American Estates: J.T. Cooke Sandblasted Brandy (OKFA) (2015) Tobacco Pipe

J.T. Cooke spends anywhere from 24 to 40 hours on a single pipe, and that's not including the two weeks of final curing each pipe undergoes, a process that reduces the weight of the briar from 4-9 percent. He also hand pours the acrylic for his stems, with each possessing its own patterning and coloration specifically chosen for a particular pipe. Using a sandblasting system with needle-accurate nozzles that he has designed himself and continuously modifies, he etches the grain's soft rings in three stages while meticulously preserving the crisp, hard part of the briar, resulting in what most, myself included, identify as the best pipe sandblasting in the world.

This Brandy not only presents Jim's meticulous sandblasting, but is oriented for a spectacular display of ring grain cascading down the bowl in concentric waves of undulating texture. It's stamped "OKFA," which stands for "Old Knarly F*cker," with the "A" denoting briar from Algeria. It's a stamp that didn't last long because his Algerian briar supply didn't last long. Jim has spent decades perfecting the engineering necessary for proper airflow in his pipes, and in my personal experience they smoke in such an efficient fashion that the end of a bowl of tobacco is always a surprise. I find myself thinking, "What's wrong here, why has this stopped smoking," only to discover that the tobacco is entirely consumed without any signal that the end is nearing. Cooke pipes are remarkable smoking machines, elevated by decades of experience in showcasing the best that the natural attributes of briar can achieve.