Va-Or’s?

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bluegrassbrian

Your Mom's Favorite Pipe Smoker
Aug 27, 2016
6,636
63,863
41
Louisville
the Virgina Oriental sold by C&D at the Chicago Pipe Show this past year was not Oriental Silk.
I was second guessing myself a few minutes later on that one.. got the names mixed up.

Someone told me what was tinned for Chicago is available as a bulk, but I’m at a loss for what they said it was.
 

jeff540

Part of the Furniture Now
Jan 25, 2016
518
799
Southwest Virginia
Unfortunately, I never got to try McClelland’s grand oriental blends. I am looking for virginias tweaked with orientals, or orientals tweaked with virginias. NO LATAKIA PLEASE, honestly given up on the idea of latakia tweaking a virginia. As I write this I am smoking some Laurel Heights, supposedly the most delicate kiss of latakia in it... not to me, it seems to obfuscate most of what I enjoy about virginia. I have had stokkebye “turkish”, and i loved that one. I tend to favour the brights over the darks... my favourite VA of all time was Klondike Gold, never had something so bright and bite free as that one. Anyhow, anyone got suggestions for a Va-Or?

Your tastes sound similar to mine. If you found that Stokkebye Turkish scratched that itch, then stock up on it. I fell in love with McClelland's Grand Oriental "Drama Reserve" for buttery, sweet and full taste that wasn't pure Virginia but something new and wonderful. I have not found anything to replace that.

The previously mentioned GL Pease "Cairo" is of the same style, but too rough around the edge, bitter, and not nearly sweet enough. Those attributes I've found with all the C&D manufactured blends unfortunately. I will go out on a limb here, and suggest two that are "kissed" by latakia but make up for it in smoothness and sweetness: Esoterica's "And So To Bed" and Davidoff's "Royalty."
 
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bluegrassbrian

Your Mom's Favorite Pipe Smoker
Aug 27, 2016
6,636
63,863
41
Louisville
Your tastes sound similar to mine. If you found that Stokkebye Turkish scratched that itch, then stock up on it. I fell in love with McClelland's Grand Oriental "Drama Reserve" for buttery, sweet and full taste that wasn't pure Virginia but something new and wonderful. I have not found anything to replace that.

The previously mentioned GL Pease "Cairo" is of the same style, but too rough around the edge, bitter, and not nearly sweet enough. Those attributes I've found with all the C&D manufactured blends unfortunately. I will go out on a limb here, and suggest two that are "kissed" by latakia but make up for it in smoothness and sweetness: Esoterica's "And So To Bed" and Davidoff's "Royalty."

Older iterations of Cairo are very smooth and very sweet.
If you can get a tin from 2010 or older it’s worth a try.
 

jeff540

Part of the Furniture Now
Jan 25, 2016
518
799
Southwest Virginia
Bijou is decent, one of the sweetest non-aromatic C&D blends I have tried to date but still a little rough around the edges. That said, IMHO its flavor profile is nowhere near the OP's inquiry.
 
Jan 28, 2018
13,926
155,810
67
Sarasota, FL
Double checked.. a pipe club buddy says that Jeremy Reeves told him that the tinned chicago blend was indeed Oriental Silk. ?‍♂️

Guess we could query Jeremy.

You could do that or smoke multiple tins of both. One bowl of each and you would know they aren't the same. Also consider some common sense. Do you really think C&D would take a rather run of the mill blend, package it differently and sell it as a special show commemorative blend? I suppose anything is possible but if that were to get out to the general public, how many tins of their special show blends do you think they would sell next year?

With that said, believe whatever you wish.
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,212
60,624
Casual, I have a tin of Presbyterian aging, so I'll look forward to that. I smoke so slowly, I should have a five-year hiatus on buying tobacco. I'm always smoking up samples, small partially filled jars, and pouches, trying to work my way to the many tins. I can see Edward G. Robinson peering at me from the bottom of a stack of unopened tins from here.
 

Casual

Lifer
Oct 3, 2019
2,579
9,444
NL, CA
Casual, I have a tin of Presbyterian aging, so I'll look forward to that. I smoke so slowly, I should have a five-year hiatus on buying tobacco. I'm always smoking up samples, small partially filled jars, and pouches, trying to work my way to the many tins. I can see Edward G. Robinson peering at me from the bottom of a stack of unopened tins from here.

I’m in the same position. This is my first year, but my pace is 3 tins per year. Choices must be made. I had a single bowl out of about 35 blends and decided that Presbyterian may be my go-to for now.

The next week Planta sold to STG. Just my luck.
 
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bluegrassbrian

Your Mom's Favorite Pipe Smoker
Aug 27, 2016
6,636
63,863
41
Louisville
You could do that or smoke multiple tins of both. One bowl of each and you would know they aren't the same. Also consider some common sense. Do you really think C&D would take a rather run of the mill blend, package it differently and sell it as a special show commemorative blend? I suppose anything is possible but if that were to get out to the general public, how many tins of their special show blends do you think they would sell next year?

With that said, believe whatever you wish.

According to Jeremy the CPCC tinned blend was indeed Oriental Silk.
He could be lying.
 

Casual

Lifer
Oct 3, 2019
2,579
9,444
NL, CA
At the suggestion of the thread I just tried Red Rapparee. It was quite good, and actually oriental forward, despite the presence of some Latakia. Thanks for the pointer.
 
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