Recommendations for Christening this Castello?

[lukasstrifeson]

I've always wanted to try this one pipe/one blend concept. Anyone out there follow this philosophy? If so, I would love to hear your experience and how this ritual adds/subtracts from the experience.
Otherwise, I'm all ears on your suggestions for this baby! Dark Brown Sea Rock Briar KKKK Lovat - my natural vergin is probably still my favorite but this is a beauty. I'm still shocked when I unbox a Castello.

 

[alaskanpiper]

Great looking pipe! I have a KKKK sea rock 55 I'm about to break in. Was considering doing the one blend thing with it, but it is supposedly a great flake pipe. And there are just too many good flakes out there
I will dedicate some pipe to some single blends some time. Just waiting until it "comes to me."
I have heard people make the point though, that if you are going to dedicate a single pipe to a single blend, it may be advantageous to use a blend that is readily available, lest you run out of penzance and have to break the streak at some point, or not smoke your beautiful Castello, etc.

 

[jojoc]

Nice looking pipe. I'm considering a Castello for my next, and the Lovat is a shape I am considering.
I have a relatively small collection of both pipes and tobacco. I mostly smoke English blends and light aros. I am not very OCC and could never remember what I had smoked in what pipe, but was somewhat concerned about mixing the english and aros in the same pipes. My solution - I smoke my english blends in my England made pipes and my aros in my other pipes.

 

[dcon]

For some reason I have dedicated my Castello Old Antiquari to VaPers. As expected, it is a perfect match. Usually, it is the good stuff; either Esoterica Dunbar or Castello Fiammata.

 

[danimalia]

I don't have enough pipes/money for pipes to have a pipes for blends policy. Not sure I would want to, either, though I'm open minded about it.
The only pipe I've bought that came without a pre-coating on the bowl, I broke in with Semois.

 

[puffy]

Great looking pipe

 

[danimalia]

Gorgeous pipe, BTW. The little saddle stem is perfect for it!

 

[cshubhra]

Fantastic Pipe!

 

[lukasstrifeson]

@alaskanpiper - Wow, great point. Like some others have also suggested, I'm tempted to treat this beauty exclusively to something like Stonehaven or Dunbar, but that would be a very expensive habit, LOL, and you're absolutely right, once it runs out I would essentially have a "bricked pipe" which would probably force me to switch it up... I have a well-smoked 'natural vergin' version and anything latakia lingers (not that I mind) but kind of the inspiration for my original question I guess.
I've been eyeing a 55 too. They seem to be very popular among Castello fans.
@jojoc - That's a good system. Shame there's no such "Italian blend" for a Castello. LOL. Also, I'd say go for it! My first Castello really exceeded my expectations. And the Lovat/Canadian are all fantastic, a classic Castello I would say, along with the aforementioned model 55.
@dcon - Yeah, I would say initially I was leaning towards a Va/Per or a Va/Bur but then my mind got carried away and I started thinking...: what if I only smoked chocolatey aromatics in the dark brown sea rock?
@danimalia - Thanks, I think this is my favorite shape/stem. It just seems so proportionally correct, but that's just my opinion. I don't think I'll be having one pipe per tobacco. LOL. Definitely not one Castello per tobacco. LMAO. That would be much too opulent, but one can dream! I was just saying, I'd be curious to explore how one pipe/one blend could possible change the experience.
@, @cshubhra - Thank you.
- - -
Here's another snap of the dark brown Castello (to be named) with his/her older sister: Joan.

Right now I think I'm leaning towards either going "bougee" with something like a Dunbar, a chocolatey aromatic, or my own blend once I finalize the recipe.

 

[alaskanpiper]

Dunbar is hard to beat. My favorite VaPer so far. Hard to disagree with that in any pipe
Plus it wouldn’t leave too bad of a ghost if you ever did have to switch it up. That chocolate aro might leave her a lil smeggy tho.

 

[lukasstrifeson]

@alaskanpiper - good points well made. I guess I'm just infatuated with the idea of a dark brown pipe radiating chocolatey goodness.
(Also if I may, those are some giant antler in your picture, my curiosity demands the story!)

 

[alaskanpiper]

I guess I'm just infatuated with the idea of a dark brown pipe radiating chocolatey goodness.

That's fair. It's your pipe man, do whatever makes you happy!

(Also if I may, those are some giant antler in your picture, my curiosity demands the story!)

I wish it were a more exciting story, but it was honestly probably the easiest moose hunt of my life. Sometimes moose hunting can be very frustrating, but this guy decided to walk out and challenge me within 10 minutes of my arrival to the particular clearing I had decided to hunt that morning. I only called once, and he came boiling out of the brush, it took 0 seconds to determine that he was a legal bull (law requires 50 inch spread or 3 brown tines on a side, he is 67 inches with 5 brow tines on one side) so I blasted him and he fell over 50 feet away, still in the clearing.
No moose hunt is easy after they fall down, but having them in the middle of a clearing is certainly way better than deep in the thick brush. Makes for much easier field dressing and packing. Which with 600lbs of meat makes a huge difference. He was only about a mile from camp, so we took him back, had him loaded in the plane by 10am, I was airborne by 10:30am, the weather was perfect for flying (rare for September) and I landed back at home around 11:30am. Flew straight into the lake behind my parents house so I could unload right on to a meat rack and that was that. Then just flew back to pickup my hunting buds and we were all home drinking beer by 4pm. It doesn't get much smoother than that. It was the ideal moose hunt.
I've spent days chasing little bulls, avoiding encounters with bears, cooking in pissing down rain, and freezing my ass off only to end up shooting a small bull deep in the brush, busting ass to get him back to camp only to watch him hang for 3 days until the weather breaks and I can fly home dodging storms. So when hunts go like the one with the moose in my avatar, it is a cause for great celebration
There is no shortage of exciting moments in my lifetime of moose hunting, but that guy was pretty uneventful. Just the way we like it, hahaha.

 

[cigrmaster]

Beautiful pipe, I am sure it will smoke great for you. I dedicate specific blends to specific pipes as well as different genres. For instance I have 2 Rad Davis Lovats dedicated to my batch of 2007 Stonhaven. They both smoke it just great. With a new pipe, I will pick a flake of some kind and see how it does.
If it is amazing right off the bat, I will continue with that combo to see what it is like after the pipe breaks in. If I don't find a magic combo right off the bat, I will keep experimenting. Most of the time the pipe just wants to have its own genre and not a specific blend. My genres are the following,

Virginia flake and plug

Virginia/Perique flake, plug or rope

Virginia/Burley/Kentucky flake or plug

Aromatics

 

[dcon]

I do the same as cigrmaster but, I have an English/Balkan category as well.

 

[alaskanpiper]

I do the same as [/b]cigrmaster but, I have an English/Balkan category as well.

This, but I also have some pipes that I smoke anything in. Mostly the pipes I take fishing/hunting.

 

[snoopy311]

Wow, I love that pipe!

 

[lukasstrifeson]

@alaskanpiper - sounds like a magnificent experience. City rat like me over here very envious. I've only seen a moose once, and even after seeing it I refuse to believe it's real. Just doesn't make sense something can be so large and elegant at the same time.
@cigrmaster, @dcon - great tip! Have you guys found any correlation or general rule of thumb between types of pipe and blends? The only new pipe that I've found a blend to *sing* so to speak is a Viprati 1Q and... you guessed it... the Lane Limited 1Q. HAHA. Well also any latakia resonates like crazy in my mortas but I've been searching for this "magic combination" so to speak

 

[lukasstrifeson]

@snoopy311 Thank you! Goes to show if you're psycho enough and keep your ears to the ground, eventually something pops up at the price you want.

 

[jaytex1969]

That looks like a good sized bowl. I'd start with something mellow in flavor an mild in nicotine. Then, move up the flavor/nic scale until you find a good fit.
If you start with a strong blend, you may find, after a while, you don't always want to finish the load before you've had enough. I learned this lesson by jamming my tall, almost stack-like morta full of burley flake and smoking until I was green in the face... :mrgreen:

Just doesn't make sense something can be so large and elegant at the same time.

Reminds me of the "Cuz" commercials for rock stations in the 80's. My local station in Baltimore, 98 Rock, had a "Dance like Cuz" prize contest one year! LINK

 

[lochinvar]

Wow, that Lovat is right up my alley. All but two of my Castellos are straight Virginia or VaPer flake pipes, and smoke any of those types well. Generally, the first smoke of any newly arrived Castello for me is Escudo. With the other two, one Sea Rock bulldog is great with Latakia blends like Bengal Slices or Smyrna or Tashkent, while the other is a small bent bulldog Collection that smokes Virginias well, but really makes SPC's Deception Pass sing, as well as any VA-Oriental blend.
When you get done with that...uhh....ugly little Lovat, let me know and I'll dispose of it for you. Happy smoking.