Seasonal Blends, your "Suggestions."

KABUL07

Hello pipe and tobacco aficionados, hope all is well. While sitting out doors on this nice brisk spring day catching up on some reading, with a nice L.J. Peretti blend in my "Alan Brothers" sand blast, I wanted to ask all of you a simple question, (Simple to me) that is. How many of you have seasonal smokes, tobacco blends that you smoke during certain times of the season. What blends do you smoke during the winter, spring, summer and fall months. Any recommendations you would like to share, If so, please do. Please have a great day and remember, "Smoke what you like and like what you smoke. :-)

PappyJoe

I'm pretty much in the "smoke what you like" camp for the past couple of years. In the past, spring and summer months were my light aromatics and the milder Virginias.The fall was the months where I would break out the blends with latakia while the winter was mostly for heavier aromatics. Now, I just smoke how the mood strikes me. The other day I finished off a tin of Davidoff's Flake Medallions and two ounces of Watch City's Old Black Magic. Today, I pulled a jar of 2018 Rattray's Exotic Passion out for a bowl after a bowl of McConnells Ripe Honeydew. Now, I staring at a jar of Peterson's Founder's Choice. 

I'm so confused. 

RockyMountainBriar

I smoke whatever tobacco I feel like, whenever I feel like it.  I guess I have tobaccos that may be considered “seasonal”, such as special edition Christmas blends, Summer Blends, and such, but I smoke them all whenever, no matter the season.

KABUL07

I appreciate the feedback/responses to the inquiry. What sparked my interest to question was that I had reviewed some pipe and tobacco information where there was a person who indicated that they smoked their Virginian tobaccos in the summers and the heavier Latakia's/Perique blends in the winter months. I personally never tried this method even though smoking a lighter blend during the warmer weather did sound interesting. I believe I read at one time that pipe smoking was greater in the European Countries where as cigar smoking was greater in the South American countries. Pipe smoking appeared to be more popular in the cooler parts of the world, I take it. Not sure if this is a fact or not, just sharing. Currently I as well smoke my blends all year around. :-)

jfreedy

@KABUL07 - I’m also in the “smoke whatever whenever” camp. However, I tend to reserve the holiday blends for the holiday season. Maybe I’m just sentimental, but it’s kind of nice having a few blends that immediately put me in the holiday mood. Also, some of my special/rare blends (McClelland, Esoterica, etc.) I tend to smoke on special occasions... but not always. 

motie2

Moderation in all things..... including moderation.....

ghostsofpompeii

@KABUL07 For the most part I do try and keep my Seasonal Blends apart from my regular rotation, especially things like the Christmas Blends such as C&D "Corn Cob Pipe And Button Nose", and "Jolly Old Saint Nick", as well as Sutliff "Christmas Spice", Hearth And Home "Egg Nog", Boswell's "Christmas Cookie", and Russ' blend "Snow Drift". I have been known to pull out the Sutliff "Christmas Spice" throughout the year because it's a real favorite and hard to stray away from for any length of time.

I'm big on traditions, especially when it comes to holidays. I have corn beef and cabbage on Saint Patrick's Day, roast leg of lamb on Easter, a turkey dinner with all the fix-ens on Thanksgiving, and as an Italian I've carried on the family tradition by cooking up an assortment of seafood dishes on Christmas Eve (Feast Of The Seven Fishes).

So with this traditionalist mindset ingrained in my DNA I do the same with my seasonal autumn blends like C&D's "Autumn Evening", Sutliff "Pumpkin Spice" and C&D "MM3 Curse Of Mixture Monster".

One way to look at it is you don't pull out your Christmas Tree in August or carve a Jack O' Lanterns in April, so why not wait patiently and pull out these special seasonal blends when the occasion calls.

I realize there is no 'appropriate time' to smoke a seasonal blend ... it's all a matter of when you choose to smoke them. But holding back and keeping those seasonal holiday blends for special occasions gives me something to look forward to in this mundane life. And in all honesty, once I hit 60, the time seems to go by at light speed and before you know it I'm once again smoking my autumn and Christmas blends. 

PappyJoe

@ghostsofpompeii
I have never been able to grasp the tradition of eating lamb at Easter. According to the Gospel of John, John the Baptist proclaimed Jesus to be “The Lamb of God.”   As a young child, I often wondered why anyone would want to eat Jesus at Easter. 

AnantaAndroscoggin

They're also doing that at each and every communion, @PappyJoe -- can you imagine trying to perform miracles when you're being eaten by millions of people millions of time every day? Talk about a distraction!

PappyJoe

@AnantaAndroscoggin
Exactly. 
Though I was told by a Catholic Chaplain that the communion wafer was actually just symbolized the body of Christ. He said he believed the wafers were created to absorb the bad wine representing the blood of Christ. I should note that when he said this, we were sitting in a bar in McMurdo, Antarctica and over halfway through a bottle of scotch.

motie2

@PappyJoe

Check out Exodus 12:8.   Eating "The Paschal Lamb" is a hold over from an earlier practice of the Hebrews in Egypt.

Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread

12:1 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, 2 “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. 3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb[a] for his family, one for each household. 4 If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. 5 The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. 6 Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. 7 Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. 8 That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. 9 Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire—with the head, legs and internal organs. 10 Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. 11 This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover.

KABUL07

The responses and feedback has been outstanding and I thank you for your opinions in reference to "Seasonal Blends." If I may ask, what "NEW" blends have any of you tried that in your opinion may be a nice spring or summertime blend to try and is it accessible to purchase if one is to seek it out ? Thank you.

PappyJoe

A "New" blend I recently opened and really enjoyed is also one that has left me kicking myself for not buying more of it when it was available - McClelland's Master Penman. The flavoring is supposed to be cinnamon, pecan and vanilla, but this tin was produced in 2014, so it may have mellowed out. In addition to the subtle sweet nuttiness from the pecan and vanilla, I get a milk chocolate type flavor and aroma which may be because fo the vanilla and cinnamon.