Missouri Meerschaum Independence Day
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Kyle Weiss - Dec 11, 2019
- 6 min read
By the time you read this, it’ll be too late to reliably order anything online to get to you for whichever holiday you choose. I’m sure you’ve heard of Christmas in July (I still have no idea what that means), but if one absurdity deserves another, let’s have a July in Christmas. If one thing the holidays can lack at times is understanding. Kindness and giving have been on forced overdrive for most people since Halloween, even if some pious guilt lead them there. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about holidays is they’re pretty terrible for some people. It’s a chaotic month before a holiday specifically for kids, families and of course a heavy dose of religious dogma. Most people just buy love, and the gift card industry knows this. If you’re alone or troubled for whatever reason at all, it sucks. Cheer isn’t on everyone’s mind. Even if you’re kind enough to take a lonely soul into your home to share the love, understand it’s a way for some to get through the event more than anything. Let them do their thing if they seem a tad detached.
This time of year I tend to extend my hand to those like myself who find themselves alienated or bothered by the holidays. I’ve spent a vast majority of my own Novembers and Decembers alone and at the very least, feeling awkward. At some point I began to reach out to veterans, the divorced, the disabled and the heartbroken that I know: I invited them to come sit with me, on traditional days or not. I will not force anyone to open things unnecessary nor expect those that do show up to be burdened by an uncomfortably organized dinner party with people trying to force happiness. Pull up a chair. Bring food, bring booze, bring your heavy heart and distressed mind—or don’t. No pressure. Some years I remain by myself, others I can have just shy of a dozen people with me. It is a time I do ask the invited to bring a pipe if one can be had, or a cigar, because smoke bonds a lot of us. Hell, I’ve bought or given more pipes this way. If you’re new to the briar, there’s no better time than to share an experience like smoking a pipe. Tobacco holds the power to make this time of year a little more interesting.
Maybe that’s why the 2019 Independence Day by Missouri Meerschaum Co. seemed an appropriate pipe tobacco to write about this month. Released last August to my understanding, it might have been a little late to its namesake, but after reading the notes on what people thought of it, I believed it might be a mellow blend with a little something for everyone or anyone regardless of what the calendar reads.
The tin is round, bespangled with stars and stripes, and denotes nothing about what might be inside. Past incarnations of this tobacco left little for me to consider personally as I’m not a fan of aromatics, so I hoped this one might be a little different. Based on random comments about the piping world, it has a pleasant sweetness rather than an overpowering one, and quite a few people appreciated its classic flavor. Popping open the tin I’m reminded immediately of a familiar memory: Carter Hall. It doesn’t smell quite the same, but a similar mellow sweetness and Burley warmth is right up front on the nose. The tobacco is comprised of a lot of long ribbons and is a little on the moist side.
I specifically chose all Missouri Meerschaum cob pipes for diving into Independence Day. There was no real reason other than my briars were all in cleaning rotation, and what the hell, I’m okay with sticking to a theme. Besides the long ribbons, the tobacco loaded into my cobs easily enough. I did find breaking up the ribbons in the tin made loading a little less messy. It takes to a flame easily, and the first puffs are instant memories to me, if not even a little better. I started smoking Carter Hall when I was but a wee teen, when pipe smoking was more for rebellious effect than a serious endeavor. Still, the experience of the smell, the taste and the scent has always been a fond one. The difference here is this tobacco is more defined: Carter Hall has a dusty, old-book kind of spirit and nuance to it. Independence Day, while similar, has some wonderfully mellow Burley and perhaps a little basic Virginia mixed in. It is an idea of sweet rather than coming right out and giving sweetness. There’s a bit of a tongue-tingle, and a baked cracker quality. There’s a cavendish-type tobacco in there as well, which normally would put me personally on high alert for scoffing, but it is so non-invasive I didn’t bitch. I wanted to, but I couldn’t.
By the time mid-bowl comes about, the flavor overall mellows to the point the smoker (me, in this case) can smell his own room note. I can confirm, as well as others have, it has the most “classic” pipe scent I’ve come across in a while. It’s not vanilla, it’s not caramel, it’s not fruity. It’s something else, and it’s not simply detached nostalgia. For lack of a better description, in my childhood I visited family in North Carolina. They’re fond of curing pretty good hams there. They’re also really into tobacco. The room note is pretty much curing Carolina ham near a barn curing tobacco. Perhaps it is nostalgia after all.
Independence Day smokes slowly. It more smolders than puffs, and that suits me just fine. Dangling a pipe on the jaw and going mindlessly into a task is easy. A few tugs with the cheeks on the bit and the ember brings the bowl back to life. At the end of a bowl of this tobacco gets a little spicier, a little nuttier, and bit meatier. The character of this tobacco is pretty simple and mild-mannered. Even at the end of a bowl, the smoke produced stays remarkably cool. A few of my newer cobs, known for getting a little hot and uppity when not broken in, handled Independence Day like a champ.
Pipes, along with other kinds of tobacco, I’m convinced is an effective weapon against things like the end of the year holiday season. It’s an excuse to do something other than focus on pressure and tasks that might get out of hand. One can walk away from clashes of attempted perfection and take a break. Independence Day is July in Christmas. This tobacco is no-frills as non-innovative as one can get, and yet it holds a little bright spirit inside. Classic attitude with just the right amount of sweetness and nicotine, it’s easy to manage while smoking and it isn’t terribly expensive. I found non-alcoholic beverages to be the best pairing, as beer made smoking Independence Day oddly bitter, and whiskey was too bitey. Maybe brandy or eggnog could work, both of which I cannot consume. Coffee was by far the best companion.
My conclusion is the holidays et al are what they are. For some it’s tradition, others a near military operation, others it’s just a thing to endure. You can be as independent or filled with cheer as you want, within reason, it just helps when you have a pipe in your hand. In my tobacconist days it was common for our shop during the holidays to be a mellow hive of activity from those with nowhere else to go. I very much enjoyed those moments, and I understood them quite well.
I hope those of you out there merely getting by do so with dignity and a little peace, and maybe a thoughtful puff or two.
- Editor Rating
- Rated 5 stars
- Spectacular
- Missouri Meerschaum Independence Day Tobacco Review
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From Missouri Meerschaum: The newest version of our Missouri Meerschaum’s Independence Day Blend is a must try! This soft aromatic blend has a vanilla leading the way with a light splash of Cyprian Latakia to add a smoky note. Though different from the 2015 version this intriguing aromatic English blend will fast become a favorite in your Missouri Meerschaum corncob pipe.
Written by Kyle Weiss
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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! 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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. 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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? 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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, […]
Great review. Sounds like I’ll have to get a tin in the next order. Simple satisfaction is right any time of year.
Wonderful review! I always enjoy your approach to the experience.
Great review and I agree with all of it! I just picked up a tin at the beginning of 2020;It has become my new go-to. The touch of smokiness brings memories of hanging with my pops, smoking a brisket for ~15 hrs – good times.