The Pipes Magazine Radio Show – Episode 160
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- The Pipes Magazine Radio Show – Episode 160
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Kevin Godbee
- Oct 6, 2015
- 1 min read
Kevin GodbeeThank you for joining us for The Pipes Magazine Radio Show—the only radio talk show for pipe smokers and collectors. We broadcast weekly, every Tuesday at 8 pm eastern USA time and are available on nearly all podcast sites and apps. Listen on your computer, tablet, phone and even in the car! Our Featured Interview tonight is with Matt Guss. Matt is the president and one of the founding members of The Seattle Pipe Club. They are one of the largest and most successful pipe clubs in the USA, and they also have quite popular boutique pipe tobacco blends. In "Pipe Parts", Brian will recap his trip to Jackson MS to see Country Squire Tobacconist and The New Orleans Pipe Show. Sit back, relax with your pipe, and enjoy The Pipes Magazine Radio Show!
Tonight’s show is sponsored by Sutliff-Tobacco.com, CupOJoes.com, SmokingPipes.com, Missouri Meerschaum, 4noggins.com, Cornell & Diehl, and Savinelli Pipes and Tobaccos, and MarketingPipes.com. Please give them some consideration when making your next pipe or tobacco purchase.
We hope you enjoy our 1-hour show produced just for you—the pipe smoker and collector. The following link will launch a pop-up player. Alternatively, you can download the show in iTunes and other podcast sites and apps after the initial broadcast is complete here.
(Left to Right) Sam Guss, Matt Guss, & Henry Guss at the Seattle Pipe Club Annual Dinner
Seattle Pipe Club Website
Seattle Pipe Club Tobaccos
Written by Kevin Godbee
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We’re in the dog days of summer, and in the heat and humidity I find my palate tends to become as erratic as the extreme weather. To be more precise, my entire biochemistry is busily making the continual adjustments that keep this finely-tuned machine old jalopy of a body in top form hobbling along, and my taste buds are a good indicator that the system is preoccupied with regulating itself. Therefore it’s no surprise that McCranie’s Roanoke, the tobacco that I’d been favoring since the winter months and regularly returning to between other review blends, just wasn’t hitting the spot anymore. We live in fortunate times that present no shortage of novel and interesting blends to try, so some speculation toward new flavors is in order. This month’s spotlight will thus fall on a couple of summer sequels, of a sort: first, the latest installment of Per Jensen’s Pipe Force line, Episode II to be exact; second, a new incarnation of Seattle Pipe Club’s Hogshead, this time with a bourbon barrel-aged twist. Much like The Empire Strikes Back improved on the previous film in that series, Episode II is a generational improvement on the English profile offered in Episode I. To my personal taste, while I enjoyed Episode I quite a bit, it didn’t have a definable hook for me; this iteration of a similar ingredient list hits much closer to the mark. Here again it is a Latakia-forward mixture presented with Katerini concoctions and stoved tobaccos, but with more variety and, for my money, more interest. From the tin: A mellow, sweet mixture of Bright, Red, and Stoved Virginia offers the exceptional base for smokey Latakia, floral Kentucky, spice of Stoved Katerini and the ambrosial berry and spice of Katerini Perique. The result is a harmony of flavor in perfect balance. The bouquet in the tin is tart, heathery, and leathery, in equal proportion. The aroma is dry and smoky with clear clay overtones and, as advertised, faint berry notes from the tin. In the bowl the sweetness sneaks in immediately, displaying a wonderful synergy between the Katerini Perique (Periquini? Katerique?) and the Virginias, offering a flavor unique and quite apart from the usual raisiny range commonly found in Virginia / Perique meldings. Conversely, the Latakia’s smoky, burning-rubber character is also influenced by the Katerini, directing it toward a very pinyon-esque range of aroma that lingers distinctly the room note afterward. Speaking of room note, it can become rather tart after repeated bowls—advise any expected visitors that no, there isn’t a diesel fire in your house, you’re just savoring your time with a new blend. It’s offered as a tight 50g crumble cake, easily broken apart for preparation. As if it needed any more curb appeal, every 10th tin of the series includes a challenge coin featuring the tin’s artwork inside, and this was a lucky tin. It’s a great way to have fun with the series, makes a great addition to the random tchotchkes adorning one’s desk, and serves as a very tactile fidget toy that doubles as a brand reminder—is it time to stock up again? In my testing it seemed at its best in a wider, shallower bowl; the ember was easier to tend, breath pacing allowed a fuller flavor, and it didn’t veer too strongly to the tarry tones that Lat can have. Of the flavors there were many—often varying from bowl to bowl, and very dependent on accompanying beverage or previous meal, it seems. It’s an unfocused blend, but not to its detriment in this regard; it had a very consistent overall tone, with each bowl eliciting some new and interesting flavor moments—my notes are all over the spectrum, with observations like popcorn, maple bacon, charred cardboard, the aforementioned diesel fumes, burnt beef ends, dried silage, musky oak, swamp water (peaty!), and dried vodka. Appreciably, those who enjoy Latakia will read all these descriptors and understand that none of them are negative. It was so fun to keep chasing these disparate flavors that I did incur some mouth fatigue, just this side of bite, after rapidly repeated bowls. Slow smoking and pacing are advised, as the nicotine was mild enough to not discourage such practice. Overall, Episode II is a blend with so many interesting things going on that it warrants another taste after it has some age on it. My hope is that with some time in the tin, the Latakia notes will tone down on the dryness and the Viriginia / Katerique sweetness will amplify, with all the other cacophonous notes finding their home in the in-between spaces comfortably. Per’s experiments with these new treatments of old leaf are yielding remarkable results, and I look forward to seeing them in more blends in the future, and indeed more innovation of this sort in the tobacco world in general. Tasting something so similar, yet so slightly different, from what’s been available before is what this market needs. Seattle Pipe Club Hogshead: Bourbon Barrel Aged Review Our second summer blockbuster is SPC’s Hogshead: Bourbon Barrel Aged. Somewhat akin to that other summer blockbuster, Deadpool & Wolverine, this one is a cut above its predecessor. Thank you ladies and gentlemen, I’ll be here all week, tip your waitress… Vintage Virginia tobacco cultivated from around the world aged in a bourbon barrel for 30 days. The tobacco is then pressed and cut for a unique and one of a kind smoking experience. Well at least they didn’t prattle on with the ad copy and let the blend speak for itself. Veering a hard left from the boisterous melange of the Pipe Force, this iteration of Hogshead is a dead simple straight Virginia blend of the same 10-year-old red & orange used in the prior, this time presented in thickly-sliced pressed flakes, aged in bourbon barrels. Deceptively simple, that is—the flavors of this blend are robust and varied, punching above their weight class for being confined to the comparatively narrow range of “just Virginia”. The first […]
This is going to be one of those friendly chats between friends. That’s you and me, pipe smokers of the realm. As I have mentioned before in praising pipe puffers: we are the mind workers of the world! “Friends” is the word of the day. One of my besties is my pipe. I take it everywhere. On a visit to Rowan Oak, way back there, the beautiful country home of legendary author William Faulkner, I was stunned almost silly walking through the rooms where the Nobel Laureate author lived and wrote of his extensive southern view. I have described this adventurous trip to Oxford, Mississippi, before. A well-smoked pipe was stuffed inside a tweed coat pocket with his favorite blend of the day. The tobacco was dried inside the bowl almost to the consistency of dust. The coat was draped over a wooden peg in a hallway as if awaiting Faulkner’s return. That scene inspired Pundit to emulate one of his favorite authors, beginning a habit that continues: pipes go with me everywhere, in coat pockets, bags, satchels, etc. Pipes are especially important in my outdoor jaunts when the sun also rises. Mr. Hemingway was an occasional pipe smoker, great angler, and outdoorsman, in addition to being rather good at penning stories. Recently reading about environmental concerns, which involve us pipe smokers since our beloved hobby is earth-bound in agriculture and nature, I encountered a beautiful line by writer, Krista Langlois, in Sierra, the magazine of The Sierra Club. She authored a story about sitting off in the distance and observing the Sleeping Ute Mountains near Cortez, Colo. The mountain, she says, is sacred and managed by the Ute Mountain Tribe. She longed to hike the mountain but had to settle for taking in the view, just as we must do as well when following the sun and just stopping long enough to light a pipe and take in the natural beauty. “But as a mountain, I will forever look at and never touch, it becomes something else entirely: a physical reminder of all I can never understand or conquer, and all I can learn by sitting still,” she wrote. Isn’t this what our pipes are for? To help us understand and perhaps conquer all we can by just being still and observing. Puffing our pipes and seeing a full moon in August. It’s known as the Sturgeon Moon, a time when Native Americans knew freshwater fish was abundant in nearby waters. Or, like the great Yogi Berra, the New York Yankees baseball philosopher/manager (who loved his cigars) once said, “You can observe a lot by watching.” And, just guessing, but that might have been time after a large sturgeon catch to pull out the pipe and smoke some of that native tobacco Native American tribes fostered. Not to belabor this point too much, but in California where sequoia trees are sacred to tribes, a certain rare tobacco plant is a coveted reward found near the giant trees. It is said tribes will trade buckets of fish for a small bag of the rare tobacco. A note now about an upcoming pipe show I know is already on many a calendar, if not hotel rooms already rented. The Conclave of Richmond Pipe Smokers hosts its 40th anniversary Expo Sept. 13-15. This year’s event coincides with the legendary Sutliff Tobacco Company’s 175 anniversary. It will be staged at the Keystone Truck and Tractor Museum in Colonial Heights, Virginia. You can check out all the details at PipesMagazine, which has already noted the CORPS Expo, at CORPS and Sutliff. One of my fondest memories is going to the historic City of Richmond event and seeing not only zillions of pipes on display but also people who love pipes and love talking about them. I listened to CORPS’s founding member Linwood Hines during that trek and knew I had found kindred souls. For a terrific story on Linwood Hines, you need to read Chuck Stanion’s piece in The Daily Reader at SmokingPipes.com. Not only is this a superb story on a legend in Pipedom but also you might learn a thing or three about some nifty tobacco blends from Linwood. Ok, on to Pipe Smokers of the Past. Some large names from the movie and theater world; literature; and the man who gave us the telephone. Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, born Aug. 13, 1899, died April 29, 1980. Gwyllyn Samuel Newton “Glenn” Ford, a Canadian American actor, born May 1, 1916, died Aug. 30, 2006. Henry Jaynes Fonda, born May 16, 1905, died Aug. 12, 1982. Bennett Alfred Cerf, born May 25, 1898, died Aug. 27, 1971. Alexander Graham Bell, born March 3, 1847, died Aug. 2, 1922. Alfred Tennyson, born Aug. 6, 1809, died Oct. 6, 1892. If you saw the Hitchcock movie “The Birds,” you know what a “murder” of crows can do to your nerves. The master of scary suspense, Hitchcock is reported to have enjoyed Dunhill pipes and tobaccos, along with his love of cigars. With that said, I’ll take my backyard birds with a nerve-settling pipe. And I can’t depart without a quote from artist and pipe smoker Vincent van Gogh. He wrote in an 1875 letter to his brother, Theo, describing his pipe as an “old, trusty friend, and I imagine we’ll never part again.” Amen, brother.
HI Brian,
Sounds like you had a great time in New Orleans.
Of course I know Matt Guss, and his brothers. They can usually be found at the Chicago Show. The Seattle pipe club is known for its special tobacco blends, which I believe, have had commercial success. Pipe clubs and pipe shows do have the effect of enabling one to form great friendships. I am amazed at the number of people that show up for a club meeting. Although we (Washington County, PA Club) has been going since the late 1990s, our largest attendance was about a dozen people. Great interview.
Music – G. Gershwin is always good.
Mail – Brian, ask yourself a question, If Mickey Mouse smoked a pipe (and I think he did in Steamboat Willie), would he be at the adult table or the kids table? Where would Popeye be? By the way, where would a VA or a VAPER smoker sit?
Rave – PBS Walt Disney documentary showing Walt Disney smoking a pipe was reality, not the glossed over Hollywood version. Documentaries should show the reality as it was.
Great Show.
Hi Brian!
Your conversation with Matt Guss was a lot of fun. He is among the legendary pipe club leaders around the country. His story of the development of the Seattle Pipe Club is primer for those who want to build a successful local fellowship of pipemen.
Mami Nixon? You, of course, mean MARNI Nixon, the “secret” dubbed voice of many movie stars. She sang for Natalie Wood in “West Side Story,” Deborah Kerr in “The King and I,” Audrey Hepburn in “My Fair Lady,” and sang in many other films, including “A Dream is a Wish” in Disney’s “Cinderella.”
By the way, that’s probably my favorite Gershwin song.
And, I too, greatly enjoyed the Disney documentary.
A lovely show Brian, thanks.
Dino
Great podcast as usual. It was good meeting and talking to you at the NOLA Pipe Show.
I have since placed my order for Molto Dolce.
I enjoyed the report on the NOLA pipe show. The folks there were dealt some curve balls and handled them very well. Sounds like the new venue met with everyone’s approval.
The Matt Guss interview was very interesting. He is a leading figure in the hobby. When starting and running a pipe club the most important thing is leadership. Ours is a hobby in which most people simply do not want to lead. As a group they are very content to sit around, smoke their pipes and offer their wisdom to all within earshot. Actually getting off their duffs and doing something; not so much. This is what the Seattle Club has going for them: Great Leadership.
He is right that for a club to get people to come to their meetings you need to offer some kind of program to motivate them to attend. The topics don’t always have to be about pipes and tobacco. Within your own club you will have a number of people who have interesting jobs or hobbies that can make great programs.
The Gershwin was good and the singing was excellent. Marni Nixon is practically an unknown musical legend. Very few people know who she is but everybody is familiar with her body of work.
The Disney documentary was very good and quite entertaining. I remember watching the Disney Show in the 50’s and 60’s and thinking that Walt Disney was the greatest man in the world. Of course, as you get older you learn that everyone has warts. PBS deserves kudos for doing this historically accurate show. PBS is generally good about doing things like this. The BBC also has a good track record.
Ah, the poor, much-maligned Aro smoker is always feeling persecuted. They are the breakfast equivalent of people who eat Fruit Loops or Cap’n Crunch while the adults are eating corn flakes or Wheaties. No, just kidding, some of my best friends are Aro smokers. The dividing line between an Aro and a non-Aro can be vanishingly thin at times. The key thing is we all smoke pipes and should be doing what we can to promote the hobby.
Thank you Brian for the opportunity to be on your show! I was honored to chat with you. I was a bit nervous about doing the interview but much to my surprise I enjoyed myself very much. You made it fun and easy. The Seattle Pipe Club is near & dear to my heart and I feel blessed to be a part of it. The fact that our members enjoy it is just icing on the cake. We have been humbled at how successful our Seattle Pipe Club blends have become. We adore them and are so pleased that other pipe smokers enjoy them too. Joe Lankford is a club treasure and to my mind, the very best tobacco blender in the country. He’d be embarrassed by my comment but we love him and know it’s true.
Thanks again!