Brad Pitt is never going to win a Best Actor Oscar. Plain white rice tops very few lists of favorite foods. And you rarely see Red Virginia all by itself in a tin of tobacco. These are all things that are good in ensemble but alone tend to be rather dull. There are just a…
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Frequent readers will throw up their hands and ask ‘What! Another Brown Virginia?’ New readers will ask ‘What even is Brown Virginia?’ As we’ve found in previous reviews, Brown Virginias are another name for Orange Virginias, which are in the middle of the stock, above the yellow Virginias at the base, and below the Red…
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Growing up my family traveled constantly. We drove from the east coast to the west, from the gulf to Edmonton, up and down the rockies, blue ridge mountains, catskills, and sierras. Invariably we’d pass a truck stop that was bustling and my mom would say “Must be good if they’re that busy”. Solani Virginia Flake…
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In 1865 the longstanding pipe tobacco company of Kendal, UK, split into two, Gawith and Hoggarth, and Samuel Gawith. These companies developed their own style and specialties over the decades. G&H, as it’s often called, is well known for very strong tobaccos, notably their ropes. Samuel Gawith is better known for well balanced English blends…
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We are in the midst of a surge of craft spirits. There’s a pretty clear pattern established, with most new distilleries starting with vodka, moving to gin, then maybe throwing some raw ethanol into an oak barrel, praying something drinkable comes out the other side a few years later. Assuming the distiller is successful, this…
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Tinkering with your pipe tobacco is something that occurs naturally for pipe smokers. You begin with thinking that two of your tobaccos might taste better together than apart. You build or buy a press to turn your ribbon into cake. Maybe you start burping your jars of Virginia when you hear it speeds up the…
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When McClelland closed its doors in 2017, there were numerous blends that became objects of veneration, from their annual Christmas Cheer release to the Frog Morton line, to their incomparable oriental blends. What was lost with little fanfare was their bulk blend #2015, Virginia-Perqiue, aka VaPer Flake. This humble offering combined the illustrious McClelland Virginias…
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Every spring and every autumn I get a yen for apple-flavored tobaccos. Something about the crisp fruity taste matches the mood and weather just right. However I’ve yet to find an apple-flavored tobacco that doesn’t taste synthetic. But so far I’ve liked every Wessex I’ve had. Wessex is a small subbrand from Kohlhase and Kopp…
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Introduction For the committed pipe smoker, one of the goals is a well-stocked tobacco cellar. Depending on the smoker’s means and rate of smoking this can be a handful of blends — or hundreds of jars, tins, and mylar bags reaching into the hundreds of pounds. No matter where along this spectrum you might fall,…
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Cringle Flake is a small production Virginia Flake, limited holiday release started by Sutliff in 2019. It appears to be an annual tradition as this was followed up with Sutliff Cringle Flake 2020, a Virginia-Perique Flake. This is fantastic news for Virginia fans who had looked forward each year to McClelland’s Christmas Cheer. Christmas Cheer…
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