Lord of the Rings series tin of tobacco

[iamn8]

Just curious, this morning I've purchased this tin through Pipestuds site. I've pasted the description below. Anybody ever tried it or know anything about it? With its Lord Of The Rings connection I couldn't not buy it.
BA1 - The ultra rare tin that started it all for the NASPC Columbus Show Lord of the Rings series. Only 100 tins ever produced! This is the year 1998 Old Toby 50g sealed tin that was the first in the series of NASPC Columbus Show blends that continues even today. I went over this tin with a magnifying glass and could find no indication of possible issues. A fully ripened mysterious blend of "Longbottom" leaf.

 

[escioe]

Very interesting that this is in a new-style tin, yet predates the C&D produced GL Pease line. I bet this was hand-tinned, perhaps by Pease himself.
Make sure to crack it and let us know what and how it is.

 

[pipestud]

Thanks for the purchase, Nate!
Just some clarification on the maker - This is what it says on the side of the tin - "Discovered in the McClelland factory and packed exclusively for THE NORTH AMERICAN SOCIETY OF PIPE COLLECTORS, August 1998.
C&D actually tinned up what was called "Longbottom Leaf," which was the second in the LOTR series and tinned in 1999. Pease picked up the reins in (I think) 2001 with a blend called Southfarthing and has been doing the LOTR series annual limited edition blends ever since.
Pipestud

 

[escioe]

I had assumed that Pease made them the whole time.
The weight of what I don't know could kill me.

 

[pipestud]

Howdy Newbie,
I will respectfully say that it will be somewhat difficult to find your assessment of the Pease blends to be accurate. Mainly because you left us links to a blend on tobaccoreviews.com that was not even made by Gregory Pease and is not associated in any way with the NASPC blends - just has the same name. The blend you provided a link to is a Bob Shafer created blend that is sold exclusively at Just For Him Tobacconist. You may want to check what you were actually smoking. (-;
I personally have found many of the Pease NASPC blends (particularly Area 51, my personal favorite) to be terrific. And the 1998 Old Toby blend that the OP inquired about, was not even made by Pease. it was made by McClelland's.
Pipestud

 

[escioe]

The only one I've had was Aragorn, and it was of great quality and tasted great. It didn't do anything for me that some other Pease blends do, but everyone's tastes are a little different. I'm glad I got to try it.

 

[iamn8]

Perhaps lucky for me or not, I thought it more a very cool piece of memorabilia more than a stellar tin of tobacco. I can appreciate a cool piece of pipe related ephemera. Mostly I purchase to smoke but the occasional cool collectible is a good thing to.

 

[freakiefrog]

My local B&M has a whole line of LOTR tobacco http://www.thecountrysquireonline.com/middle-earth-tobaccos/

I've tried almost all of them and really like them. If anyone is interested I'll get the lot and put them in the PassBox when it comes to me.

 

[pipestud]

Oh PipeStud ... I forgot to mention that you might after just a little bit of research into collectible Tolkien items that the tobacco being discussed, the McClelland Tobacco not the other stuff but the Toby blend made by McClelland is listed as both a JFH and a Just For Him branded type item so ... well ... both those review links are basically for the exact same tobacco which 99% chance is exactly what is in the purchased tin.- Newbie

I have no idea how you have come to such a conclusion (or, actually what you just said), Newbie... but for the sake of being gentlemanly, Okey Dokie. ::
Pipestud

 

[rickpal14]

@pipestud..... You beat me to it!! If those 9 periods were spaced out within that run on sentence it might have been half coherent!!

 

[rickpal14]

To get back on track, enjoy it Nate!!

 

[wyfbane]

OR we could just be happy for Nate for getting an aged tin of McClelland blended tobacco from possibly the best online purveyer of estate tobacciana in the country and save the deconstruction of the blend for another thread.
We could just do that, too.
Congrats on the purchase, Nate! I am sure it will smoke fabulously!

 

[pipestud]

Damn, I was hoping in PipeStuds vast database of inter cranial knowledge he could have explained to us what I had said because I am clueless other than ... do a little research and see that maybe the Just For Him tobacco is exactly what is/was in those tins that year.
Maybe this will help? http://www.tolkienguide.com/modules/wiwimod/index.php?page=OldTobyTobacco
It amazes me to think that people think that most blenders will do some big huge special blending and run of a couple hundred tins of tobacco for this or that special thing. What most of them do is take one of there standard palatable blends and tweak a little of this or a little of that to make it just slightly different and then you have a special once only blend. It is almost but not exactly like walking into almost any tobacconist across the country and almost all have some special lightly vanilla cased tobacco that they have a special name on but every time the jar needs be filled its filled from a bulk 5# bag of Lane 1-Q. This special "Toby" blend from McClelland is no different other than it might have had something tweaked a hair and then that one and once only tinning had a special label put on it but I think this blend since it is available by the same name from other places made it into an actual production bulk blend available to anyone who wanted it. Matter of fact it might even kind of be like 1-Q and is available across the country right now labeled as whatever house blend a tobacconist wants to call it and we just aint aware of it. - Newbie

ZZZzzz... Uh, sorry Newbie, I dozed off. Would you be so kind as to repeat that, please? :wink:

OR we could just be happy for Nate for getting an aged tin of McClelland blended tobacco from possibly the best online purveyer of estate tobacciana in the country and save the deconstruction of the blend for another thread.
We could just do that, too.
Congrats on the purchase, Nate! I am sure it will smoke fabulously!

And thanks for getting this thread back on track, Wyfbane. Indeed, congrats again to Nate for getting a great old tin of historical tobacco!
Pipestud

 

[lestrout]

Not necessarily for the Pease club blends under discussion, but I have seen some single batch blends that were limited by the availability (actually, lack thereof) of an ingredient leaf. In those cases, the blend might be well more than just a tweak of a standard blend.
hp

les

 

[7ach]

Ignoring newbie...
Congratulation on the purchase iamn8. All though I have not smoked that one, I have smoked a few of the GL Peace NASPC blends and enjoyed them all. I also have a few that im letting age. If you like latakia blends, then odds are you will like any of the GLP ones. Ill be interested to hear what you have to say about this earlier one. Smoke it and let us know!
If anyone cares, I also know Southern start was blended by GL Pease for NASPC 2000 show.

 

[7ach]

http://glpease.com/Tobacco/SpecialEditions/SouthernStar.html

 

[daimyo]

Newbie, the burden of proof lies on the person making a claim. It is not the burden of others to prove the assertion incorrect. For instance if I claim the universe is run by a pink unicorn who lives on Saturn, it falls upon me to prove this, not on others to disprove it.

 

[pipestud]

If anyone cares, I also know Southern start was blended by GL Pease for NASPC 2000 show. - 7ACH

Hey, that's the one I could not think of that is the actual first of the NASPC LOTR blends that Pease produced. Thanks pardner!
Pipestud

 

[clickklick]

The tin art for Smaugweed, Gimli's Stash, and Aragorn are the best in the series IMO. And I am only missing a few. I'm thinking of selling the whole thing off to someone else who can enjoy/collect them.

 

[planetary]

Ok. I'm a moderator for tobaccoreviews.com, and I care very much about keeping the database clean and accurate, as much as my time allows.
These are the different blends in question here:
(1) There is a Just for Him blend called "Old Toby". The TR link is here. The JFH shop link is here.
(2) There is also a Middle Earth Tobacco blend called "Old Toby". The TR link is here. The MET shop link is here.
(3) There are a couple others of the same name, as well, and they also have TR entries; the full list is here.
(4) The McClelland-made "Old Toby" blend for NASPC definitely exists, and is different than all of the above, but until just now lacked a TR entry; I made it myself, and it's here. NOTE: It's incomplete! If you know what kind of blend this is, please suggest some edits (or let me know).
Finally, the Tolkien Guide conflates the McClelland NASPC offering with the JFH offering, and is in error.