Crowd-Sourcing Reviews
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Kevin Godbee - Jul 20, 2015
- 6 min read
E. Roberts
You asked for them, and here they are. Back in April I asked you, our loyal PipesMagazine.com readers, what tobaccos you’d like to see reviewed. While I intended it to be followed in a most timely manner the next month, there were a few blends I’d had on backlog that got in the way of the schedule. Sometimes it takes a while to get a handle on a blend, a process that can stretch for several days or even weeks—and the best blends, of course, we can spend a lifetime teasing apart, a most delicious riddle for us pipe enthusiasts. So, without much further ado, the labor of many, many pipefuls of tobacco, I finally offer you an opinion on some reader selections.
McClelland’s Tudor Castle. Jack Swilling (if that’s his real name) writes that he’s "newly intrigued" by McClelland’s Tudor Castle blend, a VaPerO touting bright and red Virginias, top-grade Yenidje, and a touch of St. James Perique. For him, the Oriental component really brings the blend together and "makes the magic happen"; being a big fan of Virginia-Periques with Oriental myself I placed an order for it immediately, figuring it couldn’t be so bad that I wouldn’t want to smoke through three tins of it. The short story is that I’ve found a new entry into my top five VaPerOs. It’s a brilliant blend in all regards—the presentation of the richly fermented and loosely packed flakes, the succulent sweetness that arises from the interplay of the tobaccos, the full-bodied mouthfeel and aroma, and the delightful woodblock-style tin art that I’ll assume was drawn by Mary McNiel. The full two-ounce tin is brimming with the dark, damp flakes that exude a hint of the trademark McClelland ketchupy scent, doubtless owing to the red Virginia. After a short drying time, the rubbed out flakes burn cool and steady, with a sweet consistency that hints at cola nut, sweet tea, and candied pecan, with just a tinge of the sour saltiness characteristic of the Oriental leaf, and occasional peppery retorts from the Perique. A flexible smoke, it performs well in a variety of pipes, tall-bowled chambers faring best. I’m thankful I took the gamble on buying extra tins for cellaring, as the ones I received were dated 2015; if it’s this good now then a few years should really bring out the magic.
McClelland Tudor Castle Arcade. Since I was taking a gamble on the Tudor Castle, I figured it wasn’t much of a stretch to try out the other label in the series, Tudor Castle Arcade; honestly, I haven’t been truly disappointed with a McClelland tobacco to date. I was also intrigued to discover the blend contains Syrian Latakia, as there are fewer and fewer left as the years go by, with no more to come in the foreseeable future. These three tins were dated 2009, so they arrived with at least five or six years of aging under the belt, a very telling milestone for aged blends. I am happy to report, albeit with some trepidation, that Arcade exceeds its predecessor in flavor. I say with trepidation because I’m now worried I won’t have time to stockpile the blend before you lot buy the tins out from under me; it’s at the top of my cellaring list for sure. The same Virginia-Perique mixture is there from TC, with its high, winey notes and cola sweetness and aftertaste, complemented by Katerini leaf with its floral overtones and the fabled Syrian with its pitched muskiness steering the ride. The balance of savory with salty and meaty highlights over a rich bass sweetness reminds me of a favorite Iranian dish—fessenjoon made with duck.
SettersBrace wants to know how Squadron Leader with Perique rates. Now to segue into another Latakia blend, again containing Perique, but sporting a different complexion altogether: SmokingPipes.com’s recent limited-edition offering of only 2,000 tins, affectionately acronymed ‘SLAP’ on the forum. While not a regular production tobacco, I know readers will be seeing some of these on the sale or trade aftermarket eventually. Maybe. It’s really quite good, unsurprisingly; the Cypriot Latakia brings a hide glue dankness to the smoke, as opposed to Syrian’s sweeter tart notes. The parchment-like nose is further enhanced by the Perique, which responds to the Oriental leaf with a more pronounced peppery aspect, dark and sharp on the retrohale. The cut is a perfect ribbon, packed to the brim in the square 50g tins with British racing green label. The tin note is starchy and sour, promising a rich blend even without age. Particularly suited to large, long-lasting bowls, and amicable to DGT, the tobacco is given to slow and contemplative smokes, evincing a shy peek of spiciness with a gingerbread and hard cider mid-bowl; a hint at which direction the effect of several years will have on mellowing and sweetening the mix. Right now it’s young, a little on the dry side, with a slight phenolic tilt. If you had the luck to snatch up a few, you will be rewarded handsomely. Smoking it now, while still so young, I find a smoky black tea—Harney & Sons’ Russian Country with a spot of cream and brown sugar fills the bill nicely—really illuminates the details in the flavor profile. Thanks for the suggestion from reader SettersBrace, and apologies to those who didn’t score a tin.
The Irish are coming! The Irish are coming!
Breaking news: new Peterson tobaccos coming to the States! The Irish are invading, and their vanguard lineup is varied and venturesome and…oh, very well, on with the verbiage.
Hitting our shores now are a flight of 40g packets bearing the Peterson marque. The pouch is more prevalent packaging for the European market; in the States it’s gaining traction though, thanks to the resurgence of roll-your-own in the past decade. The blends are all new inflections bearing romantic Irish names: Aran mixture, a tobacco-centric light vanilla; Connemara Black, a tart cherry Cavendish; Irish Dew, a stalwart Virginia-burley; and Wild Atlantic, a salty yet mild English blend. The art on the packages looks great, and the overall presentation of the fine ribbon contained in the blends is effective at invoking a tone from the start. All offer a moderately complex smoke, flavorful with good leaf, ready to pack and smoke straight from the gold-lined pouch. Aran is a light, nutty take on an ever-so-lightly cased vanilla, great for an afternoon on the go. Connemara Black is akin to another of my Peterson favorites, Sunset Breeze—the topping rides atop the Cavendish, a fine duet and a good dessert smoke. Irish Dew is nutty and clean, a no-nonsense tobacco that makes a great companion for a cold beer or tea. Wild Atlantic isn’t nearly as tempestuous as the name would imply; it’s rather on the mild side, but with a full-bodied and comfortable English flavor. They’re all good, easy-going blends, and I’m very interested to see how these work out for Peterson in the North American market. My buddy Conor from Peterson was kind enough to send pictures of the packets suitable for framing, and also some glamour shots of the Peterson seasonals—here’s a sneak peek at this year’s Holiday Season blend!
Sneak Peek!
Want to get in on this? First, if you’ve tried the tobaccos reviewed, leave a comment to let us know how your experience was, whether similar or completely different. It’s always good to bounce ideas off fellow smokers to more fully flesh out one’s own experience. Second, if you have a suggestion for another reader review, leave that in the comments below too, and if selected you’ll receive a few ounces of recent blends to taste for yourself. Special thanks go out to readers JackSwilling and SettersBrace for these submissions; I’d have reviewed all the suggestions, but there’s only so much one guy can smoke at a time. And watch this space for the upcoming review of Seattle Pipe Club’s Potlatch!
The spoils of my labour—a lot of cleaning to do.
Written by Kevin Godbee
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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.
Tudor Castle – Yes, goodness for your pipe.
My name is John, but my alter ego is Jack Swilling
Love theses reviews/news/updates from you Mr. E. Roberts, if that is your real name.
Now I want to try some Arcade based on this write up.
Thanks again Mr. Roberts and the reviews were great! We are on different sides of the fence when it comes to SLAP but diversity IS the spice of life they say. Great work!
Always fine reviews, Mr. Roberts!
Another good set of reviews, Bill. I love that pipe rack you have there.
@kcghost — it’s a classic (but seldom send) Decatur Industries pipe tree that I scored for a steal at the NY Pipe Show a few years back. The notion is that once the tree is full I have to clean the pipes…sometimes it even works.