New pipe(s)

[Smokestack Jack]

Nice review. It looks like you are well on your way to enjoying piping!

[kevie49]

Originally Posted by Smokestack Jack

Nice review. It looks like you are well on your way to enjoying piping!

Thank you sir.

[kevie49]

I bought a range of tobacco to see the style that I would like and Gawith Hoggarths American Cherry and Vanilla was the only aromatic that was in my order. It is described on the site as "a ready rubbed blend of exceptionally smooth, mellow flavoured, Red Burley Black Cavendish & Virginia tobacco’s." Again I chose to sample this in the Gentleman Corncob as I definitely did not want this combination of flavours lingering in the briar pipe.

The scent is very strong; the cherry and vanilla pack an absolute punch to the nostrils, they are certainly not subtle. It is reminiscent in fragrance to a Bakewell Tart. Upon lighting up these continue through to the taste, they are certainly pretty flavoursome in the mouth with the vanilla becoming a bit more dominant and the cherry, whilst still there, taking a back seat. This is sweet, very sweet indeed. The closest thing that I could compare it to in terms of cigars was an American stick that I was given as a present a few years ago that had honey flavoured tobacco.

If I'm being honest it became a bit sickly and I was looking forward to it finishing. However I also made a major mistake as towards the end; I realised that my puffing may have been a bit on the quick side and it gave quite a bit of bight in the back of the throat, which surprised me given how sweet this tobacco was.

On my next pipe I mixed it 50/50 with Condor Blended (which I thought was nice, but a bit on the bland side) and it produced a really nice smoke with a bit more of a tobacco taste and the sweet flavours mellowed down quite a bit.

Overall this certainly has the flavours which are described spot on, but they are simply too sweet for my taste buds. A bit like a sticky toffee pudding: you'll either think it is heavenly or simply too sickly sweet. If you, like me, are of the latter opinion then I recommend mixing this with some mild tobacco to mellow the flavours a bit.

I'm glad that I only bought a small bag (20g) as I don't think that flavoured and aromatics are for me.

[kevie49]

After enjoying my first experience of smoking a pipe, I decided to try out a straight pipe and it arrived today.

I opted for the Peterson Derry Rustic Straight 106 Pipe, I haven't had the chance to try it out yet, but I'm looking forward to putting it to the test.

PS sorry for the double post, I put a virtually identical message in another thread. However I thought it fitted nicely in with this as it's almost like a journal of my start to pipe smoking.

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[ak2000]

That is a great looking Pete, enjoy!

[Smokestack Jack]

Nice! You can't go wrong with a Peterson pipe. Enjoy it!

[kevie49]

I finally got round to trying out my Peterson pipe and to christen it I decided to try out St Brunos ready rubbed.

The tobacco fragrance was very pleasant indeed with a nice scent of Virginia tobacco with dried fruits (reminded me of the dry ingredients used to make up a clootie dumpling). The tobacco was very moist out of the packet. This did cause it to give me a bit of trouble on the initial light, having to relight the pipe about four times in the initial lighting stage.

Whilst smoking the pipe there was a nice and pleasant taste of the Virginia tobacco, very smooth with no tongue bite. One thing that I am starting to get used to is that pipes don't seem to change their tastes like a cigar tends to in thirds, we'll in my limited experience anyway.

I enjoyed a slow puff on the pipe, filling the bowl up three quarters full, I read that you shouldn't fill a briar pipe up to capacity for the first few smokes. This lasted 1 hour 10 minutes, the final few minutes did get a bit of a bitter note, but certainly nothing to ruin the taste (is this the normal when smoking a briar?)

Overall I enjoyed this tobacco already in my corn cob, but the taste seemed to be a bit stronger and even more pleasant from this pipe, the bent corn cob certainly produced a much milder smoke in terms of flavour. This (straight Peterson) would be my preferred pipe for St Bruno.

One thing that I am finding with pipe smoking is that I don't enjoy drinking alcohol whilst smoking, so far my preference has been water to avoid tainting the taste of the tobacco.

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[SLR]

Nice review Kevin. St Bruno ready rubbed is packaged pretty wet. They case it rather heavy. Dry it out an hour next time. It will be a bit crumbly due to the casing hardening a bit as it dries out. It will burn way better, and smoke better in my opinion.

Smoking it fresh out of the tin or pouch while wet is hard smoking, requiring many relights.

[kevie49]

Originally Posted by SLR

Smoking it fresh out of the tin or pouch while wet is hard smoking, requiring many relights.

I certainly agree with that

[kevie49]

So I ventured into the flake variety for the first time and with 4 in my collection to sample, I went for Samuel Gawith Navy Flake.

Somebody kindly posted a message to me on this forum that Samuel Gawith flakes are always very moist and should be dried out before attempting to smoke them. With that in mind I took out a couple of flakes, rubbed them down to something that I thought resembled rubbed tobacco and then left them to dry before heading out to a thanksgiving service at my local church. This is not the American holiday Thanksgiving, rather we have just finished our communion season here, they have three preparatory services, the Lord's supper on Sunday and then this is followed by a family thanksgiving service on the Monday evening.

By the time I got back home and changed out of my Sunday best, the tobacco had been drying for 3 hours and certainly appeared to be less moist. The dry notes of this tobacco are a very strong scent of alcohol (I've heard people online say rum, but this scent is nowhere near the sweetness of rum, closer to a whisky scent) and a strange, almost plastic note in there which threw me a bit. The tobacco notes were stronger, I believe this may be Latakia as it is quite a bot stronger and bolder than the other tobaccos that I've tried.

I put it in my Peterson straight pipe (with a filter) and, after a bit of difficulty on the initial light, eventually got the pipe going. The tobacco smoked really well after the initial lighting stages, although it did go out on me unexpectedly once (two thirds of the way down) and again at the end (which I was a bit disappointed at as I was thoroughly enjoying a very relaxing smoke whilst listening to UCB radio).

The smoke was quite a bit stronger than the St Brunos, but certainly was more to my liking given my preference to darker, more full bodied cigars. The taste was a pleasant tobacco, full bodied but not harsh in any way, the alcohol didn't come through much in the taste but there was a slightly bitter note of cocoa, which I found very pleasant. The smoke was smooth and did not produce any bite at all during the smoke. The smoke output was pretty thick, I could follow it all the way up to the roof and the room scent was quite strong. I'm not convinced that a non-smoking partner would tolerate this one at all.

As I said the pipe went out once unexpectedly as it smoked away very nicely with minimal amount of effort. The sign that I noticed the burn was dying straight away was that I got the plasticy/rubbery note from the pre-light scent in the taste. But after a tamping down and a relight I was back enjoying this tobacco.

I filled the bowl three quarters full and the smoke lasted 50 minutes. One final thing to note: 50 minutes after smoking and the lingering taste in my mouth is rather strong, but not bitter or unpleasant.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this tobacco and I could easily see it becoming my regular pipe tobacco.