Enlighten me on C&D and GLP

[jdlander]

I'm relatively new to pipe smoking (1 year) but I so far have tended to prefer C&D blends over Sutliff. But many of the McClelland blends I tried were superior to C&D.

For me (in general): McClelland > C&D > Sutliff

 

[HeavyLeadBelly]

You joined in Oct 2023…..and you’re still confused about this now? Yeah I’m thinking some trolling is going on here lol

 

[Pypkė]

Over at Tobacco Reviews, you can do a filtered search on all the highest-rated (3.5+) currently-available blends that have more than 50 reviews. C&D and GLP make the list of 28 blends that meet my criteria with:

#18 C&D Opening Night
#23 GLP Quiet Nights

C&D's Carolina Red Flake makes the list if you expand the search to include all blends, available and unavailable.

 

[gervais]

The deal is that you probably haven't tasted real tobacco until you've tasted C&d and GLP

 

[Sig]

Going a lifetime without smoking a Bob Runowski blend is a sad life indeed.
Google him.

 

[craig61a]

 

[cosmicfolklore]

And I'm pretty sure GLP is actually all blended by C&D these days.

C&D has always made the mass produced GLP blends, at least since the last 25 years. I believe before that he was making them as in-house blends out of his home in California, like WCC and those other small scale blenders are doing. But, then he started using C&D to do the mass produced packaging of tinned versions, till the scale grew to where it was just more economical to have C&D handle the huge quantities of tobaccos required. But, Greg still shops and selects his own leaf to be used in his blends.

 

[Chasing Embers]

C&D > Sutliff

Considering how many brands and blenders used Sutliff tobacco such as Wilke, Watch City, Pipes and Cigars, The Country Squire, and numerous B&Ms, that's a bit short sighted.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Considering how many brands and blenders used Sutliff tobacco such as Wilke, Watch City, Pipes and Cigars, The Country Squire, and numerous B&Ms, that's a bit short sighted.

He posted an opinion. Sutliff could have defeated the Nazis, made all of the blends for other people I don't like, and singlehandedly cured cancer.... and it would have no bearing whatsoever on my opinion of their blends.

 

[Sobrbiker]

He has the one aromatic that he collaborated with GH on, Stonehenge. He has gently used liquor on a couple of others, but yeh, Greg is known for adding nothing but tobacco to his blends, all natural flavors. Except for the ones noted, but in those instances, he was doing something very unique.

to the OP... If you have not seen discussions about C&D, that is on you. I would attest that C&D are the most discussed here. Otherwise, I don't know what the fuck you're talking about. Ha ha. It may be the STD taking over some other brands has overwhelmed your attention.

That’s what I was gonna say, but I figured I’d get moderated

 

[woodsroad]

@sunnysmokes
Any more questions?

 

[ofafeather]

He posted an opinion.

True but @Chasing Embers also expressed an opinion.

 

[The Novice Piper]

Well, I for one don't have any trouble understanding OP's question at all.

C&D are super popular and much discussed, but you don't see many of their standard blends holding the same rabid, lustful fan base that you see for something like Esoterica or 1792 Flake, for example. (Haunted Bookshop and Carolina Red Flake might come close.)

I've wondered why, too, and my best guess is that C&D blends aren't treated with the same fervor because it's simply taken as a given that they're such solid blends.

It isn't that people don't appreciate their offerings; folks just tend to talk more emphatically about things that the cool kids flip out over. C&D are reliable, consistent, delicious, and don't appear to be going anywhere soon. People take that for granted.

I think if they were to announce closure, we'd see the fawning that appears absent now.

To my taste, their blends have a natural, earthy flavor of unmolested tobacco and a richness that takes about half a bowl to unfold. It's good stuff and rewards long visits over several weeks.

Some really good ones I'd recommend are Bayou Night, Super Balkan, Oriental Silk, and Briar Fox.

 

[ofafeather]

I've wondered why, too, and my best guess is that C&D blends aren't treated with the same fervor because it's simply taken as a given that they're such solid blends.

It’s one reason why I like to read the WAYS threads. Gives me a good sense of what people are actually smoking regularly.

 

[lukasstrifeson]

Well, I for one don't have any trouble understanding OP's question at all.

C&D are super popular and much discussed, but you don't see many of their standard blends holding the same rabid, lustful fan base that you see for something like Esoterica or 1792 Flake, for example. (Haunted Bookshop and Carolina Red Flake might come close.)

I've wondered why, too, and my best guess is that C&D blends aren't treated with the same fervor because it's simply taken as a given that they're such solid blends.

It isn't that people don't appreciate their offerings; folks just tend to talk more emphatically about things that the cool kids flip out over. C&D are reliable, consistent, delicious, and don't appear to be going anywhere soon. People take that for granted.

I think if they were to announce closure, we'd see the fawning that appears absent now.

To my taste, their blends have a natural, earthy flavor of unmolested tobacco and a richness that takes about half a bowl to unfold. It's good stuff and rewards long visits over several weeks.

Some really good ones I'd recommend are Bayou Night, Super Balkan, Oriental Silk, and Briar Fox.

Just like some Sutliff blends right now - and before that with McClelland - they definitely had their fans but it wasn't until their closure did their popularity explode.

Like you've already observed, probably says more about human behavior than the quality of readily available tobacco blends.

 

[khiddy]

C&D makes many fine blends, as has already been noted. Much of their stuff is released quite young and benefits from time in the cellar. Their everyday Virginias are not necessarily great on their own (one major exception to this is Yorktown, an absolutely fantastic straight VA), but their limited edition releases (Carolina Red Flake) can be quite great even out of the fresh tin.

In addition to their own branded tins and bulk, C&D also blends the following lines (among others): GLP, Low Country, Captain Earle's. All of which are excellent lines on their own.

Low Country is the real sleeper. Their bulk Natural Virginia & Oriental blend is a fantastic and inexpensive everyday smoke. And their tins like Atalaya, Waccamaw, Edisto, Cooper, all are fantastic.

 

[sunnysmokes]

There are many great replies here, and a few which dive deeper into the essence of my OP:

C & D has been around for over 30 years. They have something like 150 blends under their own name plus they blend for a lot of labels including GLP.

On smokingpipes right now between tins & bulk, there's 333 C&D blends alone. That's obviously more than everyone else (I won't unfairly lump in companies who are made by C&D into that category). I understand they're not a microblender, but why SO many?

C&D makes many fine blends, as has already been noted. Much of their stuff is released quite young and benefits from time in the cellar. Their everyday Virginias are not necessarily great on their own (one major exception to this is Yorktown, an absolutely fantastic straight VA), but their limited edition releases (Carolina Red Flake) can be quite great even out of the fresh tin.

With things like this & the above quoted post, is their angle to be a jack of all trades [blends], master of none (except for a select few that you can only get a couple times a year)?

Well, I for one don't have any trouble understanding OP's question at all.

C&D are super popular and much discussed, but you don't see many of their standard blends holding the same rabid, lustful fan base that you see for something like Esoterica or 1792 Flake, for example. (Haunted Bookshop and Carolina Red Flake might come close.)

And are their staple offerings (not limited release) just "good enough" because it's readily available, or truly a good product that does stand up to those who might have more focused attention on lesser blends (even if harder to get)?

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I understand they're not a microblender, but why SO many?

And all very distinct. They pulled a lot of the repeat blends under different names and removed a few slow sellers for them a few years ago.
If they pulled more I'm sure that each and every one of them would piss quite a few off if they tried to remove the blend.

master of none (except for a select few that you can only get a couple times a year)?

The ltd edtions are not quick sellers because they are "the best" that they have, but because they've found an unusual leaf to use in a ltd quantity or because they have added an unusual casing.

Back "in the day" they were known for their excellect use of burleys, and producing some with no casings or casings of natural sugars without adding a lot of extra flavors.

The reason McClelland was renowned for their unique treatments of their Virginias. Some were barbecue-ish and some weren't. Mike was working at creating unique flavors without adding extra casing flavors. But, there were three camps on Virginias; McClellands and a few European Virginia folks, Purist European flake smokers, and those that were only interested in an unadulterated Virginia, like C&D DR even some McClellands, and a splattering of a few others.
That's just different types of Virginia smokers. Add in all of the different types of tobaccos, burleys, aromatics, latakias, orienal leaf, cigar leaf, etc... then it becomes clear that there are differences in tastes out there.

But, never was McClelland outrageously popular across the board. Everyone has a taste for something different. And, every blend brought something different to the table.

I love C&Ds uncased Virginias, their uncased burleys, and a few of their latakias and cigar blends.

My advise is to stop thinking in terms of what everyone else rates these blends and explore for yourself. But, don't be in a hurry. Ease on in and wallow around.

 

[ofafeather]

On smokingpipes right now between tins & bulk, there's 333 C&D blends alone

On SP, the number of blends is misleading because it counts all of the sizes and bulk/tin as a blends. Many blends come in 2oz, 8oz and 16oz tins and are also sold in bulk. Part of the reason they have so many blends is due to their history. Craig Tarler, who founded C&D with his wife Patty, often worked with customers to come up with blends or tweak existing blends to their preference. Bob Runowski, who was mentioned earlier, was a champion of burley blends and develop many blends like Old Joe Krantz, Haunted Bookshop and others, sometimes based on classic American blends gone by. In the past 15 years or so (not sure how long Jeremy Reaves has been working there but he’s been head blender for a good while now) they’ve been truly innovating. So yeah, limited releases get a lot of hype for good reason but some of their regular production blends are amazing and I have only tried a fraction of their line. I’ve been smoking their blends in some form since I started smoking in 2001. There’s a reason they have so many blends on the books. They sell and people enjoy them.

 

[fireground_piper]

On smokingpipes right now between tins & bulk, there's 333 C&D blends alone. That's obviously more than everyone else (I won't unfairly lump in companies who are made by C&D into that category). I understand they're not a microblender, but why SO many?

I believe that number is inflated because different size tins count as a SKU. So Autumn Evening in 2, 8 and 16 ounce tins counts as 3 plus bulk is a 4th