RIP Perique ?

Log in

SmokingPipes.com Updates

Watch for Updates Twice a Week

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

Drucquers Banner

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

spicy_boiii

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 5, 2020
592
2,737
Bay Area, California
I've got more English and more Perique blends than I'll be able to smoke in my lifetime. Orientals like Macedonia, Yenidje, and Samsun are my priority now.
I'm in the same boat.

Any new oriental-based blends are an instant buy for me, especially if a unique oriental is featured. Watch City Voriental is really the only one that's come around for a while now.
 
Aug 1, 2012
4,881
5,686
USA
Hell, as an old member of the site, I remember this same lamentation from over 10 years ago. "Real" perique has been pretty rare for at least that long. Most of us have not had the actual St. James Parish stuff in quantities that we could actually taste.
 
Mar 1, 2014
3,658
4,960
We have exactly zero power to either increase or decrease tobacco crop/component production.

We are merely passengers.

When McClelland went tits up it was a tough pill to swallow, but we survived.

This is what I mean(t).
I disagree entirely.
The principles behind producing Perique aren't terribly complicated and neither is Latakia.
You could make it in your back yard if you really want.

These things could be produced in a variety of places, people just aren't doing that right now because existing supplies are still more convenient.
 

gamzultovah

Lifer
Aug 4, 2019
3,206
21,340
Too be 100% honest, I can’t taste all of the subtle nuances of different tobacco blends like some people in the hobby can, and I’m grateful that I can’t, and feel sorrow for those who can. I will never know the ultimate pleasure that tobacco can bring nor will I know pain of loss when that unique pleasure is gone. I smoke for the pleasure of the hobby; a connection to my grandfather and the past. I smoke what agrees with both my throat and my palate. I smoke what is easy to maintain, what I can coax nicotine from, and what helps put me in a meditative state to temporarily mitigate the stressors of this world. I smoke out of rebellion. And I smoke a pipe exclusively, to preserve a dying art. No matter what, according to my criteria, I will be able to enjoy this hobby to my last puff; and I will never know (or allow myself to know) this admonition of Winston Smith, a character from George Orwell’s book, 1984: “Winston becomes painfully aware that the environment is dirty, cold, and uncomfortable. In addition to the outdated, filthy atmosphere, Winston takes note of the nasty food, bad coffee, and grimy tables. Winston thinks to himself, Always in your stomach and in your skin there was a sort of protest, a feeling that you had been cheated of something...”

And for this, I am grateful.
 
Perique is getting substituted with dark fired, which doesn't work.
Woah! When I posted about Mark saying that he cuts his perique with dark fire, he told us that it had always been done that way, for as far back as they’ve been using it commercially. So, there shouldn’t be anything different, except for what the blender can expect in crop differences year to year.
 

logs

Lifer
Apr 28, 2019
1,876
5,084
It's possible to make your own perique if you're motivated. I haven't done it and I'm not sure how well it matches the real Louisiana stuff but might be interesting to try:

 

perdurabo

Lifer
Jun 3, 2015
3,305
1,581
Uh... the Short Burst of explanation from Brobs at the beginning, smacks of theatrics. I’ve been smoking fresh tins of GLP Telegraph Hill, not that it’s a perique bomb mind you, but the Louisiana Condiment is fairing well. Now if your smoking a lot European offerings, yea your perique experience might be suffering. But I would chalk that up to availability/my speculation; not scientific data.
 

rushx9

Lifer
Jul 10, 2019
2,299
17,245
43
Shelby, NC
One important step people miss about perique is the fermentation aspect. Lots of tobacco is pressed and matured, so that's only half the story. What really separates perique from most other varietals is the collection and subsequent fermentation of the squeezed tobacco juices into carboys (glass fermentation vessels). This juice naturally ferments with local wild microbes (part of the reason Perique is a regional product only, like Belgian beer and French wine, it's more about the local microbes than just the soil). The resultant "tobacco wine" is maybe closer to "tobacco vinegar", as the wild microbes quickly convert any alcohol produced directly into acetic and lactic acid. This fermented juice is added back to the tobacco as it's pulled from and repacked into the barrel so the entire batch can referment with the juice that already has a head start and is now "trained" on tobacco sugars. Because the juice was squeezed from the tobacco, fermented, then added back, the Perique "wine" isn't considered an additive, just a process.
Other tobaccos used to go through a similar process. I believe putting African VAs through this process was the original way now unique tobaccos such as Royal Yacht or Germains Brown Flake were created. Also the reason so many old timey straight VAs are now VaPers or have a "light plum or apricot topping". A touch of perique or a plum topping mimics the natural fermentation flavors that used to be common in hogshead pressed dark VAs.
 

ashdigger

Lifer
Jul 30, 2016
11,392
70,232
61
Vegas Baby!!!
I disagree entirely.
The principles behind producing Perique aren't terribly complicated and neither is Latakia.
You could make it in your back yard if you really want.

These things could be produced in a variety of places, people just aren't doing that right now because existing supplies are still more convenient.
My comment wasn’t about home growing and home processing. Nobody on this or any forum is going to process or grow enough to supply the rest of the forum.

The government will ensure that the hoops are many to jump through.

My comment was about consuming what manufacturers put out.

We are a blip.

Buy what you can. We are obsolete.
 

telescopes

Pipe Dreamer and Star Gazer
Too be 100% honest, I can’t taste all of the subtle nuances of different tobacco blends like some people in the hobby can, and I’m grateful that I can’t, and feel sorrow for those who can. I will never know the ultimate pleasure that tobacco can bring nor will I know pain of loss when that unique pleasure is gone. I smoke for the pleasure of the hobby; a connection to my grandfather and the past. I smoke what agrees with both my throat and my palate. I smoke what is easy to maintain, what I can coax nicotine from, and what helps put me in a meditative state to temporarily mitigate the stressors of this world. I smoke out of rebellion. And I smoke a pipe exclusively, to preserve a dying art. No matter what, according to my criteria, I will be able to enjoy this hobby to my last puff; and I will never know (or allow myself to know) this admonition of Winston Smith, a character from George Orwell’s book, 1984: “Winston becomes painfully aware that the environment is dirty, cold, and uncomfortable. In addition to the outdated, filthy atmosphere, Winston takes note of the nasty food, bad coffee, and grimy tables. Winston thinks to himself, Always in your stomach and in your skin there was a sort of protest, a feeling that you had been cheated of something...”

And for this, I am grateful.
Wow. You sir, took the words right out of my brain. My exact thoughts word for word.
 

fightnhampster

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 14, 2019
933
2,636
Indiana
For all the talk of making
Too be 100% honest, I can’t taste all of the subtle nuances of different tobacco blends like some people in the hobby can, and I’m grateful that I can’t, and feel sorrow for those who can. I will never know the ultimate pleasure that tobacco can bring nor will I know pain of loss when that unique pleasure is gone. I smoke for the pleasure of the hobby; a connection to my grandfather and the past. I smoke what agrees with both my throat and my palate. I smoke what is easy to maintain, what I can coax nicotine from, and what helps put me in a meditative state to temporarily mitigate the stressors of this world. I smoke out of rebellion. And I smoke a pipe exclusively, to preserve a dying art. No matter what, according to my criteria, I will be able to enjoy this hobby to my last puff; and I will never know (or allow myself to know) this admonition of Winston Smith, a character from George Orwell’s book, 1984: “Winston becomes painfully aware that the environment is dirty, cold, and uncomfortable. In addition to the outdated, filthy atmosphere, Winston takes note of the nasty food, bad coffee, and grimy tables. Winston thinks to himself, Always in your stomach and in your skin there was a sort of protest, a feeling that you had been cheated of something...”

And for this, I am grateful.

I guess I get that. I sounds like an example of ignorance is bliss.
 

telescopes

Pipe Dreamer and Star Gazer
We are not

We are not so few and far between in our experience as this (or any forum) might let on.
If I imagine while I am smoking things like figs, plums, citrus, and hay then yes , I can taste those things. The thing is, if I imagine while I am smoking the smell of a woman's skin, her hair, lips, and the sweetness of her kiss, then guess what? That is what I taste. I am beginning to think all of these so-called super tasters are...
 

gamzultovah

Lifer
Aug 4, 2019
3,206
21,340
If I imagine while I am smoking things like figs, plums, citrus, and hay then yes , I can taste those things. The thing is, if I imagine while I am smoking the smell of a woman's skin, her hair, lips, and the sweetness of her kiss, then guess what? That is what I taste. I am beginning to think all of these so-called super tasters are...
I agree with you that at least 98% of those saying that they are super tasters are only imagining that they are, the remaining 2% truly are. I knew a man named Roy Daniel who was for many years, the head chef at the Knickerbocker club and the personal chef to John Rockefeller. He was a super taster. One night while catering a party in New York for a meeting of the most notable wine sommeliers of the time, a very old and obscure bottle of wine was brought out for the group to identify. It was meant to be a fun challenge to see who had any recollection of it. Every sommelier tried but failed, to pinpoint the exact name of this wine. Mr. Daniel was out on the floor doing his job when, because of his reputation and high esteem, was asked if he would like to guess at the wine? He took a glass of the wine off the tray, gave it a whirl and sniff, and with one taste he said “Oh yes, I know this wine! I had a glass of it 10 years ago at the club.” and he rattled off not only the name, but the vintage of the wine as well (which I do not remember), much to everyone's astonishment. Roy was a super taster and a most endearing man. I miss him terribly since his passing (but I digress).

They do exist, but they are few and far between.