KBV's customers should hold him to his word. If he said he was going to close, and doesn't, you should boycott. I mean, this is all about community, right? Honesty? Transparency? The Common Good? Anti Commercial Abuse?
Are we really losing that much with the closures of Mac Baren and Sutliff?
- Thread starter badbriar
- Start date
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STG has the pipe tobacco mopoly, they control the market. C&D and Samuel Gawith do not have much capacity. With the improved margins by removing blends and the created monopoly STG prices do n ot need to go up over the next years, but it might be different for the smaller manufacturers.
The difference to the Planta acquisition is that back then it made sense to stock up on Planta blends like Presbyterian Mixture, Wellauer's Best etc.
Stocking up here does not mean to by Mac Baren Blends, it means buying the things you like and especially C&D, G.L. Pease, Samuel Gawith and maybe to a lesser degree the Kopp tobaccos.
Over here in Germany you can get Ashton Artisan's Blend for 10 Euros per tin, the Petersons are 15-16 Euro per tin.
Cigarworld in Germany was sourcing inhouse blends from Mac Baren, they made a final production run that will last them several years, that is why I am not so eager on buying everything Mac Baren. We also have fixed prices for tobacco tins over here, once the tax label is put onto the tin, it is forbidden to sell at higher prices.
We live in the moment. Only the younger would understand!
I would not say quality at Mac Baren dropped per se, it is just that a lot of source material is missing now. I still have a tin of Roll Cake with Syrian Latakia, still a Plumcake tin with Syrian leaf, still a tin of Acadian Perique.
While not bad, the Cyprian leaf is made from Izmir and fire cured using pistachio bushes. I recently finished a tin of Wellauer's Best, 2012 Planta production. Planta was known for not so great quality. But it had genuine Syrian Shek-el-Bint where you can use less Latakia for the same taste and get those just 5 or 10 really magical moments per tin which I never get with Cyprian.
Tthe Mac Baren Capstan is nearly identical in taste to the prior STG production.
HH Latakia is also very nice compared to other Latakia flakes.
The most underrated sleeper in Mac Baren's portfolio was the Virginia Flake, even better than HH Pure to my taste, but my tin also was from 2013 and smoked very slowly.
I doubt STG will be able to reproduce the Virginia Flake with its subtleties.
E.g. I find the Ilsteds Own Golden Flake to be identical to John Aylesbury Classic Flake, both allegedly made by Orlik. Seems to be mass produced flake and just different toppings applied, it could also be the casings being different but I have noticed the aroma in Ilsteds Own vanishes over time especially when aired and that happens faster with toppings and not so much with casings used for aroma application.
I even think I tasted a hint of Perique in Ilsteds Own Golden Flake, maybe both flakes are made from the same source materials as Orlik Golden Sliced.
So a lot of SKUs in STGs portfolio but not a genuine variety in blends.
Virginia No. 1, Scottish Mixture and Virginia Flake are the onces I will try from STG, unfortunately I think Virginia Flake will become just the umpteens variety of Golden Sliced and Virginia No. 1 the STG Lemon Sliced Ready Rubbed.
We do not have access to Sutliff over here in Germany so it must be even worse for the US pipe smokers!
It’s an endearing form of narcissism, where the world’s pipe tobacco industry exists just to serve one person’s needs. So quaint! So innocent! So lovingly naive!
The loss is large but the warning signs where there, Per was the canary in the coal mine.
Plus the sale was mentioned back in June so nothing sudden is happening.
No. Just find some tobacco that you like and can buy, and enjoy your pipe.
If you’re in it for anything other that then you’re part of the problem.
Move on to watches or comic books or whatever and leave us alone.
If you’re in it for anything other that then you’re part of the problem.
Move on to watches or comic books or whatever and leave us alone.
Old Dark Fired will be the biggest loss for me. I'm still having a hard time believing that it didn't make the cut.
Signs have been evident for much longer and I have cellared my preferences deep. The only one I didn’t and I don’t smoke it often but is very nostalgic for me is Amphora Full and I know of no other drugstore blend of it’s like.
I think you’re right. Amphora goes back a looong way with me.
I will say it doesn’t taste like it did in 1986, but I’ll miss the thought of not seeing that plastic pack available almost everywhere I travel.
It was a comforting thing in the eighties, almost anywhere in the world that I landed, I could count on it being there.
Anti commercial abuse sounds like a good name for a crust punk band.
After the loss of Mephisto in the early 2000s, I've cellared heavily any blend that I really enjoyed. Popularity doesn't guarantee longevity.
I never had any interest in seeking out Esoterica but I did manage to score a tin of Dorchester at a B&M, it was only $30 so I figured why not. I still wouldn't ever actively seek it out.
I didn't realize Orlik still existed beyond Golden Sliced. I know there used to be quite a few blends under the Orlik banner most famously Dark Strong Kentucky but as far as I can tell only GS remains.
Or if Disney bought Warner Discovery (or whatever it's called now) and axed HBO but kept a few TLC seriesPeterson is STG, there's been reports they will be reducing if not straight eliminating both their original Peterson and "Dunhill" blends because of thissorry to burst your bubble.
That's why I think this actually is a big deal/why people bitching about the bitching are either not grasping the magnitude or just showing off.
People don't realize A) how much of a backbone this company was in the US and B) how much the company who bought them is the backbone of the rest of the pipesmoking world.
This would be like if Amazon bought Walmart and target and said they were gonna close them but then also discontinue 80% of everything amazon themselves already sell too. Sure there'd still be Costco (C&D) and a few scraps your local supermarket could pick up. But overall this is actually a big deal
I never had any Amphora but losing them is a really overlooked loss. They filled a pretty unique niche: OTC blends that weren't aros or burley based. The sampler was a great way for newbies to explore blend styles. The only other thing like that I can think of is Super Value English, no idea who owns Super Value.
I just tried their Kentucky Blend recently, and am sad to see it go but won’t lose any sleep over it.
Crap, then there's really no other options. There's a few "smoke shops" in my area that stock the English, I might have to get it because I always was curious about it. I've only heard good things
I'm sure it was nothing great but losing it sucks for budget conscious Kentucky fans