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Last time Jeremy showed us a few tricks for packing ribbon tobacco, but what about flakes? Well that's just what we'll be covering today, as Jeremy shares some of his personal methods of preparing flake tobacco.

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You have probably never heard of Bjørn Hoffmann, and there are a number of reasons this could be. Personally, I was entirely unaware of this pipemaker until Sykes turned up at the office with a plastic bag full of letters and sketches. In his recent blog, Sykes explained that these documents once belonged to the great Sixten Ivarsson, but they had long been sitting, unread for ages, in his granddaughter's attic. ... Read More

With this month's mystery review, I once again chose something I thought would be outside our test subj... participants' usual course. The key word there is thought. This is an old blend, been around for ages, and I probably should have expected that even those who are in the habit of sitting around, puffing contemplatively over the latest Pease blends ... Read More

It's become something of a tradition around the office for one or two of us to head back to the warehouse once a month and pick up a tin of something we've never tried before. Now I happened to try a really old tin of Repose a week or two ago and was looking for something with a similar flavor, but with a bit more spiciness. For me the ideal combination was this: Orientals, Virginia, Burley, and Perique. ... Read More

Many beginner pipers are often discouraged and turned away from the hobby due to bad experiences, mostly caused by improper lighting and packing. In this is the first installment of our newly revamped SPC University — a series in which we'll teach you all you need to know to start your pipe smoking journey, and show you veterans a few tricks along the way ... Read More

Friday was an eventful day for us here at SPC. During work hours we hurried and frantically released Tsuge's new Four Seasons line of tobaccos, which unsurprisingly did very well over the weekend. The real fun happened after work though, as we all came together for our annual Christmas party. There was food, drink, and all manner of aged tobaccos. ... Read More

We have sad news. As some amongst you may have already heard, Paolo Becker, pipemaker extraordinaire, has passed. Like his father Fritz before him, Paolo was a singular fellow, and certainly a singular artisan. He broke every mold of the established Italian, or for that matter any school, creating works of functional art that were, purely "Paolo." ... Read More

Unbeknownst to me, Tim Vanderpool from Ashton cigars graced our halls today on an impromptu tour, and with that began to offer gifts to everyone in the form of a San Cristobal cigar. I, being the usually unlucky fellow that I am, missed this "Tobacco Christmas Event" and was left to begin my morning smokeless. ... Read More

In mid-October I had the opportunity to spend some time with our three Greek pipe makers. On a cool morning I started my journey to visit Chris Asteriou for the day just outside of Athens. Despite navigating via subway signs written in a character set unfamiliar to me, I found my way to Marousi and Chris' home. ... Read More

Perhaps five or six years ago, when Nanna Ivarsson first told me that she had piles and piles of Sixten Ivarsson's old drawings and correspondence, my heart skipped a beat. While my career has been entirely in the pipe and tobacco business, I'm educated as an historian and I'm the child of a professor and a university librarian. The very idea of such a trove a pipe history sitting in an attic somewhere set me aquiver. ... Read More