What Defines A Boutique/Artisinal Blender?

[mawnansmiff]

I often come across such phrases as "he is a well respected boutique blender" or "one of the few artisinal blenders" but don't quite know what constitutes such.
Surely a blender is a blender whether working for a large outfit such as McClelland or a small producer such as Russ Ouellette. So long as his blends sell then obviously he knows his job but is he a boutique or artisinal blender or just a blender?
Apparently Greg Pease is both... 8O
"A boutique producer, Greg Pease takes an artisan's approach to tobacco"
Is anyone able to shed any light on this for me?
Regards,
Jay.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Typically, in retail a product is boutique or artisan when it is not available to big box retail outlets. You would have to go to a Ma and Pa type, individually owned, business or straight to the producer to get it. Greg's work, while being very artistic, isn't quite what the definition used to be. Maybe he is considered that now, or the definition may have changed.

I have my work in several small jewelry stores, but I refuse to have my work mass produced, so I am in that category. It is the same for many products. There are cigars that still can be considered boutique cigars, such as GTO's which I have only ever seen in two small tobacconists' shops. Esoterica plays the fence in releasing it's product in gawdawful spurts, but also plays to the bigbox vendors by allowing them to carry their product for a few seconds at a time.

 

[cortezattic]

To me, boutique implies service to a limited clientele; artisan implies hand made and unique. Now, these terms can be applied in varying ways, and it's probably wrong to conflate them. So anything that is not a mass produced OTC blend is a boutique blend. But the term artisan probably applies more to pipes than to tobacco blending. That's my take on it, although I haven't thought it through completely.

 

[mackeson]

What Michael said. Also, a boutique or artisan business usually implies more of a personal human touch by the primary artisan (in this case blender), than a large "assembly line" producer. I would consider Greg, Russ, Mike, and C&D to be boutique blenders in contrast to a company like Lane.

 

[mawnansmiff]

Thanks chaps. So it's pretty much as I guessed, smaller scale blenders as opposed to 'factory' blenders.
One of the things I love about this place is so many folks have answers even to the most simple of questions ::
Regards,
Jay.

 

[sablebrush52]

Jay, it's called ad copy. Come up with a good buzz word, or phrase that creates the image you would like to portray. In terms of blenders, the best definition I could think of is the tobacconist who makes blends for his own shop. Push that a little more and you have Wilke, or Kramer, who market their blends via their own sites, though Kramer has gone the "big box" route.

 

[mso489]

+1 sable. We're talking spin here. A good professional blender is full-time, owns the business or is on salary, using stoving and pressure and other techniques and processes, and is qualified either/or on the job and/or by formal training. Who's artisanal or boutique is just in the eye of the beholder or in the computer of the catalog writer. Anyone who does this successfully for a living is an artist in my book, but that's just more accolade and spin. Blending is a calling. In evaluating rave notices, consider the source.