Hey guys, For all my fellow pipe smokers out there I've got a good number of drugstore blends sitting at home that I smoke once in a while. So I figured I would start up a quick thread with some info on my experiences with them. Any input or additions are of course welcome. Captain Black White: Not terrible, but will bite you if you don't give it a little dry time. However, it will still leave moisture/goo in the bottom of the bowl even if you dry it. This stuff doesn't benefit from jarring and aging. It just seems to go stale and lose flavor. Captain Black Gold: Not bad. I'm thinking of mixing it with the white, but the cuts are different, so I don't know yet. The white stuff has better room note, but this stuff burns cooler and doesn't goo up my bowl. Jarring this stuff for a little while actually improves it a bit IMHO. Prince Albert Cherry Vanilla: When I first tried it I detected no cherry and only a little vanilla. Jarred it up and forgot about it for about a year and tried it again. It did not benefit from jarring; the flavor has now changed to having an underlying soapiness. I bought another pouch to revisit someday, but won't open it until I do this time. Half&Half: I could smoke this stuff all day. I can't say enough about it. By far the best drugstore baccy I've had. Not a whole lot of taste to it, just a good ol' baccy. I don't know what the smell is in the bag, it reminds me of some type of liquor, but whatever it is I like it. Haven't been able to keep this stuff around long enough to jar it though. Blenders Gold Burley and Black (Walgreens): Not bad, not a whole lot of taste though either. Good for using as a base when experimenting or even for mixing in to tone down the flavor of another blend. This is mostly what I've used it for. Other drugstore blends I have waiting in line at this time: Prince Albert, Prince Albert Soft Vanilla, Prince Albert Cherry Vanilla (for a re-visit), Velvet, Paladin Black Cherry, Borkum Riff Bourbon Whiskey, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Walter Raleigh Aromatic, and Blenders Gold Peach Melba.
I've had pretty good luck with Captain Black White and haven't had a big gooeyness problem... yet... I would like to try something with more vanilla to it. A few weeks ago I bought a pouch of Paladin Black Cherry. The tobacco straight out of the pouch smells strongly like cherry cough syrup but once lit, I could barely detect any cherry flavor. Many of the reviews for it on TobaccoReviews.Com talk about how unbearably strong the cherry flavor is unless you let it sit for about a year so I'm guessing the pouch I bought had been on the shelf a while. Not a bad smoke but nothing I really crave either.
I started on Captain Black, but once I discovered boutique blends, it was sort of out the door. Still, I do like the smell of it. Price Albert is just a smooth, predictable smokey smoke. I haven't tried much else in the way of drugstore blends, but there are some pretty reasonable values to be had out there.
I'm generally not a big fan of aromatics so it takes a pretty darned good one to get my attention. Trout Stream got my attention. As did Edwards Honey-Bucc and Peterson University Flake. As for Drugstore Pipe Weed, straight Prince Albert in the tub is probably my favorite. Spring and Summer, Half and Half is a great choice. And you could do much worse than Sir Walter Raleigh (aromatic or standard but of the two I prefer standard) Cornell and Diehl puts out some really good stuff too. My favorites from them are Old Joe Krantz and Billy Budd (a really stout burley with maduro cigar leaf and a perfect dose of latakia.)
Thanks for the suggestions guys! I've been thinking about trying Sugar Barrel, just haven't ordered any (can't find it around here). As for C&D that's another one I've been thinking about especially their blending tobaccos so I can try some blending. I do smoke the more "gourmet" baccy blends as well and I don't just smoke aros, but I figured this way if I ever find myself in a situation in which I have to smoke a drugstore blend I know what's good. That and sometimes it's nice to have a cheap knock-around baccy you can puff on while working on projects.
Going slightly off topic. I bought some loose tea recently. (Earl Grey and very nice it is to). I looked at the tea in the container and a thought went through my mind, that littleish pile of tea cost me around £2. The tea looked a bit like tobacco so for a bit of fun I tried to work out what it would have cost had it been tobacco. Around £20. While I have no problem if people want to smoke a pipe and I have researched the subject myself and had excellent advice for and against from people on this site (I'm still a non smoker though) it does seem a very expensive hobby, certainly in the UK. I could buy a lot of tea for £20. Not so good in a pipe though I would imagine:happy102
It truly can be an expensive habit, can also be cheap. Depends on your taste. Tea is the same; I have gone and bought loose tea and spent probably around $40-$50 on tea before. Also some shisha (for hookah smoking) is made from tea and is actually pretty good, but you're probably right about smoking straight tea leaves out of a pipe. Mmmm Earl Grey flavored tobacco would be good though.
Enjoying some Carter Hall in a Grabow with a side of Eight O'Clock Coffee this morning and feeling a bit nostalgic for another time. Many great drugstore brands have seemed to have gone the way of the dodo bird in recent years. There was a time when you could find tubs of Kentucky Club, Field & Stream and Amphora Red placed in the aisles right next to the hard candies. Pipe tools, blister pack pipes, pipe cleaners, plaid oilskin tobacco pouches, Zippo fluid and HavanaTampa cigar boxes all were in easy reach of the customer. Now the smokes have been pared down to budget bags of cavendish and some stale pouches of Borkum Riff hidden like a dirty secret below the cigarette cartons behind the checkout counter or worse still, in some sort of Lexan lockup chamber. And we are forced to find these comforts on the internet rather than at the corner store. Sigh... Cornell and Diehl do make some great old-timey blends. One of my favorites is Crooner. This is a burley blend that is supposed to be a recreation of Bing Crosby's personal blend. Cubed, stoved burley and the secret ingredient: chopped Deertongue! Don't worry, Deertongue is an herb that is shaped like a deer's tongue. Adds a unique vanilla-like flavor without casing. This stuff has a classic pipey smell and taste but it will punish your tongue if you puff too quickly. Crooner is one to take your time with after you set a stack of old records up on the hi-fi.
Ohh yeah, I forgot about Carter Hall...tried some and it's not a bad knock-around blend. Not a whole lot of complexity or taste, just baccy. Which is nice for a change of pace sometimes. I have a bag of it sitting in a mason jar waiting for me to re-visit it someday when I get through some of my other blends. Ahhh...so many tobaccos and so little time to smoke them. Damn this thing called work. I've got probably around 20-30 different tobaccos to get through in my cellar right now. Don't get me wrong though, I'm not sitting on a huge pile or something; many of them are just an ounce or three to sample. Thanks for the suggestion, Crooner sounds great! I have been wanting to try my hand at blending and C&D seems to have what I need to do so. So when I get around to ordering some blending stuff I may have to throw some Crooner in there.
