T

he air is crisp, the shadows grow long, and the night is quiet except for the leaves crunching underneath your feet as you walk down dark streets. The jack-o-lanterns will soon be aglow, and ghastly sights will be all you know as Halloween draws near. But we here at Smokingpipes want to add some delight to all that fright with some of the most tantalizing Halloween treats in our catalog this year.

Peterson Halloween 2023 Pipes

Pipe enthusiasts and smoking aficionados beware — The latest from Peterson is a curious pipe design, inspired by a literary classic duo that is sure to enchant and terrify. Peterson's Halloween pipes for 2023 are in the patented System pipe design, each upholding Peterson's legacy of craftsmanship. Featuring a muscular shank and transition, and a tubular profile, as well as the iconic P-Lip acrylic mouthpiece, these pipes are dressed in the intriguing Jekyll & Hyde finish — a bold, dark-ruby, smooth finish on one side of the bowl paired to a dark, jet-black rustication on the opposite, all unified by a bright nickel military mount.

Peterson Dracula Pipes

One of the Irish marque's most striking and colorful series within their standard fare, Peterson's Dracula line draws inspiration from Bram Stoker's classic novel to offer a color palette worthy of the Count himself. Here, a jet-black sandblast adorns the bowl coinciding with the inky swirls overtop the blood-red acrylic stem. A regal band of bright nickel separates stem from stummel and juxtaposes an elegant appeal against the rest of the piece's spooky aesthetic — similar to Dracula's own aristocratic, yet horrific nature. Like Peterson's Sherlock Holmes series, the Dracula line is a worthy homage to historical literature from one of the pipe industry's most historic marques.

Rattray's Samhain Pipes

Like Rattray's Beltane's Fire series, the Samhain line celebrates one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals, specifically the one marking the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter: Samhain (pronounced "sah-win") or, as it's most colloquially known, Halloween. The festival falls on November 1st but the celebration traditionally begins on the night of October 31st, falling halfway between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice, and as with Beltane, bonfires are common during Samhain. For this commemorative Halloween line, the Scottish marque presents pipes in an extra-dark sandblast contrasted by a metallic accent band and an acrylic stem of intermingling black and scarlet hues that match the smooth-polished rim for a deep, smoldering motif.

AKB Meerschaum Pipes

AKB Meerschaum specially commissions handmade pipes from some of Turkey's most experienced carvers, such as Tekin, Mushin, Ali, and others. These unique smokeable sculptures feature devilish designs like carved demons, alarming monsters, or fiendish skulls. All AKB pipes are handmade from solid-block meerschaum, offering superior durability and patination compared to composite meerschaum. Cherished for their heat resistance and flavor-neutral smoking properties, meerschaum pipes provide a fresh, unique way to experience favored blends while also building character over time as the meerschaum patinates into hues of brown, tan, and even pink.

Cornell & Diehl Tobacco

C&D's extensive catalog has some delightful treats for those who dare. The Old Ones line offers six unique blends that'll have you entranced as you get a taste of forbidden otherworldly flavors. Blends like Innsmouth will have you exploring the ancient secrets that rest within its blend of Virginias, Katerini, Perique, and Black Cavendish. Or perhaps you dare to witness the Visions of Celephaïs, which combines Indonesian Kasturi leaf with choice Red and Bright Virginias and Dark-Fired Kentucky, resulting in a naturally spicy, complex base that's elevated by a unique grape-wine topping. Explore the entire Old Ones line to uncover all of their forbidden secrets.

For those less daring, C&D's Autumn Evening remains a classic for the season with a proprietary Red Virginia Cavendish that's lightly cased with delicate maple flavor for a unique and popular Aromatic blend that's unrivaled in flavor and depth. Haunted Bookshop draws you in with a unique blend of Burley and Virginia with just a gentle touch of Perique to whisk you away. Those looking for the ghost of something familiar but new in unexpected ways, try Haunted Bookshop Cake, which elevates the original mixture by combining all of the benefits of the pressing process — including increased aging potential and an enhanced melding of flavors — with the ease of preparation enjoyed from ribbon-cut blends.

Cornell & Diehl Small Batch: From Beyond

Created by C&D's Head Blender Jeremy Reeves as an impression of the strength and panoply of flavors he experienced in a wonderfully aged, 1990s-era tin of Dunhill Nightcap, Cornell & Diehl's Small Batch: From Beyond is a unique English mixture as potent as it is complex. Top-tier 2017 Eastern NC Red Virginias and Bright Canadian flue-cured leaf of the same vintage combine with 2018 Turkish Izmir, 2019 Greek Basma, Dark Burley, Turkish Latakia, and genuine St. James Perique to create a satisfying after-dinner smoke with a seemingly endless complexity and a surprising strength. In Jeremy's own words, "It tastes like nighttime. It tastes like shadows in the woods." This mysterious blend looming From Beyond will be available on-site on October 25th at 6:00 p.m. EDT.

Tatuaje Skinny Monsters

A variety of Skinny Monsters, handmade premium cigars that are long and thin, provide a slimmer option of Tatuaje's top-quality blends. These cigars are 6" x 38 Petit Lanceros and are comprised of Nicaraguan binder and fillers rendered in a smaller size. An homage to Jekyll and Hyde, the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, is also available in two cigars: Hyde, in an Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper, and Jekyll, in an Ecuadorian Sancti Spiritus wrapper, creating a flavor profile that is more medium-to -full-bodied. Tiff, a Panatella-shaped cigar wrapped in Ecuadorian Connecticut, is also dwelling on-site, ready to be discovered.

Larry Blackett Monster Tampers

Larry Blackett of Buttons for Your Britches tampers has always had a strong mechanical aptitude. As a six-generation building contractor, he's excelled in numerous industries, from experience in metallurgy, casting, and jewelry making to establishing his own building company and crafting period-correct uniforms and tents for war reenactments. He was also a longtime pipe smoker, and his foray into crafting tampers grew from his hobby of fashioning pewter buttons for reenactors. With reenactments paused during the COVID-19 crisis, Larry leveraged his pewter expertise and transitioned into making unique pipe tampers of the highest quality. Larry Blackett tampers are among the finest and most unique available, and offered here is a small series of monster-themed tampers (Dracula, Bigfoot, and Frankenstein) crafted from Larry's signature pewter.

We've given you a list of some of our most devilish delights. Now settle in for a light of the pipe and hopefully not a night of fright. Happy Halloween!