch tobacco and they happily smoke those pipes to death and buy, fill and repeat. For them, our realm is non-existent. I've only met one man so far who used to be "all in" like many here are and he claims he gave it all away and now smokes just a few old favorite pipes and pounds of Bourkum Riff and is wildly content. Ride the wave while we can, that's my advice.
Edit: I should add that for anyone wishing to expand their individual lust for new and different blends this modern era is flush with readily available options. Even in the old days with the NYC shops and even in London, transportation and the Information Age was still light years behind what's available at our fingertips today. Also there was very little in the way of "disposable" income during the pre-war years.

If push came to shove, I could get by on one decent Lat and a good aromatic, but hey, I'm taking advantage of all the great variety available.
Golden Age it is!