Tobacco Vacation Wish

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With so many people doing the winery vacation packages, wouldn't it be cool if there were places that you could book a weekend, where you could walk about the rows of tobacco, fine meals, scenic tobacco barns, aging casks of tobacco, fine dining, and quaint rooms and places to relax with smoking permitted anywhere on the property? I could see small blender/growers, specializing in a fine single leaf Virginia, with a few oriental blends on the side. Something like a McCrannies. Having done a couple of winery vacations, I think it would be a great idea to visit a place where tobacco is grown, packaged, and aged. A place with a bar/coffee shop, and a small pipe and cigar shop, maybe a few hand rolled cigars to expand the interest.
You could wake up and watch the growers top the plants, gather leafs, roll cigars. You could walk into the shop and buy an aged Virginia and a new pipe to relax on the rocking chair on the porch or set in the coffee shop and enjoy a cup. Ride a bike through the trails in the field, a fine meal, and rest in a B&B style room. Taste testing blends, years, and learn about flue-cure verses flake or air cure or natural aged leaf.
Then you could pack up and drive to the next small tobacco farm to experience a different grower/blender.
We've been kicking around the idea of using a few acres of family farm land in the Western NC mountains to do something similar. We could just buy out our allotments and just start farming new crops of Virginias and a few orientals where we used to grow burleys. But, with the frugality of much of this new wave of pipe smokers and the restrictions on new blenders entering the market, it just seems a pipe dream. I know that wine is also strictly regulated, but it may be the limited consumers of pipes and cigars in comparison to wine drinkers that may be the biggest obstacle. But, it's a dream. And, it's a shame that we don't see more small production single leaf blenders entering the market. As of now, we are limited to the few brands that we have and their cased and/or blended Virginias focused more on creating a "consistent" product verses what McCrannies is doing with single crops.
:::Sigh::: Anyways, it would just be nice to see what is happening in beers and wines start to happen to tobaccos. It would be nice to have something closer to the wine market happen to tobaccos, instead of being stuck with so many Boone's farm varieties of choices on the market. Pipe dreams... :puffy:

 
Eh, I have a feeling that pot advocates will have a rude awakening once the FDA gets involved. You already have to register with the Feds and state in Oregon to partake of pot, and I don't know many people who want to get on that list just to get high. Some, sure, but I would think that most pot smokers aren't anxious to get that stamped on their permanent record, ha ha.
I would think that it might be a rocky start to do a tobacco farm package, and it might just bring attention to the benefits of pipes and cigars, as opposed to the evil Big Tobacco cigarette industry. Maybe?

 

pipebaum81

Part of the Furniture Now
Nov 23, 2014
669
235
Pipe dreams...

Exactly! For what it is worth, I would pay money to stay at a tobacco/pipe centric bed-and-breakfast. It's definitely a niche market but I would think there is a huge silent demand.

 

yazamitaz

Lifer
Mar 1, 2013
1,757
1
As a single guy I would LOVE to do this. My wife is ok with me smoking my pipes and cigars but has ZERO interest in sharing any of the experience with me. We were married at Kunde Estate Winery in Sonoma, CA and have done just about every wine excursion CA has to offer over the last 17 years. There is a lot of similarity with those tours Cosmic that I think could definitely work. You paint a great picture of a very relaxing and educational experience.

 
Yaz, I don't let wine or alcohol pass these lips, as it just taste foul to me and makes me feel like I have a stomach flu, but I enjoy the wineries with my girlfriend (who does like wine). and, I met several people at the winery who didn't care anything at all about drinking. You don't think that having an ol' timey farm experience but on a gourmet level would appeal to her? Even if there were other things to keep her interest? Maybe a fine jewelry shop on the premises? ha ha!

 
Cosmic Tobacco might just sound too much like an Oregon thing, ha ha, but that would be great. But, from what I understand these folks like C&D and McClellands aren't very interested in people even touring their facilities, buch less making a weekend of it. And, as it is, they are separate from their growers. They buy at auction from all over the world, so their is a disconnect there. But, hey, maybe there is something to it. I'd love to visit C&D or McClellands. More McClellands than C&D though, for reasons of Virginias anyways... :wink:

 

mustanggt

Part of the Furniture Now
Dec 6, 2012
819
4
Those wine tours are just the thing for wine lovers. My wife would love them. If there was one for tobacco us boys would just be going not the ladies I should think. Unless of course it was some of the gals from here.

 
Good point. Hmm, but there are lots of women that love cigars, maybe less like pipes, but I think the gap of men to women ratio is lessening. This is just what I see at the Briary and some of the other cigar shops anyways. But, that aside, wouldn't your wives like a vacation at a B&M in the Mountains? Maybe cabins? What if it was a few miles off of the Blue Ridge Parkway? I'm just rattling ideas around. I could just keep getting that $200 a year check for not growing tobacco, or I could tell them to cram their check and do something better. I'm just brainstorming.

 

bigpond

Lifer
Oct 14, 2014
2,019
13
Step #1 Buy old plantation home suitable for BnB

Step #2 ???

Step #3 Profit
This is an awesome idea for a small scale BnB. There's a boat load of former plantation homes operating as BnB's and in at least one case the tobacco fields are now camping grounds. There's plenty of room for a smoker's paradise/spa (hello spouses).

 

phred

Lifer
Dec 11, 2012
1,754
4
Interesting idea, for sure. When my wife and I were in New Orleans, we noticed a cigar operation where you could watch the process of hand-rolling a cigar, then buy the cigar (or one just like it) and smoke it in their lounge area. I'm not a cigar guy, so we didn't actually go in at the time.

 

phred

Lifer
Dec 11, 2012
1,754
4
It looked like an interesting spot, but there's just so much to see in NOLA...
Getting back to the B&B idea, it would be interesting to see how indoor smoking regulations affected the business model (if such things exist in your neck of the woods). In all honesty, I always get non-smoking rooms when traveling (not a fan of smoke once it's gone stale), and restrict my own smoking to designated areas and/or lounges. Personally, I find the idea intriguing, and the educational aspects are definitely a plus... But it's definitely something that I'd wind up doing myself or else finding something different for my wife to do. :D

 
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