Inter-Tabac 2013 impression

IMG_0064The Inter-Tabac in Dortmund, Germany, is the leading (and biggest) trade fair of the world for tobacco products and smoking accessories. More than 380 exhibitors from 45 countries present themselves on an area of over 30.000 square metres! In 4 exhibition halls renowned companies from all over the world present trends and innovative tobacco products. This includes cigars, cigarillos, cigarettes, smoking accessories, pipes, pipe tobacco, shop fittings, press and spirits. The average reader of this blog must now think like “Yeaahh!! I am going there next year!!” Well.. It is a fair for retailers, not for consumers. Since I belong to that last category, how did I get in?? I got lucky, I was able to secure a ticket through someone I know and who wishes to remain anonymous. Fortunately I was not the only Dutchman there, Paul, Rudi and Martin from the Dutch/Belgian Pipe Smokers Forum also attended the fair. The more the merrier!

Westfalenhallen

Westfalenhallen

In the morning of Friday September 20th I arrived at the Westfalenhallen (where the fair is held) in Dortmund after a relaxed two hour drive. Around the building people were guiding the coming cars smoothly to their parking spaces. Leave it to the Germans to organize such a big event. After a few text messages I knew Paul, Rudi and Martin also had arrived and were waiting for me at the main entrance. I already had a ticket and I chatted with the group while Rudi got their tickets. The group was even bigger than I thought, a small friendly Belgian man also named Paul (nickname Polleken) had joined the ranks. When we entered the halls I noticed that indoor smoking was allowed! It turned out that an exception had been made for the fair. Despite the severe anti-smoking laws I still could light up a pipe, such a blessing!

Poul Winslow (right) talking with Tom Palmer of Peterson while holding the flyer Martin gave him

Poul Winslow (right) talking with Tom Palmer of Peterson while holding the flyer Martin gave him

First we rushed off to the Scandinavian Tobacco Group stand. They represent pipe brands like Dunhill, Winslow, Stanwell, Peterson and Butz Choquin in Europe. Paul always picks out good looking high grade Winslows which he then buys through Rudi. Rudi had a tobacco-shop in Middelburg for quite some time but sold it a couple of years ago. Now he just runs an online store, tobaccoshop.nl. As soon as we entered the stand we recognized the unmistakable figure of Poul Winslow himself. Whoaaahhh!! While I stood there practically drooling Paul and Rudi warmly greeted mr. Winslow, they are year long acquaintances. Soon I got introduced to mr. Winslow and we shook hands. I must admit that I was too shy to talk to the good man.. I wanted to say I am a big fan of his pipes and wanted to thank him for fixing my Winslow Harlekin a year ago. Oh well.. Martin wasn’t shy and he offered a handout of his work to mr. Winslow (Martin makes exquisite hand crafted stone ashtrays, pipe-stands and tampers). “Very nice!” Poul Winslow murmured while looking at the handout. “You know, I got a lot of connections, maybe I can hook you up with someone!” Martin’s smile never left his face for the rest of the day. Further it was a shame to hear that mr. Winslow had a rough year health wise. He is approaching retirement age and sometimes has troubles coping with the stresses and demands of his profession.

A perfectly timed picture of me before the Dunhill wall

A perfectly timed picture of me before the Dunhill wall

In the same room a big part of the wall was taken by The White Spot: Dunhill. As a huge Dunhill fan I felt like a kid in a candy store. Dunhills in all shapes and sizes, with all the know finishes. When looking closer I noticed the stamping of the pipes had changed. Up to 2011 one i.a. saw the well known oval Dunhill stamp. Since 2012 that is replaced by the text “Alfred Dunhill’s The White Spot”. I know there have been discussions on online fora that the Dunhill name was eradicated from the pipes. As far as I could see, that was not the case.

The Kohhase & Kopp 2014 Limited Edition: Rio

The Kohhase & Kopp 2014 Limited Edition: Rio

After Paul picked out the Winslows he wanted we could move further. For the first time I had the time to properly look around. The halls were huge and packed with all kinds of stands. From very big ones with multiple levels to small ones with just a couple of white walls with some tables. The stand of Kohlhase & Kopp certainly belonged to the first category. Roughly one side of the stand was dedicated to pipe-tobaccos and the other to cigars. They even had some old Cuban guy making cigars at the spot. I am not a cigar-guy but it was impressive to see skilled age-old hands swiftly pack the filler-leaves and roll them into the upper leaf. The newer Kohlhase & Kopp tobaccos were all aromatics which smelled ok, but nothing special in my honest opinion. What was special were the exquisite looking tobacco-tins, collectable objects which would look good in the house of every pipe-smoker.

Rudi doing business at the Designer Berlin stand

Rudi doing business at the Planta/Designer Berlin stand

Another large stand was that of Planta, which also included the Designer Berlin pipes. They had a big wooden barrel standing there of which, when opened, the contents smelled very, very aromatic. It turned out it was filled with the Planta year-tobacco which was free for everyone to sample. Which we of course did. I smoked it that evening when I was back home and my first impression was that it was an “ok” mixture. Not good, not bad. On the tables stood little glass jars with other blends and while I was a bit reluctant to sample some Rudi pushed me to do just that. “That is one of the reasons we’re here!” He said grinning.

FLTR: Martin, myself, Ian Walker and Paul

FLTR: Martin, myself, Ian Walker and Paul

While Rudi was doing business Paul, Martin and I walked by the stand of Northern Briars. A British family concern led by third-generation pipe maker Ian Walker. As soon as he saw us he pointed with gleaming eyes to the pipes Paul and I were smoking from: Dunhill, British pipes! As it happens to be Ian Walker is going to make the Dutch/Belgian Pipe Smokers Forum  2014 forum pipe. He was delighted to see a small delegation of the forum and enthusiastically began to tell about the pipe. It is a prince shape (he pointed to prince I was smoking from) with pretty thick bowl-walls, we are going to get his best wood with a very nice grain, silver bands (which he makes himself, a skill taught by his grandfather) and cumberland mouthpieces. Ian is really a very, very amicable fellow and I will be delighted to smoke from a pipe made by his experienced hands. The picture you see on the left was made by one of the men from the next stand: Samuel Gawith, another British company.

Four Seasons: a new range of tobaccos from Samuel Gawith

Four Seasons: a new range of tobaccos from Samuel Gawith

Most of the stands of the well known pipe-tobacco manufacturers were large or very large. The stand of Samuel Gawith was shared with Ian Walker and consisted of just three tables. One to sit at and two with the complete tobacco and snuff range. As if saying, f*ck you, we are Samuel Gawith, we are making tobacco for centuries and we don’t need big and many adornments and decorations. I complimented the men with their company and confessed that I am a big fan of their tobaccos and that I have almost their entire pipe-tobacco range at home. I looked at the displayed tins and suddenly saw a couple I did not know. “Yeah that is our new range, it is called “Four Seasons”. One tobacco for each season of the year. All very natural.” The last few Samuel Gawith outings were pretty aromatic so I asked if I could smell the Winter Time Flake. I just say one thing, if this one comes out I will definitely buy it!! On the right you see a picture with all the new Four Seasons tobaccos. They still had to find an European distributor but more or less assumed that Kohlhase & Kopp would going to do that. Besides the Four Seasons I sniffed at the new Limited Edition 2014 mixture. Luckily pretty natural. I really think the company should stick with their more natural outings instead of trying to jump on the aromatic bandwagon. That is done enough in Europe.. I also asked if they expected to produce tobaccos for a long time to come, bearing in mind the very strict British tobacco laws and including witch-hunt. “Oh we pretty much fall under the radar of the British government. They won’t really bother us, a small and old company. They aim at big companies like Imperial Tobacco. So don’t worry, you will be able to enjoy our tobaccos for many, many years to come!”

Waterpipes

Waterpipes anyone?

One of the halls we walked through Paul called the “not-interesting hall”. Here were mainly stands of smoking accessories (lots of lighters), waterpipes, waterpipe tobaccos and electronic cigarettes and pipes. Especially those last items seem to be booming business. Lots of young people like it and… I really don’t know why..  Oh cool, blowing out flavoured water vapour with some nicotine.. Ehrr… Like having missionary-position sex with your longtime girlfriend or wife while she’s on the pill and you are wearing a condom plastered with semen-killing pasta and just before your climax you pull out. Just not exciting..

IMG_0882

Girl, girls, girls

Talking about sex, what a lot of manufacturers still believe is that sex sells. At the entrance we were greeted by beautiful girls who were handing out brochures and samples. At quite a lot of stands luscious ladies were trying to lure you inside. While walking through the halls we saw all kinds of stunning women in all kinds of sexy outfits handing out flyers with big tempting smiles. The price for best costume went to the lady in the tight-fitting catwoman/ninja suit. No idea what it had to do with tobacco but eey, you won’t hear me complaining! Even Penthouse had a stand, complete with a woman in lingerie and a muscled Chippendale macho-man..

Part of DTM stand

Part of DTM stand

Back in the more interesting halls we came across the Dan Tobacco Manufacturing (DTM) stand. Since my forum-tobacco adventure last year I know a few people there. Of course year long company figurehead Heiko Behrens was the first to greet us followed by managing director Maria Sousa. Then I suddenly saw DTM master-blender Andreas Mund who guided us through the factory and with who I worked together for a short time last year. Unfortunately Andreas knows no English and my German is shaky at best. Despite that using hands and feet we had a long nice talk, it felt like seeing an old friend again. Like me Andreas is someone with a passion for tobacco and that is where we really connect. I complimented him with the superb flakes he made together with Hans Wiedemann for HU tobacco and got a heart warming smile. Also he was busy with new aromatics for HU Tobacco with new flavours. I’m very curious about that project! Business-wise I think DTM is going through a rough time. With a sad face Andreas told me that they are taking a shot in selling water-pipe tobacco.. Luckily DTM got some business from Rudi so that is why Martin and I discreetly went searching for…

MacBarenMac Baren. And we could not find the stand.. We looked on the information monitors and got the hall and stand number. Still no sight of the famous Danish tobacco brand. Then through a kind of window I saw the Mac Baren logo. Aah, they had a stand within a stand. Lots of people were sitting and talking inside. We walked to a small counter with little jars of the whole Mac Baren pipe tobacco range. I pointed at the HH Vintage Syrian, in my honest opinion the best blend they have and Martin pointed out his favourite, HH Old Dark Fired. Behind the counter stood a middle-aged men, thankfully nodding while hearing our favourites. I also complimented him with the new Capstan, which Mac Baren now makes. And then a question popped up inside my head; the last couple of weeks I heard from several Dutch tobacconists that they could no longer order Capstan. A bit logical because the Dutch importer changed. From the Pronk company, which imports all Orlik/STG products to Van Landewijck, which imports Mac Baren. But still, the change to Mac Baren already happened at the end of last year. So I asked the friendly man why Dutch tobacconists no longer could get Capstan. With a questioning look he said that it should be available in The Netherlands and found it strange that it wasn’t. But he did not have a straight answer so asked me to come back later. Unfortunately I did not made that in time.. Back home I discovered that the friendly man I spoke to was no one other than Per Jensen, Mac Baren Product Manager and master-blender. Fortunately another forum member, Godfrey, went to the fair on Sunday. So he went to Per Jensen for me and came back with an answer. Unfortunately the fault lies not with Mac Baren, but with their Dutch importer Van Landewijck. They decide which Mac Baren-made tobaccos get imported. So the best thing we can do according to Per Jensen is moan and complain with a lot of people at Van Landewijck. But to be perfectly honest, I talked a bit with Rudi who knows much more about the Dutch tobacco trade then I do, I think that Capstan no longer will be available here.. Too small a market, too high prices.

inter-tabac_025At the end of the day Martin and I tried to score some free cigars. I don’t smoke them, but Martin does. We saw that Rudi and Polleken had sample bags with some kind of Chinese cigars so we went to look for them and came out by a huge stand called “Big Wall of China”. Yup, looks like this is the place. By the way, one of the things I noticed at the fair during the day was the large number of Eastern people. The Chinese economy is growing and apparently so is the their tobacco industry. At a desk with a couple of nice looking long filler cigars on it I talked to a Chinese guy. I kept on chatting away while taking out one of the long fillers and praised its appearance. Unfortunately the guy did not take the bait and I had to put it back.. But we did get two other cigars! Whoohoo!!

Around 5 o’clock my feet were killing me and we all decided to go home. I thanked the group, said goodbye and went looking for my car. The trip home went not as smooth as I hoped, I stood in a traffic-jam for over an hour.. Oh well, back at home I fell into the couch next to Ellen and gave her a big hug. Dream – Visit the Inter Tabac Fair: Check! So anonymous ticket-provider, thanks!!! And also thanks to Rudi, Paul, Martin and Polleken for a wonderful day!

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0 thoughts on “Inter-Tabac 2013 impression

  1. Hi Arno, it was indeed a very nice day. Glad you enjoyed it. Fortunately our Satnav guided us around the straffic jam on our way home.

  2. Hoi Arno, Wat een mooi verhaal weer. Dat moet een mooie dag geweest zijn, ongelofelijk. Jammer van dat Capstan verhaal. Maar in Duitsland moet het zeker nog te krijgen zijn.

    Geniet.

    Vanuit een zonnig Lanzarote,

    Groetjes.

    Rob van Ingen

  3. Hi Arno,

    From a gentleman in Germany, Pipeculture I hear that Kohlhase & Kopp are now also producing two new Balkan blens: Peterson Balkan Delight (Virginia, Perique, Latakia) and Savinelli The Balkans (black Cavendish, Oriental, Latakia, and Virginia).

    Should be quite interesting to smoke, given that K&K already make McConnels, Rattray, Astleys, et mul alters.

    Good article, by the way. A fascinating read.

    • Hello Atboth,

      yes Balkan Delight, but to be honest I don’t consider that a Balkan. I mean, no orientals! Helloooo!? The Savinelli sounds interesting! I like a bit of Cavendish in my Balkan. But I can’t seem to find much of it on the web.. You already smoked both or…?

      What I most like from K&K are the flakes, for example Marlin Flake, Hall O’ The Wind, Old London Pebblecut, Heinrichs Golden Sliced. Their latakia offerings, mwah.. Unless they are designed by Hans Wiedemann of HU Tobacco. By the way, did you know that K&K don’t make their own flakes? They get them from Orlik. All they can do is add some topping. Nonetheless, most of what they bring out is excellent!

  4. I did not know that about their flakes. It’s a little disappointing, but altogether not really too much of a surprise. Seeing as they’re still doing the Dunhill blends, I have heard.

    No, I haven’t smoked either of the tobaccos I mentioned previously yet. I’m waiting for them to show up at Telfords in Marin.
    By the way, Peter Stokkebye will be at our November pipe club meeting. Should be interesting.

    • Hello Atboth,

      well, Orlik is still doing the Dunhill blends and K&K is just the distributor.

      I don’t even know if the Peterson Balkan is going to be available in Holland. I guess not.. McConnell is going away, Capstan is going away, Three Nuns is going away.. :s The only tobaccos left are those typical aromatic blends.. There isn’t any money in the pipe tobacco business here in Holland any more. The government destroys it.. 1 tin of Dunhill Early Morning pipe: €15..

      Oooh nice! Are you going to write about it on your blog?

  5. Fifteen Euro for a tin of tobacco?!?! Ga’verdamme!

    Of course, over three decades ago a tin of Dunhill tobacco cost about twaalf gulden, and everything goes up… Here in California a tin costs between sixteen and twenty dollars. We’re still lower than New York, though. But one can buy off the internet at much lower prices.

    Yes, I’ll write about it on the blog. We’re all looking forward to November.

    At the October meeting we reviewed the tin-art for the club blend, and all that needs yet to be done is getting it into a printable format for Cornell & Diehl, and it will go into production. Which probably means that it will come out at the same time as Greg Pease’s other new blend, which hasn’t been discussed anywhere yet. Just finished my first bowl of the final prototype. Think “Bengal Slices”, in a brick form, and veer slightly sideways from there. Profoundly stinky, and it’s a pity it’s still so early in the day, because it would have been great with a glass of oloroso.

    Given that so many good products are disappearing from the Dutch market, I guess you’ll be heading across the border regularly. Your German will improve in no time!

    • Ongelooflijk nietwaar?

      Yeah I discovered that the internet is much cheaper. I already bought at 4noggins multiple times but a colleague of mine went to Chicago. So I asked if she could buy some tobaccos for me at Iwan Ries. One tin of 4th Generation 1931 Erik Peter’s Blend ($18.15 on the Iwan Ries site) and one tin of Dunhill Elizabethan ($10.50). When she came back she had a bill of $43!! What?? For two blends? Turned out to be all kinds of taxes.. Well, tobacco is expensive in Holland but here they at least include all the taxes in the price.

      You are sooooo lucky to have Greg Pease create your club blend! Is it just one or…? And what kind? Or are you not allowed to tell? Oooh! That new Pease blend sounds right up my alley! I hope it isn’t as one-dimensional as the later Danish made Bengal slices. Because there is a big difference between the London made and that one. I hope for some kind of a firmer version of Penzance. Latakia, Virginia and orientals all pressed tightly together to a brick, yummie!

      Yes I buy a lot now in Germany. Germany and the USA. Right now I am busy writing a blog-post about a visit to Peter Heinrichs in Bergheim. BIG store! Sadly the combination of too few pipe-smokers and high taxes are killing pipe smoking here in Holland. That also goes for the Dutch forum tobaccos, the route in Holland was a dead end (too many rules and too expensive) so they are soon produced by Kohlhase & Kopp with a nice German tax seal. I then take them across the border, one of the few advantages of a united Europe.

  6. The GLP blend for our club is a medium-full English, very old-fashioned, the kind of tobacco that you imagine purchasing at a small-town tobacconist somewhere in Great Britain during or after the war. Almost a classic tinned product like the Dunhills, McConnells, or Rattrays were at that time. Touch of blonde Virginia with a mellower aged leaf, Turkish, Latakia.

    I like it very much, and probably bear great responsibility for strong-arming the members into settling on it. Given that we have VaPer smokers, several member who compare everything unfavourably to their own chosen all-day mixtures, dabblers in aromatics, and one person who smokes black vanilla Cavendish in a Gandalf-style pipe, you can imagine that enforcing a level of sanity seems to be my chief task as club secretary.

    The name will be a rather unimaginative reference to San Francisco (“Evening Fog”, if I remember correctly), and it will be available to the general public from Cornell & Diehl.

    What Greg is currently working on has a tin aroma reminiscent of a cow pasture, but there seems to be a Virginia leaf in there with marvelous characteristics. There is probably also a Turkish leaf among the components, but it isn’t present in shocking proportion. One of the tastes in the smoke reminds me very much of old-style Syrian Latakia — is that a touch of Burley?

    I keenly look forward to discussing it with him when I see him next.

    • Oooh, sounds good, Medium-full English! And in which direction I should think? More Nightcap or more London mixture?

      Haha, it seems you did a good job uniting the smoking-forces. The different tastes of pipe-smokers were the reason why there are going to be 3 Dutch forum tobaccos; Aromatic, Virginia and Latakia. I won’t say anything about them now because people from the forum can read this. I am going to unveil them at the next big meeting at the end of this month. Yes indeed, they trust me to deliver the goods, the fools!

      Evening fog, nice name, has a British feel to it. I hope 4noggins will offer this blend, otherwise it is pretty difficult for me to get it..

      Is his new blend not reminiscent of Cornell & Diehl’s Pirate Kake? Talking about Syrian latakia, I almost asked Per Jensen of Mac Baren on the Inter Tabac Fair if he was willing to surrender some of his vintage Syrian leaf to mr. Pease. I never smoked blends like Renaissance..

      Send mr. Pease my regards if you see him and ask if I also can be on his tasting-panel hahaha

  7. The club blend will be sort of equidistant between London and Nightcap. Not as dark as nightcap, not as much Turkish as London. Also reminiscent of Squadron Leader and Black Mallory. The Virginia component is really old-fashioned.

    Regarding the pressed Latakia product, somewhat more like Bengal Slices, but the pressure probably also provides a point of departure from Pirate Cake.

    Greg doesn’t know that I smoked it; it was provided by another Dutch American, who communicates with Greg more often than I do. I’m going to restrain myself and not say too much, as the rest of the smoking fraternity will have to form their own opinions.

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