This week the sad news reached me that fellow pipe-smoker and Dutch/Belgian Pijprokersforum member Huub Hendrikx passed away. I have had the privilege of meeting and speaking with Huub a number of times at pijprokersforum meetings, in addition to occasional contact through the forum of course. Almost no one there knew more about tobacco pipes than Huub, a walking encyclopedia. And also a real and true gentleman, very friendly, very generous. He was for example a great help to me when I wrote my “Vintage Dunhill tobacco made in… Germany!?” blogpost because of his pipe-smoking connections in Germany.
Huub started pipe-smoking at the early age of 22, inspired by his grandfather, a passionate pipe smoker. It was he who gave Huub his first pipe, a Stanwell shape #89 (designed by the late Sixten Ivarsson), and tobacco, which was Albion Mixture. His grandfather was a true latakia lover, he smoked all the well known English blends like Balkan Sobranie and John Cotton’s. But Huub didn’t like it, he discovered he was more of a Virginia, VaPer person. The only blend containing the dark leaf he ever smoked was Davidoff Royalty.
From the moment Huub got a computer the pipe smoking hobby transitioned to a pipe smoking passion. Since that time he could buy pipes and pipe tobacco from all over the world. He came into touch with pipe makers, resulting in such nice contacts that he even visited them, under the condition that the distance could be covered by car. He had his pipes handmade, telling what he wanted for the mouthpieces, colours and shapes. Huub was a man of details and that was also evident in his pipes. He preferred really short ones which he always showed off on the forum. Those kind of pipes are now called “Huubjes” on the pijprokersforum.
I would like to extend my condolences to his family and friends. Rest in peace Huub, maybe some clouds I see in the sky are now made by you.
The genius of Roald Dahl As a child, I had several pipe-smoking influences, such as my grandfather, an uncle and the father of a friend. Only recently, I discovered there was another source of inspiration; the great and late writer Roald Dahl. While the generation after me grew up with J.K. Rowling’sHarry Potter saga, me and my young contemporaries were enchanted by timeless stories such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Witches and Matilda. And, if you think my English is pretty readable, you can thank Roald Dahl. At primary school, we learned the language with excerpts of his tales. Later I discovered his adult novels, amongst them one of my all-time favourite books: My Uncle Oswald.
Goat’s tobacco Being a youngster I devoured every Roald Dahl book I could lay my hands on in the local library. Like his autobiographical Boy: Tales of Childhood. Recently, being in a nostalgic mood, I re-read it. One of the stories there is called “Goat’s tobacco” and describes how a young Dahl on holiday in Norway with his family secretly puts some dried goat’s droppings in the pipe of his half-sister’s lover who then smokes it and almost chokes (if he would have used a Lakeland tobacco it surely would have had the same effect). But before the lover smokes the droppings he boasts about his tobacco. I quote from the book, of course all copyright things go to the Dahl family:
We could hardly bear the suspense. The sister who was seven couldn’t bear it at all. ‘What sort of tobacco do you put in that thing? (the pipe)’ she asked with superb innocence. ‘Navy Cut,’ the male lover answered. ‘Player’s Navy Cut. It’s the best there is. These Norwegians use all sorts of disgusting scented tobaccos, but I wouldn’t touch them.’ ‘I didn’t know they had different tastes,’ the small sister went on. ‘Of course they do,’ the manly lover said. ‘All tobaccos are different to the discriminating pipe-smoker. Navy Cut is clean and unadulterated. It’s a man’s smoke.’ The man seemed to go out of his way to use long words like discriminating and unadulterated. We hadn’t the foggiest what they meant.
Scoring a pouch of Player’s Navy Cut Flake My head jolted up after I read this while thinking: “Damn, I have a pouch of Player’s Navy Cut Flake in my tobacco closet!” In 2015 a good friend of mine, a true gentleman, went on holiday to England. But before that he asked if he could buy some tobacco there for me. The range of available pipe tobaccos is different in England. They have blends we (European mainland) don’t have. So I browsed through the website of a British tobacconist until suddenly my eye fell on Player’s Navy Cut Flake. Perhaps it had rung a bell in the back of my head (it was before I re-read Boy) but that was the blend I wanted and got. Sadly, when I began my research for this blogpost I discovered Player’s Navy Cut Flake had been discontinued since the end of 2015. So yes, I am very sorry, but this is another write-up about a blend that does not exist any more..
Broadmarsh factory
Early beginnings of John Player & Sons First some history about the manufacturer, John Player & Sons. The man himself, John Player was born in Saffron Walden in Essex in 1839. In 1862 he came to Nottingham and some years later began a shop on Beastmarket Hill where he sold agricultural manures and seeds. As an extra income he also sold pre-wrapped tobacco. That went so well that it soon became his main business. So in 1877 he bought the tobacco factory from William Wright in the Broad Marsh, began manufacturing tobaccos and cigarettes and opened 2 more shops. Business quickly expanded and in 1881 he bought land in the Radford area of Nottingham where in 1884 the Castle Tobacco factory arose. Sadly Player died in the same year of liver cancer. In the 1890’s his 2 sons, William Goodacre Player and John Dane Player, took over the business.
Shipping department
The Americans attack In 1901 a powerful attack by American tobacco manufacturers on the British market led to the formation of the Imperial Tobacco Group in which 13 British tobacco manufacturers joined forces. Although they continued business under their own names and competed with each other. Since John Player & Sons was one of the founding companies they served on Imperial’s first board of directors. The first few decades of the 20th century were good for the company as sales began increasing rapidly. Mainly because of the success of the company’s mass produced, machine-made cigarettes.
The Player’s Navy Cut brand Already in 1883 the Player’s Navy Cut brand (cigarettes and pipe tobacco) was launched and proved enduringly popular. It was one of the most smoked brands in WW1 and besides Capstan the favourite pipe tobacco of J.R.R. Tolkien and a favourite of C.S. Lewis. Over the years the brand’s sailor and lifebuoy trademark became synonymous with John Player & Sons. But more about that below. Now I could ramble on about the rest of the history but then this blogpost would really become long and focus on cigarettes, and this is a pipe smoking blog. In short Player’s peak was in the late 1950’s. They were employing 11,000 workers (who all got an allowance of 50 cigarettes a week) and produced 15 brands of pipe tobacco and 11 brands of cigarettes. After that it slowly went downhill due to various reasons, factories got closed etc. although to this day Player’s is still in business.
Not Orlik but… Like I said the curtain fell for the Player’s Navy Cut Flake brand in 2015. I always thought that in the final years it was made by Orlik (read: the Scandinavian Tobacco Group) in license for the Imperial Tobacco Group like Tobaccoreviews.com says. But by someone on Instagram I was pointed in another direction: the mighty MacBaren. To verify this I contacted MacBaren mastermind Per Jensen. He had to say this: “Since 2006 we produced the Player’s Navy Cut Flake for Imperial Tobacco Group, but only for sale in the UK. When we bought the pipe tobacco portfolio from Imperial we did not buy the the Player’s Navy Flake, so production stopped in 2015. The reason, plain and simple, was that Imperial wanted to keep the Player’s name for their cigarettes.”
Package / tin: My Player’s Navy Cut Flake came in a (with a health-warning desecrated) pouch with inside a foil covered tray. Most of the pouch is navy blue with the logo of the sailor and lifebuoy in the top middle. The sailor image was first used in 1883 and the lifebuoy was added 5 year later. The sailor was known as “Hero”. Why? Just take a good look at the name on his hat band. Then you also can see the HMS Brittania on the left and HMS Dreadnought on the right. The image of Hero changed for a while (apparently the poor lad had no beard for a short period!) until he was standardised in 1927.
Contents / Cut / Ingredients: Inside the foil covered tray are 2 rows of neatly stacked attractive looking brown cold pressed flakes with golden highlights. It is a Navy Cut, the slices you get when you cut a navy plug. Originally these had a round shape. Later tobacco manufacturers used the term more broadly and a Navy Cut could also be a rectangular flake or slice. The ingredients are Virginia and Burley with a slight topping of rum.
Smell from the tray: When I removed the foil and stuck my nose near I was kind of surprised. It smelled a bit like Esoterica Stonehaven! Hay, treacle, dark chocolate and liquor with a certain fruity sourness in the background. Although the liquor smell fades away a bit after the tray is opened for longer.
Taste: The flakes are easy to handle, not too moist, not too dry. I rubbed out the flakes a little bit, bigger chunks on the bottom of the bowl and the smaller ones on top. Lighting it was effortless and when the first smoke hits your my buds I immediately relaxed, it was smooth and creamy. Above all, it has a great basic taste. Many blends of old had a distinct flavour that set them apart from others. With Player’s Navy Cut Flake you get an almost perfect mix between the grassy, tangy, earthy, toasted, stewed fruits lighter and darker Virginias, the nutty Burley which fills up the holes in the tasting spectrum and the rum which doesn’t do much other than providing a slight dark sugar treacle taste. All by all the different elements are expertly harmonised. The taste throughout the bowl is not a rollercoaster. You get that distinct comforting creamy and smooth Player’s Navy Cut Flake flavour which only deepens and intensifies in the later part of the smoke.
Miscellaneous: Nicotine-wise this blend is surprisingly mild to my relief. I expected more because of the Burley and the fact it had been around a long time, in the old days they made blends more “manly” with more vitamin N oomph. When pushed Player’s Navy Cut Flake has a tendency to bite a bit. But that is ok, it commands puffing slowly which is a good thing. And by doing that you get the most out of this tobacco taste-wise.
Room-note: When I smoke this one I get almost no comments from the old battle-axe. Only downside is the cigarette-like odour that still lingers the next morning.
Conclusion: All by all I was pleasantly surprised by this essential British tobacco. I can fully understand why it was like “bread” for years for the English pipe smoker. Although I would think of it more like that delicious cookie your grandmother used to give you when you were visiting her. And every time you eat it now it reminds you fondly of the old lady. Player’s Navy Cut Flake has something comforting. It is an easy smoke. It is not a roller-coaster of tastes nor bland. It just delivers good ol’ tobacco tastiness when you sit in your chair relaxing after a day of hard work. I smoked it in different pipes and each time was satisfying. I really regret Player’s Navy Cut Flake got discontinued. If today it was available I would surely buy it. Maybe it is the added Burley or the bit of rum flavour, but I burned through the pouch in no time. @MacBaren, perhaps you can convince Imperial to sell you the rights to Player’s Navy Cut Flake, release it worldwide, thus bringing back a little classic gem.
The Rustica story begins
For me this story began at the Inter Tabak fair in Dortmund last year. Or better said, in a private room in the nearby Dorint hotel, only a short walk from the Westfalenhallen. There the mighty MacBaren was holding court and when the doors swung open we were warmly greeted by product manager / master blender / tobacco ambassador Per Jensen. One of the highlights of the conversation we had was when he produced a blank tin while telling that it was another project on which he was working. It was a blend which also contained the powerful, vitamine N rich Nicotiana rustica. He asked me to smoke it, a prototype, which I did in a small pipe. Of course I said it was good but the truth was that my tasting palate was totally shot after a day of smoking at the Inter Tabak. Not to mention my stomach was pretty empty so the nicotine wreaked havoc on my body. I did not finish the bowl. But I made a firm mental note to keep an eye out for it in the time to come. It had certainly piqued my interest. I mean, I had Nicotiana rustica before in the shape of snuff (Toque USA Whiskey & Honey, which kicked like a mule) but never as a pipe-tobacco, unique!
Ancient “creative” uses of tobacco
Most tobacco consumed by us humans is from the Nictotiana tabacum variety, a tall broad leafed plant. Nicotiana rustica looks alike but is shorter with slightly thinner leaves. Both species are native to the Americas where mankind stumbled upon them roughly 18,000 years ago. But the first area where tobacco was cultivated was the Peruvian/Ecuadorean Andes around 5000-3000 BC. Throughout the years the use of it moved northwards. It was used by all kinds of cultures and civilizations for all kinds of purposes in all kinds of ways. For rituals but also purely for personal pleasure. I can’t begin to describe how “creative” the South-American tribes were in the use of tobacco. It was chewed, snuff was made out of it, it was smoked in the form of cigars or in pipes etc. Even some kind of tea was made of it which would be “drunk” anally with the help of a clyster/enema, like a bulb made of animal skin and a tube made of bone or reed. Or a man would flay his gentleman sausage and soak up the blood in pieces of paper or strips of cloth, add some tobacco and then burn it as an offer to the gods. I am glad that nowadays we only smoke, sniff or chew it orally…
John Rolfe and his wife Pocahontas
The savior: John Rolfe
By the time Columbus discovered America in 1492 tobacco had reached every corner of the continent. At 14 May 1607 a group of settlers from the Virginia Company of London established the Jamestown settlement in the Colony of Virginia. In May 1610 John Rolfe arrived there after a long and difficult journey and he was shocked by what he found. The Virginia Colony was almost destroyed by famine and disease. They had tried selling the local tobacco smoked by the Powhatan and Chesapeake Indians (hint: that was Nicotiana rustica) but the settlers themselves and more important the English market did not like it. It burned poorly and hot, tasted bitter and was very strong. THE tobacco back then was called “Spanish Tobacco” (Nictotiana tabacum) because Spain had the monopoly on it. But somehow John Rolfe had obtained seeds of the Spanish Tobacco, even though Spain had declared a death penalty to anyone selling such seeds to a non-Spaniard. In 1611 he was the first to commercially grow Nicotiana tabacum in North-America. And in 1612 the export of this sweeter tobacco, called “Orinoco” by Rolfe, made the Virginia Colony a success. And what about the Nicotiana rustica? Well, it still exists today, it is known as ucuch in southern Mexico, mapacho in South America, thuốc lào in Vietnam and makhorka in Russia. Also it is used for Swedish snus and chew bags.
Nicotiana rustica leaf
Backstory
And those snus and chew bags is where the MacBaren part of the story begins. It is damn difficult to make a decent pipe-tobacco out of Nicotiana rustica. But at the end of 2018 MacBaren began producing chew bags. The ingredient was Nicotiana rustica although different from the original tobacco smoked by the Indians. These leaves were sun-cured which means there is more sugar in them. It was then that the idea sprang into Per’s head to create a blend from the original tobacco that made smoking popular in the Western world. But the journey was long and difficult because he did not know how to combine the rustica with other tobaccos, a process of experimenting, trial and error. In the end a dark air and fire cured Virginia in the style of the old colonists was used, which was a big step forwards. The use of some modern Burley to balance out the tobaccos was the final ingredient. Last but not least the result was steam-pressed, so all the flavours could optimally meld together, and cut in flakes.
Package / tin: MacBaren Rustica comes in a pretty plain flat 50gr. tin with artwork in the vein of the other HH blends. You see the MacBaren lions on a dark background with in the middle the HH logo with underneath it “Rustica, hot pressed flake”. My tin is German and on the backside it says (translated): In order to make this strong pipe-tobacco Nicotiana Tabacum and Nicotiana Rustica are being blended together. Since the beginning of pipe-smoking in the 17th century this style of tobacco is rare. The tobacco is being hot pressed to let the natural aromas blend together perfectly.
Contents / Cut / Ingredients: As I open the tin I am greeted by a classy golden MacBaren wrapper. Inside that are neatly stacked thin brown flakes with lighter spots throughout them. One thing I have never seen before, the top flake is laid down diagonally. The ingredients are of course Nicotiana rustica, dark air and fire cured Virginias and modern Burley.
Smell from the tin: When I first opened the tin the flakes smelled like fermented straw (cattle feed) with a slight sour funky undertone. I liked it because it immediately transferred me back to my youth and the farm of my uncle and aunt. However, when I now smell the remaining flakes it is more earthty, woody and I detect a faint BBQ odour.
Taste: First of all I have to honestly admit that I am a bit of a Burley noob. For some reason I rarely smoke the stuff and mostly stick to English / Balkan / Virginia / VaPer blends. And boy, am I at a loss! I was honestly positively surprised when I first lit up Rustica. I expected a full assault of pungent tobacco taste but instead it was, ok, still bold, but round, creamy, cool and inviting. Taste-wise I noticed earth, wood, nuts (sometimes even a bit almond-paste like whiffs), toast with unsalted butter, roast and the gentle perfectly dosed sweetness of the Virginia. There is no roller-coaster of tastes throughout the bowl like with a good Balkan. But in the last half the flavours intensify a bit, more wood, more toast, more pure robust tobacco taste while the Virginia sweetness remains until the end.
Miscellaneous:
Because of the steam-pressing Rustica is smooth like Ellen her buttocks after a hot shower. Of course when smoking I tried to put the pedal to the metal several times by puffin’ really hard but no bite, it keeps smoking cool. The flakes are moist but immediately smokeable from the tin. Fold them or break them into smaller pieces. I choose the latter method. Make sure to not pack the bowl too tightly and try not to tamp too much during the smoke. Now nicotine… Whoooaaaaa….. Nicotiana tabacum leaves have a nicotine content of about 1 to 3%. Nicotiana rustica leaves contain 9%! The curing and steam-pressing processes made the rustica somewhat friendlier but still.. The only way I could smoke and enjoy it was in a small pipe (Dunhill group 1-3) right after dinner with a sweet beverage beside me to counteract vitamin N effects. Then there is the “Limited Edition”. USA pipe tobacco giant Smokingpipes.com says that only 7100 tins of this special edition blend were produced worldwide. Uhmm… My German tin does not mention any kind of limited edition. After some careful reading I found out, the limited USA version is 3.5 oz (about 100 gr.), the regular not limited German version is 50 gr.
Room-note: This is a strong tobacco and has a strong room-note. Most noticeable by the fact that when I had smoked it in the evening Ellen used the Lampe Berger the next morning.
Price: In Germany you pay €12,- for a 50 gr. MacBaren Rustica tin. In the USA you pay $21,- for a 3.5 oz.
Conclusion: MacBaren Rustica really surprised me taste-wise in a very good way. Loved it! Robust, bold, strong, yet refined flavours that make you look out to smoking a bowl of it. Technically it also is a very good flake, well made and when properly handled it burns ok. My own personal concern is the level of nicotine. Each time I smoked it it was like stepping into the ring with Muhammad Ali. You know you are going to be knocked-out but when… All you can do is make the proper preparations, sit back in your favourite chair, brace yourself and go ahead. I swear I grown some extra chest-hair in the past weeks! For some reason when smoking this, perhaps it is the flavour or the hallucinative rustica, I imagined myself sitting on the porch of some farm-house looking out over the fields. Ha! If the Vikings had MacBaren Rustica they would have stayed at home with their blond wives instead of trying to conquer Europe!
Heal your soul, smoke Spark Plug! Life is not easy now in these pandemic Corona virus times. We are limited in our freedom; not seeing friends or family, no open restaurants or cafes, social distancing, no open smoking lounges etc. We have to stay indoors as much as possible, get our groceries as fast as possible (keeping in mind 1.5 meters distance), all hoping we won’t get infected or infect someone else. It also is a huge assault to our mental health; constantly being at home, being at each other’s lips at home, no toilet paper at the supermarket, unsure what the future will bring (for me personally, I am jobless, so if you need an expert Graphical (Digital) Designer / Desktop Publisher / Blog and text writer/ Content Marketeer, let me know!), it all leads to much frustration. Luckily I have a hobby which benefits my mental state: pipe-smoking. Just focusing on the ritual of it while reading a good book heals my soul, lets me forget my worries. And right now I feel extra blessed, because I am smoking the newest offering of the “Dark Lord” GL Pease named Spark Plug.
The Dark Lord himself
Don’t be sceptic, rejoice! Of course it is exciting when GL Pease comes with a new tobacco. But there is always extra reason to rejoice when it is a latakia blend because Greg is the “Dark Lord”, grand master of the delicious smoky dark leaf. And yet I could detect little enthusiasm on the online forums. Even a bit of scepticism.. Come on people! It is the Dark Lord bringing you divine ambrosia for your mortal taste buds! “Luckily” most pipe-smokers agreed with me, when I tried to order Spark Plug at first all shops were sold-out.. Fortunately in the end I managed to secure some tins.
Backstory: Here I quote GL Pease himself from his website: This has been something of a dream project for me, and I’m happy to say that it’s on its way. Spark Plug is the latest blend to find a home in my Heirloom Series. I’ve been smoking prototypes for nearly a year, and am absolutely loving the final product. As always, working with Jeremy at C&D has been a pure and effortless joy, and Calvin has my often impenetrable design briefs and transformed my concept into the wonderful label seen above. My deepest gratitude and appreciation goes out to these guys for their continued willingness to work with whacky ideas and make them a reality. In a conversation with me Greg had to add: Dream project? That might be somewhat overstated; certainly I’ve wanted to do a latakia plug for a very long time, and it had to be just right, so it took some time, and haunted my dreams more than a few times. There were technical challenges to overcome, but we worked hard to get everything sorted, and I absolutely love the result.
Package / tin: Even when you lived under a stone and had no idea about the new Spark Plug tobacco, the tin art with a big Union Jack leaves nothing to the imagination. It almost screams: this is an English blend! On the flag is an image of the name-giver: a spark plug made to look a bit like the caduceus, the staff of Hermes, emissary and messenger of the gods. On the back of the tin it says: Deep and dark. Powerful yet refined. The smoky, leathery backdrop of Latakia is layered with an almost incense-like spice of rich orientals, with fine Virginias added for depth and a subtle sweetness. Like the classic roadsters that inspired its creation, Spark Plug has an alluring charm that invites you to rev it up and take it out for long drives in the country. Sliced thick or thin, it will never leave you stranded.
Contents / Cut / Ingredients: When I open the tin and pry away the carton lids I see a beautiful pressed hunk of dark, brown, red-brown, and lighter tobaccos. The name of the blend is Spark PLUG but in reality it is a hybrid of a crumble cake and a plug. I handled it as the latter, I used my antique Samuel McLardy tobacco cutter to cut off thin slices which I would gently rub out. The ingredients are Cyprian latakia, orientals from Greece and Turkey (I asked Greg which ones precisely, no answer..) and bright and red Virginias.
Smell from the tin: Ooohhh yeah! Ooohhh yeah! Damn this stuff smells good! Best odour from a tobacco tin ever! Well, maybe a tie with that aged Capstan.. Leather, campfire smoke, cedar, spice, sweet, sour. But kind of concentrated, the odour immediately triggers something inside you, awakens your senses. Like you would get a whiff of fresh bread or fresh coffee. It just hits you in a very pleasant way.
Taste: When the first light is done and the curled up tobacco is gently tapped down a bit I get a smoky salt-licorice taste, no bitterness. Then two things strike me a bit. First I detect a floral element, not full blast Lakeland soap sh*t but something subtle, almost refreshing. Second I discern an oiliness in the aroma, it reminds me of working on my old trusty Toyota Starlet. When I told Greg this he was pleased: I like that you discern an oiliness in the aroma, that it reminds you of working on your Starlet. When I was developing this, there were aspects of it that reminded me of the old British cars I have owned, worked on, restored and loved. The smell of grease, oil, petrol, the leather and horsehair stuffing of the seats, all mingling together while driving along winding roads on misty days. It’s not that the smells are the same, but there’s a sort of sensory link, a trigger to something reminiscent of an old Triumph or MG in my garage. I’ve chatted with other gearheads who have mentioned a similar reaction. That’s where the name came from. I don’t think “Smelly Under-bonnet Plug” would have had quite the same charm. Further down the bowl the blend builds in fullness, richness while retaining the balance of all the top notch ingredients (especially the orientals). I detect cedar, leather, earth, smoke, spice, floral, sweet, sour.. All in exotic harmony and without tiring my taste buds. With some blends you really have to “work” to get the most out of it. With Spark Plug you sit back, relax, and go like “Oh I now taste this, oh now that.” And before you know it, way too soon, all that is left in the bowl is grey ash. One tip, smoke it slow to get the most out of it.
Miscellaneous: Spark Plug is smoooooth all the way, no bite at all. Moisture level out of the tin was good. But the last bit of the tin (with any Pease blend) is always the best because it is a tad dryer (so why don’t I just let a little bit of tobacco dry out before smoking??). Nicotine level is mild to medium. I tried Spark Plug in several different shaped and sized pipes. All good smokes. But I got the best results in medium size princes.
Room-note: At first I thought I was doing fine with Spark Plug, no complaints or “I-hate-what-you-are-smoking” coughs from the old battle-axe. But when I dared to ask Ellen how it smelled all hell broke loose. “I almost went upstairs several times when you smoked it, I can’t stand it!” Now this sounds negative, but 1. Ellen did not leave the room, she only threatened. 2. She CAN stand it, she stayed. Besides that, when I come into the living room the next morning after smoking Spark Plug the odour is acceptable, it does not linger for long.
Price: At Cup O’ Joes I paid for a 2 oz. tin $11.48 (± €10,48).
Conclusion: The mark of a good tobacco for me is when I smoke it down to the last crumble in the tin. And I did just that with Spark Plug. Reluctantly I gave away a sample of it, but the rest was mine! Mine! My preciousss! Every day I looked forward to the evening because then I could smoke Spark Plug again (I only smoke 1 pipe per day, preferably in the evening). This was one of the best freshest blends I ever smoked. I am really curious how it will taste with some age on it in about 4 or 5 years. For me Spark Plug ticks a lot of boxes and in my opinion it is another masterpiece from GL Pease.
Oh, I almost forgot, I have a new website! 😀 No more “wordpress” in the internet address. I have my own domain now, I wish daddy could have seen this.. *tears up* And I ditched the banner with that bald ugly bloke smoking a pipe with skulls coming out of it 😉 Special thanks go out to bearded WordPress wizard and coding-nerd Johnny!
Paying a visit to the beautiful city of Aachen, Germany in Christmas time. We went to the Dom, Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market), Aachener Brauhaus, Grotesque Absinth bar and tobacconist Schneiderwind. Not my best filmed video, I definitely learned some things for coming uploads! Anyway, I wish everybody a merry Christmas and a smoky New Year!
This week the sad news reached me that fellow pipe-smoker and Dutch/Belgian Pijprokersforum member Huub Hendrikx passed away. I have had the privilege of meeting and speaking with Huub a number of times at pijprokersforum meetings, in addition to occasional contact through the forum of course. Almost no one there knew more about tobacco pipes than Huub, a walking encyclopedia. And also a real and true gentleman, very friendly, very generous. He was for example a great help to me when I wrote my “Vintage Dunhill tobacco made in… Germany!?” blogpost because of his pipe-smoking connections in Germany.
Huub started pipe-smoking at the early age of 22, inspired by his grandfather, a passionate pipe smoker. It was he who gave Huub his first pipe, a Stanwell shape #89 (designed by the late Sixten Ivarsson), and tobacco, which was Albion Mixture. His grandfather was a true latakia lover, he smoked all the well known English blends like Balkan Sobranie and John Cotton’s. But Huub didn’t like it, he discovered he was more of a Virginia, VaPer person. The only blend containing the dark leaf he ever smoked was Davidoff Royalty.
From the moment Huub got a computer the pipe smoking hobby transitioned to a pipe smoking passion. Since that time he could buy pipes and pipe tobacco from all over the world. He came into touch with pipe makers, resulting in such nice contacts that he even visited them, under the condition that the distance could be covered by car. He had his pipes handmade, telling what he wanted for the mouthpieces, colours and shapes. Huub was a man of details and that was also evident in his pipes. He preferred really short ones which he always showed off on the forum. Those kind of pipes are now called “Huubjes” on the pijprokersforum.
