A banner afternoon with 70 degrees and clear skies. I took advantage as I have not smoked in weeks. First bowl was Sutliff Vanilla Custard mixed 50/ 50 with Sutliff Chocolate Mousse. Second bowl Carter Hall straight up. Both of those adventures were with a Briar Medico Varsity and were decent smokes, I forgot how much I like Carter Hall. The third smoke was Lane Dark Red in a Savinelli Solaria KS.......also a good experience. So hopefully this is the first of my spring, summer, and fall pipe adventures as this winter was a bust with the cold and the incredible amount of rain we have had.
@motie2 I'm surprised at how quickly I took to Scotty's Trout Stream as my go to blend, as I'm usually more about variety and changing things up from bowl to bowl. And if for some reason I was forced to only smoke one blend (at this point in time) I'd probably pick Trout Stream. Of course when the zombie apocalypse comes and I only have access to my supply of Trout Stream I'm sure I'd be longing for a tin of East India Trading Company "Officer's Club" and Sutliff "Molto Dolce", and end up putting my life in jeopardy making midnight raids on abandon tobacco shops looking for something other than Trout Stream.
Found myself doing yard work so I packed my little Butz-Choquin with a bowl of CAO Black, grabbed a saw, and began cutting down some small tress in the backyard that if allowed to get much taller, would tangle themselves into the power lines coming into my house. Boy ... am I out of shape!
I think I have found the perfect pipe for Black XX for me🙂. I cut some thin coins, rubbed them out and let the tobacco dry for at least an hour. It smoked to the bottom and was not nearly as tough to keep lit. I think it may have lost some of the flavor, but it was still a nice smoke. Even in this small WDC Baby Wellington, it still gave me a bit of the ”nic shakes”, although not enough to make me cut the smoke short and dump half the bowl...like in previous attempts 😬
Weather finally cooperating. Close to 80 today with a slight breeze... Perfect! Naturally that meant front porch rocking chair time this afternoon. Enjoyed some SWR Aro in a refurbed no-name while rocking away and enjoying watching the neighborhood come alive... Really do enjoy this time of year...
@RockyMountainBriar You're a braver man than I. Black XX sounds interesting, but I know it'll push me to my limits. It's definitely a small pipe tobacco.
Ending a busy weekend with GLP's Sextant in my Savinelli Dublin.
@thebadgerpiper Strangly, being an aromatic fan, I really do love Black XX..in small measure. I am actually running low. I got an e-mail in-stock alert from Smokingpipes.com last week. I had a couple of Samuel Gawith tins in my cart and was going to add a more. When I went to check out, it was already gone. Sooo...I went and put one of the "big bags" of Black XX in the cart...before I could hit the pay button, it went out of stock as well. It pissed me off enough that I canceled the whole order. This is the second time I have not been fast enough to make a purchase before it was sold out. It's really irritating.
Amphora Virginia in my Digbe 9438 bullmoose (chubby rhodesian). If you like straight Virginia flakes (broken flake in this case) you're gonna love this one.
Borkum Riff Original in my new Dr Grabow Omega while sitting in the porch swing. This was good enough to stir the dottle and smoke all the way to the bottom.
@RockyMountainBriar Sorry to hear about the frustrations with Smoking Pipes. I'd like to restock some favorites of Samuel Gawith and G&H, but they're difficult to find. I'm hoping this isn't the new norm with them. Based on your recommendations, I'll have to try Black XX out one day.
Currently puffing C&D's Morley's Best in my GBD Bent Bulldog.
Beautiful day again here. Rockin' on the front porch this AM while doing some Sutliff Molto Dolce in a reworked/refurbished Longchamp. The leather cover had dryrotted so I removed it and, after I finished working on it, came out pretty good (IMHO)...
Savilnelli's 140 Anniversary in a big bowl Lorenzetti. I tried this blend in smalls bowls pipes and don't like it , now trying in a big bowl and still don't like, it is too spicy for me. Also thinking about order a Bone Pipe, that you guys said that is a good pipe, the price is good.
Opened a tin of Peterson Special Reserve 2016 about a month ago and I'm still smoking it. Didn't particularly like it at first, but it has been a daily smoke for some reason. The same with D&R Athey which is a straight Virginia. I've been alternating between the two.
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Strangly, being an aromatic fan, I really do love Black XX..in small measure. I am actually running low. I got an e-mail in-stock alert from Smokingpipes.com last week. I had a couple of Samuel Gawith tins in my cart and was going to add a more. When I went to check out, it was already gone. Sooo...I went and put one of the "big bags" of Black XX in the cart...before I could hit the pay button, it went out of stock as well. It pissed me off enough that I canceled the whole order. This is the second time I have not been fast enough to make a purchase before it was sold out. It's really irritating.
The same with D&R Athey which is a straight Virginia. I've been alternating between the two.