Shop Blends

[texmexpipe]

I'm planning a visit next week to Boswell's and while looking at their site I started to wonder about house blends at shops. I know some shooed simply rename blends from other blending houses like lane. After reading through the descriptions some of that particular shops blends come off as being blended in house.
My question regards how they go about this. Are they opening multiple blends and putting them together to make their own or are they sourcing the ingredients and in the case of the aromatics adding their own toppings?
If it's the later, are those toooings available on the market? I imagine there are some trade secerets here, but if they are not sourcing the toppings I'd love to get my hands on some recipie. I know I saw a video a whil back where C&D was cooking a sauce for one of their blends.
Thoughts?

 

[mayfair70]

I'm glad you brought this up as I have similar questions about Tinder Box blends. The guy at the shop said they were all blended at the factory, but didn't know who or where. I suspect the major houses have contracts to blend for franchises. I have also heard that many blends are "matches" to big name blends but perhaps with a little tweaking to set them apart and possibly for legal reasons. I'm very curious to hear what people know about this topic as well.

 

[wyfbane]

Stolen from Pylorns on a thread about a year back:

Old post from a while back:

inderbox 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

At the Tacoma Tinderbox they don't call BCA midnight anymore, and there are a few more McClelland and Stokkebye options renamed out on the floor as well. Still in all a good selection of bulk tobacco.

 

[warren]

The shop we had in Anchorage for many years had "house" blends which were originally developed for specific customers. Most of them started life as a Lane blend and were adulterated to suit. The only one I know which was always available and unadulterated was good old 1Q. It was a 40 year old shop and I'm pretty sure the blends morphed over the years as customer tastes changed. The proprietor kept a stock of blending tobaccos and was always tinkering.
The second owner kept up the practice. Eventually the store was purchased by a minor, local real estate mogul, he turned it into a cigar shop, few pipe related products, and quickly went broke in two years. This was when oil was expensive and most anyone could make a success of most anything up here.

 

[mayfair70]

Thanks Wyfbane; Now I can try the "real deal".

 

[pagan]

Alot like Medicines and some boxed food products, someone will duplicate the same ingredients and label it under a different name, They'r called generics

 

[pappymac]

There are some shops out there that create their own blends from the different varieties of blending tobacco they can get rather than take a bulk blend and tinker with it.

I would think Boswell's would be in the create their own category but I have never been there.
The Country Squire in Jacksonville, MS is another of the small "create their own" shops. I have been there and seen the blending stock they keep on hand.

 

[mikestanley]

It can vary greatly from shop to shop. Cousin's Cigar aka Old Erie Tobacconist in Cleveland has a number of house blends, English and aromatic that are true mixtures. They also sell relabeled McClelland bulks under catchy names. I would expect as to the former, they are

In the vast minority.
Mike S.