@LotusEater recently inquired about my blend of tobacco that I have smoked for 4 decades. I am always interested as well about private mixtures and blends pipe smokers create for themselves. I have benefited from much of what @BarrelProof has shared with me.
When I first started smoking, I fell in love with Crown Royal , a Tinderbox blend. My friends and I smoked it in the student union and it was all the rage with us. However, I was worried I would on day loose access to it and I asked John Dengler, a tobacconist among tobacconist, if he could reconstruct it. He put some in his mouth and tasted it. “Yes, I can,” he proclaimed and so he set about giving me various concoctions. I must admit, some were good and other were just strange. John was from the old guard and his mixtures would end up with complex ingredients from deer tongue and other ingredients as well as who knows what. Eventually we settled on something we called telescopes. It was pleasant, could be smoked all day, caused those around me to comment very favorably, and aged well. It didn‘t bite, was consistently dependable and the ingredients were alway available. John had over 1000 plus private blends he used with his customers and most all of them had the recipes kept in a little black book that his son-in-law still uses to this day.
So what was it that we settled on? As he coded all of his recipes, it was a mystery to me for years - decades. Finally, after much experimentation and reading the descriptions of his codes, I figured it out.
4 oz of Lane BCA and 1 oz of Peter Stokkebye Nougat.
Well, BCA explains so much of why it was an all day smoke. As for the PS Nougat, this is the same tobacco the cast of LOTRs enjoyed.
It is still coded as telephones and while amazingly simple, I find it is a good palate cleanser after smoking English Blends, VaPers, and heavy G&H blends. I still gravitate to it when I want something simple to smoke and don’t want to be bothered with having to clean my pipe to remove the ghosts that come with so many other blends.
Many smokers look down on aromatics, but the truth I have found is that they can be very pleasant and require the smoker to do nothing more than relax. The blend becomes mild as it ages and for me has stood the test of time. I have pounds of it jarred with my private label - the QSL card my father used for his CB hobby. It has a wonderful aroma and is very agreeable as a smoke. Four decades is a long time to stay with a blend. But I’ve never had a guest who hasn’t enjoyed it. I just dont tell them what it is.
What blend do you enjoy that is yours and yours alone?
When I first started smoking, I fell in love with Crown Royal , a Tinderbox blend. My friends and I smoked it in the student union and it was all the rage with us. However, I was worried I would on day loose access to it and I asked John Dengler, a tobacconist among tobacconist, if he could reconstruct it. He put some in his mouth and tasted it. “Yes, I can,” he proclaimed and so he set about giving me various concoctions. I must admit, some were good and other were just strange. John was from the old guard and his mixtures would end up with complex ingredients from deer tongue and other ingredients as well as who knows what. Eventually we settled on something we called telescopes. It was pleasant, could be smoked all day, caused those around me to comment very favorably, and aged well. It didn‘t bite, was consistently dependable and the ingredients were alway available. John had over 1000 plus private blends he used with his customers and most all of them had the recipes kept in a little black book that his son-in-law still uses to this day.
So what was it that we settled on? As he coded all of his recipes, it was a mystery to me for years - decades. Finally, after much experimentation and reading the descriptions of his codes, I figured it out.
4 oz of Lane BCA and 1 oz of Peter Stokkebye Nougat.
Well, BCA explains so much of why it was an all day smoke. As for the PS Nougat, this is the same tobacco the cast of LOTRs enjoyed.
It is still coded as telephones and while amazingly simple, I find it is a good palate cleanser after smoking English Blends, VaPers, and heavy G&H blends. I still gravitate to it when I want something simple to smoke and don’t want to be bothered with having to clean my pipe to remove the ghosts that come with so many other blends.
Many smokers look down on aromatics, but the truth I have found is that they can be very pleasant and require the smoker to do nothing more than relax. The blend becomes mild as it ages and for me has stood the test of time. I have pounds of it jarred with my private label - the QSL card my father used for his CB hobby. It has a wonderful aroma and is very agreeable as a smoke. Four decades is a long time to stay with a blend. But I’ve never had a guest who hasn’t enjoyed it. I just dont tell them what it is.
What blend do you enjoy that is yours and yours alone?
