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das3353

Lifer
Sep 7, 2019
2,200
53,681
2019 GH Best Brown #2 in a Radice Silk Cut

52891063573_e19f462375_o.jpg
 

gord

Part of the Furniture Now
Here's my morning smoke, and a brand new tobacco I've been trying out, C&D's Bourbon Bleu. It's not that I particularly like miniatures, but they have a definite purpose for me, in the land of ridiculous taxation on tobacco. Bourbon Bleu is one of the only six or seven C&D blends I can get from the Mohawk Reserve tobacco store, and it's CHEAP (for us) ie $49 per tin. To buy it in BC (not available), and to get it shipped from the US about 87 bucks. Enough whining. You've all heard it before. It is what it is.

Barrel Rider and Bourbon Bleu.JPG


Miniatures serve as great test pipes, and if the tobacco suits them, for a medium length of smoke. I can usually draw 25 - 30 minutes with this McQueen Barrel Rider. Not with Bourbon Blue. This is the fastest burning tobacco I've so far experienced. I got 18 minutes only. A medium small bowl in another pipe got 35 minutes. Granted, a very small amount of tobacco in each of these pipes, so this will do for short smokes, which I still do on occasion.

The whole purpose of using this type of pipe and trying this tobacco is to get a similar smoke from it, that will allow me to stretch out my favourites in certain categories. These are my "protected species", which my friends don't know about, and will not find out about - they reside in a little box in a drawer which says "Do Not Enter."

These three tobaccos I cannot get from any other source except the US, and as I'm now on the data base I cannot escape the gauntlet. Mad Fiddler, Black Frigate, and Bengal Slices are at the top of the list in their respective categories. Other than the black box, my friends smoke my tobacco when they visit. Works out though, because they all seem to prefer gooey aromatics (which I enjoy once in a while) or Englishes, which are a staple of mine, along with my favoured Navies and Orientals, which none of them enjoy.

It's a kind of "Kitty, bar the door!" attitude, but it is what it is.

Bourbon Blue, I find quite similar to Mad Fiddler, in that you're hit with a Perique blast, which tapers, and the Orientals and/or Virginias as in the case of BB, come to the fore and decrescendo to end the smoke. On a personal scale I give Mad Fiddler a 9.5 (nothing is perfect, eh) and BB a 7. A worthy alternate to a brisk morning smoke, whot not? There is nothing subtle about either tobacco, and they both go great with cold coffee.

Oh yeah. Get a load of the hideous tin that Oh Canada supplies us with. A far cry from the lovely graphics on the C&D products. The reverse side is worse. It's either a kid coughing or an old guy with a tongue cancer photo, with the usual usual.
 
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The Clay King

(Formerly HalfDan)
Oct 2, 2018
6,320
60,050
42
Chesterfield, UK
www.youtube.com
YouTube video of this year's Pipe Show:
I'm not in it this time...

Great day today; good company, beer & pipeweed. I don't appear in this video but I can be heard at the start. All hail the Clay King!

Full list of baccy smoked today:
GH Summer Reserve
GH Mahogany
SG Summer Reserve
SG Squadron Leader
GH Seasonal Reserve
Peterson Deluxe Mixture
Orlik Vintage Flake
Germain Brown Flake

Beers drunk today:
Castle Rock Our House
Castle Rock Preservation

Got bought a pint of real ale, given a lot of free dragonweed & won a tin of Robert McConnell Black & Gold. Should be good in the King's Clay!

First smoke in the clay shape churchwarden I got from @tobakenist; met Andy from the Sealed Knot again today - good to meet him again. We smoked a clay at Nantwich last January & hoping to again next year. I was smoking 1792 Flake at Nantwich this year. Made 2 new friends as well; hoping to meet one of them for a few beers & bowls after Christmas.

Going to FIRE UP a Clay now!
 

gord

Part of the Furniture Now
My afternoon smoke was an absolute delight, starring the dynamic duo of Black Frigate and Ropp J05. They worked great together the first time they met, and are now inseparable. Only BF gets smoked in the J05 - I think more and more in terms of one pipe for one tobacco these days. Perhaps one day I will change my mind on this. But not today.


Black Frigate and Ropp J05.JPG


By the way, special thanks to the Captain and other contributers to my "Tall Bowl" post. You were great, and left no stone unturned. Problems have been solved or are in the process of being solved. Much looser pack was the main trick . . . now to solidify my skills with this new technique. And go on to the next problem! :)
 

Scottmi

Lifer
Oct 15, 2022
3,901
56,864
Orcas, WA
'The Heavy Aperitif' (my 'Aperitif' clone effort that goes lat heavy with 2 parts Lancer's Slices : 1 part St. James Park) in the Royal Ascot Supreme Algerian Briar Bulldog with vulcanite saddle stem. Listening to Pink Martini in the background as I start a new book...
IMG_8348.jpg
P.s. oops, didn't get that focus right. i blame Siri.
p.p.s. The first scene (10 pages) of this book provided a world class hook!
 
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