The Pipes Magazine Radio Show – Episode 23
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Kevin Godbee
- Feb 20, 2013
- 1 min read
Kevin Godbee
Welcome to our special extended edition of the show for International Pipe Smoking Day. Episode 23 is being broadcast a day early at noon eastern US time so the entire world can join in. Brian will be talking to Tad Gage about blending tobaccos and the history of his two blends; Three Oaks and Three Oaks Syrian. You will hear some interesting news about the state of the pipe making business in the European Union—it’s kind of a good news / bad news situation that Brian learned about during his trip to Denmark and Germany last week. We’ll be running the show slightly longer in celebration of IPSD. Sit back, light up a pipe and enjoy.
Today’s show is sponsored by SmokingPipes.com, Missouri Meerschaum, 4noggins.com, and Cup O’ Joes. Please give them some consideration when making your next pipe or tobacco purchase.
We hope you enjoy our special 1-hour show produced just for you—the pipe smoker and collector. The following link will launch a pop-up player. Alternatively, you can download the show in iTunes after the initial broadcast is complete here.
Tad Gage
Click Here to read our tobacco review of 3 Oaks Syrian
Tad’s first appearance was on Episode 7 of The Pipes Magazine Radio Show
Oliver Twist (Click Pic for Larger Image)
Written by Kevin Godbee
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Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 623. Our featured interview tonight is with pipe maker Chris Herriot. Chris lives in France, and grew up in the U.K. He started making pipes during the pandemic and posting about his progress. Chris Kelly of Eldritch Pipes noticed and offered to teach him. Later, Chris traveled to St. Claude, France where pipe maker Bruno Nuttens offered him additional training. At the top of the show we will continue with our ongoing tour of Brian’s pipe collection with four pipes from Ernie Markle.
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We’re in the dog days of summer, and in the heat and humidity I find my palate tends to become as erratic as the extreme weather. To be more precise, my entire biochemistry is busily making the continual adjustments that keep this finely-tuned machine old jalopy of a body in top form hobbling along, and my taste buds are a good indicator that the system is preoccupied with regulating itself. Therefore it’s no surprise that McCranie’s Roanoke, the tobacco that I’d been favoring since the winter months and regularly returning to between other review blends, just wasn’t hitting the spot anymore. We live in fortunate times that present no shortage of novel and interesting blends to try, so some speculation toward new flavors is in order. This month’s spotlight will thus fall on a couple of summer sequels, of a sort: first, the latest installment of Per Jensen’s Pipe Force line, Episode II to be exact; second, a new incarnation of Seattle Pipe Club’s Hogshead, this time with a bourbon barrel-aged twist. Much like The Empire Strikes Back improved on the previous film in that series, Episode II is a generational improvement on the English profile offered in Episode I. To my personal taste, while I enjoyed Episode I quite a bit, it didn’t have a definable hook for me; this iteration of a similar ingredient list hits much closer to the mark. Here again it is a Latakia-forward mixture presented with Katerini concoctions and stoved tobaccos, but with more variety and, for my money, more interest. From the tin: A mellow, sweet mixture of Bright, Red, and Stoved Virginia offers the exceptional base for smokey Latakia, floral Kentucky, spice of Stoved Katerini and the ambrosial berry and spice of Katerini Perique. The result is a harmony of flavor in perfect balance. The bouquet in the tin is tart, heathery, and leathery, in equal proportion. The aroma is dry and smoky with clear clay overtones and, as advertised, faint berry notes from the tin. In the bowl the sweetness sneaks in immediately, displaying a wonderful synergy between the Katerini Perique (Periquini? Katerique?) and the Virginias, offering a flavor unique and quite apart from the usual raisiny range commonly found in Virginia / Perique meldings. Conversely, the Latakia’s smoky, burning-rubber character is also influenced by the Katerini, directing it toward a very pinyon-esque range of aroma that lingers distinctly the room note afterward. Speaking of room note, it can become rather tart after repeated bowls—advise any expected visitors that no, there isn’t a diesel fire in your house, you’re just savoring your time with a new blend. It’s offered as a tight 50g crumble cake, easily broken apart for preparation. As if it needed any more curb appeal, every 10th tin of the series includes a challenge coin featuring the tin’s artwork inside, and this was a lucky tin. It’s a great way to have fun with the series, makes a great addition to the random tchotchkes adorning one’s desk, and serves as a very tactile fidget toy that doubles as a brand reminder—is it time to stock up again? In my testing it seemed at its best in a wider, shallower bowl; the ember was easier to tend, breath pacing allowed a fuller flavor, and it didn’t veer too strongly to the tarry tones that Lat can have. Of the flavors there were many—often varying from bowl to bowl, and very dependent on accompanying beverage or previous meal, it seems. It’s an unfocused blend, but not to its detriment in this regard; it had a very consistent overall tone, with each bowl eliciting some new and interesting flavor moments—my notes are all over the spectrum, with observations like popcorn, maple bacon, charred cardboard, the aforementioned diesel fumes, burnt beef ends, dried silage, musky oak, swamp water (peaty!), and dried vodka. Appreciably, those who enjoy Latakia will read all these descriptors and understand that none of them are negative. It was so fun to keep chasing these disparate flavors that I did incur some mouth fatigue, just this side of bite, after rapidly repeated bowls. Slow smoking and pacing are advised, as the nicotine was mild enough to not discourage such practice. Overall, Episode II is a blend with so many interesting things going on that it warrants another taste after it has some age on it. My hope is that with some time in the tin, the Latakia notes will tone down on the dryness and the Viriginia / Katerique sweetness will amplify, with all the other cacophonous notes finding their home in the in-between spaces comfortably. Per’s experiments with these new treatments of old leaf are yielding remarkable results, and I look forward to seeing them in more blends in the future, and indeed more innovation of this sort in the tobacco world in general. Tasting something so similar, yet so slightly different, from what’s been available before is what this market needs. Seattle Pipe Club Hogshead: Bourbon Barrel Aged Review Our second summer blockbuster is SPC’s Hogshead: Bourbon Barrel Aged. Somewhat akin to that other summer blockbuster, Deadpool & Wolverine, this one is a cut above its predecessor. Thank you ladies and gentlemen, I’ll be here all week, tip your waitress… Vintage Virginia tobacco cultivated from around the world aged in a bourbon barrel for 30 days. The tobacco is then pressed and cut for a unique and one of a kind smoking experience. Well at least they didn’t prattle on with the ad copy and let the blend speak for itself. Veering a hard left from the boisterous melange of the Pipe Force, this iteration of Hogshead is a dead simple straight Virginia blend of the same 10-year-old red & orange used in the prior, this time presented in thickly-sliced pressed flakes, aged in bourbon barrels. Deceptively simple, that is—the flavors of this blend are robust and varied, punching above their weight class for being confined to the comparatively narrow range of “just Virginia”. The first […]
This is going to be one of those friendly chats between friends. That’s you and me, pipe smokers of the realm. As I have mentioned before in praising pipe puffers: we are the mind workers of the world! “Friends” is the word of the day. One of my besties is my pipe. I take it everywhere. On a visit to Rowan Oak, way back there, the beautiful country home of legendary author William Faulkner, I was stunned almost silly walking through the rooms where the Nobel Laureate author lived and wrote of his extensive southern view. I have described this adventurous trip to Oxford, Mississippi, before. A well-smoked pipe was stuffed inside a tweed coat pocket with his favorite blend of the day. The tobacco was dried inside the bowl almost to the consistency of dust. The coat was draped over a wooden peg in a hallway as if awaiting Faulkner’s return. That scene inspired Pundit to emulate one of his favorite authors, beginning a habit that continues: pipes go with me everywhere, in coat pockets, bags, satchels, etc. Pipes are especially important in my outdoor jaunts when the sun also rises. Mr. Hemingway was an occasional pipe smoker, great angler, and outdoorsman, in addition to being rather good at penning stories. Recently reading about environmental concerns, which involve us pipe smokers since our beloved hobby is earth-bound in agriculture and nature, I encountered a beautiful line by writer, Krista Langlois, in Sierra, the magazine of The Sierra Club. She authored a story about sitting off in the distance and observing the Sleeping Ute Mountains near Cortez, Colo. The mountain, she says, is sacred and managed by the Ute Mountain Tribe. She longed to hike the mountain but had to settle for taking in the view, just as we must do as well when following the sun and just stopping long enough to light a pipe and take in the natural beauty. “But as a mountain, I will forever look at and never touch, it becomes something else entirely: a physical reminder of all I can never understand or conquer, and all I can learn by sitting still,” she wrote. Isn’t this what our pipes are for? To help us understand and perhaps conquer all we can by just being still and observing. Puffing our pipes and seeing a full moon in August. It’s known as the Sturgeon Moon, a time when Native Americans knew freshwater fish was abundant in nearby waters. Or, like the great Yogi Berra, the New York Yankees baseball philosopher/manager (who loved his cigars) once said, “You can observe a lot by watching.” And, just guessing, but that might have been time after a large sturgeon catch to pull out the pipe and smoke some of that native tobacco Native American tribes fostered. Not to belabor this point too much, but in California where sequoia trees are sacred to tribes, a certain rare tobacco plant is a coveted reward found near the giant trees. It is said tribes will trade buckets of fish for a small bag of the rare tobacco. A note now about an upcoming pipe show I know is already on many a calendar, if not hotel rooms already rented. The Conclave of Richmond Pipe Smokers hosts its 40th anniversary Expo Sept. 13-15. This year’s event coincides with the legendary Sutliff Tobacco Company’s 175 anniversary. It will be staged at the Keystone Truck and Tractor Museum in Colonial Heights, Virginia. You can check out all the details at PipesMagazine, which has already noted the CORPS Expo, at CORPS and Sutliff. One of my fondest memories is going to the historic City of Richmond event and seeing not only zillions of pipes on display but also people who love pipes and love talking about them. I listened to CORPS’s founding member Linwood Hines during that trek and knew I had found kindred souls. For a terrific story on Linwood Hines, you need to read Chuck Stanion’s piece in The Daily Reader at SmokingPipes.com. Not only is this a superb story on a legend in Pipedom but also you might learn a thing or three about some nifty tobacco blends from Linwood. Ok, on to Pipe Smokers of the Past. Some large names from the movie and theater world; literature; and the man who gave us the telephone. Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, born Aug. 13, 1899, died April 29, 1980. Gwyllyn Samuel Newton “Glenn” Ford, a Canadian American actor, born May 1, 1916, died Aug. 30, 2006. Henry Jaynes Fonda, born May 16, 1905, died Aug. 12, 1982. Bennett Alfred Cerf, born May 25, 1898, died Aug. 27, 1971. Alexander Graham Bell, born March 3, 1847, died Aug. 2, 1922. Alfred Tennyson, born Aug. 6, 1809, died Oct. 6, 1892. If you saw the Hitchcock movie “The Birds,” you know what a “murder” of crows can do to your nerves. The master of scary suspense, Hitchcock is reported to have enjoyed Dunhill pipes and tobaccos, along with his love of cigars. With that said, I’ll take my backyard birds with a nerve-settling pipe. And I can’t depart without a quote from artist and pipe smoker Vincent van Gogh. He wrote in an 1875 letter to his brother, Theo, describing his pipe as an “old, trusty friend, and I imagine we’ll never part again.” Amen, brother.
Missed the live broadcast by “that much”. Really enjoyed the conversation with Tad Gage. Tad is just a great guy to talk pipes and tobaccos with. I’d kill to have his palate.
Great show. Listening to Tad inspired me to play around with trying a little blending. I have become pretty good at making my own dry spice rubs for grilling and barbequing so I may be able to use that experience and transition that to tobacco blending.
But the best part of listening to todays show was sharing it with my wife as I have juat introduced her to pipe smoking and she was right here with me smoking her third bowl in her Savinelli churchwarden that I recently got for her.
Keep up the great work and enjoyable shows.
Rick
It’s 7:45 PM. Work is done, guitar lesson over, practice over, dinner is over. Time to Listen to Brian’s latest work and time for a pipe. Obviously, I try to listen to the podcast as it appears on the pipes magazine web site. Tonight’s smoke is McC #5100 in a Castello Collection 3K Shape #65.
Interesting regarding the increase in pipe interest and possible shortages in briar and vulcanite.
Tad is a great guest as always. His high level of knowledge on both pipes and tobacco makes him an excellent resource. OK, is it Lat-a-key-a or la-ta-kia? I would enjoy having Tad back to discuss tobacco reviewing, also his magazine publishing experiences (The Compleate Smoker).
How did you find the tobacco prices and their availability in Europe? When I was in France and England, I found a variety of blends not very widely availability and what was there was very expensive.
I will go out and be seen smoking outside when it gets a bit warmer here in the north.
Another good one Brian. Keep up the good work!
Missed the show on Thurs…….Caught it today….Enjoyed the interview with Tad Gage……Just finished a bowl of Three Oaks Syrian…Excellent.
Have not missed an episode, but have never posted before…..Look forward to seeing you at the Chicago Show…
I enjoyed this episode, as always. Thanks for the shout out, but you said my screen name wrong. am3rica is pd a 3 inronounced the same as America, but i used a 3 instead of an E
Great show. By all means have Tad back as a guest. I thought it was wonderful to hear a shout out to our mods, Ben, Jason & Lawrence do a super job. Brian, keep up the good work.
pd was supposed to bre pronounced. I guess part of the word got deleted.
Episode #23: This show was so informative that I’ll need to listen to it two or three times. Fun to listen to Tad. Perfect show for IPSD! Thanks Brian. I’ll have to try 3 Oaks.
I listen to the show on iTunes on the weekends usually late at night when the house is asleep. I go down to the basement living/smoking room, bring a fine drink, give the 2 dogs a long chew, and fire up a bowl. It’s the best 45 mins to an hour of pure relaxation I have.. I look forward to my “ritual” pipe and podcast all week.
And I plan on smoking somewhere in public as soon as the opportunity presents itself. Maybe on one of my dog walks to show all, as you have challenged, what a 2013 pipe smoker looks like! Andthat we ARE still HERE!
I listen to the show in my truck as I don’t smoke in the house, and it’s too cold to smoke outside in Michigan right now. A cup of coffee and a pipe on the way to or from work is the only way to go. Love the show! I’ve listened from the beginning and it just gets better!
Great show, can’t believe it took me this long to find it. Very appreciated while I work!
Just got to listen to the IPSD episode — best show yet! Thanks for the Latakia education with Tag and special thanks for the Holmboe — one of my favorites.
And, hey — there IS good coffee available in the U.S. — you just have to know where to look, i.e. Seattle. In addition to the better known brews, because we’re a multicultural city there’s Vietnamese, Cambodian, and best of all: Weasel Coffee (look it up).
Same as roverblue, I listen to the show in the car on the way to work. Usually Friday mornings using the TuneIn Radio app on my BB. As a new pipe smoker, I really enjoy the “technical” information that has been presented… Anatonmy of the pipe, types of tobaco, etc and look forward to more of this type of info.
Thanks Brian & Kevin for the time you both put into the show!
JR