Mostly Virginias this time. The Vauen Tradition No. 2 is supposed to be a blend of different Virginias with a touch of perique and dark fired.
The Mallard (also know as The Mellow Mallard) is a straight Virginia. I a tin four or five years ago and I'm curious to see if its the same or how much its changed.
The only aromatic in this order is the Norman Rockwell Portrait. This one is supposed to be a "toasted" burley blend with hints of cocoa/chocolate, fruit and citrus.
Don't know when I'll get around to opening the Mallard and Norman Rockwell but I'll let you guys know. I've loaded a bowl of the Tradition No. 2 in my 1926 Dunhill for later.
Mail Call! Two tins of C&D “Sun Bear”. I opened a tin that has been “stoving” in the USPS van most of the day and on my 95F front porch since delivered. It was warm and a bit moist with a really enticing tin note. It is impressing me more than the previous two runs (2020 & 2021) of Sun Bear I have. When I stuffed the warm broken flakes in a cold ~70F mason jar some condensation instantly formed on the inside of the jar….moist😳. I’ll leave the lid off a bit. I’m letting a bowl air out before it goes in the SH Milverton Rua Spigot this evening. My olfaction has returned today. Yaa!
Took my daughter antiquing yesterday, lucked out with these. A Ben Wade Golden Walnut, a Medico Gold Crest meerschaum and a leather wall hanging pipe rack. 😀
Mail Call today! Snagged a couple of tins of Sutliff “Whimsical” by Per Georg Jensen. I had to cut an edge off of each crumble cake to stuff the two tin blocks in the jar. I rubbed out a few of the cubes and stuffed them in the Pete XL02 Rua Spigot.
@RockyMountainBriar As it turns out I did, but I get so few PM's I never look at my inbox and I don't get notices due to the fact my registration to this site is not tied to my main e-mail address, I'll have to pay better attention.
I will say this before I smoke some, you can definitely tell that it has nearly 14% natural sugars--it smells sweeter than any other blend I've had in a while and almost seems wet, but a sticky kind of wet.
It has natural hints of hay with a sweet melody of molassas and a tinge of orange peel....I absolutely HATE IT when people review pipe tobacco like this!
The bottom line is that this batch of CRF (and I've had them all) is hugely different than previous crops of CRF. It takes about 3 lights to get it going, which isn't unusual, but it also takes about 1/3 of a bowl to bring out the flavor, which in my opinion is fantastic, although again, very unlike previous crops of the stuff.
The peppery bite of previous blends is non-existent and its far sweeter. Leaves zero aftertaste after about 15 minutes. I do inhale about one out of every ten puffs or so, and there is zero harshness when I do that.
On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give it an 8.5 whereas I would give the last crop (2014 I believe was the harvest date) about an 8.0 but the previous crop before that (2011 I think it was) a 9.0, so it's kind of in between although again, the taste and smoothness is completely different as it should be (because it's a different crop after all).
All that said, this is why I love straights so much (as opposed to shit with perique or cased or topped) because each harvest is unique and adds a level of intrigue to pipe smoking.
The pepperiness is there, just not as pronounced as it was in previous harvests...most likely because it has a higher sugar content (I think the last batch was about 11% and the one before that about 12%, this one is 13.5%)
Waiting for my 12 tins of CRF that I ordered on the 7th. Those tins should have some nice “cross country hot van stoving” on them by the time they are scheduled to arrive here in another 3-5 days. Funny, I don’t consider Billings the “boonies” or the “sticks”. We’re full on city-fied😬
I haven't made any big purchases lately. I'm not going to buy anymore pipes. I'm not going to buy anymore pipes. I'm not going to buy anymore pipes. I couldn't help but notice that smokingpipes.com has estate pipes on sale. I'm not going to buy anymore pipes. I'm not going to buy anymore pipes. I'm not going to buy anymore pipes.
@opipeman I am trying...... TRYING not to buy any more pipes right now, making a sad attempt at budgeting my money, but the Peterson Christmas pipes just came out and I kind of want one of those copper spigot pipes.
Comments
Mostly Virginias this time. The Vauen Tradition No. 2 is supposed to be a blend of different Virginias with a touch of perique and dark fired.
The Mallard (also know as The Mellow Mallard) is a straight Virginia. I a tin four or five years ago and I'm curious to see if its the same or how much its changed.
The only aromatic in this order is the Norman Rockwell Portrait. This one is supposed to be a "toasted" burley blend with hints of cocoa/chocolate, fruit and citrus.
Don't know when I'll get around to opening the Mallard and Norman Rockwell but I'll let you guys know. I've loaded a bowl of the Tradition No. 2 in my 1926 Dunhill for later.
Two tins of C&D “Sun Bear”. I opened a tin that has been “stoving” in the USPS van most of the day and on my 95F front porch since delivered. It was warm and a bit moist with a really enticing tin note. It is impressing me more than the previous two runs (2020 & 2021) of Sun Bear I have. When I stuffed the warm broken flakes in a cold ~70F mason jar some condensation instantly formed on the inside of the jar….moist😳. I’ll leave the lid off a bit.
I’m letting a bowl air out before it goes in the SH Milverton Rua Spigot this evening. My olfaction has returned today. Yaa!
Took my daughter antiquing yesterday, lucked out with these. A Ben Wade Golden Walnut, a Medico Gold Crest meerschaum and a leather wall hanging pipe rack. 😀
Damn! I've never thought leather pipe holder like that.
When I get my current leather working project off the bench, I may have to try and make one of those.
Yeah. I ordered 3 tins.
Supplies for fall whole leaf pressing experiments
Curious, Did you get my message a few days ago about the Carolina Red Flake?
Let us know if it is all you hoped it would be, better/same/worse than previous Carolina Red Flake (without that perique crap)😬.
Funny, I don’t consider Billings the “boonies” or the “sticks”. We’re full on city-fied😬
It ain't easy. The first step is admitting you have a problem. The last step is saying to hell with it and buying another pipe.