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There's been some talk of a "never again list" for some and I mentioned a must have list recently. It got me thinking that I'd like to know what other people's must have list looks like. I'm pretty new to all the gourmet blends so my list is pretty short at present. Probably Scottish Mix and Autumn Evening and when I'm in the mood for something heavy I like Pease's Gaslight so that might have to go on the list. I was thinking of asking for top 3 or 5 but that might be hard to nail down for some of the veterans so whatever you want to mention.
I haven’t had much time behind the stem yet, but from here forward I will always keep Councilor 1695 at the ready. It is the most reliable tobacco I have tried to date. It has never let me down.
I was also shocked that Northwoods tooted my whistle so well 😧. I never would have figured to enjoy the complex English blends so much. I’m a sorta simple dude
A “must have” is a matter of personal taste, I think; subjective. But it will be fun to see what people refuse to run out of in their cellar 😊
Some of my must haves include Orlik Golden Sliced, Newminster 400, H&H White Knight, SPC Plum Pudding, MacBaren HH Pure Virginia, C&D Sunset Harbor Flake, the following Dunhill/Peterson blends: Early Morning Pipe, Peterson Flake, Royal Yacht, and Nightcap.
Nice topic and I look forward to seeing what others suggest.
I always must have a tin of G.L. Pease Westminster, Capstan blue and Orlik Golden Sliced (I decided now to put Orlik on the list 😊).
My seasonal must have: G.L. Pease Cairo for summer, C&D Orient Express and G.L. Pease Abingdon for autumn and winter.
I trie never to be without mac Baren scottish blend, navy flake and capstan blue. Two blends I like a lot but smoke a lot less of are davidoff flake medallions and nightcap. Everything else is optional.
I’m smoking one of them right now, but I’m unsure if it’s a Special Edition that is only released periodically: 3 Nuns (5-year aged). All 3 variants are superb, imho: the straight Virginia, the one with added Perique, and the traditional version.
1792 would obviously go on my list.
Germain’s Royal Jersey Perique Mixture.
I wouldn’t really want to run out of any of my collected blends, though. I love them all! 😄
Subject to change, I'm sure. But for now that would be:
- Cornell & Diehl - Haunted Bookshop
- HU Tobacco - Nyala
- Peterson - De Luxe Navy Rolls
- Country Squire - Old Toby (aka Tombigbee)
I keep seeing Haunted Bookshop in forum check-ins and lists like this. It's hard to believe I've never smoked it. I love C&D blends. I love Bob Runowski blends. I've known about HB since I started smoking a pipe. Yet I've never tried HB.
I think I always saw it as "watered down" OJK. I need to remedy this promptly.
YTPC personality 'Matches860' made it a popular burley go-to for many...he will be missed (passing a couple years back):
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Ya, HB keeps calling my name too. So many to choose from it's hard to buy them all.....
Haunted Bookshop is fantastic! But I can see why it's a love/hate kinda blend. Definitely recommend giving it a try!
What works for me til now is: I must have one latakia blend opened, one aromatic, one virginia e one perique. With that I´m happy. At least one of the main types ready to go, my mind change everyday so I nearly never smoke the same blend twice.
...that's a good idea - very organized. Basically - a genre of movies for the week or month - kind of approach. 🙂 I like it!!!
More and more for me it's about components. If I have some burleys, VAs, Latakia, Perique, Orientals, and maybe some unflavored Cavendish on hand I can tweek blends or mix my own to suit my immediate hankering.
I'm not in any way claiming to be a "blender". But I can mix stuff to hit my personal preferences.
Musicò the pipemaker used to mix Dunhill's Early Morning and Bill Bayley's Balkan Blend, it was in a jar for clients who visited the shop and wanted to smoke a pipe with him. It was very good, I tried it again on my own lately but it wasn't the same...
Maybe it was so good cause it was a nice moment 😊
I'm, by no means, a well traveled 'taster-of-tobacco' ...but I always recommend GL Pease blends. Their very bakery-bready tastes suit my palate well - sweet, plain (in a good way, cellar well), savory, (subtly spicy) always burning cool & clean. Here's my top 5 (daily) blends:
- Telegraph Hill
- Chelsea Morning
- Six Pence
- Picadilly
- Stratford
...all pair particularly well with my smoking beverages of choice (coffee or tea; hot or cold) morning or evening...I purchase in 8 oz tins always, to store in large 1.5 qt Anchor-Hocking square glass jars.
Simplifiying things a lot, and just for today;
G.L. Pease Odyssey
Rattray´s Red Rapparee
S.G. Best Brown Flake
Plan B
Timm´s London blend 1000
Rattray´s Black Mallory
Capstan Blue
A few that I love and stock in the front of my smoking chest for easy access:
Royal Yacht
Country Squire Parson’s Blend
EMP (and/or Sutliff Match Sunrise and Hearth & Home Daybreak)
MyMixture 965 (and/or Sutliff Match 20)
Country Squire Cowboy Coffee
Nightcap (and/or Sutliff Match Late Evening)
Oops, I see that’s six. Chalk it up to overachieving.
I wanted to try Cowboy Coffee the last time I ordered from a country squire…went with Tidewater instead (it’s good, but not enough to order again for a while). I love Kentucky tobacco, and I’ll have to add that to my list, as the reviews on this site were stellar overall. 🤠
It’s really delicious. It struck me at first (tin note) as being cigarette-like, which wasn’t necessarily attractive. But the lighting revealed such a fantastic smokiness, different than Latakia, that I fell in love with. Opened the world of DFK to me. Get a small bag and enjoy!
We did another thread awhile ago along these same lines. I forget what I put for that, but - this time around - I am realizing because of the way you phrased it “Must Have” - that my only “Must Haves” are:
VARIETY
OPTIONS
QUALITY
(sorry if that’s a cop out)
I do have a lifetime supply of Boswell’s Northwoods, Pease’s Samarra, Quiet Nights, Kings Fool and Court Jester, if that says anything.
[EDIT: Oh, and I really enjoy aromatics, too, with 9mm charcoal filtered, big bowled pipes - but fresh - so I only cellar those on accident 😜. I don’t currently have a stand-out favorite aromatic, but REALLY APPRECIATE what Ken Byron is doing with scents and flavorings.]
I like the cop out but I guess that's what we all want really. I like what you're saying about KBV because I think I'm going to pay them a visit pretty soon. For aromatics, I can't say enough about Autumn Evening.
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