What is Your Favorite House Blend at a B&M?

Log in

SmokingPipes.com Updates

New Cigars




PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

Status
Not open for further replies.

telescopes

Pipe Dreamer and Star Gazer
I am not sure if this is the place to post this particular discussion - it really is a fusion of two topics.

There is a lot of talk about tin tobaccos and various blends you can get on the internet.

However, maybe like you, I am a bit old fashioned and prefer to walk into a pipe store and get my tobacco from one of their house blends. Not exclusively, but primarily.

My go-to place is John Dengler Tobacconist in St. Charles, MO. Although I live in California, I've spent most of my life in Missouri near that store. Especially important to me is that they make my own favorite blend, one I developed in coordination with the legendary John Dengler, back in the early 80s. Old fashioned doesn't begin to describe them. A tobacco shop since 1917, they send out their tobacco on a handshake and an invoice payable by a check in the US Mail upon receipt of the tobacco. They simply aren't set up to take credit cards over the phone or online. Old fashioned.

When I am in San Diego, I go to Old Town and get a blend of Senate at Racine and Laramie. An aromatic, I just love to smoke it.

I live in Palm Springs, and it is at Palm Desert Tobaccos that I will pick up an ounce or two of their English Blend.

Speaking of Old Fashioned, Liberty in San Diego hits all those marks. Men setting in the patio, smoking away, jars available to" take a load for free", and the musty smell of just tradition. What isn't there to like? I certainly do enjoy their Black Cherry tobacco. Black like night, it reminds me of an evening in Jamaica.

What are your favorite house blends and where can one find them?
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
It's ancient history now, but my all-time favorite house blend at a brick-and-mortar pipe shop was Nat Sherman 536 English blend with burley purchased as bulk at the now-closed Nat Sherman pipe shop at 12 East 42nd Street in Manhattan, sold to me by Cliff Gold, CRT, Lead Sales Associate, and enjoyed immediately by me, sitting in a rocking chair outside the door to the humidor. The blend is not being sold at present, that I can see, but may resurface under the Metropolitan brand that has bought out a Nat Sherman aromatic or two. The 536 English blend is among the most refined I've smoked, mild but abundantly flavorful. Thanks, Cliff. Oh, and my pipe was a handmade by Jerry Perry of Colfax, N.C. The Carolina foothills comes to the Big Apple.
 

telescopes

Pipe Dreamer and Star Gazer
Since there is only 1 B&M anywhere around me and they don't do house blends, I would have to say that I don't have one...
That is truly disappointing. In the Coachella Valley, we have three near me, and two of them have a healthy supply of house blends. Regretfully, Covid restrictions are to allowing them to allow people to sniff them. This is not the case in San Diego where I can open the jars and smell away.
 

tmcg81

Part of the Furniture Now
May 8, 2020
897
13,751
NJ
At a store I patronize, the Tobacco Shop of Ridgewood, they have big jars full of blends, but I'm not totally sure if all of them are their own creation. My favorite out of the selection is a blend called "Gentlemens Corner," which is an aromatic. It's got a bourbon and vanilla topping that is really appealing to me. The gentleman that owns the place, Gary, knows what he's doing. He'll see you looking at the bulk blends, light up his pipe, and everyone I know that has been to the shop asks him "what are you smoking?" because it smells so good, and we all ended up buying a couple ounces.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ofafeather

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
You're right, many jarred blends in pipe shops are blends by Lane, Sutliff, and Peter Stokkebye, etc., re-named to make them seem like house blends, to make you come back to the store to get more. Tinder Box has always done that.
 

telescopes

Pipe Dreamer and Star Gazer
You're right, many jarred blends in pipe shops are blends by Lane, Sutliff, and Peter Stokkebye, etc., re-named to make them seem like house blends, to make you come back to the store to get more. Tinder Box has always done that.
In some places, yes. John Dengler had nearly a century of experience from which to draw. First from his father, and then his own. When that was the case, (no changes to a blend) he clearly indicated it so. I don’t know how many others on this forum had the opportunity to visit his shop when he was alive, but both he and his shop were the real deal. His son-in-law, Larry, runs it with John’s daughter now, but nothing has changed. When they sell the business, a part of our culture will have been lost and I can say thoroughly and without reservations that it can no be succeeded or replaced. He never marked items up because he could and was always fair about pricing. In the late 80s I once remarked to him that I regretted never smoking pre ban Havanas. He went through a cabinet and sold me an unopened box of Ramone Allones-1968- brought in from Cuba back in the 60s. He knew their worth. I paid $50 for the box. And yes, they were heavenly. I was just a lowly school teacher at the time, but in his eyes I was a customer. And he knew how to treat customers.
 

agnosticpipe

Lifer
Nov 3, 2013
3,332
3,413
In the sticks in Mississippi
For years my wife and I used to enjoy going down to The Country Squire in Jackson, MS. Since Covid, we don't go anywhere anymore. However, one of my favorite blends they make is called Hunting Creek. A little like Shortcut to Mushrooms from JFH. I've tried many of their blends, and have liked most of them, but this is always my go to blend. Jon David is the best, and they're a sponsor here too! puffy
 

evo03

Starting to Get Obsessed
Nov 20, 2013
181
1,509
I am not sure if this is the place to post this particular discussion - it really is a fusion of two topics.

There is a lot of talk about tin tobaccos and various blends you can get on the internet.

However, maybe like you, I am a bit old fashioned and prefer to walk into a pipe store and get my tobacco from one of their house blends. Not exclusively, but primarily.

My go-to place is John Dengler Tobacconist in St. Charles, MO. Although I live in California, I've spent most of my life in Missouri near that store. Especially important to me is that they make my own favorite blend, one I developed in coordination with the legendary John Dengler, back in the early 80s. Old fashioned doesn't begin to describe them. A tobacco shop since 1917, they send out their tobacco on a handshake and an invoice payable by a check in the US Mail upon receipt of the tobacco. They simply aren't set up to take credit cards over the phone or online. Old fashioned.

When I am in San Diego, I go to Old Town and get a blend of Senate at Racine and Laramie. An aromatic, I just love to smoke it.

I live in Palm Springs, and it is at Palm Desert Tobaccos that I will pick up an ounce or two of their English Blend.

Speaking of Old Fashioned, Liberty in San Diego hits all those marks. Men setting in the patio, smoking away, jars available to" take a load for free", and the musty smell of just tradition. What isn't there to like? I certainly do enjoy their Black Cherry tobacco. Black like night, it reminds me of an evening in Jamaica.

What are your favorite house blends and where can one find them?

I visited the John Dengler store a few years ago. Which tobacco blend were you referring to?
 

telescopes

Pipe Dreamer and Star Gazer
I visited the John Dengler store a few years ago. Which tobacco blend were you referring to?
That is what so great about the store. While they have their own house blends - I prefer Black Maria - they have over 1000 personal blends that they make for customers throughout the years. Mine, the one I was referring to, is under my real name. I suppose I should contact them and have them re-list it as either Doc's Blend or Telescopes, but I don't like confusing older men who make my tobacco blend for me, LOL. I also like my father's blend, for many reasons. One, because it is his and two, because it builds a cake quickly.

The Haden blend that they have reminds me of Seattle Club Plum Putting.

What did you think about the shop and Main Street as well?
 

BarrelProof

Lifer
Mar 29, 2020
2,701
10,577
39
The Last Frontier
We have one up here. In fact, they have bulk Esoterica on the shelf at all times!

I tend to shy away from it at $45/oz, but who am I to say others wouldn’t!
 

judcole

Lifer
Sep 14, 2011
7,149
32,922
Detroit
Arrowhead, from Paul's Pipe Shop, up in Flint. Don't actually drive up there very often - I usually just give them a call - but every now and then I do.
 
  • Like
Reactions: telescopes

Strauss

Lurker
Feb 19, 2021
7
39
Philadelphia
It's ancient history now, but my all-time favorite house blend at a brick-and-mortar pipe shop was Nat Sherman 536 English blend with burley purchased as bulk at the now-closed Nat Sherman pipe shop at 12 East 42nd Street in Manhattan, sold to me by Cliff Gold, CRT, Lead Sales Associate, and enjoyed immediately by me, sitting in a rocking chair outside the door to the humidor. The blend is not being sold at present, that I can see, but may resurface under the Metropolitan brand that has bought out a Nat Sherman aromatic or two. The 536 English blend is among the most refined I've smoked, mild but abundantly flavorful. Thanks, Cliff. Oh, and my pipe was a handmade by Jerry Perry of Colfax, N.C. The Carolina foothills comes to the Big Apple.
Maybe this deserves its own thread, but do you have any recommendations for a 536 substitute? It's been a staple of mine for a few years, one of my best behaved and most enjoyable smokes. I'm more torn up about losing it than I was when Dunhill gave up tobacco.
 

Zack Miller

Part of the Furniture Now
Dec 13, 2020
643
1,948
Fort Worth, Texas
There is a B & M in Weatherford that sells blends, but the proprietor told me that are not made in house. Nonetheless they have a good selection. My favorite is called Weatherford‘s finest.

Racine & Laramie in Old Town isn’t bad. When we were commuting to Long Beach where there was nothing, I would stop there when I was visiting my friend in San Diego.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tar Wheel
Status
Not open for further replies.