Pipe Tobacco is no Good Anymore/Better Than Before

[Pipe & a walk]

Well, "carried" might be a bit strong, but he was a major part of their sound. One of the greatest guitarists that have ever played. I was fortunate to meet him on a plane once. He was very humble and nice. Very nice person.

I was joking. This band was before my time and I didn't like their music at all. That is until I saw them play "Blue Sky" on the Dennis Miller show in 1992-

Warren Haynes and Dickey Betts with the Strat and Les Paul on Soldano amps is pure magic!

 

[Zamora]

Erine Q - But he didn't source the ingredients, which were sourced by member of a "society" of which I am a member. But don't ask about that, because I won't answer.

 

[damacene]

I miss the magic of the early days of my pipe smoking, before I knew how the sausage was made. There was something special about walking in to Tobacco Barn in OC and just going off the description on the tin or what the tobacconists had to say about a blend. Sometimes it was just the tin art that made me buy a blend. I didn't know house blends were often renamed Lane and sutliff bulks and that Davidoff Scottish Mixture was just another STG blend, mass produced on a conveyer belt and sprayed with some crap...I thought it was "Davidoff's special tradition of first-class tobaccos" with a subtle topping of fine scotch whiskey. Going in every week or so and buying a couple of tins was an adventure, and I didn't know everything on the shelf. Trading tins with friends at Civil War reenactments and actually thinking Dunhill still made pipe tobacco. Now I have a hoarder apocalypse cellar and get pissed off when a store tries to sell me an obvious STG bulk as being made "in-house." Maybe things were better back then because there was still some kind of magic to the whole thing. I sure as hell liked Star Wars better before I had everything explained to death and ruined after the original trilogy. I didn't know why Obi Wan disappeared and could talk to Luke and show up beyond the grave, I didn't need to know what a force ghost was...it was just cool. But, maybe I just don't have enough midi-chlorians to get pipe smoking or modern star wars. Shucks, I'm turning into Lee now. I'll quit while I'm ahead.

 

[Brendan]

IF YOU AINT HOLDING AT LEAST 500LBS, GO HOME!

500LBS!?

DO YOU EVEN 'PIPE' BRO ?!

 

[minerLuke]

I can't speak to the really good old days because I'm not old as dirt yet, but I do think that Borkum Riff is better now with STG than it was when I started smoking in the late 90s. I really like the Borkum Riff line and smoke at least a bowl or two of them every day.

 

[BingBong]

The way I see it, Cabbie's Roll Cut wasn't invented until 2007 or something and I can't live without it now. We're living in the best of times and the worst of times... hold on, did Dickens stumble onto quantum physics? Anyway, enjoy while we're still here, I'm having a great time with what I have.

 

[Sigmund]

The way I see it, Cabbie's Roll Cut wasn't invented until 2007 or something and I can't live without it now. We're living in the best of times and the worst of times... hold on, did Dickens stumble onto quantum physics? Anyway, enjoy while we're still here, I'm having a great time with what I have.

The cat is simultaneously dead and alive.

 

[anotherbob]

The loss of syrian latakia supposedly materially and negatively impacted the quality of English blends. I never smoked syrian latakia so I don’t know how valid that is. I hear that as perique has become more scarce vapers have suffered.

I don't know if my taste in latakia matured in me or if I really just didn't get along with Syrian latakia.

My sense is that small growers and blenders (like Mclelland) have become more scarce and mass production has increased.

Taken together, I would guess that overall quality of pipe tobacco has decreases but there are still pockets of high quality out there.

 

[Briar Lee]

As suggested by the contradictory title, I'm kinda confused about comparisons between the quality of currently available tobacco and what was sold 30/50/many years ago. Recent closings, discontinued blends, and a shrinking industry give a strong sense that the best days of pipe tobacco are behind us. On the other hand, I see the work of boutique blenders with new approaches, and practices like cellaring and aging blends, which I understand wasn't really done until a few decades below. I wonder if at least some of the golden age is based on nostalgia, higher social acceptance back in the day, and other factors -- no disrespect meant to all those with far greater experience and knowledge than me.

What I've read online is that historically, pipe tobacco was a bulk commodity based on an industrial crop, and that high end blends were based as much on the skill, and the brand name, of the blender, as they were on leaf quality. Or am I mistaken, and blenders had access to high quality leaf grown by dedicated farmers, and no one is growing anything like that any more? Like many folks, I draw comparisons with subjects I already know something about; in my case craft spirits and beers. In that industry, a focus on quality ingredients, small production runs, and willingness to experiment have led to a new golden age of high quality drinks. It seems like it should still be possible for today's farmers and blenders to create a product that's at least as good as what was smoked by past generations?

I'm not trying to start a fire here, so to speak, but I'm interested in, and grateful for, everyone's thoughts on this if you'd care to reply. Thanks!

Like everything else under the sun, as mankind progresses and experiments the quality of tobacco keeps getting better, and better.


The good old days are right now, and today will not be as good as tomorrow.

This is especially true for tobacco, as it’s a declining market, and there is fierce competition.

Mankind has been selectively and scientifically breeding and experimenting on ways to cure tobacco for over five centuries, and it never will stop improving.

 

[krizzose]

IF YOU AINT HOLDING AT LEAST 500LBS, GO HOME!

Shit. But I’m already at home

 

[badbriar]

Comparing a current production of a particular pipe tobacco vs that exact same one from years back is pretty difficult due to the fact that most, if not all of such blends have changed. Many have changed significantly to the point that they likely should not be considered the same blend. Ex. can you compare a 2025 Mustang to a '65?
No point, since they are the same in name only. Again, many, if not most pipe tobacco manufacturers and their blends are not created by the original blenders. They have been sold, re-sold and sold yet again.

 

[Brendan]

Jeez.. I'm not clicking on that link..
Something feels off there for a first post..

 

[MisterBadger]

Brethren, hear the words of The Book Of Wisdom Of Ole Whiney:

"I mind the time when I wuz knee high ter a grasshopper an' smokin' GH Brown Irish in a ole cawb ma gran'pappy give me fer ma fifth birthday. It wuz so strawng ah cud knock down a mule at fifty yards, jes' with a retro-hayul. But nowadays it ain't good fer nuthin'. It's lahk smokin' freysh ayur. Shoot, ah don' hardly know no more iffn' I loaded ma pipe or not when ah lights urp. This here terbaccy ain't terbaccy no mo. Ah reckon they makes it outa sump'n eyulse. These days, thuh on'y ways ah gotta git a nic-hit outa this po' sturff is ter shove a whol' rope up mah ass lahk ah sur-poz-it-tree. Tha whol' worl' be goin' to tha dawgs ever since ole Sam Gawith died an' Jeff'son Davis resigned the Pres'dency..." (etc).

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Just as some blends are lesser, some better... some members get saltier over the years also.

Funny to me that the same set of guys would have said, "why didn't that company just cancel the product instead of packing tins with inferior leaf and selling blends based only on the tin art." Then the same old salts would turn around when someone says, "these blends are different now," and say, "shut up, just be glad they're making tobacco."

It's an insane Alice in Wonderland on here, where the same set of decrepit members just say whatever pops in their mind till the wind changes direction, and then they will say the opposite. I guess this always keeps the arguments fresh. But, to you younger guys, take all of this with a grain of salt.

If you like what you like, then smoke it. If you don't like it, shut the fuck up! I kid, I kid... Like astrology... just wait till the moon is in Asparagus, with a penis retrograde, and you'll get a totally different set of reactions.

Sorry, I gots to get back to painting the roses red...

 

[BingBong]

Just as some blends are lesser, some better... some members get saltier over the years also.

Funny to me that the same set of guys would have said, "why didn't that company just cancel the product instead of packing tins with inferior leaf and selling blends based only on the tin art." Then the same old salts would turn around when someone says, "these blends are different now," and say, "shut up, just be glad they're making tobacco."

It's an insane Alice in Wonderland on here, where the same set of decrepit members just say whatever pops in their mind till the wind changes direction, and then they will say the opposite. I guess this always keeps the arguments fresh. But, to you younger guys, take all of this with a grain of salt.

If you like what you like, then smoke it. If you don't like it, shut the fuck up! I kid, I kid... Like astrology... just wait till the moon is in Asparagus, with a penis retrograde, and you'll get a totally different set of reactions.

Sorry, I gots to get back to painting the roses red...

Yes, but at least we're consistent.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

Just as some blends are lesser, some better... some members get saltier over the years also.

Agreed.
I'm sure that some blends were in fact better, and some great ones aren't available anymore at all. RIP McClelland.
But I often wonder how much of it is just the fact that people got used to something for years, decades even, and then it changed.
If you have a favorite and you love everything about it, and then it slightly changes, you're not going to like it. Doesn't necessarily mean it's inferior, it's just different and most people don't like change (myself included).

 

[sablebrush52]

Agreed.
I'm sure that some blends were in fact better, and some great ones aren't available anymore at all. RIP McClelland.
But I often wonder how much of it is just the fact that people got used to something for years, decades even, and then it changed.
If you have a favorite and you love everything about it, and then it slightly changes, you're not going to like it. Doesn't necessarily mean it's inferior, it's just different and most people don't like change (myself included).

That's fair.

That said, sometimes the changes clearly degrade the blend, like taking out the Perique to save a few pennies in what is supposed to be a Va/Per. And then there are changes to blends that leave them tasting flat or even discordant, which happened to the base of Virginias used in the making of a number of Esoterica blends.

It's not a matter of it just being changed. The Savinelli Doblone D'Oro I recently bought is a very pleasant blend, but it's not what the blend was intended to be, a faithful recreation of the Va/Per Three Nuns. It now is a pleasant blob.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Agreed.
I'm sure that some blends were in fact better, and some great ones aren't available anymore at all. RIP McClelland.
But I often wonder how much of it is just the fact that people got used to something for years, decades even, and then it changed.
If you have a favorite and you love everything about it, and then it slightly changes, you're not going to like it. Doesn't necessarily mean it's inferior, it's just different and most people don't like change (myself included).

Yes and NO. When a blend changes, it kills the connections that the label had to that certain taste. As someone with a PHD in aesthetics, there is no better or worse, those are opinions. When Balkan Sobranie or Escudo or anything GH makes changes, it does not have to be better or worse for it to be a game changer. When they change, it upsets years of reviews, and any history connected to the names of these blends.

Take Erinmore, a favorite of CS Lewis... and many of us smoke it to have that historical connection to Lewis and all of those who smoked that blend. But, STG changed the recipe some years back, and that is gone. You are merely buying something in a tin similar to what Lewis would have bought. The rest ends there. Some of us think of this as a form of fraud.
This does not mean that Erinmore is worse now. Hell, many people may like it better. But, everything else around the blend is dead.

 

[BriarBrook]

There are blends readily available today that I just can't imagine being any better... just not possible. And there are extremely rare/out of production blends that I so desperately want to try... and I know deep in my soul I would be disappointed in them. Therein lies the conundrum.

 

[pauls456]

There are many who feel McClelland is (was) overrated.