Don't make the newbie mistake I made. I had just opened a beautiful green tin of G&H Rum Flake and was anticipating the wonderful menthol flavour when I was interupted by an emergency at work. Since I had opened the tin I decided to preserve the wonderful menthol flavour by transferring the tobacco into a mason jar until I could return to smoke a pipe. Imagine my horror when upon returning and beginning to smoke a pipe I discovered that by transferring the tobacco from the green tin to the clear mason jar I had removed entirely all the menthol flavour. I was heart broken to say the least. Then luckily I remembered that I still had the tin and I immediately transferred the tobacco back into the tin. After several minutes of excruciating waiting I again loaded a pipe and to my everlasting delight was treated to the wonderful overwelming taste of menthol. Does anyone know where to buy green mason jars?
Well, now, this brings memories to me. I had a tin of Craven Mixture gifted to me by a dear friend. He used to own a pipe shop in California and moved to Oregon to retire. He was already quite elderly when I met him and I think he was passing along his possessions when he had to chance to do so himself. He also had a smooth silver capped Dunhill spigot bent bulldog, the only one I've ever seen, live or in pictures. I want to say it had a brindle stem, but that may just be my imagination playing tricks on me. But I digress. The Craven Mixture. It was an English blend. My gifted tin was from the 70s. Pipestud's review on TR says: "One of the finest tobaccos of its kind that I have very [
sic] smoked." I cracked it open a few years ago in memory of my friend. It was everything I expected. The latakia was still fresh and smoky. The Virginias as smooth as can be. Just the perfect amount of sweetness and a hint of topping. The tin did not last forever. But here's the thing. Whenever I put in the least desireable of cheap cigarette sweepings in it, for instance, Prince Albert, within a couple of days, it turns into the sweetest latakia mixture, with the heady incense of rare Turkish and Oriental leaves, balanced perfectly with sweet Virginias. Magic. You can imagine the number of times I did this. It worked without fail every time. Alas, I lost the tin during my last move. I swear I had the precious object in my pocket--I wasn't about to pack it in a box only to be forgotten--but the next time I thought to look for it after the chaos and hecticness of the move, I couldn't find it. It's been 5 years now, but I think of that tin everyday.
