In Defense of Codger Blends

[telescopes]

Today, as I was smoking my apple shaped large bowl five pointed three star Lee with a load of Lane Ready Rub, I wondered to myself how pleasant the tobacco was.

I have many many different tins and bags of all varieties of tobacco. However, I thought, if I had to limit myself to perhaps just this one bowl because access to other types of tobacco was limited, I think I could live with Ready Rub.

Codgers. They get ridiculed for their adherence to smoking only one or two types of OTC blends, but I got to thinking, if that was only what was available at your small general store, wouldn't you want a blend that you could live with - one that would lend itself to longevity in terms of taste. Kind of like Bud or Coors or Miller.

You get the point.

If the world were to change and all you had access to really were OTC blends, which ones would you gravitate toward?

 

[shermnatman]

I'd be right where I am now and have always been... Prince Albert.

After all, PA is "The National Joy Smoke". - Sherm Natman

 

[canucklehead]

I could smoke OTC type blends and be happy I think, as long as there was a little variety. I like Amphora Original, Half&Half, and Sutliff's codger matches (Ready Rub, Revelation, etc).

According to the older fellas I've talked to in the area, and from what I've seen in local antique stores everybody here used to smoke Amphora, Prince Albert, or going back a bit further, Edgeworth Slices. Those little blue tins are still all over. I could see how someone could smoke something like that and be quite content.

 

[MikeDub]

Does MacBaren Virginia #1 count as a codger blend? If so, I could make do with only that blend and be content

 

[rmbittner]

Honestly? I’d switch to cigars. I’d rather smoke machine-made Dutch Masters than be stuck with an OTC pipe tobacco for the rest of my life. I haven’t tried one yet that I could smoke for more than half a bowl. But burley is my least-favorite leaf; OTC brands love to use cheap, mulched, and to me characterless burley.

 

[mso489]

I revel in variety, from codger bag tobacco to primo expensive blends, so i don't want to settle in with one blend of anything, I admit. However, I regularly and thoroughly enjoy the old standard so-called codger blends. As a group, they stay lit, burn evenly, don't cultivate an undesirable nicotine habit, don't have much or any bite, are widely distributed and available at relatively moderate cost, and often times deliver the best smoke of the week. So yes, hurrah for codger blends.

I grew up with a dad who smoked only Granger, and only owned one pipe at a time, with maybe a burn-out as a back-up, and only smoked from the foil pouch. I'm also a devout burley smoker, though I enjoy most genres. So I'm pre-disposed to like codger blends.

My favorite codgers at the moment are Sir Walter Raleigh Aromatic and their Regular (which is also aromatic), but I like most others. PA is a little too cocoa dominant for me, though I have enjoyed it, and Half-and-Half I find verging on harsh for what is usually a sure bet delight of a Virginia and burley blend. But mostly, OTC/codgers are good with me.

 

[geoffs]

Sir Walter Raleigh.
I recently did a thing where I bought a bunch of "OTC" pouches and tried to live with 'em for a bit. From the first taste, SWR did it for me. And every time I came back to it, I told myself I needed to smoke it more. It's cheap, packs ridiculously easy, stays lit, and tastes awesome. What's not to like?

 

[mso489]

There's some reason a number of these blends have been around for eighty or one hundred years.

 

[BCF]

I certainly enjoy the different blends available and smoke a variety of them, but during the day, at work, it's usually Granger or Five Brothers.

 

[STP]

I’ve always liked Captain Black Original, and still rotate it in occasionally. Lane RLP-6 too, which is similar… but not exactly the same IMO.

 

[warren]

I could get by with nothing but OTCs. Would I want to? I'd doubt it. Without my two containers of IRC blends handy, I'd simply stick with luxury cigarettes and cigars.

 

[BriarBrook]

Velvet is in my top 5.

 

[renfield]

If forced I could do Carter Hall but I think it would become monotonous.
I have some decades old Granger I could be happy with.

 

[The Amish Tyrant]

Half and Half.

It's my go to blend.

 

[tmcg81]

Some of the codger blends I've tried (SWR, Velvet, mixture 79, Carter Hall) I didn't really care for. Is 1Q a codger? If it is, I could smoke that and only that and be happy. I know that in the UK, St Bruno is a codger blend, and I would very happily smoke the Flake and nothing else for the rest of time.

 

[coming to_falling too]

I really liked US production SWR, but I'm not as crazy about the new production. Can't stand Half & Half. If I had to choose it would probably be SWR or Prince Albert.

I've really been enjoying Watch City's Original Crumb Cut recently. I consider it pretty codger-y. I'd rather have it than and of the others, tbh.

 

[futureman]

I smoke a bowl of Carter Hall every morning while drinking coffee. It’s such an easy, pleasant smoke. I can’t imagine not having it around.

 

[sablebrush52]

I've got tubs of Chatham Manor, 14 oz tins of SWRA, several pounds of Edgeworth match and some other odds and ends.
There are times when nothing beats a well structured mild OTC.

 

[Briar Lee]

Today, as I was smoking my apple shaped large bowl five pointed three star Lee with a load of Lane Ready Rub, I wondered to myself how pleasant the tobacco was.

I have many many different tins and bags of all varieties of tobacco. However, I thought, if I had to limit myself to perhaps just this one bowl because access to other types of tobacco was limited, I think I could live with Ready Rub.

Codgers. They get ridiculed for their adherence to smoking only one or two types of OTC blends, but I got to thinking, if that was only what was available at your small general store, wouldn't you want a blend that you could live with - one that would lend itself to longevity in terms of taste. Kind of like Bud or Coors or Miller.

You get the point.

If the world were to change and all you had access to really were OTC blends, which ones would you gravitate toward?

Half and Half

 

[mortonbriar]

SWR would do me.