Eric Squires

If you happen to have a tin of 965 handy, pick it up and have a look at the label. You'll notice something we commonly leave out when referring to this particular blend: the full name. It's My Mixture 965. ... Read More

We get used to things sometimes, even though somewhere deep down inside, we know we shouldn't. I know, because I've done it. And I know others do it too, because I've seen their pipes. ... Read More

Normally when I pick a mystery blend I choose something I think our test subjects (or my co-workers, as they prefer to be called) are unlikely to guess, or at least guess right. A blend that looks anonymous in its components perhaps, or something similar to a mixture I know at least one of them smokes, thus providing a red herring factor. ... Read More

In the beginning, there was France. Then England, and Italy — then sometime later Denmark, followed about a generation later by Japan. Then suddenly things were sprouting up in Russia and various points of Eastern Europe, then Greece and China. Thus goes the (very) abbreviated history of briar pipes. ... Read More

Busy, busy, busy — that's been things around here of late, even more so than usual. Nonetheless, we still managed to slip in some time for me to wander around the warehouse in search for something special, and for several others to be press-ganged into smoking it. And, as usual, time for Andy to make several poor attempts at getting me to name the picked blend ... Read More

One of my fondest memories from high school days was one afternoon when an old friend showed up on my parents doorstep, and asked, "You want some food?" Yeah, I answered, I could eat. "Philly cheese steaks sound good?" he followed. I answered affirmative again. ... Read More

The Greek phenomena was strange: several younger artisans all cropping up at the same time, all with great appreciation of (and skill in rendering) classics — and none of them starting out with any connection to each other. The Chinese one that I suspect we're seeing the first nascent signs of is arguably even stranger. ... Read More

And so it's that time again: time to introduce an unidentified blend to several of my coworkers and see what happens when their combined with it. A gentle fizzing? A sudden change in complexion? An explosion of noxious gases? While we can all make our predictions, there's no real telling until they've stuck it in their pipes and smoked it — which they have. ... Read More

With this month's mystery review, I once again chose something I thought would be outside our test subj... participants' usual course. The key word there is thought. This is an old blend, been around for ages, and I probably should have expected that even those who are in the habit of sitting around, puffing contemplatively over the latest Pease blends ... Read More

We have sad news. As some amongst you may have already heard, Paolo Becker, pipemaker extraordinaire, has passed. Like his father Fritz before him, Paolo was a singular fellow, and certainly a singular artisan. He broke every mold of the established Italian, or for that matter any school, creating works of functional art that were, purely "Paolo." ... Read More