Tea, Coffee & Pipe Tobacco.
ghostsofpompeii
Master
in General
I don't now how many of the members here are old enough to remember watching the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, but he had a regular bit in which he played a psychic character named Karnack The Great. He'd hold an envelope up to his head and rattle off a series of answers to the question on the card in the sealed envelope. His sidekick Ed would then open the envelope read the answer, and afterwards and the crowd would roar with laughter at what was usually an off-color joke. This Carson bit came to mind today as I sat in the dentist chair getting my teeth cleaned and chiseled back to some semblance of normality. And for a moment I envisioned Carson sitting at his desk dressed in his swami outfit rattling off the words ... "tea, coffee, and pipe tobacco". And in this vision Ed would open the envelope reading the not quite so funny punch line ... "three things the dentist says has stained the back of your teeth".
Comments
Coffee & Tobacco: 3 Blends To Pair w/Your Morning Cup by Daniel Bumgardner [edited for length]
I'm not sure what Mondays would be without coffee. Likely a sleepy haze of indiscernible communication and thoughtless activity, I'd wager. Thankfully, caffeine exists, as do some pretty neat and flavorful ways to imbibe it, many of which pair phenomenally with a number of our favorite tobaccos. I do regularly enjoy, like many of us around here and presumably many of you, a strong cup of well-brewed coffee to accompany my morning pipe.
And, like many of you, I have a preferred means of consumption. This time of year, that tends to be four espresso shots of a medium roast blend, pulled over ice and nursed throughout the better part of a morning (the dense, humid South Carolina mornings don't pair well with a hot cup, in my opinion). Unlike my coffee, however, my daily tobacco selection tends to vary depending on my mood, though, admittedly, this time of year considerably narrows the window of what I tend to reach for. So, in celebration of the favorite part of everyone's Monday (what else is there to look forward to?), we thought we'd take a look at three tobaccos which we think pair beautifully with coffee.
1. Escudo -- I could probably make a list of just Virginia/Perique blends with which to pair with any number of things (coffee, tea, and for the more adventurous: orange soda), but these delicate, finely-spun coins of Virginias from North Carolina and Virginia and Louisiana Perique are my go-to blend in the morning during the summer months. Flavors of hay, dark fruit, toffee, and a subtle hint of chocolate abound.
2. Solani Aged Burley Flake -- There's a hint of dark fired that comes through in the fresh tin note on this one, but after jarring it and letting it sit for about a week or two, I get the very distinct impression of freshly baked fudge brownies. There's a little hint of cocoa around the middle of the bowl too, along with a graham cracker-like flavor. Who doesn't want brownies for breakfast?
3. Key Largo -- I just started smoking blends containing Latakia with any regularity this year (it took a hot-weather craving for something a little darker to really entice my palate), but this creamy broken flake of Red Virginias, Turkish, Cyprian Latakia, and a subtle spice of cigar wrapper leaf is gorgeously balanced, with cocoa, notes of leather, and even a dark coffee-like note present throughout the bowl. A perfect all-weather smoke.
I had to .zip the file because the system would not accept a .epub
I won't pay the price to drink in their stores, but I brew Starbucks (among others) at home.