Smoking the usual Borkum Riff Bourbon Whiskey in an old reliable Peterson. The difference this morning is that I'm vacationing on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Sitting in a rocking chair on a deck overlooking Albemarle Sound, hanging with my dogs drinking tea, and monitoring the activity in a nearby osprey nest. For a geezer like me, it doesn't get much better than this.
Russ' Monthly Blend Cinnamon Roll in the Custom-Bilt pipe I bought and refurbished from a second hand shop for $5.00. Thanks to YouTube Pipe Presenter NWPiper I learned the pipe is a very early edition manufactured between 1938 - 1946.
Cold and Crappy is the best time for a pipe. Unless your head is getting wet but otherwise I would never let something so minuscule as the weather effect my pipe smoking.
Based on your very enthusiastic and scholarly recommendation, I can't move of off the 16 ounces of Sutliff Vanilla Custard that I bought and received earlier this week. I have smoked it alone, and mixed it with multiple other blends and I cannot find any approach that degrades the experience.
Today I am going au natural with no additions. Yesterday I mixed 50% SVC, 25% Carter Hall, and 25% Lane Dark Red......and was very impressed. My favoriite blend so far is SVC and Dark Red 50/50. It gives me a very pleasant vanilla / cherry aroma and taste.
This stuff just might be my favorite aromatic. After loading my pipe, I want to lick my fingers.....such a buttery sweet aroma.
I also have and like Sutliff Creme Brulee which reminds me very much of the Vanilla Custard but with a less sweet and buttery note and a slight whiskey note. I will say however a 50/50 blend of SCB and Carter Hall is also very enjoyable. I think the only way to destroy the blending capabilities of these tobaccos or their individual nuances, you would need to mix it with cat litter or sawdust.
I need to start investigating more Sutliff products, they sure have quite a few. I am still in search of my all time favorite blend, and I truly hope I never find it so I can continue to search. It is a tough job, but someone needs to do it. I have always stepped up and volunteered for hazardous duty.
Mr. Motie, you do have a little more time in than I do and I can see if the problem is not being able to go outside. I will smoke in the house, downstairs only, so watching the rain can be quite enjoyable, and more so with a nice pipe.
If on the other hand I was stuck inside only to wish I was outside, then I would not be happy as well.
Next time the weather is good and you are outside you will have to smoke an extra one to make up.
Had a great time at the New Orleans Pipe Club meeting last night and sampled several different tobaccos I haven't tried before:
1. Edward's Special Balkan Blend from 2009
2. Peterson's Luxury Blend
3. Solani 127 Green Label
and a blend from a South African pipe shop one of the other members had picked up. It was made according to a recipe that's over 100 years old. Actually had a soapy Lakeland aroma but didn't have any of the Lakeland taste. I can't remember the name of the blend or the shop so I emailed the club member to get more details.
I usually only have a pipe in the mornings on the weekend if I've got an a.m. tee time.
Today, however, it was so nice out that I got to the office a little early, hot cup of Micky D's black coffee in hand and decided to step out onto the porch and have a pipe with my joe while I read the WSJ.
So, in a reasonably accurate order of consumption,here's today's indulgences thus far...
SP Black Cavendish in a Bent Calebrisi
MM 965 in one of my Bent Bulldog's
D&R Raccon Accent in a Joria straight Billiard
Cap'n Black Cherry in the Dunhill Pot
FM in the Key Club Poker
Vermont Maple Cavendish in my other Calebrisi, Bent Dublin
London Mixture in a Clubman Bent Brandy
Sutliff Peach Cobbler in the YelloBole Apple
HU Makhuwa in the Shandy Bent Dublin
Sippin Blantons and listenin to Monty Montgomery
The Margate keeps callin my name, might have to try a bowl before the nights out.
Old Dark Fired, in a Copenhagen Era W.O. Larsen Pointed Dublin Freehand, carved by Sven Knudsen, from the Rob Cooper Collection, weighing in at 41 grams......
That Larsen is gorgeous! If I had to guess the weight I would have said twice that. I can't believe it's only 41 grams. It looks so beefy. Most might think the shape is it's best feature but the grain is what I like the best.
@Philip, it is amazing how some pieces of briar can be much lighter than their size would suggest. Also, it can be difficult to tell the actual overall size of a particular pipe from pics alone. That is one reason, why noting the pipes weight in a sellers listing is so important to me.
On the flip side of that coin, a seller who doesn't list pipe weight in grams or ounces, could be an indicator that they have limited pipe knowledge. It could also mean, that they simply don't own a digital scale. :^)
Just finished a bowl with a 50/50 mixture of Out Of Office "Civic Duty" (a cherry blend) and blending Perique. Made me light-headed and sick as a dog. Won't ever do that again. If ... and I repeat 'if ... I ever use blending Perique again it will be in micro quantities.
@ghostsofpompeii -- I guess you missed my comment on Perique in another thread: "Bleeeeaaaarrgggh." I think of Perique the same way I think about pu-erh (deeply fermented) tea.
De gustibus non est disputandum, or de gustibus non disputandum est, even if, when you think about it, there most certainly is an argument regard matters of taste when it comes to Perique.
Comments
GL Pease Jackknife Ready Rubbed in a MM Cob
Today,
however, it was so nice out that I got to the office a little early,
hot cup of Micky D's black coffee in hand and decided to step out onto
the porch and have a pipe with my joe while I read the WSJ.
So, in a reasonably accurate order of consumption,here's today's indulgences thus far...
SP Black Cavendish in a Bent Calebrisi
MM 965 in one of my Bent Bulldog's
D&R Raccon Accent in a Joria straight Billiard
Cap'n Black Cherry in the Dunhill Pot
FM in the Key Club Poker
Vermont Maple Cavendish in my other Calebrisi, Bent Dublin
London Mixture in a Clubman Bent Brandy
Sutliff Peach Cobbler in the YelloBole Apple
HU Makhuwa in the Shandy Bent Dublin
Sippin Blantons and listenin to Monty Montgomery
The Margate keeps callin my name, might have to try a bowl before the nights out.
Old Dark Fired, in a Copenhagen Era W.O. Larsen Pointed Dublin Freehand, carved by Sven Knudsen, from the Rob Cooper Collection, weighing in at 41 grams......
@Philip, it is amazing how some pieces of briar can be much lighter than their size would suggest. Also, it can be difficult to tell the actual overall size of a particular pipe from pics alone. That is one reason, why noting the pipes weight in a sellers listing is so important to me.
On the flip side of that coin, a seller who doesn't list pipe weight in grams or ounces, could be an indicator that they have limited pipe knowledge. It could also mean, that they simply don't own a digital scale. :^)