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All New Pipes
Evan H.
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Reviews
Lighters - IM Corona Pipe Lighter - Old Boy Chrome Pinstripe
Stop shopping, buy now
It’s a splurge, and you might be indecisive. Do you really need to spend $150 on a lighter when matches, Bics and Amazon knockoffs can be had for a fraction of the cost? Yes. Yes, you do. A flame is the conduit of our smoking pleasure. There is no pipe smoking without it. The Old Boy comes boxed in an attractive blue vinyl and enclosed in a soft microfiber pouch. There’s a pleasant weight to it as you examine the sleek metallic figure which gleams in the light. When you fill it up and spark the flame, which comes out at the perfect angle for pipe smoking, you suddenly understand why you needed this. It is a lifetime lighter that will bring you quiet satisfaction every single time you use it — which will be quite a lot as a pipe smoker. Do not dither. Don’t think, just buy. You will thank yourself later.
Peter Stokkebye - PS400 Luxury Navy Flake
Can’t go wrong
It’s a great VaPer for the price. A workhorse smoke that will deliver consistently. It does tend to bite without dying time. The Virginias are tangy like stewed, slightly fermented fruit. Perique provides some spice on the retrohale but is subdued otherwise, in my opinion. I do prefer Luxury Bullseye Flake because the cavendish rounds out the edges. I actually mix both of them and enjoy that way. Bottom line though, this is a solid pipe smoker’s bulk tobacco in a world increasingly fraught with small batch hype runs and flashy marketing masquerading as true artistry. You don’t need a silly name and cool tin art to make good tobacco. Not all superheroes wear capes.
Carter Hall - Carter Hall 14oz
No nonsense good
Cater Hall is just a no nonsense good smoke. There is a slightly sweet vanilla-cocoa tin note that carries through to the actual smoke itself, which is quite comforting. For me, it’s a great taste bud cleanser that helps reset the palate after indulging in tangy hot VaPers. It is also a great mixer. For example, I recently tried a 50/50 mixture of Carter Hall and Elizabethan, and the results were fantastic. The burley cools the Virginias and gives the blend a bit of a bass note. Highly recommend. Of course, Carter Hall is great on its own. It’s so easy to pack and smoke. While it may not be the richest in Vitamin N, the tobacco produces a cool, dense, satisfying smoke. I’ve been smoking pipe tobacco on and off for 20 years. I wish I had discovered Carter Hall sooner!
Cornell & Diehl - The Beast 2oz
Not a fan of where C&D is taking us
With recent shake ups in the pipe tobacco world, C&D will now be even more of a dominant player in the game. Which is something I’m not happy about. These small batch pump and dump schemes (yes, I own this blend, and no it’s not anything special) are absolutely terrible for our beloved hobbies. Pipe culture isn’t about FOMO — in fact, it’s the exact opposite. C&D is the takeout Chinese restaurant of the pipe world, with hundreds of items on the menu and very minor tweaks between items. Their ingredients, while often palatable, are not the finest. If you like it, great. But to me there is no subtly, extremely harsh and needs MUCH more age. Their emphasis on cool sounding names, tin art, and regular “small batch” release of the youngest and most immature tobaccos are really a blight on what it means to be a pipe smoker, at least for me. C&D is always my least smoked stuff and I don’t care at all about these limited releases. I simply hate how they’re making bad tobacco more desirable via cool tin art and limited releases. I always come back to my jarred stuff after some time, and it’s just not great tobacco or blending. By comparison, if you try Russ Oulette’s blends, you really see what a master blender can do. Beautifully complex flavors. Real art. C&D are like these startup small batch whiskey drops with less than 2 years of age from new distilleries trying to make as much money as possible. So terribly sad that Hearth and Home and others are disappearing and C&D will be dominating the market.