Pairing Pipes and Tobaccos

The joy of pipe-smoking is all about deriving intense, complex flavor from my favorite tobaccos. Like many of you, I’m sure you like more than one blend, maybe even more than one style of tobacco. I know I do.

I have a great fondness for English blends, especially those with Oriental leaf. These blends require great skill from the blender in that every component tobacco should add value to the other components present in the blend.

If you’ve been here long, you know that I have been exploring the relationship between chamber geometry and flavor delivery for years. That investigation has led me to conclude that nothing beats a large diameter chamber with square geometry when it comes to making a good English blend sing. The difference is so profound as to render comparisons obvious.

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Fred Hanna's "The Perfect Smoke"

Fred Hanna’s recently released book, The Perfect Smoke, was written by a pipes and tobacco gastronome. I use the word “gastromome” quite intentionally as its implications are that a gastronome’s perspective arises from an extensive study of the history and rituals of haute cuisine or, in Dr. Hanna’s case, haute tobacco.

Hanna’s significant experience participating in and conducting fine and rare wine tastings have influenced his approach to pipes and tobacco tasting.  He approaches the pipe like a gourmet approaches the dinner plate: with appetite, affection, patience, and a certain skepticism.

He knows that not every meal will be a peak experience, but he also recognizes that great meals are more likely when savvy choices are made with respect to chefs, tables, ingredients, seasons of the year, and condition of the palate.

Because creating the conditions for the peak pipes-and-tobacco experience requires an open mind and no little reverence for the possibilities, Hanna reminds us that, if we want the perfect smoke, we must mentally and physically prepare for the journey. The impatient, the unrealistic, the lazy or the ill-prepared need not apply.

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The Ugly Duckling

Seven or eight years ago, the Castello 55 shape was considered a weird, if not ugly, shape by many people. Even Castello collectors weren’t all that fond of it. A pot with a lot of wood around the bowl, the 55 has a chin at the bowl front that makes Kirk Douglas’s chin seem weak by comparison.

But, the 55 shape does have admirers, the most notable of which is tobacco alchemist and pipe collector Greg Pease. Pease’s devotion to the shape and to Castello pipes, period, approaches the fanatical.

The first time I engaged Greg in much more than “Hello” was at the 2006 Chicago Show. When I walked up to Greg’s table, he was smoking a Castello 55 Sea Rock with a ruby stem. He was also raving about the smoking qualities of the pipe. “It’s a smoking machine,” Greg enthused.

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Ah Wilderness!

Those of you who are theatre buffs undoubtedly wondered whether I’d changed from blogging about pipes and tobaccos to blogging about theatre. No, this isn’t a post about Eugene O’Neil’s novel and play from the 1930s. I’m writing about McClelland’s production of Fred Hanna’s marvelous blend, Wilderness, a winning blend of Red Virginias, Syrian Latakia, Orientals (Drama and Yenidje), and a few other secret component tobaccos.

Fred Hanna is a friend of mine as those of you who are regular readers here already can attest. Fred’s devotion to and obsession with the great old English blend, Marcovitch, is a subject I’ve written about here. It is also something important to know about Fred’s taste in tobaccos because, to my palate, there are some similarities between Marcovitch Black and White and Wilderness.

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Balkan Sobranie Black and White

Updated on Friday, November 19, 2010 at 10:34AM by Neill Archer Roan

It was a beautiful, crisp sunny day last Sunday. I was cogitating outside on the patio, ankle-deep in autumn leaves, while watching a particularly skinny squirrel busying itself with Winter preparations when I decided to open an old tin of Balkan Sobranie.

I haven’t smoked much of this alchemical blend for a long, long time. My reacquaintance with it commenced on the aft deck of the Alaskan Song where my friend Richard Friedman offered me as much as I wanted to smoke. As if I weren’t happy enough already. Anyway, it is hard for someone who loves English blends as much as I do to resist Balkan Sobranie. It is bliss-inducing tobacco.

This particular tin came to me last year as a Christmas gift. I was amazed, knowing that this gentleman could have sold this tin for a pretty penny. When I first looked at the tin, I assumed from the angular circular indentation on the bottom of the tin that the tobacco was tinned post Galleher-acquisition.

Once I finally managed to dislodge the top (a coin twist didn’t budge it at all), I discovered that the tin was an old Sobranie House issue. One can’t really know for sure until one gets inside and sees the address on the heavy paper insert.

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