Getting started…
I first started smoking a pipe as I was finishing my PhD in 2008. I always remembered the location of Bewlay’s Pipe Pub in Paragon Arcade in Kingston-upon-Hull, but by the time I went shopping for my first pipe it had closed. I ended up buying a small apple and a pouch of Condor Flake from a local tobacconist. It took a while to learn, and I wasn’t exactly enamoured with the Condor flavour. I had no idea about flavourings and toppings back then, so I then tried St. Bruno. That was a bit better, but I still wasn’t that keen (I haven’t been back to those blends since - maybe I should try?). It wasn’t until I tasted those that weren’t available at supermarkets that I really ‘got it’, and by this point my Grandmother had given me my Great-Grandfather’s pipes to smoke. A blacksmith by trade, most of his pipes had significant wear on the rims by knocking out the dottle on the furnace. By this time I was researching how to restore pipes, albeit badly, and I started buying estates on a well-known auction website. At one point I had a respectable collection of GBD Prehistorics, all bought for very small sums compared to today’s prices, and I deeply regret selling them on in subsequent years. In them I smoked all manner of great blends.
At a tobacconist in Edinburgh I bought my first English blend, a G&H Balkan, and in Scarborough the revered Bulwark Flake. My eyes opened and my tastes widened. Compared to the pre-1990s, this was no heyday of tobaccos, but with absence the heart grows fonder, and I yearn to taste some of those old delights again. At this time my folks used to live in Kentucky, so I was also fortunate to be able to access blends available on the American market but not in the UK. G.L. Pease’s Abingdon taught me what power a Balkan blend could have, and McClellands all about the beauty of Virginia tobaccos. I’m so glad that most of Greg’s blends are still available, but I still sorely miss McClellands. Samuel Gawith, one of my favourite producers, remains, and long may that continue. I can’t think what pipe smoking would be like without Full Virginia Flake or St. James Flake.
I tend to smoke English blends in the winter. In the past I had the good fortune to enjoy blends like Three Oaks, Wilderness, and Blue Mountain. Nowadays I go for blends like Quiet Nights or Gaslight. There is something warming about Latakia that, for me, just doesn’t work in the summer months, so as soon as the mercury rises, I start reaching for the Virginias. Back in the day, nothing could beat Black Woods Flake, but current prices are prohibiting, so instead I reach for a well-aged Union Square. More recently I’ve found myself enjoying Oriental blends like Embarcadero, or Flanagan’s Flake. Despite the loss of the classics, there are so many great tins out there. Just this past year the UK has seen the resurrection of some of the wonderful McConnell, Rattray’s, and Orlik blends, so not all is lost. That reminds me; I need to stock up!
