I just had an epiphanic moment with Prince Albert

[cmdrmcbragg]

I'll keep my OTC opinions to myself from now on. Point taken.

 

[woodsroad]

Well, I ventured down to the 5th sub-basement.
The Mosler safe door was a bit stuck (I think that the cat pissed on the bottom hinges), but I managed to get it open,
Ah....there it is....

I'll bring it on Monday.

 

[fnord]

Kaboom:
I was going to say "Welcome" until I saw you've been a member longer than most of the other posters on this thread.
You're obviously a Yank and you're not military, so what took you to Catalonia, pard?
I'm no fan of burley tobacco but I hold very close the memories of my Grandad Charlie hand rolling SWR in Bugler papers. (That old man was hard as nails, gruff as hell but truly kindhearted and I adored him.)
Anyway, do you have friends or acquaintances at our bases in Rota or Moron? Maybe somebody from a nearby U.S. embassy or even a Consul General in your community? Having access to a diplomatic pouch, or military PX, when you're living abroad can be a beautiful thing.
Fnord

 

[condorlover1]

interesting take on OTC tobacco blends.

 

[conlejm]

I have been meaning to try Carter Hall for months now, after hearing how good it is, and that it is also good for breaking in a new pipe and/or "de-ghosting" a pipe haunted by a previously smoked aromatic. While I could have easily added a pouch or tub of it to an order from an online retailer, a couple of weeks ago I decided to actually go to a store and buy some. The first place I went - our local town grocery store - had one 14 oz yellow tub of it on the shelf behind the register. I paid $10 more for it than if I had purchased it online, but no big deal; it was probably the tax. I brought it home and picked out an inexpensive estate pipe which had a noticeable cinnamon(?) ghost that I could not get rid of no matter what I did. The CH was a very nice smoke, and after a few bowls indeed the ghost in that pipe is pretty much gone. I now smoke CH when I do yard work, as it is a simple, fairly plain but enjoyable smoke that stays lit from start to finish and doesn't require me to concentrate on discerning the various flavors that a more boutique blend has to offer.

 

[smokertruck]

strange i can smoke most burleys including discontinued favourite of mine - burley london blend - 10 tins jarred in storage - but prince albert burns the hell out of my mouth even on the first draw for char lite - tried it many times love the flavor & aroma in the pouch but its like firewater even a mouth full of mexican black peppers is cooler than PA - dont know why - yes smoked slowly sipped nothing helps - other tobaccos same problem but less pungent a fire not like good old prince albert. give it away then buy it again to try - love the flavor but fire - after a few draws brush my teeth & the whole mouth burns like a thousand cuts.
golden extra also burns a bit but its ok so i dont use up all my blb.
never had the problem at 18 now at 70 - well i guess i am closer to the end than the beginning - at least i have my blb. - amazing how blb does not burn like pa.
trying some virginias but not sure yet - i know they burn also.
oh well

 

[wilson]

I suppose it is true that CH and PA and other OTC's are kind of one-dimensional. All the same, there are times when simple is enough and a pipe full of an OTC can satisfy.
Smokertruck, for the past few months CH gives me a similar sensation that you describe with PA. Up until then I smoked CH on occasion and enjoyed it: particularly in a cob with some black coffee. I assume it is a pH / mouth chemistry thing and suppose it is the burley (which tends to produce alkaline smoke) but some other blends with burley don't affect me this way, so I'm not sure. I was hoping it would go away over time, but it has not, at least not to the point that I can enjoy a bowl of CH. Va's don't bother me at all (smoking Escudo just now), so don't shy away from trying some Va.

 

[portalhq]

I keep coming back to PA, I think it's the contrast PA provides to Early Morning and 965 that I like. I mean I like spicy foods Mexican, Italian but sometimes I like comfort foods like pot roast or meatloaf so PA is my comfort smoke.
Plus it's cheap.
Gotta try Burley Without Bite.

 

[prndl]

pa and ch are watermarks...rarely smoke them anymore but, would be hard to forget my coming of age with them in years past.
as far as epiphanic moments, I'm not allowed to have those anymore...it didn't really bother me when swmbo began to tell me that but, when the police began to tell me that, I started to take notice.

 

[mso489]

I love burley so am not rational on the subject, but I realize many can't taste it, and many others find it

unpleasant. However, to my taste buds and olfactory sense, PA is a fine honest smoke. I associate it with

a great elderly pipe smoker I encountered while my wife was in rehab for a hip replacement; he smoked only

PA. I bought him a cob and later a briar pipe, since some friend had ruined his pipes by reaming them.
But what really caught my attention was the use, in your headline, of epiphanic! Wow. I'm not sure if I've

ever seen that word used even in print. Lovely diction. Just too cool. I think it is occasionally corrupted

as epiphanal, which isn't even a word. Nice word choice. We do too little with what is a vast arsenal of

vocabulary.

 

[pipejunky]

I'm good for some PA at least twice a week or whenever I'm in the shop crafting.Glad you enjoy it and its never on back order!

 

[dottiewarden]

I can't smoke the OTC pouches anymore. Too one dimensional.

Not all OTCs are created equal. And besides often providing that nostalgic flavor and aroma, some are made with very high quality tobaccos.
I can't speak much for the American OTCs as I've only tried Captain Black, and despite its nostalgic taste and aroma, I just found it tasted to artificial (chemicals).
Recently I've been smoking Obester Vanilla, a Hungarian OTC, and not only the tobacco flavors come through, but also I've found depth and complexity to the smoke if I really take the time to concéntrate on what I'm smoking; otherwise it's just a pleasant all day smoke.
I am now on a mission to try diffferent OTCs from around the globe, just for fun!

 

[zekest]

I bounce between Prince Albert and Carter Hall.
Both are the best brick and mortar blends money can buy.
Both enjoyed greatly by pipe smokers, long before the hipsters started calling themselves "Pipers".

 

[frank13]

Picked up some Half & Half, yesterday afternoon. Yes, it's probably one-dimensional, but darn it, it's not bad. I occasionally enjoy Captain Black White Label, too. Especially after burning the ever-lovin' dogshit outta' my mouth with a constant smoking of latakia, the very very mild OTC brands come as a soothing balm of sorts. Very enjoyable.

 

[kaboom]

I've smoked a few more bowls of PA since my first post (my stash is starting to run low, 4noggins here I come!) and although I have indeed found it somewhat more bland that that awesome first bowl, the taste is still rather good and the enjoyment I get of being able to smoke a whole bown down to the heel with almost no relights is amazing. No scorched tongue either!

I can't wait to cut my teeth a little more with this stuff so I can dig right back into that tin of Nightcap that's waiting for me in my cupboard...

Kaboom:
I was going to say "Welcome" until I saw you've been a member longer than most of the other posters on this thread.
You're obviously a Yank and you're not military, so what took you to Catalonia, pard?
I'm no fan of burley tobacco but I hold very close the memories of my Grandad Charlie hand rolling SWR in Bugler papers. (That old man was hard as nails, gruff as hell but truly kindhearted and I adored him.)
Anyway, do you have friends or acquaintances at our bases in Rota or Moron? Maybe somebody from a nearby U.S. embassy or even a Consul General in your community? Having access to a diplomatic pouch, or military PX, when you're living abroad can be a beautiful thing.
Fnord

I have been registered on of forums for a while now but i've spent two hours barely smoking any pipes or participating in any of the piping communities, so it's basically as if i had just started smoking pipes and joining the boards all over anew!
I'm actually Spanish, born and raised! And not from Catalunya but from Madrid. I have however been studying english since an early age and also attended an english-speaking boarding school abroad, plus I try to use the language as much as possible so I'd like to think by this stage i've got a reasonable command of the language... These kinds of forums (pipesmagazine, pipesmokersforum, puff.com) are also a great aid in keeping my grammar sharp and my vocab up-to-date since they are full of gentlemen use good and proper English when writing!

I'm afraid i'm also not military or ex-military so while I do know both Rota and Moron, I don't have any acquaintances in either of them.

 

[mephistopheles]

+10,000 coalsmoke's nugget of truth

Being new to pipe smoking I really didn't know where to start. I went with aromatics instead of starting with OTC blends like I wanted to. There seems to be such a negative stigma toward them. People say OTC blends are "simple" or "cheap" or "low quality" and those kind of descriptors are what make people shy away from them. Sometimes there isn't anything wrong with simple. Regardless, my worry toward OTC blends are gone. Thank you. :clap:
+1 Cyborg burley 8O

I don't know what it is, but you guys seem pretty happy with it. I need to find some samples of these blends apparently. Somebody hook me up with a link or something please.
+1 Epiphanic

Great word. I hope I can have a moment like that.

 

[kaboom]

Being new to pipe smoking I really didn't know where to start. I went with aromatics instead of starting with OTC blends like I wanted to. There seems to be such a negative stigma toward them. People say OTC blends are "simple" or "cheap" or "low quality" and those kind of descriptors are what make people shy away from them. Sometimes there isn't anything wrong with simple. Regardless, my worry toward OTC blends are gone. Thank you

Precisely the whole point of this thread. I started out with a couple of aromatics that scorched my tongue and tasted like crap. Now i realize that it's not aromatics that taste like crap, its just that i didn't know how to smoke a pipe worth a damn. I'll smoke absolutely anything, and I can't wait to develop my technique so I can give them another go
I then started smoking english blends. Although significantly less bitey and totally delicious, my packing skills are not yet at a level that lets me enjoy them sipping slowly without having the pipe continously go out. Can't wait to develop my technique so I can give them another go.
I've also tried a couple of flakes and straight VAs that have bitten CHUNKS outta my tongue just trying to keep them lit. Didn't get much flavour outta them either, but they are some of the best-loved blends, so I can't wait to develop my technique and give them another go (See the trend here?)
So finally I got my hands on some Prince Albert. Sure, it tastes nothing like Samarra, Early Morning Pipe, Capstan, Squadron Leader or any of the other blends whose flavors i've enjoyed. But it tastes nice enough and being able to concentrate on the flavor instead of on keeping the damn thing lit is the hell of a lot more pleasurable than fighting your way through half a bowl (because you know the bottom half is packed wrong, soggy and unsmokable anyway) of any 8$ an ounce, ultra-exclusive, gentelman's smoker English blend.
Once i've got my technique significantly more perfected that it is now, i'll start indulging in all of the exquisite goodness all other blends have to offer!

 

[phred]

Oddly enough, I just found my lost pouch of PA this weekend! Turns out it was in the pocket of one of my Utilikilts... Fortunately, I've got a tub jarred up, so it's not as if I was totally out, but it's nice to know I didn't accidentally throw away a perfectly good half-pouch of PA by mistake.
It is a decent smoke, and it's one of the few non-aro blends that my wife doesn't immediately wrinkle her nose at, so it's staying in the rotation.