As found here:
http://www.pipegazette.com/2015/09/dortmund-les-nouveaux-achats-de-mac.html
:arrow:
St. Bruno May Be Coming Back To USA
- Thread starter Sjmiller CPG
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As found here:
http://www.pipegazette.com/2015/09/dortmund-les-nouveaux-achats-de-mac.html
:arrow:
I was in a little shop in Saint John N.B. yesterday and spied some Amphora Red & Brown, but couldn't justify $28 per pouch, it's been so long I can't recall what it was like.
Should I be Stoked about this? Or should I take my SG 1792 Flake and roll back into the fog. Sable's comment about a man's smoke has got me Intrested. Suppose this will be Penzance's little black evil unicorn whore for a few months, McBaren may have a hard time meeting demands. Can't wait to try it. Lovely pics above. Just lovely.
I know of one proud Welshman here in the UK who considers St.Bruno to be a "gay Condor" which caused a bit of a stir on one of the UK based forums. I must admit that of the UK OTC lakeland blends, Condor wins hands down in my opinion although St.Bruno is a nice smoke.
That's hilarious!
I LOL'd bigtime.
The Saint is perhaps a bit effete next to the Mighty Condor,
but it has its own unique charm as well.
:
:If it was still made in Liverpool by Ogden's it may be a different story as far as stoutness goes,
as there may have been some "recipe degradation" over the last couple of decades...
.
Totally agree about the recipe degradation. I first smoked St.Bruno in the early eighties and it was a powerful blend, not so much these days.
There was a vicious rumour some time ago that Gallagher's factory in Ireland was going to close bringing production of Condor to an end. I haven't heard anything about this recently so maybe the threatened call to arms amongst UK pipe smokers had the desired effect.
There was a vicious rumour some time ago that Gallagher's factory in Ireland was going to close bringing production of Condor to an end. I haven't heard anything about this recently so maybe the threatened call to arms amongst UK pipe smokers had the desired effect.
BentBob,
many thanks for the firsthand info and experience,
would love to hear more...
...your take on the "old days" and how things have changed.
Such crucial firsthand accounts are invaluable and I think need to be preserved!
::
that was in the news around this time last year,
a few threads on the topic:
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/disaster-condor-factory-closes-in-ireland
.
many thanks for the firsthand info and experience,
would love to hear more...
...your take on the "old days" and how things have changed.
Such crucial firsthand accounts are invaluable and I think need to be preserved!
:
:Yep,
that was in the news around this time last year,
a few threads on the topic:
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/disaster-condor-factory-closes-in-ireland
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/gallaher-factory-closing-news-clip-video
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/what-is-the-future-of-condor.
The ready rubbed bulk is rumored, from a knowledgeable source in the tobacco trade with whom I spoke at WCPS, to be St. Bruno making it's appearance here. I can't confirm that as I couldn't find the bulk ready rub at the time. Old Dark Fired Flake tastes nothing like it, anymore than it tastes like Stonehaven, etc
Pipestud smoked St. Bruno flake way back when it was made by Ogden's and described it as a more "refined" product than later versions, so we also have testimony suggesting that the degradation might have gone in the direction of amping up the sauce. It's all a matter of an individual's palate and perception and thus "a dip in the river" type of information. Go with what you get at the tobacconist. You like it or you don't. That's all you get anyways.
Misterlowercase
"many thanks for the firsthand info and experience,
would love to hear more...
...your take on the "old days" and how things have changed."
The "old days" ha. You young whippersnapper! I'll give that some thought and start a new topic rather than hijack this one. One thing I will say is that we don't always realise what were the "old days" as things change over time and we adapt accordingly. It is only when something or someone reminds us of how things used to be do we lament what was.
As for St. Bruno, I had been a Clan smoker for a few years until I tried St Bruno. The first half bowlful had my head spinning and I had to sit down for a while. The strange thing is that I couldn't smoke Clan again as it tasted terrible, horrible chemical taste. I mentioned this to my boss at the time (also a pipe smoker and an old Royal Navy sea dog who smoked all sorts of mad concoctions) and he said the same thing - it made his head spin too. He got around this by mixing it with Clan!
"many thanks for the firsthand info and experience,
would love to hear more...
...your take on the "old days" and how things have changed."
The "old days" ha. You young whippersnapper! I'll give that some thought and start a new topic rather than hijack this one. One thing I will say is that we don't always realise what were the "old days" as things change over time and we adapt accordingly. It is only when something or someone reminds us of how things used to be do we lament what was.
As for St. Bruno, I had been a Clan smoker for a few years until I tried St Bruno. The first half bowlful had my head spinning and I had to sit down for a while. The strange thing is that I couldn't smoke Clan again as it tasted terrible, horrible chemical taste. I mentioned this to my boss at the time (also a pipe smoker and an old Royal Navy sea dog who smoked all sorts of mad concoctions) and he said the same thing - it made his head spin too. He got around this by mixing it with Clan!
As a pipeman I am indeed a whippersnapper, only 5 years in.I am 45 though, just a ciggy smoker most my life, since the age of 14. I enjoyed many different brands, Lucky Filters, Gitanes Blondes, Craven "A", Gauloises, 555, etc etc --- then the govt. mandated a new thing where the paper had little "fire rings" of a gluey type substance which will automatically extinguish itself if left unattended, these are known as FSC cigarettes, and now all factory-made ciggies in the USA are those kind, and they taste absolutely horrid...
...so, of course I then went the RYO route, rolling up Bali Shag and Drum, quite happily until the govt. decided to increase the tax 250% on them (or whatever it actually was, all I know is that it was a massive jump), what once cost me $10 for a 150g can (w/ 200 papers included inside!) suddenly jumped to $35, and off I go again searching for cheaper alternatives and since "pipe tobacco" fell outside of the tax increase, it remained to be sold at the same old lower price --- it was in this way that I discovered D&R Two Timer:
https://www.smokingpipes.com/tobacco/by-maker/Daughters-Ryan/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=69914
...right there on the Smoking Pipes website, and just like that I found myself intrigued with pipes and why I had never considered them before, and looking at SP's selections wetted my appetite and I finally threw in and gave it all a go with pipesmoking...
...and here I am now,
an obsessed maniac! LOL Seriously, I enjoyed the pipe so much that I went balls-to-the-wall with it all, and when I discovered the UK newsagent stuff, in the form of St. Bruno which was so kindly sent through the mail from a keen gentleman from N. Yorkshire named Jim, and discovered something that not only satisfied my nic needs, but also added such a delectable luscious flavor profile which I fell in love with, began asking myself why isn't this stuff sold in the States? Why don't the original UK companies make it anymore? Why this and why that?
Thus begum my journey of digging through the dust and trying to discover what it had all been about, and all a good bit melancholic about the loss of such wonderful baccies, and kicking myself in the dumb arse for smoggin' the gaspers for so long for all the while I could have been deep in the throes of pipeful bliss...I had been totally clueless most of life!
In a very roundabout way, I should be thankful for the govt's progressive agenda because it sorta "forced" me to pick up the pipe! :P
Odd how these sorts of things work out, eh?
...anyways, thatsa long answer to a short question,
apologies for the bio-epic LOL
:lol:
Looking forward to your new topic thread!
8)
It's funny how things turn out. I started smoking a pipe at 14 and, apart from the odd cigar and a year in which I mainly smoked roll ups (my wife didn't like me smoking a pipe in the house (latakia junkie)), I have never really wanted to smoke anything else. I was not a collector of pipes nor a "connoisseur" (said very much tongue in cheek) of tobacco until a number of years later though.
British tobacco manufacturing has gone the same way as British pipe making due to the huge downturn in pipe smoking over the last twenty five years or so. I don't think that there is any one reason for this but a combination of factors and trends. What seems obvious to me though is that the huge market potential of the United States was ignored or at least only a half hearted attempt was made to tap into the US by too few. Maybe some of the great names in pipe making and tobacco blending would still have been with us if there were more Herman Lane's about.
There are US blends that are sought after in the UK too. We all buy the same gadgets, clothes, games, films and to some extent cars and motorcycles, so why is tobacco different?
British tobacco manufacturing has gone the same way as British pipe making due to the huge downturn in pipe smoking over the last twenty five years or so. I don't think that there is any one reason for this but a combination of factors and trends. What seems obvious to me though is that the huge market potential of the United States was ignored or at least only a half hearted attempt was made to tap into the US by too few. Maybe some of the great names in pipe making and tobacco blending would still have been with us if there were more Herman Lane's about.
There are US blends that are sought after in the UK too. We all buy the same gadgets, clothes, games, films and to some extent cars and motorcycles, so why is tobacco different?
It most certainly is.
An ironic twist in this specific story that we're talking about here, in regards to St. Bruno, is the fact that if Imperial had never outsourced production to Denmark (which probably initially infuriated a good many oldtime codgers), it might've been lost forever and gone to the angels for all eternity, or be reborn as a "match blend" which is always dicey --- St. Bruno is quite the complex little flake, it is truly The Standard Dark Flake, for it defined an entire genre!
At least the Danes learned how to make it, and in the process of making all these heritage UK blends the Danes also seemed to slightly shift away from the typical honey sweet sugar profiles and toward a more classic Brit technique --- I'm happy St. Bruno survived, and I'm glad that we got what we got, even if it is somewhat corrupted from its former Liverpudlian glory,
it is still quite the damn good stuff,
and ain't nuthin' else like it either!
Cheers!
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