Over the months since my last post, I have been enjoying a number of new (to me) blends I have found. Meistermischung blends are produced by Kohlhase & Kopp and I suspect that at one time they had fancier names. Meistermischung translate to English as “Master Mix” and there are at least 10 different blends ranging from Nr. 11 to …
Why the name The Untouchables Special Mixture was chosen for this blend is unknown to me but maybe they should have named it “Unfindable.” I only found it by painstakingly going through every blend available on the Estervals Pipe House website (http://www.tecon-gmbh.de/index.php?language=en) in May 2021. While it is widely available in Europe. Don’t bother searching U.S. retailers for The Untouchables …
One of the things I’ve “enjoyed” doing during the past year is exploring new tobacco blends. Define “new tobacco blends” as blends I haven’t smoked before. Since July 2020, I have become an even bigger fan of Rattray’s, HU Tobacco, Kohlhase & Kopp, and Dan’s Tobacco. The problem is that many of the blends I enjoy are hard to find …
Let me blunt. In my opinion, Rattray’s makes some of the finest tobacco blends available. A large percentage of their blends have earned three- or four-star ratings on tobaccoreviews.com. I have enjoyed many a bowl of Red Rapparee, Hal O’ the Wynd, Bagpiper’s Dream, Exotic Orange and the Rattray’s Winter Editions. Now comes a blend I’ve never knew existed – …
As a fan of the tobacco formerly known as Rattray’s Exotic Orange, I often hear pipe smokers express their love for Holger Danske Original Orange Mellow. I’ve withheld my opinion because I hadn’t smoke it. Now I wonder if they are buying a different blend than I did. The tin I bought at Mayan Imports Metairie location last months does …
When is an estate pipe find not sweet? When it’s a Savory pipe. If you never ever heard of a Savory pipe, you’re not alone. When I first saw the “Crown over S” logo I thought it was a Stanwell. But, it was stamped “Made in London England” so I knew it wasn’t a Stanwell. I started doing some research. …
I saw my first Ardor pipe seven years ago at a Denham Springs “antique shop.” It had eight or nine beautiful, new Ardor pipes on display and priced at the MSRP. This “antique” shop – about a half-step above a roadside flea market, was asking full retail for the pipes. The least expensive one was $375. (In my opinion, an …
(In an earlier post, I wrote about buying estate pipes in various types of shops. This is a follow-up to that post.) Collecting estate/used pipes can be frustrating at times when shopping antique and collectible shops. It’s even worse when the shops claim to be antique but are really junktique and flea markets. If you want to purchase a good, …
The topic keeps resurfacing on pipe smoking forums. Do the higher priced, premium pipes really smoke better than less expensive pipes? There are some pipe smoking snobs who claim the more expensive pipes do smoke better. But how does that explain the thousands of pipe smokers who collect and swear by the smoking qualities of Kaywoodies and Dr. Grabow’s for …
For the testing I loaded two grams of Dunhill My Mixture 965 in each pipe. I weighed the tobacco on my kitchen scale. Stanwell HCA: Passes a pipe cleaner with some wiggling. Draft hole off center high. Avg. size airway in stem. Good, easy draught – like sipping a fountain drink through a plastic straw. Bowl was warm but comfortable …
