IPCPR 2016 Part 2 – The Explosion of New Products
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James Foster - Jul 30, 2016
- 18 min read
James Foster
Why would I have expected to have very little new pipe news this year? In a totally unexpected fashion my 2 and a half days on the IPCPR trade show were jam packed with meeting pipe people and in a blur of activity from every tobacco manufacturer trying to get their new products out the door before the August 8th FDA deadline. You can catch part 1 where I covered the highlights of my first day full of government regulations here.
This article I’ll highlight the information at each stop along my circuit 2 1/2 days. Strap yourself in as there is a ton of information and pictures and in some cases it will seem a bit like rapid fire so excuse the brevity.
McClelland
First stop for me was McClelland as I chatted with Mike and Mary McNeil and they answered one of the most asked questions that everyone has on their minds: Will Christmas Cheer be around this year… and next? Yes, in fact they are releasing 2017 right now too since they already have the leaf.
Additionally they are releasing Holiday Spirit 2016 and 2017 and their new anniversary blend.
The Christmas Cheer 2016 has a selection of ripe red flue-cured Virginia from a 2010 Middle-Belt crop down near Durham, NC. The 2017 features deep red, flue-cured Virginia from an excellent 2013 crop grown near New Hope, NC.
A little digging about the history of the Anniversary Blend and it was originally released in 2002 to commemorate 25 years of quality tobacco manufacturing, a total of 3000 tins were issued wrapped in commemorative paper with a red wax seal. A second release, had a green wax seal and an updated date span on the paper wrapping (1977-2005), was released in 2005. A third release, had a brown natural wax seal and updated date span (1977-2010), was released in 2010. Now a 4th for 2017 celebrating 40 years will feature a blue seal! They didn’t have the tin art yet.
Now as to will we see 2018 blends of these? We really don’t know at this point.
Briarworks
Next stop was Pete and Todd with Briarworks International. They also brought with them a comfortable couch that served as a great place to kick up your feet after standing up for 12 hours straight. While Briarworks did not have anything you have not already seen yet, we did talk a bit about the company and the direction.
As you may or may not have noticed you’re not seeing as much of the Neptune and Icarus in retail. They’ve consolidated the two brands and put them on the back burner. For the forseeable future they are concentrating on the classic lines and Briarworks signature. They built the brands Neptune and Icarus thinking that everyone would recognize and identify with those – but really Briarworks is the brand that everyone identifies with and less so when it comes to Neptune and Icarus. For they classic line they’ve increased the number of shapes available and added some additional embellishment colors, better quality and more custom fit mouth piece – retail 90-130 bucks. They are also doing some large scale private label manufacturing.
And if you haven’t checked out the Briarworks website lately, they’ve fully updated it and launched direct to consumer website and added a web-store.
On the tobacco front they’ve added – which you’ve heard about – Peach Cobbler, Sweet Tea, and Country Lawyer. The Peach Cobbler, as Todd says, “You get the ‘bready,’ pastry that you don’t get in other peach blends.”
Country Lawyer surprisingly doesn’t have latakia. They actually started with latakia in the blending when they were working on it and it just didn’t have the right flavor profile they wanted. Some people come to expect cigar leaf blends to have a bit of latika. Once they pulled it, and tweaked it more, they found a pefect balance and released it.
Daughters and Ryan
Daughters and Ryan is pulling tobacco from the warehouse that Mark Ryan has been sitting on for years and releasing with the uneasiness of the FDA regulations. First up is some Yenidge tobacco which smells really good with the classic oriental tobacco scent and then a faint hint lemon grass.
Next is his Acadian Virginia, they process the Virginia the same way they do regular perique. The first thing you will notice is that it’s not as dark as regular perique its much lighter brown. You may have heard Mark talk about how they tried this in Brazil and it didn’t do very good. Russ Oulette had asked Mark to try it anyway with some of his higher quality leaves that he’s known for picking up and the results speak for themselves, it turned out perfect.
The fermented juice in the barrels is a dark honey color as opposed to the blackness of regular perique. The Virginia used for this came from a co-op farmer in Canada and as Mark tells the story it’s the best crop of Virginia he’s ever had. When you pop a tin and smell this, you’ll understand.
Drew Estate Tusge
When I walked up to the Drew Estate booth to chat with Grant Batson, the first thing I noticed was two men dressed in traditional Japanese garb. One was actively making a Kiseru pipe. The Japanese have been making Kiseru pipes for over 400 years. They are made with bamboo, brass, copper, gold, silver and priced accordingly. The bowl is very small – its like the middle eastern dokha- and the tobacco used, kizami is a finely shredded tobacco that similarly, is very high in nicotine.
The prices range from $25 to $1200 and they are trying to break into the US market. So far many people are enjoying the pipes but the catch with them is getting the specific Kizami tobacco in the US. Tsuge has not been able to import it yet. Grant says in the mean time, just use some of Daughters and Ryan shag tobacco and it works ok.
Another product that just hit is the brand new tradesmen pipe at a $79.99 price point. It has the Drew Estate/Tsuge feel too it, but it is still traditional tobacco pipe. These are exclusive to Pipes and Cigars currently and because of this Grant didn’t bring any to IPCPR for me to snap a picture of.
Hekthor Wiebe- Radiator Pipe –
Stopping next at Hekthor Wiebe’s booth: we chatted about how his pipes came about and the differences of his Radiator pipe. The idea for the pipe came about when he lived in Winnipeg, Canada – when his son had health issues (many people followed his story on social media with his son and a transplant.) His prototype for the first pipe was completed in a Ronald McDonald house out in Edmonton, Canada – with his sleepless nights worrying about his son.
Hekthor says most people ask him about the pipe cleaner test, and yes, you can run a pipe through it but you don’t have to; just run it under the tap water. The metal of course doesn’t ghost so you can use another bowl and dedicate different bowls to tobaccos. New this year is the volcano and brandy shape bowls. He has some new sizes and is road testing a meerschaum bowl right now but wants to make sure its good condition before he releases it.
Laudisi (Savinelli and C&D) –
Just hitting the shelves is a bevy of new blends from C&D. The usual Mixture Monster, a new Christmas Blend – Corn Cob Pipe, and then we see a couple new Kiribi lighters – orange, blue, red leather wrap hitting the market.
You also may have noticed that GL Pease’s Temple Bar, Renaissance Reserve, and Regents Flake just came out which were on display for people to snag and try out.
New at the show was the 140th anniversary tobacco which was made by C&D. It contains a special dark fired from Italy, some Virginias, Katerini and then a very light mild topping on it – somewhat floral fruit, lavender, and a honey note. The floral note was not the soapy lakeland mind you. Out of the newest blends, I really enjoyed sampling this one.
The 140th anniversary pipe features a military mount with a push tenon. There will be two versions filter and non-filtered with a funneled airway and 6mm filter. They also available in Giubileo d’Oro but only 12 are available.
Description from the site: Much like their 140th Anniversary blend, Savinelli’s 140th Anniversary pipe pays homage to the marque’s heritage, this time with a sleek, minimalist classic: the straight, Italian neo-classical Billiard. Showcasing the dedication of their team of skilled craftsmen, and the foundation upon which the Savinelli family built their legacy, each of these limited-edition pipes comes fitted with a sterling silver military mount and a push-style tenon for easy maintenance and cleaning.
Mattone is a brand new line and is the Italian word for brick (I think Joe actually told me 4 times that Mattone meant brick, I got it man!) This line of pipes will MSRP for around $85 and is Savinelli branded and only sold at your local brick and mortar store. It will not be available online. They also come packaged in this nice leather pouch.
The golf pipe is a miniature 320 shape, their most popular and is new as well.
Christmas pipe 2016 – released slightly before the show, not pictured here but available shortly if you don’t already see it.
Brigham
New for Brigham this year is their humidors which feature some “quadrant hinges” that are extra thick and thus last longer. The side walls thicker than similar priced humidors and offer 3 finishes: dark walnut, cherry, and mahogany. Each of the larger ones come with Brigham hydrometers – and humidification packs which are generally a higher quality than you’d expect at the price point.
MacBaren and Sutliff
MacBaren has Three Star Blue which is brand new, repackaged and the brand goes back to Iwan Ries. In the 1920s they came up with the blend then in the 1960s MacBaren/Sutliff took over production from them and then finally in the 80’s they bought the brand so now they are introducing it nationally.
The others new tobaccos you most likely already know about: Gold Block, St. bruno are back. Gold block is actually not a block, and never was its actually a lose cut. Amphora also out – and all of these came out in January. Amphora has been made by MacBaren since 2006 but hasn’t been over in the US until MacBaren bought the trademarks.
SuperValue – since the last IPCPR they have released burbon whiskey and first true english tobacco – latakia based in value priced product – and upgraded the quality of the pouch to a foil lined instead of the standard plastic pouches. The Foil lined pouches will give the product much better shelf life.
Straight blending components from Sutliff got re-released with 28 different blending or component tobaccos: Latikia, 4-5 different burleys and various Virginias for instance.
Peder Jeppesen (Neerup)
Peder is prolific with his offerings and always has new pipes out. By the time I got around to his table, he had already sold a ton of pipes at the show and didn’t have much left to cover with me. What he did have though was some great new accessories. Some new leather pipe bags (not pictured), lots of brushes in varying sizes – shank, bowl, filter shank brush – and then a nice leather cleaning and servicing kit.
The rubber nib protector on the brushes are what set these apart for your standard. He sold out of all his kits at the show – so expect to see those soon with the retailers.
For those of you who are not familiar with Peder – he has been carving pipes for over 30 years since 1977 – started with Karl Erik, then Erik Nording, then after trying something else, came back to pipe making and struck out on his own. Starting in his spare time making pipes Peder then picked up some machines. When Larsen didn’t want to continue with the factory he bought some briar and the additional machines to make pipes on a larger scale.
Pipe Tart
This was the first year for Sally at IPCPR and one of her carvers she represents Fabrizio Romeo asked her to represent him at the show. Shown above is good example of Fabrizio’s pipes that you can expect.
SMS Meerschaum and Lorenzo
I stopped by the Lorenzo booth and SMS Meerschaum to chat and noticed a trend of meers that come with tampers.
Another interesting tidbit is that one of their pipes was actually in The Legend of Zoro with Catherine Zeta Jones smoking it. In the balcony scene she then she throws it over the balcony behind her and then we notice the horse (Tornado) is smoking it. Sorry for the crappy picture but it was the only one I could find of her and the pipe.
Missouri Meerschaum
Of course Phil and Pat Morgan were at the show with Missouri Meerschaum Pipes and they do have some new styles. Shown above is the little devil cutty and little devil acorn. And then below is the Marcus, a Dublin style bowl like the Mark Twain but smaller. The suggested retail around $12.
All of these bowls are cut by hand because of size and they use a lathe – this extra work is what adds to the price point, but at $12 who is complaining? These are excellent quality pipes at an excellent price that you have come to expect from Missouri Meer.
4th Generation – Stokkebye
I briefly had a chance to swing by the 4th Gen booth and chat with Erik. They have a new tobacco out that was released at the show which he sent me the description here: In celebration of 160 years of family tradition – this Family Reserve blend is a truly unique mixture consisting of deep brown burleys, broad cut virginias, black cavendish and sprinkles of mature Navy flake.
The top note is a delightful combination of prunes, marzipan and vanilla, bringing out an enjoyable smoke and light sweet aroma. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to actually see the tobacco or sample it at the time.
Scandinavian Tobacco Group/Lane Limited
In June STG became exclusive distributor of Oliver Twist products and is STG’s first venture into the smokeless category of tobacco.
4 blends will be available – its hand made, with premium wrapper leaf – leaves are spun into long rope, cased, and then cut, then vacuum packed for shelf life and moisture content. No spitoon or spit cup needed (so they say).
They explained that it’s very high quality smokeless chewing tobacco as a “bit”.
“This is the ‘rolls royce’ – its pensylvania broadleaf. ” I asked if they stripped the stem and got rid of the junk and indeed they do, they strip the stem and then roll each half of the leaf. If you snag some of these – take one of the bits and you can actually unroll the bit into the leaf. Lasse and Michael explained that high skilled labor that goes into making these; the employees spend 3 1/2 years learning how to work with this and is similar to cigar rolling. Oliver Twist as a company has 200 years experience making these tobacco bits, and only these.
Obviously they brought out the Hand Pressed tobacco that they talked about at the Chicago Pipe Show. Only 200 were made in the whole word and US got 40 of them for retail. Larsen wanted to embrace what was local to Denmark without being able to grow tobacco in Denmark.
The hand pressed tobacco is said to be the first tobacco of its kind to be produced using traditional techniques which were widely abandoned a century ago. By recreating the hand press, Master Blender Lasse Berg fused 21 quality tobaccos with the aromas of “sweetgale” leaves handpicked from the moors of Denmark. The resulting notes of Danish terroir were preserved to create a product that “allows enthusiasts to indulge their refined palates while enjoying an elegant smoking experience”, STG said.
2017 WO Larsen limited edition- will be coming out very shortly and has a top note that is dry white wine from California. The contents are a mix of Black Cavendish, Virginia and Burley.
Next up we have the Cigar Series. Hoyo De Monterrey , Gloria Cubana, Macanudo, Cohiba, patrañas, punch, Foundry. – They don’t have actual cigar leaf in them which may be surprising, but what they do is match the profile on what you’d expect if you smoked each one of these as far as smooth, or bold, or spicy.
Andullo tobacco – is only grown in dominican been doing it for 200 years.
Its similar to perique as far as a fermenting process except they don’t age/ferment in a barrel, they wrap it in banana leaves and then wrap it with rope very eerily similar to Tambalaka in Indonesia. This blend is 45% andullo, 45% black cavendish, and 10% latakia. I sampled some at the show and I got almost no latakia after smoking it. It reminded me immediately of The Beast – as far as the tin note – minus the rum.
A whole new line as Lasse remarked “It’s aimed at the the millennials,” and will come in tins and pouches.
The Drexel line will come in three different types of tobacco, gold aromatic (vanilla), silver English with Cyprian latakia, bronze flake – which is virginia perique.
Bastard Blends is a new concept that STG wanted to get out – the jar they had for me to look at was the English. They will launch with an English, Aromatic, Vapr, and a Hybrid. Each jar will have 3 pouches – 3 items to get your Blend and you can adjust the quantity of each to mix your preference. It comes with handbook on how to blend and the kit will be the same price as buying the tins or pouches so the price point will be fairly low. They had a plastic jar on display but Lasse states that it will be a glass mason jar, not plastic like shown.
“Blend the tobacco in the container to “Create your own bastard” that is established ‘today’ i.e. make your own bastard today with bastard blends.”
They have a new line of cigars coming out called Half-pipe. These are hand made cigars with 50% BCA and 50% dominican filler with Habana Wrapper. It’s main goal in the market is to move people from machine made swisher style to a more robust cigar or pipe. I smoked this when I got home, the shoulder is very sweet, reminiscent of a swisher sweet, but the mix of the Cavendish and a nice wrapper made it a fairly enjoyable, albeit sweet cigar. I actually smoked this in about 15 minutes.
Lastly – they’re introducig the first grape tobacco they belive is on the market. When you pop the tin, you certainly feel like you’re in the Welch’s Grape Juice factory.
Final information from STG/Lane is that after we know more about the FDA stuff Lane wants to work more with the Pipe Clubs – but they are going to figure it out – a couple contests they have in mind with some pretty cool prizes.
Peterson
Peterson had their St. Patrick’s day 2017 pipes on display with 12 shapes available. For St. Patrick’s Day they’ve returned back to racing green color for the pipe and then have done a hand engraved little shamrock and Celtic band.
They did laser engraving on this as opposed to stamping and will have 8 bent and 4 straight with a nickel band.
New for the first time is a the Summertime pipe with a royal blue finish, military mount or friction mount in 12 shapes. The packaging matches the the blend. Conor explained that the limited editions they are up 23% on production on the tobacco side and the Summertime blend, he expects to perform the same or better.
Also new at the show that many may not have known about is the short classics pipes. Peterson is using church warden bowls and finishing with silver mounted accents with caramel finish on the stem. The stamping is small finer or crisper than before because of the smaller bands. This new set of shapes comes from an increased demand for the specialty shapes the smaller shapes and will come in 6 shapes.
Unfortunately the pipe of the year for 2017 and the 2016 Christmas pipes have already been sold and they had none to display. Expect them to show up soon to your local retailers though!
Music City Marketing
In the “It could be the coolest pipe accessory of 2016” category we have The Cvault. It’s made from food grade stainless steel and is airtight and impenetrable by light.
They come in XS, Small, Medium, and Large and 2 Liter and at on the lid have a built in section to hold the small Boveda pack (62%) that is included.
Extra small holds up to 1.6 oz
Small holds up to 3.2 oz
Medium holds up to 5.6 oz
Large holds up to 12 oz
2 Liter holds up to 1.6 lbs
Look for these to hit your local retailer and online sources very soon.
In summation I’d like to thank all the vendors that took the time to chat, I had more time this year to circle the floor but still didn’t even scratch the surface when it comes to vendors at the show with the caveat that most of the vendors were cigar related.
 James Foster goes by the online handle of Pylorns in the forums, and he is the creator of an app for keeping track of your tobacco cellar inventory called The Pipe Tool, serves as the President of the Austin Pipe Club and is a Certified Tobacconist. |
Written by James Foster
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Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 634! Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Warren Ertle. Warren is an extremely accomplished musician with a PhD in music. He started early as a percussionist in sixth grade. Later his grandmother got him a cheap Casio keyboard which he taught himself to play. He started playing in blues bands in high school, and has been a pianist with jazz big bands for years. Even though he was already a professional musician, he took his first real piano lesson when he enrolled in college with his studies in classical music. He is of course a pipe smoker. 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.
Soon now, supposedly, our neighborhoods will shift from grinning pumpkins, skeletons in various assortments, and zombies dashing about to pretty reindeer, angels, and flashing lights illuminating homes with sparkling stars and laughing, scurrying Santas. But, lest we forget, there is the turkey season, fancy pie aromas wafting from kitchens, and a national pardon of a big Tom Turkey. Remember, now, that only one of these holiday personalities is a pipe smoker. And that is the hefty, bearded fellow in a bright red suit sitting in a sleigh with a herd of deer hitched up and ready to streak across the globe, bringing tidings of joy and many presents. Ok, the scene is set for the next couple of months, right? So, before we get too far off the beaten path, let’s just take a deep breath of fresh autumn air, shall we? Ahh. That’s better, isn’t it? What’s got the Pundit in a snit is not all the Halloween spooks who came a-jostling for candy. Or the wild turkeys gobbling in the backwoods or all the fuss and feathers over the big one—Christmas. No, it is that we might need to take note of all the little things that mean so much to us. Like a good sunrise (seriously, Pundit has not gone all Pollyanna.) Mayhaps we need to appreciate more of what we have than what we have not. Or something like that. Like, a good pipe in the morning with coffee as the dawn brings us coolish weather now that we have flipped the calendar to autumn. But it also brings beautiful leaves that have become a spectacle of technicolor in the wind. It is the little things. The rereading of an enjoyable book and finding something you did not see or learn in the first go-round. Or a stunning phrase you commit to memory with the re-read, while smoking that favorite pipe. And you notice a superior puff that just seems to be different. It’s in the air and the seasons of meaningful little things. It’s aromatic! Or perhaps it is that sense of satisfaction knowing and appreciating you made it to another day. With the world in a kind of rinse-and-repeat history, reminiscent of a Shakespearean play, it is perhaps a good moment to remember some of Pipedom’s philosophers whose cogent thoughts brought light to clear a path in the mists of confusion and confounding opinions. Ok. No gloom and doom. Just some down-home thoughts. Think of times in the past when history was running off the rails. It took our pipe-smoking thinkers (the mind workers of the world) to speak of better pathways to more light. Think for a moment, with a pipe in hand, these wizards of the world and word: Albert Einstein, J. R.R. Tolkien, Mark Twain, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edwin Hubble, Bertrand Russell, C. S. Lewis, and Jean-Paul Sartre. All learned and enlightened. They offered wisdom instead of storms of meaningless roads to nowhere. All while smoking their pipes! Maybe especially with the help of their pipes in the art of thinking and philosophy. Recall the words of Mr. E=MC2 when he said, “I believe that pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgment in all human affairs.” Amen and amen! Dealing with world-rattling events takes a calm and objective view of things, to the Pundit’s way of summing it up. You just don’t go messing around with quantum physics without a calm and objective approach, methinks. Or as the extraordinary physicist Robert Oppenheimer said after he and a team in the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos Labs developed a way to split atoms into bombs during World War II. “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds,” said Oppenheimer referring to the development of the first nuclear bombs dropped on Japan. It must be pointed out that Oppenheimer was more of a cigarette smoker than a pipe smoker. Nonetheless, pipes were part of his personality. Now, if you have read some of the great authors of the past and present, their pipes were always nearby. Reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle can be a three-pipe problem at times. S. Lewis and Jean-Paul Sartre require time with your pipes to reflect on the existential problems and solutions these authors provide in learned novels and other narratives. Or take Edwin Hubble and Bertrand Russell, philosophers of another world. Pipes are required for reading. The quantum lode of ideas Pundit is attempting to sort out is that our pipes are relaxing and stimulate our thoughts and creativity. Especially in these last months of the year. Many times Pundit has had that light bulb flick on while smoking my beloved pipes. And friends in Pipedom, it ain’t easy to turn on the lights in Pundit’s rock pit head. Now it’s time for a quote from a Pipe Smoker of the Past. Shelby Foote was born Nov. 17, 1916, in Greenville, Miss., and died June 27, 2005, in Memphis, Tenn. A fact is not a truth until you love it—Shelby Foote. A parting thought: It is said that famed Southern author William Faulkner carried a packed pipe in a coat pocket wherever he went. That’s one effective way to deal with workday conflicts and confusion. A calm and objective judgment in our everyday human affairs, as the quantum man said.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 633. Our featured guest tonight is Jon David Cole. JD is the Owner/Tobacconist at The Country Squire in Jackson, MS, and the accompanying online store. We’ll have JD and Brian talking about what’s new at the store and in the business in general. At the top of the show, Brian will discuss tobacco growing, what happens to the leaf, and provide updated information on where tobacco is being gown today. Tobacco production originated in the United States and we were once the #1 producer. It’s quite different now.
Well there’s nothing like a touch of the plague to usher in the changing season. Leaving the airport just when the first advertisements for all things pumpkin spice began to appear—lattes, muffins, shampoos, trash bags, and myriad other concoctions—so, too, my ability to breathe freely disappeared. The unfortunate side effect of losing one’s sense of taste and smell for weeks is the utter inability to enjoy tobacco. Not that I consider myself an expert on anything but my own tastes, but be forewarned that this review was made with mildly impugned sensory equipment. Just when a comforting pipe was most needed, its comfort was denied. Be that as it may, the road to recovery found me limping along on one lung this past month, trying to wrest the particulars of two blends on offer from Sutliff: the latest 175th Anniversary blend, Silver Quarter, as well as their spooky seasonal Maple Shadows II. Silver Quarter is a new style on offer from Sutliff, their first coin-cut blend. Naturally a Virginia-Perique, it is enhanced with a traditional core of black Cavendish. In the tin it holds much promise, with a lightly bready and very woody, if ever-so-slightly sour, aroma. After some time acclimating to air, the bouquet softens further and offers hints of the burley with some chocolaty notes wafting through the more dominant dry grassy aspect. The tin art is of a coin-style bas-relief bust, presumably of a founding Sutliff brother, à la The Old Boss On the reverse of the tin we find the blend’s description: Reflecting on Sutliffs 175 years of tobacco excellence, we came across a brand that embodies true value, SILVER QUARTER. This name pays homage to Sutliffs roots, the legacy of two brothers who popularized pipe smoking in the burgeoning mining society of San Francisco. We celebrate this heritage with a coin cut composed of the finest African Virginias, complemented by a core of Perique and Black Cavendish. The tin notes are, forgive the pun, on the nose for a good VaPer blend: mild tart sweetness peeking out from behind dried hay and slight chocolate undertones, with a lightly tannic finish of weathered oak. It is always a joy to prepare a coin cut, my preference being to put a few in my palm and vigorously warm my hands together to fully break them apart. These well-formed discs pack and light easily, and smoke with little prodding to the end of the bowl. For technical points it scores well—it smokes light, and it’s easy to tend the ember. While it gets sharp after a few quick bowls, pacing should be heeded to easily smoke down to the heel without inviting bite. Of the flavor, though, I am left a bit wanting. There are tart and high notes aplenty, but very little of the lemony citrus I would anticipate, as well as scant midtones; they tend more toward the red wine-vinegary and sour. The flavors are muted, also, lacking the sweetness and piquancy of other marques—the small measure of Perique tickles the nose now and again with peppery hints, and there is a smidge of a deeper sweetness to be found in the Cavendish from puff to puff, but overall it lacks some dynamism. The Virginias, to my palate, come off a bit on the dry side, and here they dominate the blend. The aftertaste and mouthfeel are neutral, again evincing more of the dry, woody, tartly tannic end of the spectrum. The blend has plenty of polish, but not enough depth or richness (*yet) to make it a standout. Here, comparisons are inevitable: Luxury Bullseye Flake has more sweetness, both from its Virginia as well as its Cavendish, and a better finish; Davidoff is similar but with a pronounced umami that is absent here; as for Escudo, I haven’t had any fresh tins lately so it would be unfair to compare. While it rates as a solid, fairly mild smoke, particularly to lovers of the genre, it does not surprise with any exceptional flavors. To be fair, all the boxes have been checked for the blend to benefit from some real aging, and it would be worth checking in on this after a couple of years sealed away. I’ve set half my tin aside to sample again in a month or two, in case I’m merely suffering from the lingering effects of parosmia, and will amend this review in that case. Maple Shadows II, on the other hand, made up for the weeks of sniffling and sneezing I’d endured. Offered in a full 8 ounce tin with delightfully spooky Halloween art, it’s (hopefully) enough to last through the season. Somehow I had missed this last year, so it’s a real pleasure to get some in my candy bucket this year. As the chilling winds of autumn draw eerie prattle from contorted, deciduous limbs, we find ourselves possessed by the spirit of the season. Bewitched by a dissonant charm, we’ve created Maple Shadows. In a season that is defined by the unlikely harmony of treats and frights, we’ve joined the enchanting sweetness of maple with the earthy spice of Dark Fired Kentucky for a smoking experience that captures the senses with an otherworldly fusion of flavor. This may be the best aromatic blend Sutliff’s ever made—and they make a ton of them. First off, it’s not overbearing in the least—quite the opposite, it is also one of the more restrained aromatics they’ve ever made, with a clear but very light topping that melds oh-so-well with their choice Kentucky added to the mix. Opening the tin, the sweet maple is up front and center, but so too is the must of fallen leaves, bready pie crusts, and a crackling fire in the hearth—a perfect invocation of Herbstdüfte in a can. Packing best in an open and capacious bowl, the flavoring is subtle, and recedes to the background while puffing. With a sweet coffee or tea to accompany, the aftertaste of the maple is reinvigorated on the palate […]
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 632. Our featured guest on tonight’s show is the host of the Pipe & Tamper Podcast, Mike Murphy. Brian and Mike will have an extended chat revolving around the days before, during and after the Las Vegas International Pipe Show. We will hear about their travels to the show and the anxiety of Hurricane Milton bearing down on Florida at the same time while running a show and not knowing if your house is going to be there when you get home. In the end, the show went great and our homes survived, although many others in Florida were not so lucky. We’ll have clips from the show, and shoutouts to other podcasts and vlogs that were broadcasting from the pipe show.
Vegas Baby The show started out strong on the 14th floor hospitality suites hosted by the Vegas Pipe Show and Smoking Pipes as well as room hopping to carvers, estate sellers, and vendors to pre-game for the festivities. If you’re interested in what that looks like I’ll refer you to last years pipe show round up. I circled with Brian Levine to get the totals in comparison to last year: This year’s show numbers: 108 Exhibitor tables, 445 attendees, 3,250 Raffle Tickets, 100ish dinners, 172 Rooms in the Hotel. Last year, by comparison, 107 exhibitor tables, 425 attendees, 2,200 raffle tickets, 104 dinners, and 175 rooms on Friday and Saturday nights. We were at capacity, basically, when it came to vendor tables and the dinner, so there is no physical room for growth at this point except for attendees. That said, we filled that smoking lounge to the brim. New Carvers Spotlight Garret Woo (Pipes by Woo) How long have you been carving? Garret: I’ve been carving since 2021, and I’m guessing your next question is probably how’d you get started carving? James: Yes. Garret: In 2021 I took a break from my full time job – that included machining and assembly work and I thought maybe it was time I made something that I would like and I started looking at youtube and Instagram and putting together my shop. I did struggle on the stems to start and there was a lot of failure at the beginning. James: How many pipes have you made so far? Garret: I number my pipes, so I just finished up 186. James: What is your favorite shape you’ve been making? Garret: I really dig Canadians and pipes with longer shanks and lovat Canadian blends. I like to play with different shapes of stems on the longer shanked pipes. The billiard would be my go-to shape but I want to learn more techniques on freehanded shapes. I like to put brass and copper adornments on my pipes with my machining background it helps. James: What is the craziest thing you’ve seen at this show? Garret: The first thing that comes to mind is the table over there with C-Pipes with the shapes and the size and petiteness and the intricate details they did. You can check out what Garret is working on by going to his Instagram. Stefan Cashwell James: how long have you been carving? Stefan: about 3 years. James: What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen at the show? Stefan: The Adam Davidson pipe with the clear shape and the bamboo—I don’t know if it’s 3D printed or what, but it’s amazing. James: What’s your favorite shape to do? Stefan: That’s a tough question. I think they’re all the same shape, but what’s fascinating is that Dublin, volcano, and blowfish are all the same depending on how you turn them. Playing with that, with all its variations, is a lot of fun. My favorite accent to use is also horn; it’s finicky, but it’s a great accent on pipes. You can check out Stefan’s work on his Instagram. Science: Meet Pipes I chatted with Chris from the San Diego Pipe Club; he started off doing stem replacements for estate pipes but also improved the airflow. James: How are you doing 3d printing? What is the thought process? Chris: It’s a 3D-printed pipe with a briar insert. The design is a calabash meets a Peterson system meets a metal Falcon/Kirsten radiator style. It is a bottom draft smoking bowl like a radiator like those metal pipes. The inside chamber is a calabash. The stummel and accent rings in the stems are all 3d printed. The insert is briar, olive wood, or I have the potential to use meerschaum as well. This idea came about through the San Diego Pipe Club, wanting to see if we could 3D print a pipe and being curious about the technology; I have a printer and design ability, so here we are. James: What’s the type of plastic you’re using? Chris: It’s all PLA plastic, a renewable potato starch plastic that is food-safe. The stummels are printed with a plastic that has wood in it 40% wood fiber, bamboo, rosewood, ebony, redwood, and walnut are the woods I’m printing. For the accent rings I just got a new material that I’m printing that has 40% copper, so its real metal that you can sand, and polish the same as wood filament. The stems are 3d printed as well. The concept is renewable and cheap from a production standpoint, with the ability to make a very high quality smoking pipe based on the experience. By combining the calabash system pipe and bottom draft hole and using 3d simulations to see airflow, I can see where I’m having eddies and ripples in my current, and see where my moisture and all the particles are dropping back out from a vapor to a liquid. Most people who have tried these say the stems are clean, and they don’t even have to run a pipe cleaner afterward because everything collects at the bottom. Chris has also been experimenting with color-changing plastics so you can see the hotspots. Chris said he was able to use this to slow down his cadence, which, of course, could mean you could get a slow-smoke training pipe to teach yourself to perform better. If you’re interested in learning more or want to check one out, you can contact him on Instagram: Copper Beard Pipe Works The Negative Space The show was buzzing about one specific pipe, which had everyone guessing how it was made. I chatted with Adam Davidson briefly about it. James: How did this idea come to fruition? Adam Davidson: Smokingpipes.com had an expo back in August open to all of the makers they carry. The theme was to make a pipe utilizing bamboo. Given that the last time we had the expo I made a smooth Almond with three bamboo shanks, […]
I wasn’t able to make it this year.
No need, you did a great job taking everyone on a tour! Thanks!
Lot’s of good photos and information. Thanks James
Amazing to see Winnipeg Manitoba represented by the radiator pipe, plus the Daughters and Ryan Va crop being grown in Canada
Great report, very thorough and professional. It was a fine show!
Excellent documentation! It must have been surreal to see all the new products in the face of uncertainty. I think we’ve got a potential tobacco bonanza about to happen as producers move to unload stored leaf.
Love that Dominican banana leaf curing process, and the Daughter’s and Ryan VA entry!
Thanks, it’s always fun to see all the new stuff. I’m fearful of what next year might hold.
Great Article and Reporting.
Jon