Where Am I Going & What Am I Doing In This Handbasket?
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Kevin Godbee - Nov 2, 2011
- 6 min read
By Russ Ouellette
The implication of the title of this article would imply that I’m going to hell, and if you listen to some of the antis, they would reinforce that belief. In actuality, when I see the large number of our customers who are in their eighties and nineties who light up daily, I feel confident that some of those folks are still alive and kicking due to the peace of mind and almost zen-like relaxation that smoking a pipe can bring.
As to whether I’m involved in a noble profession, that’s a matter of perspective. And I’m certainly not doing this because of financial gain. Don’t get me wrong, I get paid fairly for what I do, but there are certainly a number of other things I could do that would pay me better. So why do it? First, I love tobacco blending. It’s the closest thing I can think of to becoming a chef without having to deal with a 130 degree kitchen in July. Plus I get the additional benefit of performing my tasks and serving people around the world.
I love the nuances of using Virginia like sugar, Perique like pepper, Latakia like Liquid Smoke, etc. One of the things that I find attractive is failure. Obviously, I don’t like missing my mark when I’m trying to put something new together, but it’s in sampling the mistakes that I discover what some of the combinations actually do, rather than the way I expect. Every time I don’t accomplish what I’m aiming for, I learn something new, and I file it in the back of my mind for use at a later date.
Another aspect of my job is to write material for our websites, and (as a sideline) for PipesMagazine.com and CigarChronicles.com. Since this has become a bigger part of my responsibility, I find that it helps keep me fresh. I can deal with questions, write about processes, tobaccos, the business and the people. I can work in some of my passions, like the article about Sherlock Holmes or have a few laughs with definitions (September, 2011). I also find that, as I write, I’ll occasionally look at things from a slightly different perspective, and that may lead to a discovery or a whole new idea.
Something else that I do for Habana Premium Cigar Shoppe/PipesandCigars.com is to answer customer questions about the products we carry. I’m still dumbfounded by the amount of misinformation that is spread about pipes, tobaccos and cigars. You would think that there would be enough ways for people to get the truth – with magazines, websites from the manufacturers and retailers and sites that use industry professionals as writers, but sadly, there’s still enough bulls**t (def- effluvia from a male bovine) that circulates in a way that presents itself as fact to choke said bull. If we, in the tobacco industry, are fortunate enough to have a customer pick up a phone and call, or take the time to email with a question regarding the misinformation, we can save him or her time, aggravation and money, but there are a lot of folks we never reach, so they wind up getting burned.
When I can help someone out, it makes my day. This is the true definition of “win-win”. The customer goes away happy, the company reinforces a good relationship, and I feel good that someone’s day has been made a little better. That’s probably one of the reasons that so many anti-smokers are miserable; they only get to give people bad news (as they interpret it, even when the numbers don’t add up). When I can identify a tobacco for someone who hasn’t been able to locate it, I know that I’ve made someone’s life a bit more enjoyable, and that helps me get to sleep at night.
I also get to go to the pipe shows. If you haven’t had the enjoyment of attending one of these, you should make it a point to get to one. Almost universally, the people I know from the pipe side of this business are among the kindest, most generous and accepting individuals I have met. It was a little over five years ago that I began to attend the shows. When I first got there, I had no idea how things worked, and although I knew some industry people who were there, I couldn’t bother them while they were taking care of their own business…or so I thought. When I ran into problems where I might be missing some tape, pens or the like, I found that just asking was all it took. All of a sudden I went from feeling like an outsider to being "one of the guys" (even though there’s a number of women among the "guys" today), and I will be eternally grateful to all the amazing people who sit behind the tables at these shows.
Additionally, I get to meet many of our customers and potential customers. I enjoy helping pipesters find the right sample(s) to try based on their likes and dislikes. We’ll get into conversations about blends and pipes from the past, families, hobbies, characters we’ve known and much more, and I often get a better sense of how my efforts impact other people. It can be a very humbling situation. At a recent show, I was talking to someone regarding a tobacco from the past that I had reproduced as accurately as I could. I was told that, when this customer was in college, he had started smoking a pipe, and he fell in love with this older blend which he smoked about 75% of the time. When he got home for the holidays, he told his father that he had taken up the pipe (Dad was a pipe smoker as well), and he took out his tin to light up. His father asked him what he was smoking, and he offered him the tin so he could try some. Dad fell in love with the blend, too. So every time he would go home, he always brought his father a tin, as no one in Dad’s area carried it.
Years passed, and his father did also. Around the same time, the company discontinued the blend, so for a long time, there was an empty space for this gentleman. Last year, he sampled one of my blends, which happened to be the one that I intended to be similar to his old favorite. He came back to my table after trying it and told me the history and then proceeded to tell me that when he got a few puffs into the bowl, he felt tears welling up as it reminded him of the bonding that had occurred with his father. I’m not an overly emotional guy, but I got a little misty and choked up after hearing him.
This is why I find the handbasket fairly comfortable, and I hear that it’s nice and warm where I’m headed.
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Russ Ouellette is the blender/creator of the Hearth & Home series of tobaccos for Habana Premium Cigar Shoppe and www.pipesandcigars.com in Albany, NY. He has been a pipe smoker and blender for over 30 years, and enjoys feedback from the pipe smoking public. You can reach Russ at russo@pipesandcigars.com or by calling 1-800-494-9144 on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 9 am to 5 pm and Friday from 1 pm to 5 pm. |
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! 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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. While it rates as a solid, fairly mild smoke, particularly to lovers of the genre, it does not surprise with any exceptional flavors. To be fair, all the boxes have been checked for the blend to benefit from some real aging, and it would be worth checking in on this after a couple of years sealed away. I’ve set half my tin aside to sample again in a month or two, in case I’m merely suffering from the lingering effects of parosmia, and will amend this review in that case. Maple Shadows II, on the other hand, made up for the weeks of sniffling and sneezing I’d endured. Offered in a full 8 ounce tin with delightfully spooky Halloween art, it’s (hopefully) enough to last through the season. Somehow I had missed this last year, so it’s a real pleasure to get some in my candy bucket this year. As the chilling winds of autumn draw eerie prattle from contorted, deciduous limbs, we find ourselves possessed by the spirit of the season. 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 article Russ. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us.
Taking time out for a pipe and peace of mind as a result just HAS to help one live longer. Even when I’m carrying a pipe in my teeth while busy I’m in a good space. Ya just have to slow down something in the day’s events to have a decent smoke even on the run or the pipe will snap at ya and let ya know to s-l-o-w down a bit.
Russ you have been very helpful in my quest for my custom blend,Piney Glade, and my hat is off to you with your prompt responses to emails, thank you.
If it weren’t for me being a pipe smoker I never would have met a certain Brother of Briar online and developed a good freindship.
Through participating on a pipe forum I met a fellow recovering person and have shared many mutual interests even though he’s 20yrs younger than I. I AM greateful for folks like you and other Fellow Of The Craft.
i’m in the basket with you, Russ, and a finer place i could not pick.
Russ, what’s with that last paragraph?!?!? Are you TRYING to make me cry?!?!!? Nice article!
Great article,Russ! It’s nice to be in a profession you love, I know, I was in the business for about 10 years myself. If there was a decent B&M in the area, I’d try to get back into it.
Great article my friend. Take solace in the fact that you bring happyness to pipe smokers everywhere.
Thank you Russ for that little peek behind the curtain. As always; a very good read, thoroughly enjoyed.
hahahaha very good article. touching and good to know hell will be a nice place with all of us there.
Great essay, Russ – thanks.
Thanks for an entertaining and well written article. I can’t begin to tell you how much I appreciate your blending accomplishments. A substantial portion of the Hearth & Home line brightens my day, every day; and the bliss of my one indulgence in life would be greatly diminished without the work you do.
Great article Russ, it is neat to about hear the hobby from the perspective of a blender/retailer. Thanks!
I envy those who do what makes them happy, not what makes them money. Great Article!
Well keep making those wonderful Orientals and Balkans and I will keep reviewing them. You made it easy for me with MAgnum Opus and Black HOuse. Funny how you mentioned cooking because I often compare food experiences with my tastes of tobacco. Magnum Opus is an exciting blend that lends itself to all sorts of pairings, be it coffee, a dark beer or even cowboy coffee, a campfire and roasted corn. Black House is the companion of the decadent. Marrow Bones simmered with butter, a few slightly seared white aparagus with butter and a chocolate torte for dessert with a deep Burgundy followed by a spiritual cleansing of a Swiss Verte Absinthe sipped slow, while the BH is smoked slow, preferably in a meer or a warden.
I think I got something in my eye near the end there. Something manly, like sawdust or sand spit up from a top fuel bike doing a burnout. 🙂
Thanks for the article, Russ.
Simon
Hey Russ, may God give u many years still to keep up the great job u do!! Thanks my friend!
Wonderful article Russ! Just had an argument with my doctor the other day about pipesmoking & how it helps stress, and can calm you! Thanks again, John Christman
Great read Russ..slide over and make some room in that hand basket…..Loved the way you mentioned learning from the mistakes,..kinda like playing the “wrong” chord and then finding out it’s a better one to play..improvisation in blending..mistakes can be better then what was intended. Blend and Smoke on….
Funn
That was a thoroughly enjoyable article. Thank you Russ!
Indeed, you have fine job. As a pipe smoker the best thing is, that it sometimes reminds someone of a close uncle or father that has passed away.
Enjoyed your article with some Anniversary Kake, Russ, and once again you’ve made me jealous and instilled more than a little yearning to get into the business, handbasket and all!
I truly love what I do for a living, but there are aspects of it I wouldn’t wish on anyone, mainly the garbage I get from anti-smokers. But, it’s more than made up for by all the kind words from customers and the friendships I’ve made with amazingly talented people in the industry. I used to admire the work of many of these folks for years and now I count them among my friends and look forward to the shows so we can get together and have some laughs.
Likewise, the opportunity to express my thoughts, for what they’re worth, here on PipesMagazine.com and CigarChronicles.com has been cathartic, and I really enjoy the comments and feedback.
Russ
Dealing with antis is much like dealing with religious zealots. You can’t force to see someone who has sewn his own eyes shut. The myopic noise they spew may work its way into the tin ear of a politician who can’t hear reason and is searching for a way to pretend he is doing his job, but it won’t stand against the million fires of not only we who appreciate what you do, but the great minds of the past, whose ability to reason reminds us every day to be humble in our thoughts and serious as we appreciate the balm that is contemplating the glowing ember and the ethereal wreath about our heads. You will need the warmth of all who wish to join you because the opponents of liberty and free thought will make hell a cold place.
Great Article Russ! Now you got me curious what is the blend you made that is similar to one the Son smoked with his Dad? Is it available or a custom blend. Would love to know.