Seattle Pipe Club: Luxury Blends Unlike Any Other
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Kevin Godbee - Sep 9, 2017
- 8 min read
Jim Amash aka JimInks
When the fledgling Seattle Pipe Club held their first meeting in January 2001, the sole goal consisted of fun monthly evenings. This small, dedicated group of pipe smokers enjoyed each other’s company and discussed their mutual love of the gentle art that brought them together. Off topic subjects only further enriched their meetings and relationships, and the membership increased as the news got out that this monthly event was one not to be missed. In time, the club held summer picnics, annual dinners with awards and auctions, slow smoke contests, and invited special guest speakers from the most prominent members of the pipe community.
Joe Lankford was the right man at the right time for creating the Seattle Pipe Club blends. Joe and his wife Carolyn owned a tobacco shop in Dodge City, Kansas in the early 1970’s. This opportunity allowed him to begin blending on a small scale. In the early years he simply blended to please himself. The learning process included repeatedly smoking every known tobacco varietal independently so he could understand their inherent properties, and how they would interact with other tobaccos in the blending process.
Joe Lankford
This eventually resulted in his first creation, the Virginia based English mixture, Mississippi River, which was famously born in the middle of the night as he dreamed. He woke up, jotted down the formula, went back to sleep. The next morning, after he mixed up a sample, he decided he had the blend the way he wanted it. The ingredients were several Virginias with Oriental leaf, a pinch of Cyprian latakia and perique which Joe pressed to make the crumble cake form. Confident in his abilities, Joe decided he would only make blends that he would want to smoke on a regular basis. This was the point where Joe began to share his work with others.
Joe’s concoctions were originally given away to SPC members, who would urge Joe to accept money whether he wanted it or not. Pretty quickly, the demand exceeded Joe’s garage production capability. That changed in June 2007 when PipesandCigars.com introduced to market three of master blender Joe Lankford’s signature creations: Mississippi River, Plum Pudding, and Seattle Evening. With this forward step, SPC became the first and only club in America to truly create and market their own blends. An added benefit from the blends stunning success resulted in the Seattle Pipe Club becoming the best-known pipe club in America; a distinction that remains true to this day.
This article relates my long-time experience with the original eight blends that Joe Lankford created. Though they have all been well received in the pipe smoking world, I always felt the uniqueness regarding their creations, e.g., private club blends made public, deserved compilation in written form. I have carefully revisited each blend and updated my reviews for your consideration.
JimInks Rating 3.5 out of 4 stars
Mississippi River became the top seller in the line. In Mississippi River, the red Virginia is tangy, dark fruit sweet with a little earth, rather McClelland-like in that there’s a very mild ‘barbeque’ flavor present at the beginning. The stoved Virginias have a fermented sugary fruitiness. The Cyprian latakia is an important supporting player, adding a sweet smoky, musty woodiness that is obvious in every puff. The perique continuously offers some spice with raisin and fig notes in the background. The Oriental is also a minor player, not always detectable, but it is woody with a slight sour hit here and there. The strength level is in the center of mild to medium while the taste just approaches the medium mark. The nic-hit is shade past mild. It won’t bite or get harsh. Presented in an easily broken apart crumble cake, it may need a little dry time. It burns slow and clean, requires some relights, and has a well-balanced, rich and creamy smooth sweetness to the finish. There is just a little moisture left in the bowl. There is a very pleasant aftertaste and room note. This can be an all-day smoke. Those who are looking for a mid-strength English will find this highly enjoyable. It is truly a blend for all seasons.
JimInks Rating 4 out of 4 stars
In 2016, Joe got his hands on some well-aged, rare flue cured Virginias, and decided to experiment with the formula of the very popular Mississippi River mixture, resulting in a production called Mississippi River Special Reserve. My review details both the new version as well as citing the differences noticed between the two versions. I gave this four stars because of its heightened degree of intricate nuances.
The tangy, dark fruity, earthy red Virginia also has a smidgeon of ‘barbecue’ flavor as it forms the base of the blend. The stoved Virginias have a wine-like darkly sweet fruitiness and a little earthiness, and almost competes with the red for attention. The rare flue cured Virginia provides a hint of grass and some citrus in the background. The perique offers some spice with raisin and fig notes, and is a little more than a condimental addition. The Cyprian latakia supports the Virginias with a sweet smoky, musty woodiness. The Oriental is woody, lightly spicy, with a slight sour hit in places, and plays just below the threshold of the latakia. The nicotine content is just past the center of mild to medium. The taste level is medium, and the strength falls just shy of that mark. There’s no chance of bite or harshness present. The tobacco is an easily broken apart crumble cake. It was a little moist, but I did not feel the need to dry it. I recommend not totally rubbing it out. I broke off small pieces and dropped them into the bowl. It burns a mite slow, cool and clean with a very consistent, richly complex, deeply rich and creamy smooth, smokiness throughout the experience. It requires some relights, and leaves little moisture in the bowl. The lingering after taste is very pleasant, and has a stronger room note. It’s almost an all-day smoke for a beginner, and can be one for the experienced smoker.
In comparison to the original Mississippi River, I find this to be a little smoother and richer in flavor. Its sweetness has a mildly more fermented character than does the regular MR. The addition of the flue cured Virginia adds a pinch of extra complexity. I find the spice content to be a touch greater as well. Perfectly balanced, you’ll notice virtually all the inherent aspects of the tobaccos in every puff.
The use of a wide bowl will enhance your ability to capture all that this highly recommended blend has to offer.
JimInks Rating 3 out of 4 stars
Seattle Pipe Club introduced Deception Pass in 2015 when Joe, who had previously concentrated on English and Balkan mixtures, had a distinctly different blend style up his sleeve. This Virginia/perique blend is comprised of unsweetened black cavendish, red and stoved Virginias, a little Turkish ribbon and Acadian perique, and stands out as a singular entry in the SPC line up.
The base of the blend is black Virginia, which provides lightly tart, fermented dark fruit, earthiness and a little citrus. The mildly spicy, plummy, raisin and fig-like Acadian perique is a supporting player. There’s a little floral mustiness, some tingly spice and wood, a light buttery, creamy sweet and sour savoriness from the Turkish/Oriental that continually plays to your taste buds in small, but distinguishing role. The unsweetened black cavendish offers a little smoothing brown sugar. The strength and nic-hit are a step closer to medium than it is to mild. The taste falls a tad short of the medium threshold. It won’t bite and has no rough edges. It burns cool and clean at a moderate pace with a well-blended, varied, but consistent flavor from start to finish. The blend leaves little dampness in the bowl, and requires an average number of relights. There is a pleasant, lightly lingering spicy, savory aftertaste. This is certainly an all-day smoke that’s hard to beat.
Deception Pass is delightfully different from standard VaPer blends. Joe’s twist on the genre brings his point of view into full focus.
JimInks Rating 3.5 out of 4 stars
Rainier Levant was brought to market in 2016. This blend was Joe’s homage to the famous California blender Drucquer & Sons Levant Mixture, which was discontinued some years ago. It is the fullest Balkan blend in the SPC line up, as it is comprised of sixty percent Cyprian latakia.
The smoky, woody, earthy, musty Cyprian latakia is the lead component without turning this blend into a "lat-bomb". The earthy, woody, dry, buttery and creamy sweet and savory, musty, spicy, floral Oriental/Turkish (including Smyrna) is the second star in its firmament with all its inherent attributes in full display. The piquant, earthy, ripe dark fruity red Virginia is a complimentary varietal that you will always notice, especially the ‘fermented barbecue note’. The strength level is medium when you start and gets a tad stronger by the half way point. The taste is a step over the medium threshold. The nicotine will certainly get your attention as it is a little closer to medium than it is to mild.No chance of bite or harshness exists here as it’s cool smoking from first light to final puff. All the aspects I mentioned reveal themselves in every draw you take, which is the result of the superior blending in the creation of this meaty, flavorful invention. The burn rate is moderate. The tobacco burns cool and clean at a reasonable pace with a well-balanced, very consistent deeply rich flavor all the way to the end. There is a little dampness left in the bowl, and it requires an average number of relights. There is a pleasantly lingering musty, leathery, spicy campfire aftertaste and stronger room note. It’s not really an all-day smoke, but it’s repeatable. I find Rainier Levant works best as an after-meal smoke or to savor every puff as you contemplate the world you observe.
As revealed by these reviews, one sees that Joe’s goal is to develop savory blends that have nuance and character to please a discriminating smoker. Next month, the second installment of this article will focus on the other four luxury Seattle Pipe Club blends from Joe Lankford: Plum Pudding, Plum Pudding Special Reserve, Potlatch, and Seattle Evening. So stay tuned for more smoky latakia.
You can order Seattle Pipe Club blends from PipesandCigars.com and other fine retailers.
The author smoking a Charatan once owned by actor William Conrad
Seattle Pipe Club: Luxury Blends Unlike Any Other (Part 2)
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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With a sweet coffee or tea to accompany, the aftertaste of the maple is reinvigorated on the palate […]
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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, […]
Not the same blends, but I’m aging a tin of Plum Pudding and another of Potlatch, and these reviews whet my appetite. That’s quite a photo portrait of the blender.
Great article, Jim. You captured Mr. Lankford’s blending alchemy very well. I await the next installment.
Thank you Jim, for the informative, and interesting article…It is much appreciated.
Yo Jinx – great writing about great topics. I’m really looking forward to your next installment about the great Plum Pudding. Too bad Pike Place is among the missing.
hp
les
Thanks for a wonderfully written and informative article, Jim.