Sterling / 1776 Tobacco Mega-Review
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Kevin Godbee - Mar 12, 2014
- 13 min read
E. Roberts
The news is oft-repeated here on the forums and at pipe shows, in the NASPC newsletter, and at our pipe clubs—pipe smoking is on the upswing, it’s experiencing a renaissance, a new golden age has dawned. Classic blends of yesteryear are being brought back from the grave, and new blends are being introduced from the major players more frequently than ever, in keeping with the consumer’s fancy. Thus it was a shocking reality check when I received an email back in November telling me that one of the best blenders in the country was going to close shop for good.
Jack Peterson’s Sterling / 1776 Tobacco Co. has been lauded frequently, if somewhat quietly, right here on the PM forums. A cursory search for "Sterling Tobacco" on the forums will turn up dozens of threads singing his praises, and his blends are perennial favorites on the "What are you smoking?" monthly threads. The whole story, in a nutshell, is in itself a glimpse of the way commerce and pipe smoking have both changed so dramatically in the past half-century. Here is the story in brief, in Jack’s own words:
"It began in the 1940’s or 50’s when "Doc" Allan opened business as the Smoke Ring in Rock Falls, a sister city to Sterling. The Smoke Ring is a sports store (still in business) that also sold tobacco products. Doc sold the business and the new owner discontinued the tobacco part of the business. Since Doc had a non-compete clause in the sale, he could not start another business except when the new owner discontinued the tobacco. That’s when Doc started the pipe shop and called it Sterling Pipe Center."
Sterling / 1776, Illustration © 2014 Gordieh Nasseri, commissioned exclusively for PipesMagazine.com
"The store was a success and Doc began experimenting with blending tobacco. His first was "Bush Pilot", followed closely with "Double Eagle" and "Old Dominion", which he said was the first all-black tobacco in the nation.
Doc soon added to his collection of blends and hired reps to sell them east and west. While selling to other tobacco shops, he began selling to the 1776 tobacco shop in Pennsylvania and acquired their name and customer list when they went out of business. As smoking declined so did the ability to finance sales people.
In 1977 my brothers and I acquired the business and I began blending tobaccos too. Smoking continued to fall and the city wanted to renovate the downtown area so we closed the store. I bought the remaining business from my brothers and continued selling to our customers via mail order. Along came the Internet, which has helped me to renew the business, and so we come to today. So goes my tale."
From the days of traveling salesmen in the 50s to the slow but steady decline of pipe smoking through the subsequent decades, the business managed to soldier on due to one man’s passion for the art and science of hand-blending tobacco. Jack knew from the outset that it would never make him rich, but that it would surely keep him content. The past few years have seen mergers and acquisitions on the corporate level, but still an ever-waning voice for the true independents like him. So how could it be, during this great tobacco revival, that Jack was shutting down?
The main culprits are rising production costs and the increasingly negative attitude toward tobacco from our lawmakers, evidenced in punitive taxation and more restrictive legislation about when and where one may enjoy tobacco—for example, the embargo that Washington State has implemented. When Jack and his brothers purchased the Sterling Tobacco shop from Doc Allen in 1977, the decline of pipe smoking was already well underway. His old tobacco supplier was sold to another company, which then went out of business; the next supplier was substantially more expensive, and when they too went under the next supplier was again more costly. He also doesn’t deal in the volume that major blenders do, obviously, which accentuates the per-pound cost that he’s begrudgingly been forced to pass on to customers over the past few years. The Internet has enabled him to continue the business since closing the physical shop, and places like pipe forums have helped spread the word about his blends. Still, with the enormity of the World Wide Web it’s easy to be lost in the vast sea of information, as any digital entrepreneur can attest. It’s a full-time business just to keep the lights on and blinking, as it were.
Another difficulty Jack faces is the changing nature of the pipe tobacco consumer. His customers of old would tend to settle on one or a few blends that suited their tastes and they’d stay with them, ordering by the pound at regular intervals. The paradigm is different now, with today’s consumer being much more experimental and varied in their choices, preferring to purchase 2-ounces of many different blends. This is evidenced by the staggering number of blends available from the big blenders, which number in the hundreds in some cases. For this one-man operation, it has become an added hurdle to the economics of offering his blends commercially. Even Russ Ouellette has commented on this fact recently, in his article "Yet Somehow…", noting that, "The specialty tobacco industry is much smaller than it used to be, yet the market demands new products, constantly…the customer wants to choose from a broader selection of goods."
There is a silver lining to the story, thankfully. When Jack sent out that email in November, his fans took notice. The story of fabled, favorite blends being discontinued is unfortunately a fact of the business, from the legendary Balkan Sobranie to more recent announcements from no less than Mac Baren, who has abandoned a number of blends, including one of my personal favorites, Burley London Blend. No matter how much we want a blend to be there forever, if it can’t turn a profit then there will be no one to make it. Thanks to his sterling reputation (pun certainly intended) and amazing blends, we convinced him to keep blending if just for a while longer. He offers 47 different mixtures on his site as well as the "Bargain Blend" of table scraps, representing a wide variety of Latakia, Virginia, burley and aromatic styles, of which I’ll review a few of my favorites here. So, without further ado, the tobaccos—with a composite score followed by their respective (presentation / draw & burn / flavor + aroma) numbers, and [ingredients].
Royal London Dock 90 (11 / 33 / 46) [Cav/Bur/Per/Lat/Or]
I’ll always think of this as the blend that really turned me on to Latakia. Plenty of Oriental spice up front that sets the stage for the smoky complexity of the Latakia, a draw and burn that are practically effortless with the slightly nutty burley, and the very definition of an all-day smoke. It presents a balanced mixture of light caramel-colored and dark leaf in a coarse and ribbon cut, though with a somewhat deceptively bland bouquet; a bit like a fresh box of pencils with its woody Oriental note. The light releases the tang of burley, backed with the floral and woody tones of the Orientals. By mid-bowl it has developed fully, with a brilliantly medium earthy flavor—think Portobello steak with a touch of hoisin sauce; it also consistently hits an oak-beech nut smokiness that reminds me of Scouting campfires Upstate. Puffing too fast will release some astringency, but on the whole it’s easy to sip slowly. With a slight tannic aftertaste that pairs superbly with black teas, it shines in both small bowls and large, changing character to suit. The room note displays a bit more of the Latakia pungency than one tastes directly—it smells a much heavier blend than it is; it’s best enjoyed around smokers. Note to self: buy more.
Chairman of the Board 88 (12 / 30 / 46) [VA/Bur/Lat/Or]
A light English style blend, using choice Orientals—Dubek and Mahala (Basma varieties) as well as Yenidje—this one is as classy as it sounds, and I could definitely see Ol’ Blue Eyes filling his pipe with this one. Lighter mahogany, caramel and dun colored leaf sprinkled through with black Latakia combine to magnificent effect. The aroma has hints of floral sweetness mingled in with a graham cracker bready note. Repeated bowls call to mind white chocolate s’mores, in a tobacco sort of way of course. It can burn a bit hot, though I tend to blame this on my propensity to push it while chasing the delicious flavor and complexity of the Basma leaf. Interestingly, this blend contains the same ingredient list as the recently reviewed Lane Crown Achievement, touted as one of the most expensive blends to produce, yet definitely stands apart as its own finished product and at a very comfortable price point.
Sweet Briar 93 (13 / 33 / 47) [Aromatic-Bur/VA]
Touted as his best-selling aromatic, with an aroma that ladies love, this is a study in restraint. It’s a light blonde mélange of mainly coarse cut & cubed burley with just a pinch of Virginia bright leaf and a hint of aromatic flavoring. In the jar, once settled, it builds up a lovely honeysuckle bouquet that, quite honestly, does smell remarkably like briar wood lightly sweetened. The flavor of the smoke is solidly tobacco-centric, with just enough of a crisp edge and creamy body, while the room note is sweet and slightly floral, with a hint of butterscotch, honey and vanilla, yet so light that I almost want to shy away from calling it an aromatic—and it absolutely is a crowd pleaser. It is, in many ways, a paradigm of a classic sweet tobacco profile that could appeal to smokers of all genres. On top of that, it burns cleanly and leaves only a faint hint of its passing, not gooping up or ghosting a pipe in the least—in fact I could recommend it as a great breaking-in smoke for your new briars unreservedly. I place it easily in my top 5 aromatics of all time.
Country Store Georgia Peach 80 (12 / 28 / 40) [Aromatic-Bur/VA/Cav]
If you follow my by-line you know I’m a fan of aromatics, and there’s really nothing better to chase the winter blues away than a bowl redolent with the warming sweet aroma of fresh summer peaches. Arriving with a bit more moisture than most of his blends, it displays its top dressing of peach brandy admirably in the mix, mainly cubed cut with a dose of ribbon and loose sprinkled in. There are no fireworks with this understated blend, just a solid performer with pure tobacco flavor enhanced, not hidden, by the aromatic flavoring.
VP (Virginia and Perique) 94 (13 / 33 / 48) [VA/Per]
One of the most recent additions to Jack’s oeuvre, this toasted Virginia and Perique blend is, in a word, amazing. VaPer blends are my favorites, so I’m flagrantly biased; that being said, it’s a genre with a glut of incremental variations on the theme yet very few standouts—and this is definitely one. For starters, it’s a dark and dangerous looking brew of deep black leaf with a mere smattering of bright ribbons sprinkled in. The aroma is correspondingly deep, pungent and earthy…and with a note that comes across as a whisper of Latakia, though none is in the blend. Here is the magic of the blender’s art, using the toasted Virginia and Perique in such proportion as to give the effect of another leaf entirely. It dances with the Perique, serving to accentuate opposing ends of the flavor spectrum: drawing a strawberry jam-like sweetness out at the top, while adding definition to the earthy truffle-ish bottom notes. The toasted Virginia further offers a sweet and savory component to this hearty blend, with the proviso that it can turn a bit ashy when pushed. GLP Fillmore is of the same ilk, though the VA component in this sets it apart. Highly recommended for fans of the genre.
1776 Briar Creek Natural 81 (11 / 30 / 40) [VA/Bur/Or]
Many of Jack’s blends have an inherent old-timey flavor profile that is hard to define: they smell like the memory of pipe smoke as much as anything, perhaps drawn from the collective unconscious. This is one of the most appealing facets of his estimable talents as a blender, and what makes his blends unlike any other. Briar Creek Natural is perhaps one of the blends that best exemplify his trademark flavor. Presenting a slightly vegetal "tin" aroma and a fairly even-colored composition, the true delight is in the smoke, which although it can veer toward burning a bit hot is delightful from char to heel. Red and lemon Virginias forward, superb burley for the backbone, and a painter’s touch with the Orientals to highlight the mixture’s sweet and savory balance describe the flavor profile. Try a bowl after a meal of baked lemon-pepper sole and marvel at the pairing. No, really—this blend nails the lemony sweetness of the Virginias with the peppery sharpness of the Orientals, carried in the creamy nuttiness of burley. This is what many OTC blends strive to be yet fall short on delivering.
American Patriot 87 (12 / 33 / 42) [Lat/VA/Or]
In keeping with the PipesMagazine connection, the last blend reviewed is American Patriot, a blend inspired by Penzance and concocted at the behest of forum member Marty Tannen ("mjtannen"). Not a clone of the Esoterica product, but inspired by it, American Patriot is a hearty English blend that should definitely appeal to adherents of that hard-to-find delicacy. Visually it’s a delight, a perfectly even mix of jet-black leaf and bright flue-cured and Oriental ribbon, packed loose and dry as opposed to Penzance’s moist wet flakes. In this lies its strength, as it lights, burns and draws infinitely better than that flake—often reaching the heel with a single light in fact—and delivers a decided Lat-bomb of flavor. The balance, like all of Jack’s efforts, is really quite perfect for the blend, and this should satisfy Latakiaphiles of all sorts, particularly those biding their time between Esoterica shipments.
Jack is still content to do business more or less the old-fashioned way: go to his website, SterlingTobaccoCo.com, make your selections, and pay him by check/money order, or shoot him an email and pay him via PayPal. Also worth noting is that his blends come perfectly ready to smoke, and are on the dry side; they’re all natural mixtures free of humectants or mold inhibitors, simply pure tobacco and occasionally lightly topped with flavoring. For small quantities they’re in baggies, and larger quantities warrant plastic tubs, and the shipping charge is minimal. He’s always more than happy to help beginning or experienced pipe smokers in selecting blends based on what they like, and that his catalogue offers a compelling price alternative for such boutique products is certainly an added bonus. While he doesn’t often take on the task of custom blending, he can be convinced every once in a blue moon, and I for one hope to see new blends appear on the page from time to time. Perhaps a few more pipe smokers getting turned on to his product can inspire him. I’ll leave you with a few words of his advice to new pipe enthusiasts:
"Learn how to pack for each tobacco. Start out with corncobs; if it sticks, get more pipes. And keep your pipes clean." Words to live by.
Written by Kevin Godbee
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When I first started with the pipe as a quirky and precocious teen, the only tutelage I had at my disposal were scenes from old movies in which a well dressed chap would stick his pipe into a pouch, scoop tobacco into the bowl and press it down unceremoniously with his thumb. Then, with great flourish, he’d strike a match and light the thing with all manner of cinematic excess, puffing up vast clouds of smoke falling just short of completely obscuring his visage. While it may look good on film, it’s a terrible approach to actually enjoying the thing. Somehow, though, this “technique” seems to have survived in the contemporary vernacular, at least to some extent, even with bit-loads of information handily at our fingertips that should dissuade us from the practice. But, at the time, this misguided approach was all I had; it’s no wonder my early days of puffing were fraught with difficult lighting, harsh, bitter smokes and tongue bite, all culminating in a fireproof mass of ye old soggy dottle in the bottom of the bowl. Ultimately, the resulting frustration made me give up the pipe, at least for a while. While the idea of it was still very appealing, the practice of it was not. It wasn’t until a few years later when, still full of curiosity and romantic notions of pipe smoking, I wandered into a real tobacconist’s shop, and learned my “method” was a long way from the techniques that would bring me to any sort of pipe smoking bliss. So, after my poor start, and under the guidance of someone who actually seemed to know how to do it right, I was given the opportunity to approach the process anew, this time with much greater success. It was only because I was both perseverent, and fortunate to have a local shop staffed with knowledgeable people, that I’ve been able to enjoy the experience ever since. At least mostly… How many fledgeling pipe smokers have simply given up on an enjoyable pastime because of similar early mis-starts? Fortunately, today, it’s not hard to find helpful guidance at the press of a key or ten. 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Before we begin, I should tell you: this tobacco review is being written by an A.I. Not the fancy new GPTs or their ilk; no, this is last century’s meat-and-bone, all-organic model. To be fair, a large part of what we call knowledge is merely the accumulated perceptions and impressions gathered from a life wandered through, synthesized into a spongy mass of what-it-is-that-we-think-that-we-know. The algorithm for this prompt is simple enough: pump thousands of bowls of smoldering plant matter into a gaping maw, cross-reference the chemical sensations with all other matter previously ingested or inhaled, sieve it all through the diffuse and fractal twin lens of memory and emotion, and churn out a panoply of adjectives that attempts to convey the sensations to someone who hasn’t experienced it yet. Odds are that a diligently trained monkey could succeed half the time; if this reviewer nears fifty-one percent then that would qualify as an unrivaled success. There must have been some similar musings perambulating through the mind of Per Jensen when he began his mad scientist routine at Sutliff with the Pipe Force project, which brings us to the current mixture under the microscope—Sutliff’s Pipe Force: Episode I. Here again are the unusual ingredients that engendered the series, with the stoved Rustica being the defining voice in this composition. From the tin: The Latakia-forward English mixture offers plenty of smoky flavor from the fire-cured leaf, which is artfully harmonized with floral, earthy Stoved Rustica. A mixture of high-grade Virginias imparts a natural sweetness. Katerini, the sole Oriental component, offers herb and spice notes bringing complexity and nuance to the flavor profile. It’s certainly Latakia-forward, with the stoved Rustica doubling up on the rhythm section like a second bassist. A first whiff from the tin releases the aromas of shoe leather and hide glue in a base of clay soil with a campfire wafted over it like last night’s beach party. Once it’s been accustomed to oxygen again, subtle hints of sweetness poke through from the Virginias: lemon rind, light milk chocolate, the dregs of a peaty Scotch, and muddled cherry. Old regulars like fresh-sawn oak and tilled earth are there, of course, with distinct notes of truffle, creosote, damp peat, and pine bark mulch. As an aside, I’ve been re-potting my camellias and the similarity of aroma to the ericaceous soil mix is notable; the Katerini really brings the unique depth of its vegetal complexion when supported by the Rustica and afforded more voice in the mix. The smoky Cyprian Latakia, in turn, is backed by equal earthiness from the Rustica, which overall exhibits a profile similar to dark-fired Kentucky; it leans more toward the woody and vegetal end of that spectrum, echoing and amplifying those traits of the other constituents. The tobacco is presented pressed and cut into a couple of thick, hearty flakes in the tin, lightly moist and easily crumbled to prepare—I prefer mine with a bit of drying time. The out-of-this-world tin art for this episode in the series is Major O’Meara smoking a cavalier. In the absence of confirmation, I’m going to hazard a guess he’s of the Ithklur species. The first taste from the light is sweet, with hints of that milk chocolate dancing around the edges. The Virginia leads the smoke through the top of the bowl, and orchestrates it well. Thoroughly smoky with lemony, grassy highlights from the Virginia spectrum, it soon segues into the mid-bowl profile: heartier, smokier, with the flavor leaning to the mildly acrid and tangy tinge that is the campfire-esque signature of English blends. Caution advised, it can turn overly bitter if pushed—this is where one’s sipping technique is required to maintain the fullness of flavor through to the heel. I did tend toward a lot of relights, though it may have as much to do with technique as with the blend. Pacing is also important as the nicotine starts to manifest; though the Rustica’s contribution has been tempered well by the stoving, it can certainly upend an empty stomach. At the end of every bowl, the mouthfeel somehow gets better. The balance of sugars in the tobaccos would seem to be spot-on in this regard. I started out my tasting in cobs, then cut short an unpleasant bowl in a meer, and finally landed on my best instrument with the lovely Dunhill 4427 pictured, a quaint group 4 shell briar with a gentle curve and Cumberland stem supporting a perfectly executed acorn bowl. It surprised me here, as I’ve learned through the years that I generally have the best experience with English blends in large, wide bowls. With this blend it seems that to get the best out of the Katerini’s somewhat diaphanous influence the smaller bowl fared much better. Room note is very English, so the company you keep will either love it or hate it, and it doesn’t linger too much. I find it paired best with a strong coffee; Sumatran beans complement the flavors well, as do Ethiopian if a lighter brew is preferred. Overall impressions of the blend are that it’s a curiously interesting take on the English genre, almost a reductive reconstruction of the theme using the unique components. This blend, if nothing else, expanded my vocabulary of sense perceptions with the uniquely treated leaf. While the average human can distinguish approximately one trillion (1,000,000,000,000!) different aromas, multiplied by seven basic tastes, and wholly dependent on variables from body chemistry to atmospheric conditions, our overworked and underpaid simian brains can’t effectively catalog them all. Our pet adding machines are exceedingly good at this, however, and someday soon they’ll be the ultimate and unequivocal authority on what something tastes, smells, looks, or even feels like. Until that time, friends, revel in the moments that can be stolen to savor over a bowl of Pipe Force: Episode I.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 603. Our featured interview tonight is with Rick Newcombe. Rick is a well-known author of several pipe books, and he is currently working on his third book. He is a prominent collector of Danish pipes, and vintage tobaccos. He has traveled the world visiting pipe makers, and learning their different techniques. He is also the founder and chairman of Creators Syndicate, which currently represents more than 200 writers and artists. At the top of the show we’ll have a Pipe Smoking 101 segment discussing best pipe shapes and sizes that are best suited to certain types of tobacco.
Bill, Another good write up.
A really nice read! Again!
Many thanks for the reviews.
I’m smoking “My Buddy” while I enjoyed reading your reviews. I’m definitely a fan of these blends.
Great article about a stand-up guy and his outstanding blends. Those of you in the Chicago area can also pick up many of Jack’s blends at the Bull and Bear in St. Charles.
Ya , I have quite a few of Jack’s blends, including the VP. All good stuff
He’s definitely not talked about enough on the forums. He’s a master blender in my opinion and is tied for first place with G.L. Pease. The American Patriot is truly extraordinary. I hope his business looks up from here onward because I do not wish to lose his brilliant blends.
Can’t wait to try some of these blends!! Thanks for the great review!!
@eoberg–That’s great to know, eo. It didn’t come up in my conversations with Jack; I’ll chalk that up to forgetfulness on my part to ask. If I make it to the Chicago show this year I’ll have to stop by the Bull & Bear.
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Would also love to hear any other folks’ reviews of Jack’s blends. Time and space limited me to seven blends, though I had originally slated only four.
Fantastic review! I’m a fan of his Bostonian. It’s a little different every time I smoke it (in a good way!)