Packed for later today, Esoterica Tilbury, which is Virginia based with burley as the condiment, one of the most immediately experienced premium blends i've smoked, just good from the first puff and seemingly determined to show me every time that it is a superior product. I'm smoking it in my Ferndown smooth fully bent billiard with band and Vulcanite Cumberland stem.
This pipe, made by the artisan carver Les Wood, was given to me by a member here who sent it with a package of Semois that he'd sampled and didn't like at all, after I'd posted on how much I liked a sample I'd smoked. When I thanked him for the tobacco, he asked me how I liked the pipe. I went back to the shipping box and sure enough, there was this beautiful Ferndown. Les Wood, the carver, was a long-time employee of Dunhill, first as a metalsmith and then also doing carving, before going off on his own, and now retired.
Thanks go out to Les in retirement, and to the Forums member who sent along the tobacco and the pipe, also including a large tin of McClellands Frog Morton Cellar. He knows who his is, though he hasn't posted here in a year or more.
The pipe has an especially deep chamber perfect for this delicious blend.