Just finishing up my
Phillie's Blunt Chocolate experience 'cause the real stuff is not gonna happen - still itchin' from the eczema outbreak and can only touch the real stuff in very limited quantities. Never suffered from this schiezen 'till I turned 72. Immune system obviously in decline due to my own ripening.
In the mean time, one of my two smokes yesterday. I'll cover the 2nd one tonight - more cleanup and getting my fly tackle organized for a series of upcoming daytrips. Great fishing weather up here now - birches and aspens have their leaves falling like flakes off my skin, and when that happens in the BC Central Plateau, trout, whitefish and grayling are overjoyed to commit suicide on size #14-18 subsurface nymphs retrieved real slow. And I'm only too happy to oblige in pulling the trigger on their demise.
Another of my favoured pipes (actually near the very apex of my list) is my treasured
Ropp J07, and it sucked back a bowl of the very decent
Smokers' Pride Black Cavendish, that has more than a hint of chocolate present in it's undertone, with aplomb.
I bought the J07 at the urging of our beloved moderator
didimauw. And when other online gurus like
sobrbiker, amongst others, raved about its versatility (I'd biased it for Orientals, but when the tastebuds crumbled (as did my ability to taste any kind of subtle undertones) I shelved those tobaccos until further notice, and concentrated on breeds that I could enjoy. Thus, this noble pipe languished.
So I took note and turned it into my own workhorse. Yup. It smokes just about anything well. So well that the J07 has been promoted to my travel kit where it gets much more use than it did before. Last night's smoke was no exception. As good as it gets for me, at least for the present.
Note that I've adopted
Carol's style of tamping tool, in my case a 3 1/2" galvanized framing nail. Works fantastic, and the galvanization is good as a scraper, too. Also fits in the pipesqueaks better than a regular tool.
Will be back tonight. Have a great Friday.