Revisiting the Question of Tinder Box Tobacco Trade Names

[Ken Harding]

Hello. I only just joined this site. I've been a pipe smoker since 1985, although I set it aside for about 20 years and just this year picked it back up. I worked in a Tinder Box pipe shop back in the 80's when they still looked old-fashioned and cool, and there were 200+ of them all over the country. Now there's just 21 of them.

There was a thread on this site 11 years ago, a thread which is now closed, that I found fascinating. It was about the trade names of some of the Tinder Box tobaccos. In the early 1970's, they did make all their own blends, and they were all burley-based, like No. 1, No. 19, No. 33, Special, Vintage, etc. Starting around 1975 Tinder Box began to add cavendish-based aromatics to their lineup that were produced for them in Denmark. They did not name the blender, and I did not know back then who it was.

When I worked there from '85 through '89, it was common knowledge that some of their blends were made by Lane LTD. -- Wilshire, Chartwell, Sunset, etc. But the Danish blender was unknown to me at the time.

Here is the list that was compiled on this site 11 years ago, and I've got some comments -- and my comments are made to be constructive, not abusive.
-----------------------------------------------------------Begin----------------------------------------------------------

Tinderbox Name = Trade name/brand
Wilshire = Lane LTD 1-Q

North Sea = Peter Stokkebye #24 Nougat

Crown Royale = Peter Stokkebye Vanilla Creme

Sunset = Lane LTD HS-3

Chartwell = Lane LTD RLP-6

Sherlock's Choice = Lane LTD HGL

Midnight = Lane LTD BCA

Proper English = Peter Stokkebye PS52

Burley Light = Lane LTD Burley Light Without a Bite

Captain Spice = Peter Stokkebye Black Vanilla

Anniversary = Lane LTD Anniversary Blend

Norse Gold = (originally, until later 1990s) Lane MV-1000, (2000-current) Skandinavik Red with TinderBox exclusive licorice casing

Frangelico = Lane Hazelnut

Aalborg =

After Dinner =

Philosopher =

Rum Runner =

------------------------------------------------END--------------------------------------------------------
Wilshire (the name of the street of the first Tinder Box) is absolutely Lane Q1.

Yes, I will agree that North Sea is Stokkebye #24 Nougat. It was one of my favorites.

No, Stokkebye Vanilla Creme is absolutely NOT Crown Royale. It's not even close. Nor is Stokkebye's French Vanilla. Crown Royale was my absolute favorite Tinder Box blend when I worked there for four years. I smoked it every day. What IS close to it is Peter Stokkebye "Sweet Vanilla". It's been 25 years since I smoked it, but I could be talked into endorsing Sweet Vanilla as Crown Royale. It's very good. I tried some Sutliff vanilla, but no, not close.

Sunset=Lane HS-3, yes.

Chartwell, well I haven't tried that, but I don't doubt it. It wasn't one of my favorites.

Sherlock's Choice, I don't doubt it either, but again I didn't try it recently. I did smoke it back then only because it was free for employees to fill their bowls from the jars while on the job. But there were so much better English blends out there that I would rather pay for a tin of the good stuff.

Proper English and Burley Light weren't around when I was there, so I don't care so much.

Here's a big one. Captain Spice was one of the most popular blends we had. Unfortunately and mysteriously, it is no longer sold. It's not listed on the Tinder Box website, nor is "Black Vanilla" for sale by Peter Stokkebye (at least not that I can find). So, I can't try it to give my opinion. It seems to be a thing of the past I would say that a plausible substitute for Captain Spice would be Cornell & Diehl's Green River Vanilla, which is black in color and very rich.

I haven't tried Anniversary blend, although I did like it well enough back then. All the cherry blends I've tried recently aren't worth it. Stokkebye's #3 Cherry was not it, even though it was close. The exception is the Danish blend Cult Blood Red Moon -- that's outstanding. It's darker than Tinder Box Anniversary, but way better.

Those are just some thoughts I had. I'm nostalgic about the old Tinder Box days and collect anything I can find regarding it. There are still some blank spaces on the list, and maybe someone can come up with more contenders. I will update if I have better information.

 

[STP]

Can’t help you with any more names, but I remember and miss the Tinder Box, which was located in nearby mall.

 

[Ken Harding]

Can’t help you with any more names, but I remember and miss the Tinder Box, which was located in nearby mall.

Yeah, the two of them I worked at were in malls, and now the malls don't even exist anymore. This is what it looked like:

 

[Ken Harding]

Edit to OP: among the original TB blends, even the English ones (like Philosopher and Connoisseur) were burley based. We (the employees) were told that we couldn't call them "English blends" but "English style blends", because they weren't Virginia based.

 

[Pipeandapencil]

Here is the rack at my local tinder box, which is still open. Their pipe selection is growing I even see some Esoterica in there a couple of times a year. C&D also, was on the side rack. Mine does still sell captain spice as you can see below. I asked the guy if I was the only one buying and he said I'd be surprised, they turn em over quite a bit!

 

[Pipeandapencil]

I've noticed though there is no Virginia or Vaper option... Not sure what that's about, that's the only thing I would actually want.

 

[Chris T]

Wow. Nostalgia. That's the same storefront layout of the one where I bought my first pipe around '87, at the mall. When I moved away to grad school and came back, it was gone.

I had forgotten about North Sea! I'll have to try some again now.

If anyone knows what Captain Spice is (or was,) please post it-

 

[Ken Harding]

Here is the rack at my local tinder box, which is still open. Their pipe selection is growing I even see some Esoterica in there a couple of times a year. C&D also, was on the side rack. Mine does still sell captain spice as you can see below. I asked the guy if I was the only one buying and he said I'd be surprised, they turn em over quite a bit!
View attachment 417289

Thanks for the photo! I see Captain Spice there... I wonder if they have some 10 lb. bags stocked up. TinderBox dot com doesn't have it, so I'm confused. And like I was saying, searching for "Black Vanilla" by Peter Stokkebye (which is supposed to be the same thing) turned up nothing. I guess that Tinder Box you went to doesn't have their tobacco bar where the jars would be all lined up - that's a shame (see old pic).

I'd love to get a hold of some of those jars! I haven't been able to find any on sites like Ebay.

 

[Ken Harding]

Wow. Nostalgia. That's the same storefront layout of the one where I bought my first pipe around '87, at the mall. When I moved away to grad school and came back, it was gone.

I had forgotten about North Sea! I'll have to try some again now.

If anyone knows what Captain Spice is (or was,) please post it-

Well, if you can ever find any Peter Stokkebye "Black Vanilla", let us know (his "Sweet Vanilla" rocks). In the meantime, you should try Cornell & Deihl "Green River Vanilla", because it sure seems like the same thing as Captain Spice to me. Maybe better.

 

[Ken Harding]

Wow. Nostalgia. That's the same storefront layout of the one where I bought my first pipe around '87, at the mall. When I moved away to grad school and came back, it was gone.

I had forgotten about North Sea! I'll have to try some again now.

If anyone knows what Captain Spice is (or was,) please post it-

Nostalgia! Let's hear it for nostalgia.

 

[greeneyes]

I worked at the Tinder Box in Lenox Square Mall in Atlanta in the early 90s. So many of those tobacco and cigars no longer exist.

 

[Servant King]

Back then, the US dollar had about....oh, I don't know...a trillion percent more purchasing power than it does today!

Nostalgia indeed.

 

[STP]

Yeah, the two of them I worked at were in malls, and now the malls don't even exist anymore. This is what it looked like:View attachment 417285

Same here… mall is gone too

 

[STP]

Here is the rack at my local tinder box, which is still open. Their pipe selection is growing I even see some Esoterica in there a couple of times a year. C&D also, was on the side rack. Mine does still sell captain spice as you can see below. I asked the guy if I was the only one buying and he said I'd be surprised, they turn em over quite a bit!
View attachment 417289

Pretty cool that some still exist…

 

[anotherbob]

Here is the rack at my local tinder box, which is still open. Their pipe selection is growing I even see some Esoterica in there a couple of times a year. C&D also, was on the side rack. Mine does still sell captain spice as you can see below. I asked the guy if I was the only one buying and he said I'd be surprised, they turn em over quite a bit!
View attachment 417289

Fun fact I see pipe smokers on occasion and they're almost always in their cars. And some one else is clearly buying pipe tobaccos too. I think a lot of people aren't dedicated pipe smokers or only do it in private and many probably do the only on the weekend thing.
Never been to a Tinderbox sadly .

 

[Pipeandapencil]

Our Tinder box moved out of the mall several years ago and now it's in a freestanding building, with a big smoking lounge in the back and respectable humidor. It's in Mobile Alabama right off the interstate so if you're ever passing through on I-10 stop by and grab a baggie of nostalgia. We all know it's just 1-Q, but it's still fun to call it Wilshire... They might ship straight from the store too if you want to try and give them a call about some captain spice.