Ahoy undecagon, glad to see you're interested in the NYPC blends! They're fantastic (unrepentant plug there).
Pipes & Cigars is not only the retailer for them, they were created in co-operation with Russ Ouellette--we gave him either recipes (in the case of Jack's Shanty) or a specific blend direction (in the case of the others) and then taste-tested and tweaked the blend that the master created. It was a long, sometimes agonizing, always rewarding process that will be detailed in an upcoming article in the NASPC newsletter. Incidentally, our blends ended up being rather more expensive to produce than originally anticipated, which accounts for their slightly higher than average price point--but it is so well worth it, and they're in full 2 ounce tins, ready for the cellar.
Russ's amazing work with our club and others is really a labour of love for the hobby, and it's a real connection that makes this industry and hobby so much different than any other. While I can't speak on behalf of their number crunchers and bean counters, I do imagine that the club blends are kept as an in-house offering as much to reinforce the association with the brand as well as to help mitigate the costs associated, which are higher for these boutique products by their very nature.
But again, soooo worth it. I purchased 12% of the original run myself (and no, we don't get any freebies either!).
