As most of you are aware, the Drew Estates pipe tobacco line has flown off into the sunset now with only a few tins remaining. However, my favorite tobacco, Meat Pie, is not to be found anywhere. Can any of you familiar with Meat Pie suggest a close alternative, please? I'm thinking John Cotton's Smyrna is close, but I'm guessing there are blends even closer. I posed this same question to the Scandinavian Tobacco Group, but got no response. If Meat Pie has been rebranded, the STG is remaining tight-lipped about it. Thanks very much!
Drew Estates Meat Pie alternative
- Thread starter victorybiker
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Ummm...Star of the East (tin) or Penzance, maybe? This is based on reading on internet and not personal experience.
Hmmmm, I didn't realize their blends went belly up. What happened?
I smoked a tin of Meat Pie a few years ago and I thought it tasted like Balkan Sasieni (also by STG), but it's been a few years so...
I smoked a tin of Meat Pie a few years ago and I thought it tasted like Balkan Sasieni (also by STG), but it's been a few years so...
As far as "what happened?" goes, I'm not sure how to answer that other than someone pulled the plug on the entire line. Drew Estates (DE) was purchased by Swisher and other decisions were made, etc., etc., but I'm unsure as to what prompted the entire Drew Estates pipe tobacco line (7 tobaccos?) to be dropped. Please allow me to pose this new question, Drew Estates dropped their line around early 2016; can those of you familiar with Meat Pie or the other DE tobaccos think of a new pipe tobacco(s) which has since appeared that could possibly be rebranded DE tobaccos? I find it hard to believe that when a line of 7 pipe tobaccos is no longer marketed, that a company like STG stops producing those brands altogether. I would think they would continue production under a new/rebranded name, but I'm no genius so maybe I'm all wet. I would love to have a STG insider tell me that Meat Pie is now __________ Pipe Tobacco. My life would be so much easier if I could buy my favorite pipe tobacco once again. To say I "loved" Meat Pie would be an understatement. It was spicy and delicious and my go-to smoke for a long time.
Thank you both for your responses thus far. Balkan Sasieni would be close, I concur, but Meat Pie was definitely on the spicier side. It even burned my nose a bit on the retro.
I've had a tin in the cellar for awhile now but not sure when I'm going to get to it. If it's in the ballpark as John Cotton Smyrna then I'm interested. Honestly I hated the Scandinavian Tobacco Group version of Dunhill London mixture but the 2008 tin I finished last summer was definitively spicy...to much so for me but it might be your thing. STG also makes a bulk for Arango called Balkan Surpreme which looks interesting. It does have black Cavendish which I don't seen in any of the reviews of Meat Pie so most likely not the same thing.
According to some reviews on TR.com, similar tobaccos are Peter Stokkebye Proper English, Sillem's London Blend, and G.L. Pease Westminster.
I didn't know the Meat Pie blend, but I will say that PS Proper English is an elegant blend, very pleasing to my tastes. What's better, it is widely available in bulk right now. I actually prefer it to the somewhat more expensive G.L. Pease Westminster. Purely a rhetorical point, but Meat Pie is not an appetizing blend name to me. As a meal, it sounds pretty good, but as a blend, not so much. I'm sorry one of your fav's disappeared. I've been through that more than once.
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