Do you Have a "Nautical Blend"?

[JackOrion]

I recently purchased a pipe online that when it arrived I wasn’t wholly certain I was going to keep it. I experienced what people that online date must surely experience from time to time. The pipe did not translate from picture to hand well. Maybe my expectations were too high, I was really excited about this one.

After a few days of self debate I started to warm up to it and it dawned on me that this pipe in all its craggy blast and stain resembles quite accurately a pacific oyster. Which instantly tipped the scales towards keeping it!

I started to think about which blend would make the inauguration and crack open the shell….. If I keep it that is. Which blend did I mostly associate with the sea or the brackish bays where oysters grow? Windjammer comes to mind, but then I thought, must it be a ‘nautical’ themed tobacco? Is it a Navy blend that best belongs to the oceans? Whether that’s the case albeit power of suggestion or historical correctness.

Those of you lucky enough to live by the influences of the maritime waters or even you armchair sailors, what’s your nautical blend? The one you most enjoy while staring out to sea?

 

[Chasing Embers]

 

[gamzultovah]

Salty Dogs.

 

[LeafErikson]

Windjammer. Can we see the pipe?

 

[SBC]

Salty Dogs is my favorite, not only of these three mentioned thus far, but possibly of all tobaccos ever. At any rate it's in my top few tobaccos of all time.

I have my nautical pipe (a Kriswill Clipper) dedicated to Salty Dogs, so that's my answer.

Black Frigate is good in a different way. The latakia puts it in an entirely different category, but one thing I like about it (just as a blend, reglardless of any nautical association or rum topping) is how moderately the latakia is applied. Very few blends strike the latakia balance that BF does. In something like Presbyterian, for instance, you can't be sure whether it's there. In everything else, it dominates inordinately. BF gets it right.

I don't do burley, so that's why I don't often smoke Windjammer, but I will say this in its praise -- it is so good that I sometimes overlook my distaste for burley to smoke it!

 

[Chasing Embers]

The latakia puts it in an entirely different category, but one thing I like about it (just as a blend, reglardless of any nautical association or rum topping) is how moderately the latakia is applied. Very few blends strike the latakia balance that BF does. In something like Presbyterian, for instance, you can't be sure whether it's there. In everything else, it dominates inordinately. BF gets it right.

May have been some proportional changes done in recent years. None of mine is newer than 2015 but unless I went looking for it, I rarely noticed the latakia.

 

[SBC]

May have been some proportional changes done in recent years. None of mine is newer than 2015 but unless I went looking for it, I rarely noticed the latakia.

I didn't try it until a couple of years ago ... probably 2021 ... and to me it's much lighter than most latakia mixtures (as I mentioned) but noticeable, unlike a Presbyterian -- possibly slightly higher percentage than your older stock.

 

[SBC]

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Love these pics. I can almost smell salt water and hear gulls.

 

[vosBghos]

all I can say is a shag packed hard as hell and to keep the pipe upside down when the gales come early.

 

[PA Piper Mike]

Mac Baren Navy Flake for mass quantity and Salty Dogs for mass quality.

 

[username]

Going to have to add a +1 for Windjammer.

 

[WerewolfOfLondon]

Does Scottish Flake count? If so, that. If not, MacB Navy Flake.

 

[didimauw]

 

[upnorth1]

My sig is Black Frigate but I smoke a LOT of Redburn.

 

[bullet08]

None. I don't get out on the sea often.

 

[Chasing Embers]

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My sig is Black Frigate but I smoke a LOT of Redburn.

Yep, got a pipe for that one too.

 

[Servant King]

Put me down for Windjammer as well.

 

[didimauw]

Yep, got a pipe for that one too.
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My Kaywoodie redroot is basically dedicated to old dark fired. Plan on using it for a bowl of Redburn later.

 

[OzPiper]

I get seasick just thinking of roiling waves.
MacBaren’s Navy Flake, Dunhill Navy Rolls and Sam Gawith’s Skiff is as close as I get

 

[JackOrion]

Windjammer. Can we see the pipe?