Howard H.
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Baccarat - Toro
Truly delightful ...
in every respect. A perfectly balanced smoke. The reasonable price is just an added bonus.

Crowned Heads - Juárez Willy Lee
Time divided by price = value for money
This eclectic hybrid has been well thought-out. Like Habanos, squeeze it and there is no give whatever. That makes for a nice long smoke, well over two hours if you do it right.

Sutliff - Ready Rubbed Match
A credible imitation
... albeit way more aromatic than I remember Edgeworth's having been and not that I especially liked Edgeworth much in the first place. Of the two copies on sale, this is the better. It's also cube cut, which the other is not. For further information, check my Lane Limited Ready Rubbed review of this date.

Lane Limited - Ready Rubbed 1.5oz
4.00 stars?!
At least that's what it was before I just awarded it two. And it DOES bite; I didn't read Ionecoyote's review (05/27/18) soon enough. I revisited this one after my last bowl of Edgeworth,, in Mexico City circa 1965, for reasons of curiosity and nostalgia. It was dear old dad's smoke of choice. Not that he ever HAD much choice given that the drug store was our town's only tobacconist. Daddy, it must be said, possessed all of three pipes, which lived in the back of his top right desk drawer and seemingly were brought out only on special occasions. I reckon he got started on pipes to impress the ladies back in college. Regardless, it never really took, and he regressed to smoking full-strength Winstons and not surprisingly dying of lung cancer at age 72. Bottom line: Of the two Edgeworth imitations, Sutliff Ready Rubbed Match is the better.

Half and Half - Half and Half 1.5oz
Codger's choice
I've tried all of the "classic" olde tyme blends and genuinely wonder what most of them are still doing around. Of the lot, this is the only one to which I can return with impunity.

Three Nuns - Three Nuns Yellow 1.75oz
Top drawer.
Sir Walter Raleigh,having successfully introduced the potato to Ireland, decided to introduce the gentle art of smoking to the Elizabethan Court. One of the courtiers, seeing smoke emanating from Sie Walter's nostrils, reacted instinctively by dumping a bucket of water over him to put out the fire. ... or so the story goes. What may really have happened was that the courtier was only trying to spare him a case of acute nausia. Because in those earliest pre-Dunhill days, there was but one tobacco in Europe. It was called "Virginia". In fact, it WAS Virginia. But it resembled the modern product about as much as moonlight resembles a 75-watt bulb. This was INDIAN tobacco, peace pipe stuff. So called, no doubt, because after three puffs, all one wanted was to be left in peace. I mean, who wants to make war when he's on the verge of throwing up? Objection! How does this wise guy know what Sixteenth Century Indian tobacco tastes like? Overruled. I've tried it. It is still available, much in the same way as genuine Kentucky moonshine is still available, made almost as it was three centuries ago. It's just a matter of knowing where to look. Of course, tobacco isn't illegal, especially in Santa Fe, where I spent two years in the '60s after leaving Mexico. It was there I found, buried among the daily reams of mandatory junk mail, a mimeographed pink-coloured circular datelined Knoxville, Tennessee, which advertised "three POUNDS of smoking tobacco for $5.00"! That was an offer I couldn't refuse. Two weeks later a package arrived wrapped in brown butcher paper. Inside that was a months-old edition of the local Tennessee newspaper (the "Knoxville Knocker" or some such thing), and inside THAT was a jungle of already-stale two-foot-long flue-cured Bright tobacco leaves. I crumbled the top of one of them into the bowl of my next-to-least-favourite pipe, smoked it, and got sick. Next day, I tried again. After all, I reasoned, the hillbillies smoke this stuff day in and day out, and they're human, aren't they? And I got sick again. So I gave the rest away. To an Indian. I mention all this to illustrate that not all Virginias are created equal. You don't need a cultured taste to distinguish between the excellent and the abysmal. Three Nuns Yellow is about as good as Virginia gets. Indeed, it would be sinful to blend it. So my five stars, while indubitably well earned, is likewise a protest vote against any philistines who give it three or less.

Dunhill - Early Morning Pipe 50g
Buy it !
This has been around since 1912 and, unlike the commendable Escudo, launched in the same year, hasn't been tampered with in the interim. As British as it gets.

Cornell & Diehl - Old Joe Krantz 2oz
Jolly good
Very very nice, but don't even think of inhaling this stuff.

Presbyterian - Presbyterian 50g
Mistakenly maligned
I first tried this in Glasgow in July 1963 and was not impressed. I second tried it a few days ago, and was. Maybe my first encounter had something to do with my being on the road and having to smoke the same pipe six or so times between cleaning. Regardless, I cannot fault it at all on this, my second sampling 55 years later. I don't award five stars for everything, but this one qualifies.

Dan Tobacco - Blue Note 50g
Why?!
Stumbled upon this listing while meandering through SP's abundant selections and was rather surprised to see it, even more so that they were actually selling this stuff. (The blue note on the right of my screen currently says "Tin Sales Rank: 0.") My singular experience of this some years ago was, in any case, unforgettable. Filleting multiple stems, shredding humongous sheets of leaf and, taste-wise, wondering whether it had somehow gone off. Beats me how cum it's got so many fans. On no account should this be mistaken for Sutliff's of the same name.

Sutliff - Blend No. 5 1.5oz
Remarkable.
The virtual twin of Dunhill's Early morning Pipe at a much lower price. Do try it.

Velvet - Velvet 1.5oz
Another General Store offering
Granted, I haven't smoked this stuff since it was sold in 1.5 oz. tins decades ago , but I doubt they've changed their recipe since then. On a par with Prince Albert, which isn't saying much. The miracle is that it's lasted this long. Much better value is, say, Amphora's Virginia for about the same price.

Prince Albert - Prince Albert 14oz
What's THIS doing in here?!
The default blend of the proletariat, and hillbillies. Once upon a time, this was about all you could find at the local General Store next to the now-defunct Kentucky Club, which itself was far superior. (And if you had a hankerin' for a chaw, then it was either Mail Pouch or Red Man.) I see they've now gone and made this stuff in "soft" vanilla and cherry vanilla while my back was turned. I haven't been to the States in four years, but the vast drug store arrays of yesteryear are long gone. Remember, Old Timer, when you could buy tobacco that smelled of cherries, peaches, burnt sugar, walnuts, menthol, anise, citrus, chocolate!, maple syrup, port wine, brandy and rum? The aim was twofold: (1) To "lead women around by the nose" according to a 1960s Playboy ad (which might actually have been by Amphora) and (2) to disguise what would otherwise be a godawful taste. So who would import this from South Carolina?

Prince Albert - Prince Albert 1.5oz
What's THIS doing in here?!
The default blend of the proletariat, and hillbillies. Once upon a time, this was all you could find in the General Store next to the now-defunct Kentucky Club, which itself was far superior. (And if you had a hankerin' for a chaw, then it was Mail Pouch or Red Man.) I see they've gone and made this stuff in "soft" vanilla and cherry vanilla while my back was turned. I haven't been to the States for four years, but the vast drug store arrays of yesteryear are long gone. Remember, Old Timer, when you could buy tobacco that smelled of cherries, peaches, burnt sugar, walnuts, menthol, anise, citrus, chocolate, maple syrup, port wine, brandy and rum? The aim was twofold: (1) To "lead women around by the nose" according to a 1960s Playboy ad (which might actually have been by Amphora!) and (2) to disguise what would otherwise be an almighty godawful taste. So who would import this from South Carolina?

Orlik - Golden Mixture 50g
Ouch!
Burns hot.

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Blog's Commented on

    Robert Service: Yukon Pipe Smoker and Poet
  • ► Ronald Reagan's first foreign visit as President was to CANADA of all places. There, he and Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau quickly bonded ... over their mutual love of the rhymes of Robert Service.
    The Mayans & Tobacco
  • ► Thanks for the memory, Chuck. To wit, my first journey into Mayaland was in August 1962. An aged Mayan woman, dressed in the clothes of Peten rather than a huipil, was seated outside the Flores aerodrome passively peddling cigars. They were near-black, slightly misshapen stogies about 12 centimetres long, predictably on the strong side but very flavourful. The best part was that they cost a penny-a-piece. [Footnote: This was when the USD and the Quetzal were at par. Today the GTQ is worth only 13 cents.]