@Briar Lee , I am curious. What is your take on bourbon? What are your recommendations for a fine outstanding bourbon that is as good as it gets without breaking the pocketbook.?
Rouseco Buoy Gold
- Thread starter Briar Lee
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A little serious answer to the tempest that is brewing in the teacup.
The views of Briar Lee are so contrarian to the popular views here, he is either
1. Copernicus trying to prove the world
that earth goes around the sun
Or
2. Flat Earther
This is a pipe and tobacco group. I am assuming that many people here care about the hobby. Also, Briar Lee is level headed and don’t get upset very easily.
It is always important to post the opposite view. Otherwise to the person who comes to pipe smoking 10 years from now will only get one of the views, and will form a skewed opinion of the hobby.
There are only two reasons not to engage. 1. You don’t care about the topic in hand 2. Contradicting someone would create bad blood
The views of Briar Lee are so contrarian to the popular views here, he is either
1. Copernicus trying to prove the world
that earth goes around the sunOr
2. Flat Earther
This is a pipe and tobacco group. I am assuming that many people here care about the hobby. Also, Briar Lee is level headed and don’t get upset very easily.
It is always important to post the opposite view. Otherwise to the person who comes to pipe smoking 10 years from now will only get one of the views, and will form a skewed opinion of the hobby.
There are only two reasons not to engage. 1. You don’t care about the topic in hand 2. Contradicting someone would create bad blood
It seems the el primo top dollar Rouseco product is heavily cased, to earn another $2 a pound:
—-
Made with tobacco grown in the USA, Golden Harvest Select has a strong following for its smooth smoke-ability and generous affordable price. Each bag has a smooth, tasty flavor and is packaged in 1lb or 6oz bags. The Golden Harvest Select is more heavily cased for a “bolder” smoke and more coarse cut to optimize usability.
—-
The Select only comes in Red, Blue, and Green (menthol).
There may be over a dozen small manufacturers of low end pipe tobacco.
Gold is the natural, Bright Leaf heavy stuff, good for pipe smokers, and you can also make cigarettes too.
Red is the most robust, Blue is milder, Green is menthol, and Silver is the mildest and least nictotine. All those are tube blends that also smoke well in a pipe.
If there is a perfect hobo’s pipe tobacco blend, it is mostly Virginia with a good dollop of dark fired Kentucky, to raise nicotine levels.
Let’s keep searching for it.
The number of choices is staggering:
Xxxxx
A delicious, price conscious blend, made with some of the best premium pipe tobaccos in Virginia, the Arrowhead pipe tobacco has been revamped and is better than ever! What makes this aromatic blend even better is the fact that you can get a 1lb bag at only $8.99! Definitely a bang for your buck and after trying it, you'll never go back to anything else. Available in Original, Blue and Menthol.
Much like the Cherokee tobacco, this blend has a smooth flavor and delicious aroma. If you like Cherokee, you're sure to enjoy this inexpensive alternative.
Xxxx
The competition at this price level is beyond brutal.
—-
Made with tobacco grown in the USA, Golden Harvest Select has a strong following for its smooth smoke-ability and generous affordable price. Each bag has a smooth, tasty flavor and is packaged in 1lb or 6oz bags. The Golden Harvest Select is more heavily cased for a “bolder” smoke and more coarse cut to optimize usability.
—-
The Select only comes in Red, Blue, and Green (menthol).
There may be over a dozen small manufacturers of low end pipe tobacco.
Gold is the natural, Bright Leaf heavy stuff, good for pipe smokers, and you can also make cigarettes too.
Red is the most robust, Blue is milder, Green is menthol, and Silver is the mildest and least nictotine. All those are tube blends that also smoke well in a pipe.
If there is a perfect hobo’s pipe tobacco blend, it is mostly Virginia with a good dollop of dark fired Kentucky, to raise nicotine levels.
Let’s keep searching for it.
The number of choices is staggering:
Xxxxx
A delicious, price conscious blend, made with some of the best premium pipe tobaccos in Virginia, the Arrowhead pipe tobacco has been revamped and is better than ever! What makes this aromatic blend even better is the fact that you can get a 1lb bag at only $8.99! Definitely a bang for your buck and after trying it, you'll never go back to anything else. Available in Original, Blue and Menthol.
Much like the Cherokee tobacco, this blend has a smooth flavor and delicious aroma. If you like Cherokee, you're sure to enjoy this inexpensive alternative.
Xxxx
The competition at this price level is beyond brutal.
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This is the only reason I engage. I know well enough by now that nobody is going to change the mind of @Briar Lee hahaha.
I simply engage so that any newcomers that come along do not accidentally take a wildly unusual opinion for gospel truth, since it is often presented as such when in fact it is closer to the opposite.
^^^^
Exactly my reason for responding. Sounds like he was inspired by snake oil salesmen in the past and is propagating misinformation and myth. A good way to discourage any potential new pipe smokers.
Our good friend Jim Minks has, as a labor of love, reviewed so many high quality blends over the decades it’s likely hard to count all of them.
I always search for Jim’s review before I do mine. I’ve not yet disagreed with a word he’s written, when I try the blend myself.
There is a difference between his and my reviews I’m proud of.
Most of my tobacco reviews cover tobacco that’s less than the postage on Jim’s.
If I give you a bum steer, you’re not out much.
I just try and spread the good news.
I always search for Jim’s review before I do mine. I’ve not yet disagreed with a word he’s written, when I try the blend myself.
There is a difference between his and my reviews I’m proud of.
Most of my tobacco reviews cover tobacco that’s less than the postage on Jim’s.
If I give you a bum steer, you’re not out much.
I just try and spread the good news.
Most of my tobacco reviews cover tobacco that’s less than the postage on Jim’s.
Jim has actually reviewed quite a few OTC and bag blends, many of the Smoker’s Pride blends I know at least.
Also, I’m guessing Jim pays less for most of his reviewed blends than any of us pay for anything, hahaha.
I looked up the statistics on USA tobacco production.
All through the fifties America produced over two billion pounds a year of tobacco.
And the yields then were about half yields per acre today.
The population of the USA has about doubled since the fifties.
Today America still raises a half a billion pounds of tobacco, every pound graded by the USDA.
Of the five hundred million or so pounds of tobacco the USA raises roughy 25% goes into chew and dip, and most of that is dark fired Kentucky.
The number of domestic cigars in the USA is something but it’s not much.
The vast majority of American tobacco goes into cigarettes, at a half ounce per package, taxed at a dollar a package. The cheapest cigarettes use the cheapest grades of leaf, whether domestic or imported.
Only the finest grades of leaf go to loose smoking tobacco today. It’s a fraction of the total.
In 1972 when I began smoking all the drug store pipe blends like PA and Velvet and Half and Half were 25 cents a pouch. Velvet and PA came with free papers for the asking.
But for 15 cents, you could buy an ounce and a half sack of Our Advertiser or Country Gentleman or a pack of Bugler, Top, or Kite cigarrete tobacco, or a little sack of Bull Durham. All came with free papers.
Our Advertiser was top notch smoking, better In a pipe than a cigarette, I thought. It was ten cents an ounce in 1972.
Country Gentleman still sold giant size 8 ounce cloth sacks for 60 cents. I wish I’d kept some. They came with sixteen 24 leaf packages of papers, I in rows under the paper wrapper.
Laredo was the first premium stuff your own brand. For $2.50 you first bought a starter package with a machine and tobacco and a carton of tubes. After that the tubes and tobacco were $2. This was when all cigarretes were 40 cents a package and $3.20 a carton, except Pall Mall straights at $3.60 a carton.
I’m sitting here just in heaven smoking Buoy Yellow in a big Marxman.
Our Advertiser could not compare with the modern cheap tobacco.
They get to use higher grade leaf today.
All through the fifties America produced over two billion pounds a year of tobacco.
And the yields then were about half yields per acre today.
The population of the USA has about doubled since the fifties.
Today America still raises a half a billion pounds of tobacco, every pound graded by the USDA.
Of the five hundred million or so pounds of tobacco the USA raises roughy 25% goes into chew and dip, and most of that is dark fired Kentucky.
The number of domestic cigars in the USA is something but it’s not much.
The vast majority of American tobacco goes into cigarettes, at a half ounce per package, taxed at a dollar a package. The cheapest cigarettes use the cheapest grades of leaf, whether domestic or imported.
Only the finest grades of leaf go to loose smoking tobacco today. It’s a fraction of the total.
In 1972 when I began smoking all the drug store pipe blends like PA and Velvet and Half and Half were 25 cents a pouch. Velvet and PA came with free papers for the asking.
But for 15 cents, you could buy an ounce and a half sack of Our Advertiser or Country Gentleman or a pack of Bugler, Top, or Kite cigarrete tobacco, or a little sack of Bull Durham. All came with free papers.
Our Advertiser was top notch smoking, better In a pipe than a cigarette, I thought. It was ten cents an ounce in 1972.
Country Gentleman still sold giant size 8 ounce cloth sacks for 60 cents. I wish I’d kept some. They came with sixteen 24 leaf packages of papers, I in rows under the paper wrapper.
Laredo was the first premium stuff your own brand. For $2.50 you first bought a starter package with a machine and tobacco and a carton of tubes. After that the tubes and tobacco were $2. This was when all cigarretes were 40 cents a package and $3.20 a carton, except Pall Mall straights at $3.60 a carton.
I’m sitting here just in heaven smoking Buoy Yellow in a big Marxman.
Our Advertiser could not compare with the modern cheap tobacco.
They get to use higher grade leaf today.
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Hmmmm. I don’t know about that. I think some of my hayseed hillbilly and Roy Clark in a $2000 dollar suit comments may have raised some dander there in Bug Tussell. You can question a man’s beliefs but his suits are off limits. I may have crossed the line.
Oh well. Pass the Cotton Boll.
One thing is certain with Briar Lee. He’s going to respond to fiery comments and vitriol with an endearing story about rural life in Missouri that may or may not have anything to do with the conversation. I love that shit.
Here's the plan for all that RYO I just bought. At the next Lehigh Valley Pipe Club, we're going to have a blind tasting. I will be using a bulk "Turkish Blend" pipe tobacco for the control. Probably C&D Virginia Gentleman (if you have a better suggestion, I'm all ears). Each participant will try whatever blends that they want to, but they will have to calibrate on the control blend. There will be a comment sheet for each blend. I'll report the results here.
Hmmmm. I don’t know about that. I think some of my hayseed hillbilly and Roy Clark in a $2000 dollar suit comments may have raised some dander there in Bug Tussell. You can question a man’s beliefs but his suits are off limits. I may have crossed the line.
Oh well. Pass the Cotton Boll.
Thousand dollar suits.
Three hundred dollar shoes
Fifty dollar ties
Hundred dollar cotton shirts
And I do that because—-
I say a half mile South of Bug Tussle but my great uncle Elmer had a home place just a quarter mile from the lights of J & J Arena, so close you can hear the crowds roar at events.
Today even the foundation of Elmer and Cora’s home is hard to find.
But about 1910 or thereabouts a baby girl named Georgia was born there, and by every account I’ve heard Georgia was so beautiful she’d stop traffic on the street, even more so than Cora, or my great grandmother, or grandmother, or my father’s three fabulously beautiful cousins who lived at entrance of Spout Spring Hollow. Georgia was quite literally, a living doll.
Naturally as Georgia grew up a quarter mile from Bug Tussle many suitors and potential beaus came calling.
And she chose a boy of good family and reputation, descended from sturdy troopers of the 8th MSM, and a Christian good and true.
A baby boy soon came to bless their home, which was across the road by Tinker Cemetery, not a quarter mile from Elmer’s place.
But, the boy she married had a bad fault.
They’d go to Humansville on Saturday and the boy would wear bib overalls and no shirt.
And then one day there was a relative of the family arriving on the train at Humansville and the family packed up to greet them and Georgia’s baby was croup y so Cora stayed home to tend to the baby.
A young and handsome doctor from Chicago was at the station having installed new X-ray equipment in the new Humansville regional hospital.
The Leaky Roof chugged in from the South, discharged passengers and then departed north.
The boy with no shirt in bib overalls could not find Georgia, and when he asked the stationmaster he was informed the handsome doctor had bought Georgia a ticket on the northbound to Chicago and Georgia, was long gone.
They said he cried and prayed the Lord would bring Georgia home.
The Chicago doctor drove Georgia home about a month later and she snatched her baby boy from a furious Cora and divorced the boy in the bib overalls and her new husband adopted the boy who became a doctor in Chicago as well.
They never said what happened to the boy in bib overalls but I suppose he married a girl not as glamorous and stylish as Georgia, one easier to please.
My first wife was a part time model whose father owned a chain of a dozen banks.
When I was dating her, my mother would always caution me as I left the house—-
Will you be taking your Georgia, to meet a train?
I don't get it, what is this stuff you lot are bickering about? We don't have anything like this over here. Here we have rolling tobacco (RYO), and pipe tobacco, and never the twain shall meet. Is this stuff meant to be rolled in paper and inhaled into the lungs, or is it for the pipe?
You know Americans today, always arguing about identity.
I, for one, refuse to give in, conform, or have my view point bend the knee and salute any form of nonsense just because some people are too stupid to admit that the Emperor has no clothes. Corporations were once jokingly referred to as people - Maybe Mitt wasn't joking - now it seems, people are only here to only serve corporations and bend the knee to any and all edicts that are ushered from all high.
Just checking back in & …
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Here in the colonies our government in 2009 increased the tax on loose cigarrete tobacco to $26 a pound and loose pipe tobacco is only taxed $2.83 per pound.
Cigarettes rolled up in packages are taxed a dollar a pack of 20.
In 2016 there were further regulations that deemed pipe tobacco the same class as cigarettes and unless the brand was sold before 2007, all this ultra cheap pipe tobacco has to be registered and approved with the Food and Drug Administration and any deviation from the formula must be resubmitted.
There is some process where a manufacturer can get approval of a pipe tobacco if it’s the substantial equivalent of an old blend.
I assumed all the cheap pipe tobacco was just relabeled cigarette tobacco.
Boy, was I wrong.
The loose cigarette tobacco tastes like cigarettes and the cheap pipe tobacco tastes about like your Lakeland Kendal #7 or variations thereof. Yes, the majority is stuffed into untaxed tubes or rolled with untaxed papers, but it tastes and looks like shag pipe tobacco—-because it is.
If we ship Rouseco or other cheap shag over there try some.
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