In 1972 the first blend I fell in love with was Borkum Riff Whiskey. When we found out our youngest had asthma and allergies in 1986, I stopped smoking at home for 15 years until she was off to college. I started back with cigars and eventually the pipe bug hit me again. When I got heavy into pipes I found my taste to be as loyal as a 20 year old sailor in a house of ill repute. I did smoke a lot of J.J. Fox blends at one time though - Banker, Campanile, Prevost and the Squire.
Wally Frank's Old King Cole, it's long gone. I did some research on it, mainly other old smokers, and came to a formula that matched it very close. Of course I can't bring back 31 year old taste buds. Mainly a simple blend of Black Cavendish, Sprayed liberally with Madiera Wine, dried in sunny warm location, sprayed again dried and mixed with a little Latakia.
Sutliff's Tobacco Galleria Fox and Hound. It was the first English I tried. I came from cigars to pipes and couldn't quite get the appeal of it until I tried Fox and Hound. It was back when Tobacco Galleria sent out those samples of pretty much everything in their line. It smoked incredibly hot, bit like the fox AND hound were rabid, but it was enough to convince me that pipes (especially English blends) were worth my time. I still have a soft spot for it, if I can stomach it.
Wilke had a store on Madison Avenue years ago when I worked in Manhattan. They also had a pipemaker in the basement of Wannamakers in Phila, and the pipes were incredible that he made. I smoke the Wilke 72 blend. I love it and can not find anything like it. Wilke closed and a woman bought all the blends and rights and has been
shipping out of her home in NH for 35 years. She is looking to sell the business and her phone number is 802 661 8339. She has a huge collection of estate pipes for sale, also Dunhill pipes, no name pipes and two special collections of pipes and estate accessories. You can see them at: http//www.vtpipes.com/estate html, www.vtpipes com/specialcolllection html, http://www.vtpipes.com/special collection and www.vtpipes.com/estateaccessories. FYI
I first tried Captain Black -Royal in 1993 and I'm still smoking it. It's a mild aromatic that I constantly get comments from people who just walk up out of the blue telling me that my tobacco is so wonderful smelling that they feel compelled to tell be how it reminds them of an old family member or just that they think it's a wonderful odor. I was outside in the rain at a garage having a smoke one day and a fellow walked up and told me he smelled my pipe and walked two blocks just to find out what brand I was smoking. Captain Black is a smooth mild smoke that is greatly satisfying to smoke.
@hackps CB Royal is Lanes 1Q I think all the Captain's have a bulk version. My first love was 1Q that was sold in the classy round tins with the paper label in the Dunhill shops as MM A21,000. I moved on many years ago but I still have several pounds of 1Q sitting in the davecave
The earliest one I can recall was a rum-flavored blend called London Dock. This would have been back in the late 1960s. Of course, it's been gone now for quite some time. Burley and Virginia with a touch of Perique.
Like hackps Captain Black - Royal was the one, Every one loves the smell and thanks to it's aroma and taste both of my sons have started smoking a pipe.
The first one was Half and Half, almost 35 years ago. Now I'm in love with Balkan Sasieni and Super Balkan by C&D. I smoked Barking Dog years ago and loved it , though that was out of production because haven't been seen it for while, is a great tobacco. Where you guys find it?
It was a Dunhill English mixture, Virginia based, a good mixture of Latakia, always reminded me of a camp fire. It was one of the bulk mixtures, when he had to change suppliers, the replacement mixture was just not the same. I then latched on to the Dunhill 965 as one of my routine English blends, in the tin.
Orlik Golden Sliced.......still a favorite, especially in the autumn afternoons. Love the reminiscence of walking the fields of freshly harvested crops! Does something for the soul.
Jimmyshot, I remember Wilke's Shop on Madison, I used to go in there whenever I was in Midtown. The two Wilke Sisters ran it. One or the other would have an apron on covered in Briar dust.
my first blend I really liked was lane rlp6. I have a couple pounds cellared. but haven't smoked it in about a month. I have about 30 different blends cellared. lately have been smoking g&h and sh twists and ropes. I also grow and cure my own tobaccos.
As a new pipe smoker, 3 months now, there wasn't one that I had fell in love with immediately. But over the last month or so, GL Pease Westminster has become my absolute favorite so far. I do love this one.
For me, the first blend I fell in love with, was McClelland's Christmas Cheer. I usually always have a tin open in my rotation, and have around 25 tins of the blend in my cellar.
The first time I smoked a pipe it was 1964 I was 15 yrs old and my uncle had a tin of half and half I was very lucky because it was a mild but flavorful blend and I found I really liked it. For my first 10 or more years of smoking a pipe I only bought Half and Half. Over the past 52 yrs.I have tried many different blends some I liked a lot and some I would never try again, but I have always come back to my old standby Half and Half. It just good everyday smoke.
I, too, started smoking a pipe in 1964, Freshman Year. To get me off Cherry Blend, and several other OTC's I was smoking, my father took me to Cousin's Cigar store in Cleveland OH, and got me an 8 oz. tin of Cousin's Aromatic Mixture. I smoked it for a couple of years, but was slowly weaned off it by my discovery of Latakia and Perique blends. Recently, I went back to Cleveland and went to Cousin's, now located in the Cleveland suburbs. But, alas, they were out of what might be today's version of the Aromatic Mixture I loved.
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The second was GL Pease Fillmore - it's what opened my eyes to Virginia/Perique blends and really light my fire for the pipe hobby.