Missouri Meerschaum Country Gentleman
-
Kevin Godbee - Nov 6, 2018
- 4 min read
Kyle Weiss
I’m finally getting around to trying some tobacco I’ve wanted to try for a while now, from a company for which I have always had a fondness. I remember buying my first cob pipe about seven years ago. I was told it was cheap, disposable and in not many more words that the pipe was uncool. It didn’t have a white spot, perfect grain, and wasn’t made of actual meerschaum—it was Missouri Meerschaum.
Almost immediately the charm of the low-brow idea of this hokey pipe grew. I fielded questions like, "Is that a real corn cob pops?" To which off course I had plenty of snarky retorts, like, no, I couldn’t afford the real thing, it’s made of paper. To this day I still have my first Washington model cob, named after the small Missouri town from which so much cob pipe history hails. I have at least a dozen and a half more, because to this day they charm me and perform admirably.
What I needed to do was try Missouri Meerschaum’s tobaccos, blended by Russ Ouellette. In the past I’ve had hit and miss experiences with Russ’ efforts, which I can squarely blame my tongue and not him. Never one to generalize, my sense of adventure piqued when I read about MM’s Country Gentleman tobacco. A cob pipe shape with the same namesake, Country Gentleman tobacco is described clearly on the simple folding pouch:
"Flue-cured leaf with a bit of dark-fired and Perique; smooth and unflavored."
There’s nothing fancy about any of it, and that’s fine with me—smoking quality is not something that can be hidden by packaging and marketing. The smell in the pouch is of carob and apricot. It smells sweet, just barely, but not offensively. The tawny and wrinkled ribbons are packed pretty good in the pouch, so if roughed-up too much you may have a tough time getting it closed. To be honest, I’d ditch the pouch Country Gentleman comes in and put it all in a mason jar with a good lid.
Loading a pipeful is straightforward, but there’s a resistant spring of the tobacco which seems to come from heartier leaves. If you use the provided pouch packaging, your tobacco might be a tad dry, which means lighting is a cinch. The first light gives a wonderful nutty and molasses blast, but soon subsides to a leathery and spicy smoke. It’s right at the point where I like my Perique, especially if it is mixed with Kentucky or other dark-fired components. It isn’t a sweet tobacco, and it isn’t flavored. The "seasoning" sweetener all pipe tobacco has (whether you like it or not!) is here just as it should be: a little pinch in the mix to bring out character, not create an aromatic.
Midway through the bowl the tobacco really mellows out. The Perique achieves almost a red pepper quality warming the mouth rather than nibbling at the soft parts. There’s
an oaken, barrel-aged quality to the smoke here, and boy does it make for a good match to morning coffee. It’s at this point the nicotine, a bit slow in the uptake at first, starts to kick in. I do like a good nicotine punch, and while Country Gentleman doesn’t give me the sweats and the shakes,
it gives a nice heavy-in-the-chair feeling. Smoke this tobacco and drink a neat
dram of whiskey. Nothing fancy, a bourbon, a rye, or if you’re desperate—Canadian. You’ll thank me later.
The parting dregs of the bowl when the smoldering is nearly over is pleasant. Back comes the Perique to say hello, a wood and tannin dryness come about and just like that—it’s over. I think subsequent bowls of Country Gentleman never needed more than a single re-light, and for those who like to forget about their smoking so they can task freely, this is a bonus.
I liked this tobacco. I wasn’t sure it was going to be for me, but with some pretty bold character, a nice price point, great performance (especially in the cobs for which it is intended), my only criticism is the packaging. This isn’t the kind of tobacco you’re likely to cellar and wait a decade for the gifts of aging, but having tobacco fall everywhere and possibly dry out too much could be a hassle. If someone is so inclined, jar it up and let it age—see what happens. Why not?
A lack of pretense and posh image is partly why I fell for Missouri Meerschaum’s humble pipes and I’m glad there’s an equal tobacco to match that spirit. I can put aside my snobbish, quasi-educated leanings and let my simple breeding out for some fresh perspective, which I enjoy. The history, location and truly American background Missouri Meerschaum boasts is well-deserved. Sure, it all seems quaint, but don’t underestimate a product that’s been around in the same capacity and quality longer than most. Since almost anyone can enter into pipe smoking and collecting at the cob level, I’d suggest giving their tobaccos a try as well.
Written by Kevin Godbee
6 Responses
Smokingpipes.com Updates
13 Fresh L'Anatra Pipes |
108 Fresh Peterson Pipes |
3 Fresh Yeti Pipes |
18 Fresh Tsuge Pipes |
18 Fresh AKB Meerschaum Pipes |
Recent Posts
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 641. Our featured interview tonight is with Jeremy Reeves. Jeremy is the Head Blender at Cornell & Diehl and is featured in our recurring series, “Ask the Tobacco Blender”. However, tonight he will be the interviewee as we learn about how he became a pipe smoker and collector, when he got his first pipe and how he progressed from there. At the top of the show, Brian will have a review of the rare German tobacco blend, Tumblin’ Dice.
I remember the first time I heard someone else say it. “How many pipes do I need? Just one more.” It’s glib, sure, a bit of a joke, but it also rings a bell of truth, at least to me. I certainly have “enough” pipes, but pipes are seductive little things. Just when we think we’re all set, we have enough, another will come along that tempts us beyond any sense of reason. I suppose it’s the same way with any sort of collecting. There’s always another white whale we’re in pursuit of. When we finally track that one down, though, another will almost inevitably breach the surface, taking its place as the new object of our desire, enticing us to change course and set sail once again. But, there’s a potential problem with having a lot of pipes. Maybe. The more pipes we may have, the harder it can be to keep them in rotation. It makes sense. We tend to gravitate towards our current faves, the ones that most appeal to us for whatever reason, and sometimes, maybe they stay in rotation longer than they really should. The side-effect of this, of course, is that another favored pipe might end up too-long forgotten. That’s exactly what happened recently. Exhibit A: The Castello pictured is one that has been long overlooked. It’s a Trademark shape #55. It’s a really nice example of the shape. The red pearlized stem is beautifully done. The wood isn’t really anything special to look at, but it’s evenly covered, without any bald spots. When I look at it, I wonder why it wasn’t done in the more typical dark ruby-red finish that adorns most Trademarks. I’ve seen a great deal of variation amongst the grade over the years, including one really nice bent-bulldog that left the factory with a brown sandblasted finish. (For those who don’t know, Trademark has long been the lowest Castello smooth grade, usually finished in a dark red.) Was this a stamping/grading error, or is there just more leeway in the grade than we’ve come to expect? I might never know. This example is from the early 1970s, maybe even the late 1960s, identified by the upper case Ks in the grade designation. (On Sea Rock and Old Antiquari pipes, the Ks reflect the size, while with the smooth finishes, Trademark, Castello and Collection, the Ks represent the relative grade.) It has been living in a different rack than the one housing the majority of my #55s. I don’t recall why I put it there, but as many of us can relate to, rack space is often at a premium. I stumbled upon it while looking for something completely different. “Oh, you? Why are you there? I remember you smoke pretty well.” Yeah, I sometimes talk to my pipes – one of many quirks, I suppose. I won’t begin to worry until they start talking back. I grabbed it from the rack, dusted it off, and decided to give it a fill with a bowl of a slightly aged VA/perique blend, Telegraph Hill, from 2018. What a delightful smoke! At five years, the tobacco is expressing a lot of the complexities of aged Virginias and the perique adds a delightful fruitiness. When young, the composition is a bit brighter, maybe a little spicier, but time has polished any edges, and amplified the sweeter notes. Like the pipe, I’d forgotten about this blend for quite a while, but one evening in March, after chatting with my good friend Nate, who is quite a fan of it, I decided it might be time to revisit it. I got a couple of fresh ones, and excavated a couple older tins from the library. I normally reach for Fillmore when I want a VA/perique thing because of its boldness and depth, but in revisiting this one, I’m finding something soothing and comfortable about it that I’ve really been enjoying, both young and aged. Sticking with the theme of the forgotten, and as a perhaps interesting tidbit to the photographically inclined, I shot the pictures for this month’s column with my old Nikkor-O 35mm/2.0 mounted on my trusty Nikon Df. The last time I used this lens, it was adapted to one of my Fujifilm bodies, and I didn’t care much for the results, so I put it away and pretty much forgot about it. But, I’ve recently been exploring some of my old kit, deciding what to keep, what to pass along, and this one once again came to my attention, kind of like that old Castello. On the Df, there’s something about its vintage rendering that I find truly appealing. Another forgotten treasure, and just like with that old pipe, it seems that, at least today, everything old is new again. If your collection is on the large side, are there pipes or tobaccos that you’ve all but forgotten, only to come back to them one day to find yourself wondering why? Maybe it’s just another fun dimension to this endlessly fascinating journey.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 640. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Ben Rapaport. Ben has been known internationally as an avid pipe smoker, antique pipe collector, and book author. His first book on pipes was published in 1972, and his latest book – his 10th – is out now in very limited quantities. The distribution has already sold out, but you can still get a copy of “The Wide World of Wood Tobacco Pipes. Two Centuries of Craftsmanship and Creativity” by contacting him directly at ben70gray@gmail.com. At the top of the show we’ll be turning the tables on our recurring Ask the Pipemaker segment. This time, Jeff Gracik will ask the questions, which Brian will answer as a pipe collector, and you can give your answers too.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 639. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Per Billhäll. Per is the owner of Scandinavian Pipes, which is an online retailer of high grade pipes. He started smoking pipes in the 1960s. His first high grade pipe was made by Hans “Former” Nielsen, who is one of the living legends from Denmark. That led to Per becoming a huge pipe and tobacco collector, and show attendee where he became well known. Along with pipe book author Jan Andersson, they started The Pipe Club of Sweden in 1991. Then in 1999, Per started “Scan Pipes”. He is now one of the pipe retailing legends from Sweden. At the top of the show Brian will talk about holiday blends, and other special pipe tobacco blends.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 638. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Fae “The Sassy Pipe Lady” Simmons. Fae is the owner of Tobacco Treasures, which sells new, vintage, & estate pipes, and smoking accessories on Etsy. She has been in business since 2017, and has been surrounded by pipes and tobacco most of her life. Her father and his brother smoked pipes, and so does Fae. Her husband is also a retired tobacconist that worked all over the industry from coast to coast for several different companies in the industry. She has a great story of how her business got started with a great inventory of unsmoked vintage pipes. At the top of the show we will have an Ask the Tobacco Blender segment with Jeremy Reeves. Jeremy is the Head Blender at Cornell & Diehl, which is one of the most popular boutique pipe tobacco companies in the USA.
Ok, so it’s that time of year, as we all know. Family feasts, houses, yards, and big trees festooned with lights and dangling ornaments, just high enough to keep the cats from reaching a paw into the greenery. It’s also the time of year when your pipe-smoking-significant other makes vast hints about a new pipe. That’s to be expected since he or she was a good boy or girl during the year. Yes, ladies smoke pipes, too. Oh, you want an example? Okay, try Actress Greta Garbo, Millicent Fenwick, Mary Frith, and my late grandmother (who died when she was 93) dipped snuff and smoked a cob occasionally. So now that we have settled that the gentler side of life will puff a pipe too, let’s move on to the upcoming biggest holiday of all. Of course, that huge event is brought to us by the hefty fellow in a red suit, puffing his pipe all the way in a sled filled with presents, being led by a reindeer with a red nose. Or some such. That’s Santa Claus, of course. Becoming a bit more serious, Christmas is such a wonderful time for families and friends. It’s also quite special for pipe puffers. For many of us, this brings up a nostalgic look back to our pipe-smoking or cigar-smoking friends who have died during the current year. A great journalist pal whom I often joined in a local brick-and-mortar pipe and cigar shop. I puffed my pipe, and occasional cigar, as he enjoyed a cigar. He died in October and will be missed. On the happier side of things, Christmas is also a time when mind workers of the world renew their collections with fresh additions. Pundit included. A French passion has overtaken Pundit, from reading more Albert Camus, a heavy cigarette smoker, as were many French intellectuals of a certain time. Instead of cigarettes many of us prefer the more relaxed enjoyment of pipes for that “calm and objective judgment” in the comings and goings of the world. This brings me to French pipes. While visiting France once in the long ago, I happened by a “Tabac” shop in Paris, Tabac Des Vosges. I purchased a beauty of a Chacom bent. I also later bought a Ropp made from ancient briar. To learn more about the dawn of briar pipes and beginnings, take a peek at a well-done piece by Davin Hylton in Pipe Line on April 12, 2023, on Saint-Claude, France, the birthplace of briar. Also in the long back when, on a cold Christmas afternoon, Pundit wandered into an Atlanta bricks and mortar pipe shop to look around. There, resting in an enclosed glass counter was an exquisite Comoy. An older gent, smoking a beautiful bent, asked me if I wanted to look at that pipe. It had a $100 price tag. A college student working for a grocery store chain to help with college tuition at the time, Pundit didn’t have one hundred cents, let alone a C note! I declined and found a $5 basket pipe. A Christmas tradition had just begun. Since that early time, Pundit has made it a holiday ritual to either reward himself, or a special friend, with pipe or tobacco. A Claudio Cavicchi would be nice. Just sayin.’ And now for a couple of December-born Pipe Smokers of the Past: Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born on Dec. 30, 1865, and died on Jan. 18, 1936. I always prefer to believe the best of everybody; it saves so much trouble—Rudyard Kipling. Martin Van Buren, born Dec. 5, 1782, and died July 24, 1862, U.S. President, 1837-1841 As to the presidency, the two happiest days of my life were those of my entrance upon the office and my surrender of it—Martin Van Buren. And one more note to recall a deceased World War II veteran who loved William Somerset Maugham, the author. Maugham, a pipe smoker, was born in Paris, France, on Jan. 25, 1874, and died on Dec. 16, 1965. One cool afternoon as the veteran and I talked while sitting in his backyard patio, he looked off into the distance as if studying something. Nothing in particular. Just looking. He turned to me and said if I wanted to learn about life, “read Somerset Maugham.” I did. It wasn’t until late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say, ‘I don’t know’ –W. Somerset Maugham And now a Parting Shot: Any day with an old friend with pipes and tobacco is a good day.
Great review, can’t wait to order some, sit on the porch and watch these beautiful Nevada fall sunsets
What lighter is that?
Russ understands many genres of blends, and his Americana blends are right up there with the best. He has a natural understanding of how leaf works together to give a relaxed but superb smoke.
This tobacco is one of my favorites, and your review is spot-on. But you don’t have to use a cob to channel your “inner rustic” — this blend just fine in any pipe; and like you said, with morning coffee it’s “to die for”. Great review and pix.
In general,I tend to like this type of mixture.So,after reading Mr. Weiss’s entry,I ordered four pouches.I tried it for first time last night.Great flavor! So……….I ordered eight more pouches.With some aging,this will be stellar.I recommend this to someone wanting to ease into the realm of Perique mixtures,as it doesn’t knock your socks off right away.
Thanks, guys.
I can’t stress it enough—whether short- or long-term, properly jar this stuff. The smoking and aging gods will reward you.