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March’s Pipe Guys’ Pick: Commonwealth
Read moreSamuel Gawith’s Commonwealth is a quiet older brother to the more recognizable SG blends. At first it may come off as a one that lacks excitement: 50% Virginia and 50% Latakia. A little bit of this, and a little bit of that. But remember that Virginia tobacco is one of the most popular tobaccos in the world due to it’s natural sweetness and surprising complexity, and remember too that Latakia is the greatest of flavoring agents available to tobacco blenders even today.
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February’s Pipe Guys’ Pick: Royal Yacht Mixture
Read moreRoyal Yacht Mixture from Dunhill is a unique sort of blend. Virginia is the only leaf involved in the recipe, in various forms of course, making this a very sweet, yet complex pipe tobacco worthy of it’s nearly cult-like following. Some consider it a “love it or hate it” blend, but it tends to be a favorite with Virginia lovers (pardon the pun), and can also be a great option for those looking for a segue from heavily cased tobaccos to the world of non-aromatics.
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December’s Pipe Guys’ Pick: Christmas Cheer
Read moreAdmittedly, we’re a little bit old-fashioned and nostalgic in some ways, but that’s not why we chose McClelland’s Christmas Cheer as December’s Pipe Guys’ Pick. In fact, we chose it because Christmas or not, Christmas Cheer is one of the best Virginia flakes around. It’s an annual holiday tradition at the house of McClelland, no doubt, but more…
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Semois Tobacco: The Old World’s Leaf
Read morePipe tobacco, like most other consumable goods, is evolving over time. As we inevitably become more demanding in our tastes, tobacco growers and blenders are faced with the challenge of again improving their already world-class products. This can be a difficult thing to do, yet because the consumer makes the calls, producers continually…
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November’s Pipe Guys Pick: Three Nuns
Read moreThree Nuns is one of the most recognizable pipe tobaccos on the planet. If you’re not a veteran in the pipe community, you might be wondering what the buzz is all about. Not to keep you in suspense, we’ll say right at the outset that Three Nuns has been around for well over 100 years and counting, which makes it one of the oldest remaining pipe tobaccos in the world. Certain…
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October Pipe Guys’ Pick: Opening Night
Read moreYou can’t imagine how long it takes to select the Pipe Guys’ Pick each month; not because we’re indecisive, but because when you’re walking past shelf after shelf of the world’s finest pipe tobaccos, it at first seems impossible to narrow the choice down to one. However, in the end we managed. I’ll start with the bad. It wouldn’t be an honest review without some well-placed…
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September’s Pipe Guys’ Tobacco Pick: Irish Oak
Read morePeterson’s Irish Oak has a sly nature. Aged in oaken sherry barrels, one might expect an overly sweet and aromatic blend inside the tin, but not so. Many years ago during a gusty winter in Philadelphia, I purchased a tin at a little tobacco shop on Walnut Street. I turned my collar up against the cold, packed the bowl of my pipe to the brim, and once lit, the warmth of it warded off…
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August’s Pipe Guys’ Tobacco Pick: Frog Morton’s Cellar
Read moreYou’ve probably already heard us oozing over this delicious tobacco blend, since it happens to be our absolute favorite at the moment. For that we’ve decided to make it official and let it be the inaugural Pipe Guys’ Pick! Settle down, we’ll explain. The “Pipe Guys’ Pick” is, at it’s roots, an excuse for us to “study” as much pipe tobacco as humanly possible without incurring…
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The Future of Pipe Smoking
Read moreHave you ever found yourself wondering what the future of pipe smoking is? Will we still be smoking our beloved pipes in thirty years? Or will the ultra-liberal-with-everything-but-surprisingly-conservative-with-tobacco political party get their way and have a tobacco-free world in glorious 2043? We think about that very often. After all, what would The Pipe Guys…
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The Truth About Bowl Coatings
Read moreSo you think coating the chamber of a tobacco pipe is blasphemous, huh? This is a hot button issue for many pipe smokers, with stark opposition on both sides of the argument, so we’re going to demystify the subject for you. What’s the big idea behind bowl coatings, anyway? Many individual pipe makers and large factories alike put the finishing touch on each of…
