You are fortunate. Most "store" blends these days are bulk bought from a commercial manufacturer and rebranded with a house name. When I started with pipe smoking actual tobacconists who made their own blends from scratch were quite common.
Too Many Blends, But Too Few Producers?
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I asked him to take his English up two notches on the Latakia, after he corrected my pronouncing of Latakia, he complied.....lol!!
The key words that I take from this discussion so far are 'duplication', 'consolidation', and 'illusory'. With so many blends out there, its helpful information to have.
It's important to support the likes of Seattle Pipe Club, Watch City, Ken Byron, Uhle's, Peretti, Tabac Manil, etc, in order to increase real diversity. Although I would guess that many of these entities source their tobacco from the bigger players.
It's important to support the likes of Seattle Pipe Club, Watch City, Ken Byron, Uhle's, Peretti, Tabac Manil, etc, in order to increase real diversity. Although I would guess that many of these entities source their tobacco from the bigger players.
If I recall, Seattle Pipe Club, Watch City and Peretti are either made by Sutliff or ingredients sourced from Sutliff.
I think Sutliff makes Chatham Manor and Mixture No. 79 among many others, and I was momentarily surprised to notice MacBaren makes Amphora. For economy of scale, this lowers the prices for consumers and provides a degree of counter balance to over-regulation by lobbying, legal cover, and deep pockets. But it certainly does make the store-front blender mostly a fantasy. sable' is always amused when people get snobbish about Sutliff as a source of blends, since they provide the tobacco and sometimes the blending for snooty premium blends. i remember when U.S. car brands were dominated by "the big three." That's certainly changed.
True, but...
For at least one account, Sutliff does make the product from end to end. But the account was previously using Sutliff tobacco recased and/or topped with the shops own sauce recipes in the shop. It was simpler and less expensive to disclose the recipes to Sutliff subject to them under an NDA and let them do the whole thing. Whether this is true of Peretti I have no idea, but it is true of one account. So “made by” shouldn’t necessarily have any derogatory meaning, which some would, and have, read into that context free statement. which I know you didn’t mean.
The Seattle Pipe Club name is licensed to P&C (Scandinavian Tobacco Group), and products are produced by Sutliff. Sutliff is owned by Mac Baren. So, Seattle Pipe Club blends are made by Mac Baren and distributed by STG. The owner of the Seattle Pipe Club trademark gets a licensing fee. Standard Tobacco of Pennsylvania had a similar structure. Blends are developed by, or in conjunction with P&C, but they are made in the same factory and with the same base ingredients, using the same processes as a myriad of other blends. By no means am I implying that this results in a less than stellar product. All that I'm saying is that it lacks a certain degree of diversity and differentiation.
Chances are that most of the other blenders that you mention also use these these same base ingredients, purchased from Mac Baren or STG and simply mix them together in the shop. McClellands was a different story. They sourced their tobaccos from a wide variety of places, some of which were absolutely unique, and did a lot of their own post-cure processing. Their products reflected that individuality.
I remember the days when blends like Fribourg & Treyer Cut Virginia Plug and other F7T blends were all made by Planta. Then K&K bought them out and they also bought out Astleys. I forget who made Astleys before. One of my favorite blends Rotary Navy Cut I had no idea who made it but I knew it was going to be discontinued. How can you stay in business with only one blend. I loaded up and sure enough it was discontinued.
When Brigham Klondike Gold was discontinued I had no idea why. They sold everything they made. It was a blend made by R.Will of Solani fame and luckily I had loaded up on it. It made no sense that it got wacked as it sold great the minute it hit the market and sold out quickly. I was buying in 25 tin lots and fighting peck for every tin. He was also buying in 25 tin lots after he had his first hundred. The prick held out on me even though I shared a ton of great blends with him. If he ever posts again I am going to tell him he owes me a hundred tins. lol
I have plenty and stopped buying at 150 plus.
I gave him F&T Cut Virginia Plug, Rotary Navy Cut, Wessex Brigade Campaign Dark Flake and many others. I would not be surprised if he had 300 plus tins. The stuff is awesome.
I think once K&K took over many of my blends, I am happy I was early before they began changing the blend if they actually changed it. They have written stuff on their tins that I honestly don't believe. All of a sudden everything has dark fired Kentucky. I don't buy it, I think they are just lazy and had a bunch of those back tin labels they wanted to get rid of.
When Brigham Klondike Gold was discontinued I had no idea why. They sold everything they made. It was a blend made by R.Will of Solani fame and luckily I had loaded up on it. It made no sense that it got wacked as it sold great the minute it hit the market and sold out quickly. I was buying in 25 tin lots and fighting peck for every tin. He was also buying in 25 tin lots after he had his first hundred. The prick held out on me even though I shared a ton of great blends with him. If he ever posts again I am going to tell him he owes me a hundred tins. lol
I have plenty and stopped buying at 150 plus.
I gave him F&T Cut Virginia Plug, Rotary Navy Cut, Wessex Brigade Campaign Dark Flake and many others. I would not be surprised if he had 300 plus tins. The stuff is awesome.
I think once K&K took over many of my blends, I am happy I was early before they began changing the blend if they actually changed it. They have written stuff on their tins that I honestly don't believe. All of a sudden everything has dark fired Kentucky. I don't buy it, I think they are just lazy and had a bunch of those back tin labels they wanted to get rid of.
Perhaps the entire pipe tobacco industry is owned by an elderly widow in Dayton Ohio, and all the "big tobacco" we know are her shell companies. Doris is her name. There are not eight or ten; there is one. Doris.
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