George Washington Smoked Here…

I went “old school” this morning with my tobacco choice.

How Old?

The tobacco in my pipe came from a 14-oz. tin with a price stamp of $1.19.

The tobacco in my pipe is so old that it went out of production before I met my wife.

The tobacco in my pipe is older than our oldest son.

The tobacco in my pipe is so old that tin is considered to be an antique collectible.

Seriously, George Washington pipe tobacco was my grandfather’s daily smoke from before I was born up till the stopped selling in in 1974. And, while I started smoking a pipe in 1972, I never had the opportunity to try it back then. I was stationed in Washington State back then and never saw it to buy it. I look back on that now as being my loss. I often thought it would have been nice to be able to sit with Paw Paw as we called him and smoked a pipe with him.

I got interested in George Washington (GW) a couple of years ago while discussing codger blends with some other pipe smokers and a few of them even remembered smoke GW. It was a burley based blend with some Virginias added and a molasses flavor. (At least, that’s what tobaccoreviews.com says.) I have also learned that it dates back before the 1940s and was owned by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company – the same big tobacco company which owned Prince Albert and Sir Walter Raleigh among others.

It must have been a popular blend at one time because it was still produced until 1974. From what I’ve heard, Reynolds decided to reduce its involvement in pipe tobacco and one of the blends discontinued was George Washington. I’m guessing here but I think Prince Albert won the coin toss and they kept it. I’ve also heard that it disappeared because the burley leaf used to make it became hard to find. The truth is lost in time, as they say.

Not long ago, I stumbled across a website that carries an assortment of discontinued pipe tobacco – pipestud.com – for those interested. Among the offering was a factory sealed, 14 oz. tin. After emailing the site owner several times, it magically appeared on my doorstep.

I really didn’t know what to expect other than it was supposed to be a full tin. It could have been dryer than crackers laying on a West Texas sidewalk in summer. It could have been as flavorful   as smoking dried sawdust. It could have crumbled to a fine powder as soon as I popped the seal on the can. I just didn’t know what I was getting.

Instead, I got none of those. It was a full tin with the factory paper still in place. While it wasn’t as wet or moist as a newly opened tin of today’s tobacco, it was soft and supple to the touch. In fact, it was just about the how I like my tobacco to be when I load it into my pipe.

As for the aroma, the tin note was mild and sweet and very light, probably due to the age of the tobacco. I know it was supposed to be flavored with molasses but what I actually got was more of a light caramel note. It was time to smoke a bowl.

In memory of Paw Paw, I pulled a Yellow Bole Spartan Briar pipe off the shelf. It was one of his pipes which was given to me a short time after his funeral. I packed it full of GW and lit it with a wooden match. My first impression was, “Hey! This isn’t too bad.”

It was sweet. It was mild. It stayed lit and burned down to a nice, light gray ash with only just careful tamping and no relights. Was it full of flavor? No. It is over 43 years old, after all and the tobacco has aged and lost some of its fresh flavor. But on the other hand, it was vaguely reminiscent of something I’ve smelled in the past. I could also easily see how it could have been an all-day smoke for pipe smokers.

Having recently smoked Prince Albert, Granger and Edgeworth Ready Rubbed, I have to wonder why George Washington was discontinued because it is just as good as they are to my tastes. It’s a little sweeter than Prince Albert, has a little more flavor than Granger and is less of an aromatic than Edgeworth.

I’m going to miss it when I finish off what I have left.

© J. Gibson Creative Services 2017