Preferred VA Pipe
- Thread starter dcicero
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My experience has been like yours. I'm a newer smoker, but it's just been in the last couple of weeks that I've been able to enjoy the flavors of VA/VaPers. Before that, pretty much every puff tasted like cigarette to me, and they got prohibitively hot, with occasional bite (especially if they were not thoroughly dried out). Now, I'm primarily an English/Balkan lover, so this didn't bother me too much, but in the past two weeks I've been using two pipes exclusively for VaPers: A bent dublin Stanwell Bamboo, and a cheap HS Studio pipe off of ebay. The HS. Studio has a tall bowl but its a Dunhill size 2, and the Stanwell has a narrower bowl as well, and I've really been trying hard not to puff, but to sip instead, and I've gotten WAY more flavor out of the baccy.
I've also found that narrow bowls and slow sipping actually make aromatics taste almost as good as they smell.
Try drying them a bit and packing lighter. Any aro will taste exactly as it smells in any pipe with a little practice.
Capstan Blue and Dunhill (Peterson) Flake are quite similar IMO. They are fuller in flavor than OGS, which is very bright and citrusy in flavor. OGS has a bergamot topping, the same as Earl Gray tea, and I don't like it.
Capstan and Flake are darker, fuller, more fruity as opposed to citrusy, more savory and slightly heavier in nicotine. With Capstan I even get some notes of tonquin or vanilla, very faint.
To me, both are among the very best.
OGS is way down, mediocre at best.
I appreciate all the great advice. I'm going to give Capstan a try. Just ordered. Man, not cheap stuff. Thinking MM Country Gentleman for it.
Try Sutliff's Elizabethan/Victorian Match. Best Virginia/Perique I've ever smoked.
None of my pipes are dedicated to any specific tobacco. Mileage and druthers vary, as is evident!
Whatever- enjoy!
Whatever- enjoy!
Mine either, John, & I don't even flush them after every smoke like a lot of folks do. I just enjoy what I enjoy. I admit I did feeel a little weird about putting an aro (Christmas Spice) in the Winslow the other day & then immediately following it with Brigadier, but it didn't alter enjoyment of the smoke. Like Captain Reynaud in Casablanca, "Personally I will take what comes."
Similar experience between Capstan Blue and Capstan Yellow ready rubbed? The latter is the only one I've managed to get ahold of.
@dcicero ~ I also got advised to try Orlik's Golden Sliced. I found it to be very medium/plain in flavour. It's worth mentioning that Virginia really does sweeten up with age. I get a faint bready/grassy taste from OGS, and I didn't enjoy it. It's in a jar - but shows no sign of darkening up yet.
I like the suggestions of Capstan Blue and Peterson's Flake (used to be Dunhill's Light Flake) and find both of them preferable to Orlik. They have a fuller fruitier sweetness and flavour like others have mentioned, so hopefully, you'll enjoy the order of Capstan Blue a bit more.
I prefer Va/Per blends rather than straight Virginias or a bit of Burley in there somewhere. I really like Reiner's Long Golden Flake, Rattray's Marlin Flake and Solani's Flakes (Silver Flake in particular which is mainly Virginia).
Some other suggestions of 'straight' Va flakes to try would be J.F Germain's Medium Flake (or Estoerica's Cardiff), Samuel Gawith's Full Virginia or Best Brown Flake.
If you want something WAY stronger Gawith & Hoggarth's Dark Flake Unscented (also just Va, but it's soaked in juices and fermented). It also comes in an unsliced plug.
I like the suggestions of Capstan Blue and Peterson's Flake (used to be Dunhill's Light Flake) and find both of them preferable to Orlik. They have a fuller fruitier sweetness and flavour like others have mentioned, so hopefully, you'll enjoy the order of Capstan Blue a bit more.
I prefer Va/Per blends rather than straight Virginias or a bit of Burley in there somewhere. I really like Reiner's Long Golden Flake, Rattray's Marlin Flake and Solani's Flakes (Silver Flake in particular which is mainly Virginia).
Some other suggestions of 'straight' Va flakes to try would be J.F Germain's Medium Flake (or Estoerica's Cardiff), Samuel Gawith's Full Virginia or Best Brown Flake.
If you want something WAY stronger Gawith & Hoggarth's Dark Flake Unscented (also just Va, but it's soaked in juices and fermented). It also comes in an unsliced plug.
I have been stowing away C&D Virginia Flakes for a few years now, so I feel it is ok to sing their accolades now that I have all that I need. But, it comes a tad on the dry side, in bulk, and it burns with an oatmeal-like sweet fragrance, and it has about the most Nicotine of any straight Virginia that I have had. Not exactly as strong as those Empire Virginias in Dark Flake, but it way out nics Capstan.
For the price, the flavor, and the satiated feeling from the nicotine, it really is a sleeper on the forums. Worth a shot.
For the price, the flavor, and the satiated feeling from the nicotine, it really is a sleeper on the forums. Worth a shot.
It is pretty good. I just smoked my first two bowls yesterday. I ordered four oz during the Sutliff sale
I generally like taller narrower bowls for Virginia of 3/4 inch or less in diameter. Seems to be a common viewpoint. They just seem to burn better and more evenly in a narrow(ish) bowl.
Packing aromatics very lightly made all the difference for me. I use the method where you just drop the tobacco pinch by pinch into the pipe until full, then pack it down just the tiniest bit. I think I've heard it referred to as the "gravity fill" method.
Packing aromatics very lightly made all the difference for me. I use the method where you just drop the tobacco pinch by pinch into the pipe until full, then pack it down just the tiniest bit. I think I've heard it referred to as the "gravity fill" method.
Got any blends to recommend in particular? I've got a tin of Opening Night waiting for me in my cellar. It will be my first C&D Virginia.
It is actually just called "C&D Virginia Flake"
I first tried it at DeathMetal's suggestion, and was like "meh" at the first bowl. But, then after a couple of more, I was working it into my rotation about three or four times a day.
I haven't tried the yellow. FWIW, some smokers, including jiminks, seem to find the yellow more similar to Dunhill/Peterson Flake.
Orlik Golden Sliced to my tastes is a grassy, hey like hot mess. I don't stock it in my cellar. I believe it is so popular because it is so cheap. The last thing I want to taste in my Va flakes is grass or hey as those flavors do nothing for me. Capstan Blue and the new Peterson Flake are superior. No hey no grass, just good Va flavors.
There are several styles of VaPers out there that I enjoy,so I wouldn’t say Match Victorian is the best ever, but it is damn good, a screaming bargain, usually in stock when sales come around, and ought to age well.
And it doesn’t matter what pipe you use if you don’t smoke too hot, but that is true of any style tobacco. VA’s have never been an issue. I started off smoking English blends and by the time I started with Va’s I had learned to smoke a pipe without spider webbing the chamber. “Dryer than you think, looser than you think, slower than you think.”
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