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canucklehead

Lifer
Aug 1, 2018
2,863
15,323
Alberta
Dang it Jim, now everyone knows about the Low Country blends. I guess I'll be ordering some more pounds before the mad rush...lol
I've been putting away quite a bit of the Va/Bur and Va/Or. It comes pretty fresh but ages wonderfully. They're not complex but they're good for what they are and I find myself reaching for them often. They smoke well above their price point.
Yeah I like those two a lot. The Va/Or is my go to summer afternoon smoke.??
 
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Jan 28, 2018
12,952
134,578
66
Sarasota, FL
Assuming the price isn't astronomical, the best bargains are the blends you enjoy most. Pipe tobacco isn't a tool, a vehicle or food. You smoke it for your enjoyment. Pipe tobacco isn't utilitarian. If you're sacrificing enjoyment for a nickel per bowl, does that really make sense? Clearly, that had to be balanced with what one can afford. However, unless you're smoking significant volumes of tobacco each day, I think we're talking a few dollars per month.
 

edger

Lifer
Dec 9, 2016
2,988
22,299
74
Mayer AZ
If you like VaPers, try Sutliff Match Victorian. If you like straight Virginias, try D&R Windsail, Three Sails, C&D Yorktown and Derringer as well as Newminister No. 400 Superior Navy Flake. If you like Virginia and Burley with a touch of Orientals, try C&D Virginia Gentleman. If you want a straight burley, try Sutliff J-4 Burley.

I also recommend Low Country Natural Virginia and Burley as well as their Natural Virginia and Oriental.

There are more, but I tried to pick blends that are usually in stock, and affordable.
Great recommendations!
 
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Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
4,759
13,782
Humansville Missouri
I could be happy with 20lbs of Newminster 400 to last me the rest of my life a some random tins of other crap to keep it from becoming monotonous. These are the things it takes you time to learn.
I’ve argued this before and I’ll argue it again.

The best smoking tobacco is Virginia bright leaf.

The reason most tobaccos are burley is only because burley takes flavorings better.

For a pure burley experience smoke Five Brothers.

Burley must be flavored to sell lots of it.

Virginia is sometimes spiced with Perique.
 
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Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
4,759
13,782
Humansville Missouri
Assuming the price isn't astronomical, the best bargains are the blends you enjoy most. Pipe tobacco isn't a tool, a vehicle or food. You smoke it for your enjoyment. Pipe tobacco isn't utilitarian. If you're sacrificing enjoyment for a nickel per bowl, does that really make sense? Clearly, that had to be balanced with what one can afford. However, unless you're smoking significant volumes of tobacco each day, I think we're talking a few dollars per month.
A good point is made here.

Let’s say you are on a ship on the ocean.

There’s not a woman in two thousand miles either direction.

The only entertainment you have is a pipe and watching movies or a book or something else, but you can smoke your pipe 16/24.

Now, it’s hard to smoke a bowl an hour for 16 hours every day.

There are 42 grams in an ounce and a half of tobacco. That’s a lot of tobacco day after day.

But let’s say in 30 days you smoke 45 ounces of tobacco. Round it up to 48 ounces, that’s three pounds.

You buy the most expensive which sell for $100 a pound. That’s $300 a month.

If you smoke PS 400 Navy Flake or Newminster 400 without Perique two 1 1/2 pound boxes are $150.

But you can buy six pounds for $240, or $120 a month.

Or four 12 ounce bags of Smoker’s Pride for $60 on sale.

Per day, it’s all peanuts.

$10 a day at the most, and $2 at the least, three pounds a month.

It’s likely the cheapest vice other than coffee on earth.:)

Try smoking hand rolled cigars and run the numbers.
 
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krizzose

Lifer
Feb 13, 2013
3,100
18,013
Michigan
A few years ago I bought some Stokkebye 702 Burley for blending, and it really surprised me how good it was on its own for a simple smoke. It is a great blender, too. My favorite use for it is as a base for a pinch of aromatic when I want something a little sweet, but not a mouthful of it.
 
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Franco Pipenbeans

Part of the Furniture Now
Jan 7, 2021
648
1,693
Yorkshire, England
If you want a marathon, not a sprint, and if that is one of your categories that helps you work out VFM then you could do a lot worse than the mighty St Bruno Flake.
It also tastes amazing, smells amazing, burns amazingly well but, it might cost you a bit more than other tobaccos because of import costs etc.

As a frugal (for frugal read - ‘tighter than a ducks arse’) Yorkshireman, it ticks all the boxes for me but, one thing to note, I find the modern day version does taste nicer if it has some time in a jar to “settle down”.

Original Flake (now made by Macbaren) is also worthy of a mention, in terms of taste to smoking time ratio. My thinking is; the longer it smokes, the less time you need to smoke again because the first bowl is in rude good health 45 minutes in.