After reading this thread when it started, I recalled seeing a couple of tins of Stockton at a B&M that I was at 2 weeks ago. My wife and I were going to be in the area again today (does 40 miles away count as in the area?) and we took a trip to the B&M. They had the 2 tins of Stockton but moved them so I thought they were gone at first. I was hesitant to purchase them because they were NY B&M priced, $33.55/ea. I bought them anyway bc I figured it’s not available anywhere else (in the US), was an older release so had some age on them, and I should support B&Ms to some degree. I also bought 1oz of Balkan Supreme bulk bc I’ve been wanting to try it, as well as an inexpensive Made In London England pipe in a shape I’ve been collecting.
When I had some time sitting in the car while we were running some other errands, I looked at the Stockton more closely. Hmm.They had some age to them. The back labels were yellowed from their original white and there was at least one previous price tag that had been removed and replaced with the current price. I noticed that the importer on the label was Kretek International. I had never heard of them so started doing some digging. Managed to find some older threads of Pipesmagazine forum with good info. One indicated that Kretek was the MB importer from 2004-2012. Great news! These tins are at least 8 years old. I guess I can justify the cost a bit more. Another thread indicated that the Kretek imports could be dated based on a code on the label. Said code most likely indicates that these tins are actually from 2005! I’ll take it!
![42731C24-5880-4DDD-B2AF-685AB3B34521.jpeg 42731C24-5880-4DDD-B2AF-685AB3B34521.jpeg](https://pipesmagazine.com/forums/data/attachments/38/38660-57a8e4665a119c188fe8e93c8640c332.jpg)
Mac Baren Kretek info