"The winter evening settles down
With smell of steaks in passageways.
Six o’clock.
The burnt-out ends of smoky days."
TS Elliot
I will regret posting this thread, yet knowing it, I willingly post it; knowing and understanding that it will do exactly what I don’t want it to do. And still, here I am, getting ready to hit the send button.
I have been figuratively setting on a half-pound of Samuel Gawith Virginia Burnt Ends for quite a while. A few days ago, I was invited to a fellow pipe smoker’s home to share some tobacco and smokes. As I grabbed a few tins of Esoterica I thought he might enjoy, I happened over the flimsily packaged box of Burnt Ends.
Anyone who has seen the thin cardboard boxes with their cellophane tops that Samuel Gawith ships with its plugs knows exactly what I was looking at. Clearly, this tobacco isn’t being shipped with aging in mind. Might as well open it now.
If you have ever seen the remains of a Kansas City Rib that has become dried--over after setting on a plate for month or so, then you already know what these plugs look like. You might even be able to imagine what they even taste like. The plug is solid; glued together and pressed like some Jr. High students table top project where he used shop glue and various sheets of thin plywood to glue and press a solid sheet of laminate. It resists all but the sharpest knives to cut it. It resists tearing, shredding, and certainly any disparaging words one might be tempted to hurdle at it. I managed to cut some pieces off small enough to put into my coffee grinder and still, the best I could manage were flat irregular pieces of shredded tobacco held together by some prehistoric glued resin that simply didn’t want to let go. So be it.
I had smoked a pipeful the previous night with @Manawydan and had gotten a prelude to what I should expect. That night, we simply struggled to tear and cut what we could and folded it into our pipes. Today, I was prepared to properly smoke it properly prepared.
Burnt ends appropriately describe the experience. The tobacco is actually burnt in some places, like crispy black, the type that should come with cancer warnings. The fair fields of Virginia are not found in this smoke. Instead, one is arm deep into the smoky fire pits of Kansas and Texas. The flavors are rich and full; They are rough and rugged like one would imagine a fourth generation West Virginia Coal miner. This is a man’s tobacco and it doesn’t play nice and it doesn’t burn easy. As old and withered as it looks, it demands even more drying time than you might want to already give something so dried and withered – and disgusting looking. But there it is.
This tobacco reminds me why I love so many of the Gawith family of tobaccos such as Brown Flake, Brown Boogie, and Burnt Ends. The flavors are of the very earth itself. There are no peaches and pears, apples or honey. Just dried out cow shit that has been mingled into the fields and pastures for over a century. It will grow anything and if a man is willing to work with it, produce like nothing else around. That’s what this tobacco is.
Rachel from Gawith, mentioned the company used to mix the burnt ends back into the blends they came from. I can see how using this tobacco to mix into a blend would improve the blend it was mixed into. It is pure tobacco flavor. Sweaty, messy, and mean. Not unlike how some imagine Rachel to be, but I think on that point those who imagine as such are mistaken. A woman who can sell a tobacco such as Burnt Ends, wastes not, and spares no punches. She is more likely to be comfortable at any bar one might find in the Lakelands and more than able to hold her own with any of the local men who might try to take her for a verbal bit of sparing. Why? Because Burnt Ends will grow hair on your chest. You’ll know you smoked it the next morning, and just like T.S. Elliot, you be ready to mix up your words and say what it on your mind.
This tobacco is literally hard enough to get already. I hope and pray this thread will discourage most people from ordering it. It really isn’t something you need to have a lot of and it isn’t an all day, all week, or any type of “all” smoke. So, don’t feel the need to buy it. Especially if you can’t stand company representatives who openly speak their mind. They and this tobacco are not for you.
With smell of steaks in passageways.
Six o’clock.
The burnt-out ends of smoky days."
TS Elliot
I will regret posting this thread, yet knowing it, I willingly post it; knowing and understanding that it will do exactly what I don’t want it to do. And still, here I am, getting ready to hit the send button.
I have been figuratively setting on a half-pound of Samuel Gawith Virginia Burnt Ends for quite a while. A few days ago, I was invited to a fellow pipe smoker’s home to share some tobacco and smokes. As I grabbed a few tins of Esoterica I thought he might enjoy, I happened over the flimsily packaged box of Burnt Ends.
Anyone who has seen the thin cardboard boxes with their cellophane tops that Samuel Gawith ships with its plugs knows exactly what I was looking at. Clearly, this tobacco isn’t being shipped with aging in mind. Might as well open it now.
If you have ever seen the remains of a Kansas City Rib that has become dried--over after setting on a plate for month or so, then you already know what these plugs look like. You might even be able to imagine what they even taste like. The plug is solid; glued together and pressed like some Jr. High students table top project where he used shop glue and various sheets of thin plywood to glue and press a solid sheet of laminate. It resists all but the sharpest knives to cut it. It resists tearing, shredding, and certainly any disparaging words one might be tempted to hurdle at it. I managed to cut some pieces off small enough to put into my coffee grinder and still, the best I could manage were flat irregular pieces of shredded tobacco held together by some prehistoric glued resin that simply didn’t want to let go. So be it.
I had smoked a pipeful the previous night with @Manawydan and had gotten a prelude to what I should expect. That night, we simply struggled to tear and cut what we could and folded it into our pipes. Today, I was prepared to properly smoke it properly prepared.
Burnt ends appropriately describe the experience. The tobacco is actually burnt in some places, like crispy black, the type that should come with cancer warnings. The fair fields of Virginia are not found in this smoke. Instead, one is arm deep into the smoky fire pits of Kansas and Texas. The flavors are rich and full; They are rough and rugged like one would imagine a fourth generation West Virginia Coal miner. This is a man’s tobacco and it doesn’t play nice and it doesn’t burn easy. As old and withered as it looks, it demands even more drying time than you might want to already give something so dried and withered – and disgusting looking. But there it is.
This tobacco reminds me why I love so many of the Gawith family of tobaccos such as Brown Flake, Brown Boogie, and Burnt Ends. The flavors are of the very earth itself. There are no peaches and pears, apples or honey. Just dried out cow shit that has been mingled into the fields and pastures for over a century. It will grow anything and if a man is willing to work with it, produce like nothing else around. That’s what this tobacco is.
Rachel from Gawith, mentioned the company used to mix the burnt ends back into the blends they came from. I can see how using this tobacco to mix into a blend would improve the blend it was mixed into. It is pure tobacco flavor. Sweaty, messy, and mean. Not unlike how some imagine Rachel to be, but I think on that point those who imagine as such are mistaken. A woman who can sell a tobacco such as Burnt Ends, wastes not, and spares no punches. She is more likely to be comfortable at any bar one might find in the Lakelands and more than able to hold her own with any of the local men who might try to take her for a verbal bit of sparing. Why? Because Burnt Ends will grow hair on your chest. You’ll know you smoked it the next morning, and just like T.S. Elliot, you be ready to mix up your words and say what it on your mind.
This tobacco is literally hard enough to get already. I hope and pray this thread will discourage most people from ordering it. It really isn’t something you need to have a lot of and it isn’t an all day, all week, or any type of “all” smoke. So, don’t feel the need to buy it. Especially if you can’t stand company representatives who openly speak their mind. They and this tobacco are not for you.
