A blend is a blend is a blend. Not.

“I don’t really care for this.”

How many times have you thought or uttered these words after trying a new tobacco? We pipe-smokers may not be experts on much, but one thing we feel a lot of confidence about concerns those tobaccos we like versus those we don’t. When a tobacco strikes the palate as unduly bitter, harsh, or lacking flavor altogether, that sense of confidence is turbo-charged. If you’re like me, it may never have occurred to you that there may be room for doubt.

Yes, that’s what I’m writing here. You may be mistaken about what you like or dislike.

“How can that be? That’s rubbish!” you’re probably thinking. I wouldn’t blame you a bit for that reaction. After all, we do know what we like, don’t we? Stick with me here. Keep reading.

When I travel to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania on business I usually stay with my friend Scott Stultz at his Marietta home in the apartment in his studio there.

Scott Stultz lights his pipe in his studio,After dinner, Scott and I always retire upstairs to the studio for conversation and to smoke our pipes. We almost always choose to smoke the same tobacco, sometimes popping a tin of tobacco previously unknown to one or both of us.

Our ritual almost always begins with “What pipe are you smoking?” We’ll swap them, look them over, give them back, light up then commence our discussion.

Sometimes, when one or the other of us are particularly excited about the tobacco’s flavor, we’ll swap pipes to taste the tobacco in each other’s pipe after wiping the bit off. We both know that this behavior is almost unheard of, smoking somebody else’s pipe, but it has led to some otherwise inaccessible revelations.

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The Experiment

I have always relied on blenders to create the blends I love to smoke. When I have strayed from my reliance upon their judgment, I haven’t found the results amenable at all. While I think it is understandable to want to experiment, I’ve kept my expectations low and still failed to meet them. Until this week, that is.

Like many pipe smokers, I am a fan of Esoterica Tobaccos and of Jersey Isles’ Germain who manufacture them. Last week, I purchased a tin of Margate from the Tobacco Shop in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The tin had considerable age; the tobacco I removed from it was oily, moist, and fragrant.

Margate– described as a “Full English Blend” – is comprised of Cyprian Latakia and Orientals. The Orientals in the blend are sweet and creamy. They beautifully balance the latakia which is far from overpowering.

I was surprised to learn that Margate had no Virginias in its composition. When I think about the English blends I enjoy most, they all contain a healthy measure of Virginias. Margate contains none. For me, Margate is a wonderful smoke. A rich smoke. An exotic smoke. Although I like it, it is not an everyday English – at least for me.

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Summer Respite

Snag on Assateague Island in MarylandBetween the heat wave, being very busy at work, and my travel schedule, I’ve decided to take a break from blogging regularly here on a Passion for Pipes. It’s hard to think about pipe-smoking in triple digit temperatures. I’m not sure when I will return to regular posting. It will happen when it happens, I guess.

The week before last, Wendy and I spent  ten days over on the Atlantic at her parents beach house. I spent hours reading and smoking my pipes there; I can’t believe that over ten days I read seven novels and one biography. I went through a boatload of Magnolia Avenue, too. We had a great rest there and I got out into the wilds of the islands there and did some photography. You see one of the shots from Assateauge Island here – a photo of a dead tree shot at sunset. The mosquitos were vicious that night; I paid for this shot in blood.

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