Category Archives: Pipe Tobacco Reviews

Goodbye, summer—hello autumn.  An interesting theory is summertime is only wildly and emphatically celebrated for one reason:  for a long time, many schooling and education models were designed to both leave room for learning and then agriculture, so families could rely on help from their children during harvest season.  When agriculture productivity changed, the several […]

There are few things nicer than experiencing the satisfactory hiss of a tin of pipe tobacco that’s been waiting for you to pop it open for a decade.  The smell that comes off the tobacco the second normal atmosphere hits it is as good as opening an oven door to a loaf of freshly baked […]

Hot, hot, hot.  The American West started summer with a hellish vengeance before summer even officially began. It’s made doing everything difficult.  Places like the Northwestern states were seeing temperatures in some places that rivaled that of Phoenix, AZ—except they actually had humidity.  Sagebrush Country where I call home wasn’t as bad off, we’re used […]

The year is nearly half over, and what a year it’s been so far.  There’s lots of talk of life “getting back to normal,” yet even with the mechanics of things daily happening more regularly and predictably,  “normal” is hardly a word I’d use, personally.  What most people were hoping for over the last year […]

There’s a strange phenomenon happening around the world:  people are starting to come out of their post-pandemic stupors and panics and…gathering again.  This might serve as a cause for celebrations, but for those of us slightly less inclined to be social, the palpable excitement can be a little overwhelming.  What is rather nice to see […]

One quarter of the year 2021 is gone already.  It’s as if each upcoming moment turns to the one before it and says, “Hey dude, hold my beer.”  For example, this review nearly didn’t make it—I had a catastrophic hard drive failure.  Of course I didn’t back up, apparently I’m an idiot who likes living […]

It surprises a few people when they learn I write my reviews in a small, outdoor space barely big enough to fit two folding chairs, attached to an expensive apartment not much bigger.  My pipe tobacco “cellar” is a well-protected, medium-sized chicken yakitori box from my sous days.  Maybe some believe a “pipe guy” is […]

Not too long ago, Brian Levine and I chatted on his radio show about brick-and-mortar tobacco stores, tobacconists and how special (and arguably essential) they are. As is known, I worked for a few years behind the counter of a local Tinder Box, which is now closed. There is a silver lining, and that is […]

If current events have shown anything about humanity, it’s about our attitude. Sometimes it’s admirable and resilient other times it’s cringey and embarrassing. My attitude has struggled through simple activities like mustering the motivation to take out the trash, and so choosing a tobacco that I’ve had problems within the past would either prove a […]

I feel like a cliché and cartoonish version of Paul Revere going into the end part of this year, “The Holidays are coming!  The Holidays are coming!” as if there is some impending doom about to arrive.  This is normal for me:  I’m not a “holidays” guy.  I never have been and I never will […]