Orlik Golden Sliced
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Kevin Godbee - May 14, 2018
- 5 min read
Kyle Weiss
Pipe smoking has a way of stirring up the past, sometimes emotionally, sometimes directly. Lately I’ve been figuring out a lot of what means something to me versus what does not, as it’s been a trying last few months. Tobacco is, unscientifically, a form of patience grown in the sun, harvested, cured and treated in various ways, and released when we set it ablaze. Poetry isn’t my strong suit, but memory is.
Orlik Golden Sliced was and is one of those curious tobaccos that I don’t pick up very often, and I’ve been picking up a lot of tobacco lately that I don’t pick up very often. The mind has a funny way of going certain places when in duress, and even our simple habits are affected. I have several tins of Golden Sliced hanging about, each from different years. April of 2012 what I wrote on this one, and it wasn’t the most recent nor was it the oldest. Like many things we may or may not need, we ponder them when our lives change, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. I may be a shrewd judge of my own character, but when it’s time to sit, smoke and take a break, that’s exactly what needs to happen. Some things, thankfully, no matter what, never change.
Orlik Golden Sliced now comes in round tins, but I am glad I have a few of the increasingly rare square tins. They’re easy to stack, store and the paper packaging with the face of the judge on a sticker greeting you when it is opened delights me. It reads on the reverse:
“This delightful blend is composed of golden and full body Virginia tobaccos with a touch of Burley. A fine natural sweetness in both taste and aroma characterizes Orlik Golden Sliced. The cut is a traditional Navy Cut Flake i.e. pressed tobacco and cut into thin slices. Rub the tobacco slices gently before filling your pipe.”
It should be noted there was much fuss once upon a time about the contents of this tobacco, and whether or not the claims of Burley and/or Perique were accurate. It seems it was settled that this flake does indeed contain Perique, and even if there wasn’t a controversy, my tongue knew better. Nonetheless, the flakes sit arranged like perfect shingles, used-copper-penny red and oaken brown. There isn’t much of a scent to them besides the raisin-sweetness of a real tobacco, but left to air out for a day a brighter, slightly grapefruit scent becomes apparent.
This is generally a very relaxed Virginia flake more than anything, and after breaking apart, lights almost immediately. The tin with a few years on it abandons most grassier undertones and gives more of a mushroom-like flair when first lit, along with some tongue-tingle and spice thanks to a dash of what can only be Perique. Broken apart fully, this tobacco gives off voluminous smoke, which I like, but with smoke often comes heat. This isn’t a hot-smoking tobacco for me even on its worst day, but I keep the breaking apart roughed up and in-between: chunks and strips, intermixed.
Smoking Golden Sliced on the porch or simply in the outdoors does something lovely to it. The curls of smoke coming from the bowl is gently honeysuckle, while the flavor is slightly woodsy, as fresh as fallen leaves. The sweetness is fleeting, reminiscent of a waft from a dandelion bloom, and just as clean. The mid-point of the bowl is where things meld together firmly and fairly, and inoffensively, but also where the spice of the Perique perks up.
The bowl’s last puffs leave something to be desired, as much of what I am used to smoking increases and concentrates toward the end. Orlik Golden Sliced is perhaps a little too clean here, a little too predictable. I am not one to note smoking to a “fine, white ash” as a positive, as that old saw has gone from being cliché to generically overused. At the same time, it’s difficult to deny this tobacco performs for me so admirably in just about any pipe I sometimes wonder what to do with myself as I’m smoking. If focusing on the task at hand is more important than fixating and fussing over your smoldering leaf, this is a good one to stuff in your pipe.
There’s quite a few tobaccos doing nearly the exact same thing as Orlik Golden Sliced. Some are more sweet, others have more Perique; some have thicker slices, others are ready-rubbed for your convenience. This tobacco seems to have a great balance to it no matter what. Coffee is a real delight early in the morning for this smoke, and I don’t think there’s a better companion for it. Nicotine is admirable and present without being overpowering, and since the controversial Perique is so minimal, those just trying to dabble with Virginia-Perique mixtures may enjoy it as a jumping-off choice. Credited by me for being a flexible smoke, as this is could be an anyone, anywhere, anytime kind of tobacco.
The only reason I began to remember why I don’t pick this tobacco as my “go to” frequently is though it is solid, it stays true. Too true. It’s more of a friend you see only once in a while because he is milk-toast as they come. Excitement isn’t the point of this friendship, but familiarity and loyalty. If you’re in a headspace where things are changing quite a bit, perhaps the simplicity of that which is true is exactly what you need. Orlik Golden Sliced and I had a lot of catching up to do, but who knows when, not if, it will happen again.
(Author’s Random note: In one of the images above, you’ll notice “The Blue and Gold Cook Book,” published in 1912. I have a thing for pre Prohibition-era cookbooks, as the modern way of writing recipes and cookbooks dawned just a bit before the turn of the 20th century, sometimes including how to make your own wine, hooch and cordials. Nearly every conceivable business at the time printed one, as well as church groups and from the wives of fraternities–no home was complete without a dozen. Their main drive was advertising, and their marketing art is fantastic. Rare items today, this is one I found recently, published for the now-defunct Blue and Gold Brewing Company that had many breweries in California. The information is great and the recipes are fun classics The recipe part of this era is a fun challenge to me, as our modern means of food processing, packaging and *cough* “improvements” don’t always yield expected results from a time when not only common ingredients, but manners, men, women, booze and tobacco were enjoyable, wholesome and real…)
Editor’s note: Here’s the reveal of Perique as an ingredient, and the history of the origins of the blend:
Orlik Golden Sliced Update – No Burley, Yes Perique
and my original review in 2011.
Written by Kevin Godbee
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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. 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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, […]
Great story…
Perique is a burley, but I don’t think anyone would refer to it as a burley. It has about the least amount of perique as any blend I have ever tried, maybe just enough to help it taste a little more like a flue cured Virginia. I say this because the main reason I think that this blend (and even some C&D Virginias) get confused as a burley is because it doesn’t taste like it was flue cured. Air Cured Virginias are just burleys basically. Not that it wasn’t flue cured, just maybe under-cured? Something…
I am always asking myself why I don’t smoke this one more, also. I bought fifty tins of this back when I first started buying online, and I smoke maybe one tin a year. It’s not that I don’t enjoy it, but it just so damned humdrum. Even with age on it… still boring. But, once I do convince myself to pop a tin, the tin doesn’t last very long, maybe two days at most. It’s like green beans. You don’t really look forward to them, but once they’re on the plate, you eat them.
Thanks for an amusing rumination on a classic blend — so classic, in fact, it flies under the radar and is often taken for granted. A statue in a park.
Cosmic: One man’s “boring” is the “subtle” of the other. There’s a difference to me. Tobacco is like most relationships, they may start out wild and even boisterous, but over time, you learn to appreciate what the smoke doesn’t have as much as what it does have. On the other hand, sometimes it’s the opposite: too much of what you don’t like versus what might be missing. Probably why some guys cheat and some guys don’t. On tobacco, I mean. <3
Cortez: Yep. And like Cosmic said above you, something worth visiting once a year to some guys–to others, maybe there’s a bit more of a story to everything if some searching is to be had…
Thanks guys.