Your Favorite Classic Blends (Virginia, Burly, English, etc) and Why?

[winterlionpassing]

Title edited for capitals. Please see Rule 9.

I am a very recent pipe smoking enthusiast and am looking for sense of direction concerning tobacco. I also thought this would be pleasant conversation. Please feel free to join.

cheers,

-N

 

[brooklynpiper]

Of the readily available stuff, I wasn’t so huge on Capstan though you’ll see it rec’d.

I’d like to tell you Gawith Squadron Leader but it may not be so readily available.

You couldn’t go wrong with going Dunhill Standard and Dunhill Flake for your English and Virginia categories.

I’d split burley into dry burley and codger burley and pick up a tin of Haunted Bookshop and whatever of the codger burleys sounds best to you (they’ve all been around forever).

 

[bullet08]

Any and all Peterson/Dunhill blends. Then there are purely American classics. Carter Hall, Sir Walter Raleigh and so on.

 

[kcghost]

Amongst VaPers I smoke Six Pence and amongst English's I prefer Westminster. Both are G.L. Pease blends.

 

[The Amish Tyrant]

These are what I consider standard codger classics:

Half and Half is my daily driver. Comforting, like a friend that rarely lets me down. I enjoy the Burley and brightness with a sweet topping.

Balkan Supreme. Like a campfire on a fall evening.

Amphora Virginia Blend is a broken flake that punches above its weight class. Subtle, sweet, and grassy.

Captain Black Royal. A vanilla aromatic with molasses. I have a pipe dedicated to vanilla blends where the oils have saturated the briar and makes the vanilla more pronounced.

 

[Sig]

There are too many to think of.
As a new piper you could check out Cornell & Diehls line up.
They have all the genres and have good descriptions of the blends.
In my opinion reading the description online or on a tin gives more information than reviews. But maybe thats just me.

 

[badbriar]

My preferences lean towards English and Scottish blends. Currently, I'm exploring several burley blends to find a few that ring the bell.
Try Kramer's Father Dempsey for a really good medium English. Rattray's Red Rapparee is a great Scottish!
As for Burleys, I've found Pegasus to be quite good. Also, occasionally, Big n' Burley.

 

[Douglas]

Not a big straight Virginia smoker. Five Brothers is my Burley/Codger. Bayou Morning and Elizabethan Mixture are my VaPers. Balkan Supreme and Father Dempsey are my English blends (both come in bulk!). Billy Budd is a great blend with cigar leaf.
Many, many more out there and I have certainly not tried them all but as of now these are my consistent rotation.

 

[vosBghos]

Another vote for Peterson Flake (formerly Dunhill) for a great, user-friendly, no-nonsense Virginia flake.

If you can get your hands on it and I've seen it around lately Solani Aged Burley Flake is another top-of-the-line Burley.

For straight, you can't go wrong with those

English Blends and Vapers are a whole nother animal.

Though it might be more on the Balkan side of things in the English Category Peterson Early Morning Pipe is a beaut and their My Mixture 965 offers more Latakia and Nightcap has a lot of Latakia and some Perique you could think of them as morning, midday, and night Englishes respectively.

And Vapers oh man?
If you want to taste a 50/50 of Virginia and Perique try C&D Exclusive it's a wallop and you can tone it down from there with other highly recommended Vapers but I figure jump in and experience what Perique is all about.

Best of luck, and welcome to the hobby.

Pro Tip :
Don't let your significant other know how much you spend on this bliss

 

[Manawydan]

There are a lot of wonderful blends out there, but sticking with the "classic" blends theme:

English: Peterson My Mixture 965 or Nightcap
Balkan: Balkan Sasieni
VaPer: Escudo Navy de Luxe
Burley: Solani Aged Burley Flake
DFK: Mac Baren HH Old Dark Fired

 

[dottlejockey]

Some great, easy-going blends to get a taste of the various genres for a newer smoker:

Lane 1Q (Aromatic)
C & D Opening Night (VA)
PS Luxury Bullseye Flake (Va/Per)
ES 4th Generation Twilight (Oriental)
Boswell Premium Burley
C & D Epiphany (English)
SPC Plum Pudding (Balkan)

 

[sablebrush52]

Title edited for capitals. Please see Rule 9.

I am a very recent pipe smoking enthusiast and am looking for sense of direction concerning tobacco. I also thought this would be pleasant conversation. Please feel free to join.

cheers,

-N

Part of my problem with answering your question is that I stopped actively buying tobacco a few years ago, and there's been an accellerating amount of substitutions being made for the past 6 or so years and I don't know what's currently in the tin that bears the famous label. I only know whtat's not in it, the famous blend.

The actual classics aren't made anymore. Some, like Escudo, live on as name brands on tins, but with contents that don't resemble the original blends in the least. Most of what is offered is a label on a tin filled with "whatsis".

But, there are a few blends worth smoking, based on last purchase. One I like is from C&D and it's called Yorktown. It's a ribbon cut of stoved Bright and Red Virginias. The result is an easy to smoke pleasant tasting blend that could be an all day smoke.
Yorktown, Caroline Red Flake, and Bijou are the only C&D that I've cellared.

I'll second Peter Stokkebye Luxury Bullseye Flake, but only after it's had at least 4 years of aging. The tobacco is released when it's green and screaming from the cradle and tastes like cardboard. Give it the aging PS should have done and it really blossoms into something quite enjoyable.

GL Pease offers a wide range of interesting blends, some of them a bit challenging. Of his Va/Pers I like Haddo's Delight, Stratford, Telegraph Hill, and Fillmore, in that order.

I would also recommend that you check out KBV, an independent producing micro batches, blends made from top quality aged ingredients that exist in amounts too small for other blenders. Where a manufacturer will put out a 5,000 unit "small" batch, KBV batches seem to run into several hundred units and smaller. And generaly, once they're gone, they're gone.

Another worthwhile place to investigate is Watch City Cigars and Pipes. It's a retail tobacconist that puts out some classic blends, like Rougaroux, SImply Red, SImply Orange, Glass Slipper, etc. Ernie really knows how to blend, and as such has built a national following. Here's something else that differentiates Ernie from other producers. If he can't get the correct ingredients, he discontinues the blend. He doesn't substitute and pretend it's the same stuff.

If you feel adventurous you could try Esterval's in Germany and order some of Hans Biederman's HU blends. They are made by K, formerly K&K, in Germany. K&K used to be a top quality blender, but in today's world, they do what they can, sorta. Still, even with the current state of affairs, Hans is perhaps the most gifted and inventive blender working today. It might still be worth picking up some Director's Cut, Morrocan Bazaar (aromatic but don't think you know what type) and maybe some of the newer blends that are formulated with what's currently available?

Otherwise, GH&Co are still fighting the good fight to deliver a quality product, even in difficult times.

Sutliff match blends, like Match Victoria, a match to the Murray's version of Dunhill Elizabethan blend, are worth exploring. Many of their matches were very close to the originals. But in today's world, that is less certain. But, Sutliff has supplies of leaf that others don't, so these Sutliff bulks may still be quite good, and inexpensive. Their Cringle Flake is pretty good.

I haven't tried any recent batches of any of the Esoterica blends, but the stuff I smoked from a few years ago tasted like garbage. They had substituted some of the Virginias and the result was not pleasant. The toppings were also skimpy. This was very disappointing. As other blends were sliding over the last several years, Germain's seemed solid. Not any more.

The Dunhill clones are now labeled as Peterson. They were Dunhill in name only. Dunhill stopped making their blends, with their complex aging stages and other quality control measures, back in 1980.

If you're looking for the old classics, they are gone, gone, gone. You're better off looking for new classics.

 

[dottlejockey]

I would also recommend that you check out KBV, an independent producing micro batches, blends made from top quality aged ingredients that exist in amounts too small for other blenders. Where a manufacturer will put out a 5,000 unit "small" batch, KBV batches seem to run into several hundred units and smaller. And generaly, once they're gone, they're gone.

This has been on my radar for a short time as well. This post pushed me over the edge. Had to order some up. Thanks for the TAD prod!

 

[tabakpfeife]

I usually smoke VAPERS or VAs.

Favorite VAs:
Watch City Simply Orange
Union Square
WC Simply Red

Favorite VAPERS:
Dunbar
Old Gowrie
Telegraph Hill

 

[BingBong]

Shout-out for Orlik Golden Sliced here.

 

[Auxsender]

Title edited for capitals. Please see Rule 9.

I am a very recent pipe smoking enthusiast and am looking for sense of direction concerning tobacco. I also thought this would be pleasant conversation. Please feel free to join.

cheers,

-N

A sense of direction? Where do you want to go? To pipe “Nirvana” or “I like this while I work”? Or even, “I want shitloads of nicotine.”
There are so many destinations it’s dizzying.
Personally, I HATE the feeling nicotine gives me but I LOVE strong blends which means I smoke them in small bowls and often have to stop midway to avoid feeling yucky (dizzy, sweaty, generally unwell).
I also like Nirvana smokes which, for me, require solitude and attention to the conversation between pipe and smoker.

What are you after?

To more simply answer your Q, here is a short list of blendres I consider to be phenomenal. Go to their websites and/or retailer websites and/or tobaccoreviews.com for more info on the individual products each blender offers.

Watch City Cigar
Ken Byron Ventures
LJ Peretti
Sutliff
Samuel Gawith
Gawith Hoggarth and Company
McClelland (no longer in biz)
Wilke

 

[jbfrady]

As someone who likes to introduce people to pipe smoking, I'd say that my recommendations here aren't necessarily my go-to blends, so much as approachable blends on a starting basis.

VA: Fribourg & Treyer's Vanners Mixture. It's a VA ribbon with a sprinkle of black cavendish, modeled after early 1700's mixture.

English: Robert Lewis Tree Mixture. Similar story. Tree Mixture is a historic recipe made by James J Fox of London for a Colonel Tree back in the early 19th century. While I don't believe the good colonel was noted for any particular military achievements, the mixture which serves as his namesake is an approachable English that smells and tastes like a welcoming campfire in the best way possible.

Burley: While there are good ones out there, high quality Burley tends to pack a punch. I'd suggest ordering a Savinelli Brunello Flake, but then I'd suggest stuffing it into a dark drawer until you feel your tolerance is ready. Only you can know when that would be.

 

[filmguerilla]

Virginia: Capstan
Burley: Velvet (I'm actually not a big fan of Burley, but I've gaslit myself into liking this one)
Oriental: Peretti's Oriental #40
English: GLP Westminster
Balkan: H&H Black House
VaPer: Tie between Stokkebye Luxury Bullseye and C&D Bayou Morning flake
Lakeland: Three way tie between 1792, Ennerdale, and Bosun
Aromatic: Sillem's Black (I'm very picky about aro's)

 

[Sobrbiker]

Virginia: SG Best Brown. I think the “Imperial” virginias have something that is lacking in the Americans. Perhaps it’s the tears of the forced child labor, or the grease from the 150 year old stream presses, who knows? Easily obtainable and economic: Sutliff 507-C, Newminster 400, MacB Va#1, C&D Yorktown are all good and cheap/readily available in bulk.

Burley: I’m a bad guy to ask, I’m not fond of most of the usual burley blends, but love strong dark fired stuff.

English: in the exceptionally rare instances I want one, I like MacB H&H Balkan. I had a ton once of Dunhill London Mixture, but haven’t touched the jar of recent stuff I’ve got but once.

VaPers: light: PS LNF or Hal O’ The Wynd. Medium: Sutliff Match Victorian and WCC Rouxgaroux. Heavy: GLP Sixpence, Fillmore or C&D Exclusive

 

[Cigar36]

Any and all Peterson/Dunhill blends. Then there are purely American classics. Carter Hall, Sir Walter Raleigh and so on.

I am with you regarding Peterson/Dunhill blends. Especially EMP which is my favorite.