Old Durham Tobacco

[gio-vito]

Hello all! I recently bid on & won an eBay auction which contained this really nice meerschaum pipe (needs some cleaning inside the bowl), a few other random pipes, & this old bag of Durham Tobacco. Now when I bid on the listing I didn't know the bag would be full. After some light googling this bag could be older than my father… so I’m wondering, can it still be smoked? I emptied it out into this matchbox & there's no mold, it smells nice (a little old, but not bad in any way). I guess the only way to find out is to smoke it - but I'm curious


A. Has anyone smoked this old tobacco before?


B. Is it worth it? (I've heard you shouldn't put cigarette tobacco in a pipe, something about a harsh bite, I don't remember) &


C. How old is it actually? Some googling showed around the 1920s, but production for this brand ended in the late 80s, & i dont know where to date this pouch. There's no date on the pouch, but similar pouches date it from the 1920s


I'll smoke it later, see how it goes, maybe I get cursed with some 1920s ghost whose tobacco this is, maybe it's just a mediocre bowl, who knows. I'll post an update once I smoke it, but I want to open this discussion to learn more about “Genuine Durham Smoking Tobacco”

 

[mortonbriar]

You could hydrate it a bit first, but sure, give it a smoke!

An easy way to hydrate a small amount is just put a few pinches in a zip lock bag and hold it over the kettle to catch the steam when it boils, close it up and let it climatise for a bit.

 

[gio-vito]

You could hydrate it a bit first, but sure, give it a smoke!

An easy way to hydrate a small amount is just put a few pinches in a zip lock bag and hold it over the kettle to catch the steam when it boils, close it up and let it climatise for a bit.

Ok cool, good to know, thanks

 

[xrundog]

Bull Durham. That’s where the movie got the name.

 

[huntertrw]

Bull Durham was originally sold as Blackwell's Durham, named for W.T. Blackwell and Company of Durham, North Carolina. It was a favorite pipe-tobacco of author Mark Twain.

Here is a link to the opendurham.org Website and their page on Blackwell's Durham Tobacco / American Tobacco Company which has some interesting information on the brand.

Enjoy!

 

[khiddy]

Bull Durham. That’s where the movie got the name.

Well, that and the fact that the minor league team is the Durham Bulls.

 

[VDL_Piper]

I remember a thread about Durham tobacco in a calico bag like this a few years ago and the poster went through the process. Might be worth spending some time and have a search on their methods and outcomes.

 

[gio-vito]

So, I smoked it. Not bad. A little underwhelming, mostly tastes “old”. Like it’s been sitting in a box with old pipes in the attic for some odd 50 years.

Ill try mortonbrior’s method & try to rehydrate it, maybe that will liven up the flavor.

On a positive note, this pipe smokes beautifully, not much force needed to drag up the smoke, and it aerates the smoke in the mouth nicely if that makes sense. Bowl didn't get too hot, it’s nice & deep, very comfortable in the mouth & rests nicely on the lip, not heavy at all, even for its size (thats what she said.)

If I pop some of my G.L Please “Navigator” in here I’m sure it'll taste great, but I’m not in love with the flavor in that blend. Either way, the pipe is great, the tobacco is good, I'm sure it could be better & will try to do so.

 

[xrundog]

Well, that and the fact that the minor league team is the Durham Bulls.

Sponsored by Bull Durham Tobacco.

 

[Pooh-Bah]

Bull Durham basically invented marketing - before them there was a skepticism toward big ad campaigns ("There's no way print ads in all these magazines and posters on every corner will generate enough sales to pay for themselves!"), and they had a rewards program where you could send in a giant pile of those little bull tags (I think it was) for swag.

So if nothing else, you've got an interesting discussion piece to show off and amaze your normal friends.

 

[xrundog]

Bull Durham basically invented marketing - before them there was a skepticism toward big ad campaigns ("There's no way print ads in all these magazines and posters on every corner will generate enough sales to pay for themselves!"), and they had a rewards program where you could send in a giant pile of those little bull tags (I think it was) for swag.

So if nothing else, you've got an interesting discussion piece to show off and amaze your normal friends.

I have a Bull Durham GFB bulldog that was a premium for a 1905 ad campaign. I’ll get some pics up later.

 

[xrundog]

 

[gio-vito]

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how cool!

 

[Briarcutter]

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How do you interpret that add? A free pipe if you buy a POUND of Bull Durham for 60¢?

 

[xrundog]

How do you interpret that add? A free pipe if you buy a POUND of Bull Durham for 60¢?

I can’t read the fine print. But that’s what it looks like.

 

[Briarcutter]

I can’t read the fine print. But that’s what it looks like.

Sign me up! I'll take 100 pounds What year is that add?

 

[xrundog]

Sign me up! I'll take 100 pounds What year is that add?

1905. Some guys were making $.50 a day.

 

[gio-vito]

So an update on the tobacco. After letting it rest, swapping containers, trying to get rid of all the small dust bits, I smoked it again, its awful bitter. It tastes old, with faint tobacco in the background. Disappointed, but its ok, I never expected to get old tobacco in the first place, so I cant really complain.

 

[xrundog]

20 years or so ago, when eBay was still pretty new, one could find full, or sometimes partially full tins. I tried a lot of stuff. My experience is that intact vacuum sealed tins can be pretty dang good. Everything else loses flavor. Tastes old, is an accurate way to describe it.

 

[huntertrw]

In the Fall 1997 issue of Pipes and Tobaccos magazine there is an article by Chuck Stanion about Mark Twain. The first paragraph states, in part, " 'I smoke a good deal,' wrote Mark Twain in 1891, 'that is to say, all the time.'" This seems to be borne out by an invoice from Salomon & DeLeeuw (a tobacco dealer in Hartford, Connecticut) dated June 14, 1880 that is pictured in the article. It shows that on February 7th he purchased three pounds of Blackwell's Durham. The next entry, dated June 14th, shows that he purchased one-and-a-half pound more.

If my arithmetic is correct, over that four-month period between February and June he smoked 12-ounces per month, or 2.84-ounces per week, and this was just pipe-tobacco; he was also fond of cigars. I don't know about you, but to me that seems like a lot of pipe-tobacco!