Sun Bear - Old Hollywood Briar (w PICTURES)

Hello there, I review blends under the name Old Hollywood Briar on youtube where I lend my high quality lenses and cameras to the art of pipe smoking. In my videos you'll see blend reviews along with Old Hollywood stories and interviews with blenders and your favorite actors and musicians. This episode features a surprise guest from Deadwood along with the iconic band ZZ Top.

For me, Sun Bear is going to be in my top 5 blends of 2019. I found out about the release early and was able to alert some friends but I still only came up with 5 tins. The blend sold out the first week. Tobacco Pipes put out an email alert for the blend and by day 1 they were already sold out. I grabbed 5 from smoking pipes and thought I could grab more after they arrived but before I could even get my hands on my first tin the blend was gone. I tried to warn people that the last Small Batch release, Sansepolcro ran 8,000 tins and was a spicy blend that suited a niche market. II knew that this run, at only 4,500 tins would go fast but I had no idea just how fast it would go.
There's a lot of talk about the Honey from Jeremy's garden and the scent of the tin upon opening is loaded with honey and that floral scent of elderflower. Jeremy recently released a video about the difference between casing and toppings on tobaccos. In the video he goes into detail about what a casing is and how it's different from a topping or a top note. Sun Bear is cased with Honey, elderflower and tequila giving it a pleasant aroma upon tin opening but that aroma fades over time, especially when left in the tin rather than a ball jar. That's why this is not an aromatic blend. The sweetness we taste in the blend is really coming from the brite Virginias and how they play with the velvety softness of the aged Basma (2014) and Izmir (2013) Orientals.
For those with a Sommelier's palette (like Jiminks) it's not surprising to read about notes of Tequila and Elderflower but really for myself, most of the taste is coming from the pure high grade leaves in the blend. This is not an aromatic by any means, the flavors of the casings are effervescent and more of a background perfume than a leading ingredient.
I really find this to be a great everyday blend, impossible to make it bite and believe me I tried. A great introduction blend for new pipers and a great crossover blend for those afraid to experiment with the famously "sour taste" of orientals. I have been smoking a lot of Balkan, oriental forward blends lately, Penzance, Balkan Supreme, Durbar, Balkan Sobranie, etc so I was ready for this light Oriental taste to come grab my attention.
4 out of 4 stars, a truly amazing experience. If you find any in your local B and M send up the bat signal, I need more!

Thank you 85! The Velvet Review has a secret note about Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. I covered an event (I'm a photographer) at the Chinese Theater with the lead actor. It was surreal man because after I finished taking some pictures of him, I sat down in the back of the theater to watch the show and 10 minutes into it, he came and sat down next to me, so I literally watched 2001: A Space Odyssey with Dave sitting right next to me.
He's a lot younger looking today than they thought he would look in 2001 back in 1968 lol.

Thank you Civil War my friend; I hope you have a good day.

Thank you Cornedbeef!
I got to go to the Oscars once to photograph the red carpet rollout, I was only there in the morning, before the show. When you pick up your credentials there are all kinds of signs that tell you, "Don't take a picture of your credentials. If you are seen taking a picture of your credentials your credential will be taken and you will be asked to leave."
These signs were literally everywhere. The sign was even printed on the back of the credential or badge itself. So at one point I went up to a catwalk to take a wide shot of the carpet and I started having a conversation with a woman from the academy who was just watching the photographers and news anchors do their live spots. As we were speaking, she interrupted the conversation, "I'm sorry, hold on one second," and she walked over to a blonde girl who was snapping a photo of her own credential with her cell phone, she appeared to be about 19.
"Excuse me," the woman from the Academy said, "You cannot take a picture of your badge, I need you to delete that photo please."
The girl replied in a heavy Australian accent, "What? Why should I have to do that?" strike 1
"Because you're not allowed to take pictures of your credentials," the woman retorted.
"Well that's ridiculous, you should tell people that, I didn't know that, how would I know?" the girl pressed back. strike 2
"It's written on signs everywhere, it's even written on your badge, turn the badge around," the woman replied.
"Well, I think that's dumb, I mean I didn't even know and I mean what's the big deal?" the girl bantered strike 3, you're out.
"Um, what's your name?"
"Ashley,"
"Ashley, I'm going to need you to wait here, don't move."
The woman walked down the stairs of the catwalk and spend two seconds speaking with a man passing by with a radio. The two came back up the stairs together.
"Hello, my name is Dan and I'm with the Academy, what's your name?"
"Ashley," the girl said, "Look I don't see what a big deal it is. . ."
"Ashley," the man cut her off, "I'm going to need that badge and I'm going to have to ask you to leave. You will not be allow back on site unfortunately."
The girl recoiled in horror, she begged, said she had landed a spot at a TV Network in Austrailia and it was her dream job and that she had flown half way around the world for this job and that they wouldn't have any coverage."
The guy just reached out and said, "Thank you I'll take that, come with me," and walked her outside of the barrier.
There are a lot of weird and lame things about this town, but there are a few good things. There are a lot of people who come here with big heads because they were the big fish in the small pond back home. Mark Hammil told me once that the best advice he ever got was, "Don't get cocky kid," from Harrison Ford. It's really easy, when you get here to believe you're the best ever and you're going to make it big, but that's what everyone thinks. The truth is that it takes a whole team of people behind a single person to make it nobody gets there on their own. That's why most celebrities, when you meet them, are usually very kind and polite (Dennis Rodman is an outlier lol).
The cool things are that we take shit from nobody and it doesn't matter how much money you have, you can't buy your way in to this town. But the truth is no journalist is really worth their salt until they've been kicked out of a few high class events and man I could tell you some stories lol.

HoosierPipe, I like your style my friend! I've got a Moretti that looks kinda like that chomper you've got there.
I just looked again and didn't see any unfortunately

JP Berg, you can buy a little tinsel, you can have an event and pay for a celebrity to show up. But if you throw a lot of money around thinking that will get you somewhere, Hollywood will just ignore you.

Cortez thank you for the compliment. I'm really just learning and I'm having issues with audio so thanks for bearing through it. I have an idea of where I would like to get and I'm making small improvements I need better editing software for sure.
Glad to hear that you sent some Sun Bear back in but I doubt that will come to be resold. Someone at the shop will no doubt have a buddy who wants to score a tin. I had been on an oriental kick lately so Sun Bear just found me at the right time and I really like the Virginias.
I'm actually looking forward to checking out some more C&D Oriental lines now.

SS Jones, I really wish the audio wouldn't have cut out when ZZ Top was being interviewed by CNN. That was just the crappy editing software I'm using which casually kicks sound clips out of your video for no reason lol.
In that interview the CNN guy was trying to get them to answer questions and they just wouldn't it was funny. He asked, "So how did the name ZZ Top come about?"
"Yeah, it came about," Dusty replied.
"I'll second that." said Billy
that was pretty much how they answered all of the guy's questions lol.

Anotherbob Exactly, and not just creeps but bad guys. I go to so many big events and concerts I'm thankful for the security measures because it's dangerous times.