Inter-Tabac 2016 impression

Entrance to the Inter-Tabac

Entrance to the Inter-Tabac

September 17th it was once again time for one of my annual highlights: The Inter Tabac fair in Dortmund. For those of you who missed the blogposts I made of the visit the last couple of years; the Inter-Tabac is the leading and biggest trade fair of the world for tobacco products and smoking accessories. This year there were more than 450 exhibitors from over 60 countries who presented themselves in 5 huge exhibition halls. Renowned companies from all over the world presented trends and innovative tobacco products. This includes cigars, cigarillos, cigarettes, E-cigarettes, E-pipes, E-shishas, smoking accessories, pipes, pipe tobacco, shishas, shop equipment and spirits. Unfortunately the fair is for retailers, not for consumers.

Father and son Jan and Jesse

Father and son Jan and Jesse

Like the last years I was able to secure a ticket through Fred, only, some days before the fair he told me he could not make it. His daughter moved out of the parental house a little bit earlier than expected. But I could have his ticket and make someone happy with it. Easy, I thought, what pipe-smoker does not want to go to the Valhalla of smoking? So I asked some friends if they had time but one was on holiday the other did not have a car, someone else had some “things” to do with his students. I obviously did not take into account that Saturday was rather short notice for most. In the end I just asked on the Dutch/Belgian Pipe Smokers Forum who wanted to go with me. I got no more than two reactions so I decided to flip a coin. The winner was Jan, a relaxed, intelligent man with an unique view on life, who was absolutely delighted. He lives not too far away from me and I discovered the detour for me was only 2 km. So I picked him up and together we drove to Dortmund.

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The stand of DTM

After a pleasant ride we arrived at the Westfalenhallen just when the doors opened. Like every time I started in hall 4. I wanted to speak with Elbert Gubbels from Big Ben because he and I have some business to do for the new Dutch/Belgian Pipe Smokers Forum tobacco. Unfortunately he was busy so we walked on to the stand of Dan Tobacco Manufacturing (DTM)/Dan Pipe where we were greeted by the lovely daughter of managing director Heiko Behrens. “Did I saw you here last year?” she asked. “Yes you did!” I said with a smile. She asked if we would like some coffee (yes please!) and sat down with us. “So, what is new at Dan Tobacco?” I asked.

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Burley Maduro

She produced 3 plastic jars with in each a new blend. The first was called “Burley Maduro”, a sturdy, natural mixture of burley and some soft tasting Maduro leaf. Jan would not pack a pipe with it that “early” in the morning but I loaded up one. The taste surprised me, I expected to taste cigar but I did not. It just was a natural very mellow tobacco flavour which reminded me in the distance of the Langue de Chien variety of Semois, very pleasant. But I have to say, it packed a very healthy dose of vitamine N. The second was named “M.A. Blue Canary”. A blend of black cavendish with some gold-brown flake scraps topped with the aromas of apple, vanilla and a bit of cinnamon. The third one was called “Bill Bailey’s Country (Bourbon) Blend”. A mixture of bright US Virginias, a lot of black cavendish and a bit of deep brown dark fired Kentucky topped with Bourbon whiskey and Bourbon vanilla. We thanked Frau Behrens for her time and when we wanted to leave the (beautiful!) stand we were stopped by her old father, managing director Heiko Behrens, who thanked us for visiting. I said it before but the people at DTM are warm and passionate with the typical “no-nonsense working hard and effective” German mentality.

Cornell & Diehl

Cornell & Diehl

After visiting the stand of My Father Cigars who make my favourite “La Antiguedad” cigar Jan and I walked to another hall. There were several little pipe-smoking related stands put together where you could find names like Gabriele Pipes, Jobs Freehand Pipes, Talamona, Michal Novak, Mr. Brog, P. Jeppesen (who had some really beautiful stained blasted pipes) and… Cornell & Diehl. I especially was excited about visiting the stand of the latter, their first time on the Inter Tabac. Silently I hoped that the Dark Lord GL Pease, one of my pipe-smoking idols, would also be there. But alas, no.. Also the stand itself was quite a bit smaller than I expected, just a desk. At first I believed that in Europe their range was available at the Linzbach store in Düsseldorf. But to my surprise the friendly guy behind the desk said they had no German importer and C&D was not sold there. I later learned he was right when I visited Linzbach. However, they had an importer in the Ukraine! Uhm.. Ok.. We talked about the very worrying FDA regulations and on the lighter side about the (re)introduction of the new Drucquer blends. I asked if he had samples of those but sadly he did not. He did have a sample of one of their best aromatics, Autumn Evening, which I am smoking as I type this. Smooth and tasty!

Caribbean Black Pearl

Caribbean Black Pearl

Then we were off to the large stand of Planta and Designer Berlin (DB) pipes. Like every year Planta had a big wooden barrel standing there with in it their year tobacco, this time called Bacchus mixture. I asked Jan to put his nose near the lid when I pulled it off. He went like “whooaaaa!!!” when he smelled the blend, it was very, very sweet. We admired the many displayed pipes of DB and had to laugh when we saw a couple called “Caribbean Black Pearl”. Undoubtedly ideal for smoking Pirate Kake! Arrrrr matey!

Does he like it...? Yesss!!!

Does he like it…? Yesss!!!

Gradually we moved towards what I call “the Italian corner” which has pipe-brands as Savinelli, L’Anatra and Ser Jacopo. Especially some pipes of the latter boasted some stunning silver-work. Around the corner was the shared stand of Northern Briars and Samuel Gawith (Gawith & Hoggarth). I looked forward to meeting Bob Gregory because I also had some business to do with him for the new Dutch/Belgian Pipe Smokers Forum tobacco (it is made by Samuel Gawith and imported by Gubbels). I mailed Bob twice to ask if he could bring a sample of the final product with him but I heard nothing. Typical Bob, “I am 70 years old and semi-retired ok??”. As soon as he saw me he shouted with wide eyes “Go away you! Go away!” at me. But I cornered the bastard and forced him to hand over 2 tins of Flatlander Flake, which is the name of the forum tobacco. He did think of me *smiles*. His bald lackey and himself anxiously looked at me when I opened up one of the tins and smelled it. Approved! At which they both smiled (very rare for Bob). Then we exchanged some pleasantries and Bob told some funny stories about how him and Brian Levine (the PipesMagazine.com radio-show host) constantly keep insulting each other. By the way, I saw Brian already a couple of times in the hallways. First time he had a big German glass of beer with him and the second time he was on his way to a whisky-tasting..

Butz Choquin

Butz Choquin

The lunch this year was sober. The prices of food and beverages are outrageous at the Inter Tabac (€4,30 for a small bottle of cola!). So I brought brown buns with cheese on them with me and Jan had some sandwiches. Screw you expensive catering! We’re Dutch! After the lunch we walked to the stand of the Scandinavian Tobacco Group where pipes of brands like Winslow, Peterson, Butz Choquin, Stanwell and Dunhill are displayed. Soon a lady came asking if we wanted a cup of coffee (yes please!) and while we sipped that away we looked at the shown pipes. To be honest there was not much new. Butz Choquin (sorry to say but masters of bad taste) had some new awful plastic looking colourful pipes and I think that was about it. Ok, at least they try to bring something new. But it all was a bit.. Soulless.. Despite the wonderful pipes Mr. Winslow makes.

Kohlhase & Kopp

Kohlhase & Kopp

Talking about soulless, German tobacco manufacturer Kohlhase & Kopp also radiates that. They have wonderful brands in pipes and tobaccos like Rattrays, Ashton, Sillem’s, Solani and Robert McConnell but inside their large stand no one cares about you. The pipes, cigars and tobacco are nicely displayed but there is no interaction with employees. It all looks and feels a bit cold and snobbish.. However, they did have tins of the “new” Dunhill Dark Flake and Ye Olde Signe offerings. But no one around to ask for a sample. On to Vauen, they had a new pipe which looked like typical Austrian or Bavarian smoking pipes. I actually liked the model but that can be because of my love for Austria. Of course all the amazing looking Auenland pipes were prominently displayed. On the way to yet another hall we passed the Falcon stand. The guy there was a bit disappointed when he discovered we were not salesmen. Sorry, I am just a humble blogger! The loose Falcon bowls were pretty nice, but the stems looked kind of plastic-like.

No, no jokes about this girl and her sucking abilities

No, no jokes about this girl and her sucking abilities

We immediately noticed we entered the hall of the shishas because of the typical faintly sweet odour hanging there. Remarkable was 1. that it was the busiest hall (busier than the E-smoke one!) and 2. it contained the youngest visitors by far. Perhaps this was due to the presence of many beautiful ladies praising and demonstrating the shown wares. I admit, I was too much a coward to ask these beauties if I could take a picture of them. Luckily Jan was much braver, took my camera, asked the ladies and snapped some shots. He never smoked a shisha so we went looking for a nice place to smoke one. But it was so busy everywhere that that plan did not work out. Apparently the crazier the better goes for the world of shishas. Walking through the hallways we saw some “interesting” looking ones shaped like dildos (sadly no girl to demonstrate them..), tommy-guns and glittery kalashnikovs (for the smoking jihadist?) and gas masks.

Snus

Snus

After walking through the E-smoke hall (nothing special there for me) we tried to have a conversation with Elbert Gubbels again. But he still was too busy which I took as a good sign. So on we went to the huge stand of MacBaren. There Per Jensen, the product manager of MacBaren, recognized me. We shook hands and beside him stood a basket filled with small flashy looking round boxes. Apparently there was some kind of snus inside made by MacBaren in cooperation with another company. Per opened one and inside the box were what seemed little tea-bags filled with tobacco. I had to place one in my mouth between my cheek and gums, which I did. The first minutes it was quite enjoyable until the point the juices started flowing. My cheek began to have a burning feeling and I got the hiccups because of the vast quantities of nicotine getting into my system. I hurried to take the bag out of my mouth and was glad Per quickly arranged a refreshing glass of water. Nope, not for me this..

img_5425The 3 of us sat down inside the stand where Per asked if we wanted a cocktail. A cocktail? Here? Well, uhm, yes please! He mentioned for a waitress to come and I ordered a Highball (never had one but it sure tasted good!) and Jan a No Sex On The Beach. Then I asked Per what was new at MacBaren. There were some new Amphora offerings which grabbed my attention because originally Amphora is a Dutch brand which was made by Douwe Egberts. Two of them (Amphora Special Reserve No. 2 and No. 8) were typical Danish aromatics, and did not pique my interest. The other one did because it was a pure Virginia, hence the name: Amphora Virginia. I really hope this blend will be on sale in The Netherlands. There are not so many pure Virginia blends left here.. Per gifted me a pouch which I will open soon.

img_5426Then we talked about tobacco laws and regulations (the new stricter European rules and the American FDA legislation) and how it affects MacBaren. In Europe they can no longer sell heavily flavoured shag tobacco. But being the inventive Danes that they are they found a way around. For example, the pouch has a certain colour, let us say, apple green. Then on the pouch it says “appeal #12” (no fruit names etc. can be used). Sounds a bit like “apple” right? Then you can buy loose flavourings in the same colour as the pouch, also #12 and it is called “apple”. Apply the flavouring onto the tobacco et voilà! About the States Per was a little more sombre. If the FDA rules go through they will lose a really large part of their turnover. Because MacBaren mostly sells loose tobaccos to tobacconists there who can then mix their own blends. But with the new regulations that is forbidden. But as the always positive Per said: new rules mean new chances.

img_5423Towards the end of the afternoon Brian finally joined us. He looked a bit groggy out of his eyes, the whisky-tasting went very well obviously. We talked about all kinds of things while I felt the Highball kicking in. Brian asked what Jan liked to smoke (Virginia) on which a tin of HH Pure Virginia and Capstan Gold were presented to my flabbergasted fellow Dutchman. Just as I was getting a bit sober the fair closed for the day. Brian invited us to grab a beer at his nearby hotel so we walked with him. On the way we bumped into Bob Gregory who almost screamed “Arno! Do not go with him!” at me. On which Brian discreetly showed his middle finger. At the hotel bar we chatted away while feasting on real German beer and before we knew it Brian had to leave because he had dinner elsewhere.

El Greco

El Greco

Dinner, that sounds nice, Jan and I thought. Last year I ate at an excellent Greek restaurant in a German place called Herne. But I could 1. not remember the town and 2. the name of the restaurant. Luckily on the highway my infallible photographic memory *ahem* finally kicked in when I saw the “Herne” sign. In the town-centre I searched on my navigation device for Greek sounding restaurants. 5 places and half an hour later we still did not find the damn restaurant.. With his last internet-data Jan looked on his mobile phone for “Greek restaurants”. The first name that popped up was “El Greco“, we drove to the address and lo and behold; it was the place of last year! Needless to say I was a happy man and also Jan when he tasted the superb Greek food and saw the friendly curvaceous waitress. Once again it was a good day.

I would like to thank Jan for his company, during the ride and the walks through the halls we had some really interesting conversations. By the way, if you want to enlarge the pictures in the gallery below, right mouse-click and then press “look at image” (the first option).

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Christmas time in Cologne

cologne-christmas-market-1Around Christmas time a lot of cities and towns in Germany have the long time tradition of the Christmas market. Last year Ellen and myself wanted to go to the big city of Cologne, but the weather-forecast was so bad that we stayed home. However, now things looked fine enough so we decided to go. Every year, the city centre of Cologne is touched by the (commercial) magic of the festivities in the run-up to Christmas. When the Christmas markets in Cologne open their gates on the last Monday before Advent, millions (!) of visitors from around the world delight at the (often expensive) goods on sale at the quaintly designed huts (or “Buden”). I must say, Christmas music, arts and crafts, toys, Christmas decorations and the scent of the Christmas bakeries all create a wonderful atmosphere. Pewter pourers, wreath binders and glass-blowers demonstrate their art and the aroma of mulled wine, hot chestnuts and gingerbread fills the air.

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Christmas market in front of Cathedral

And yes, Christmas MarketS, there are several scattered throughout the vast city centre. Like the one in front of the impressive backdrop of Cologne’s landmark, the Cathedral, with 150 attractively designed wooden pavilions and a stage where children’s choirs and so can perform. Or the oldest Christmas market, held on the Neumarkt with an angel theme. These are one of the highlights here. Dressed in white and sprinkling glitter powder they waft through the alleys spreading good ol’ jolly Christmas cheer (no not the tobacco…). Once a week, Santa Claus, together with an angel, makes his grand entry onto the Neumarkt on horseback. The lucky bastard! But probably the most attractive Christmas market is the one on the Alter Markt in front of Cologne’s city hall with a gnome theme. Legend has it that the Heinzelmännchen (house gnomes) performed all sorts of different jobs for the locals of Cologne: they prepared the sausages for the butcher, sewed the clothes for the tailor baked the bread for the baker etc. So the winding alleys of the “house gnomes Christmas market” are themed just like the guilds of days past. From treats, toys and items to waken that feeling of nostalgia to handicrafts and Christmas products.

ArghBut Ellen and myself did not come only for the Christmas markets, we wanted to visit some museums and the Cathedral. You know, sniff some culture in stead of tobacco. Talking about the latter, of course I also wanted to stop by a couple of tobacco shops. The journey to Cologne went smooth, we started off with some rain but as we neared our destination the weather improved and we even saw some rays of sunlight! In fact, it was pretty hot for December standards, 15°C! At first I wanted to park the car near one of the museums but since the store of Peter Heinrichs is located close to the edge of the centre we opted to look for a parking spot there. Driving in busy city centres is mostly nerve wrecking for me so I was glad I found a parking garage at the Neumarkt. But it was closed! Arrghh! After a few minutes of evading pedestrians and bicyclers in the small streets we found a smaller parking garage with only 3 places left. Luckily I was there just in time before some German motorists, sorry guys!

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Inside Peter Heinrichs

Peter Heinrichs was our first stop, pretty easy to find beside the Hahnenstraße. It was nice to see this shop since I have been several times in his bigger store in Bergheim, pipe-smoking valhalla! From the front the Cologne-shop did not seem big, however, from the inside it seemed a lot larger. The wall-cabinets were fully stocked with all kinds of pipes and in the middle of the store stood a large table complete with all of the Peter Heinrichs house-tobaccos. First thing I noticed were the large number of of employees, almost more than there were customers! Second thing I noticed was the warm smile and silent welcome of Peter Heinrichs himself, he was busy on the phone. Almost immediately I was greeted by an employee with the question if he could be of assistance. No thank you, I just wanted to look around, which was fine. Then another employee asked if we would like a cup of coffee. Yes please! While sipping on the hot dark liquid I asked the first employee if he had a tin of Peter Heinrichs Nr. Nr…… 30? The one with curlies… “And a bit of latakia.” The man quickly answered. He fetched a tin from behind. I wanted to fill the corncob I brought with me with some aromatic. “Do you have something with vanilla?” I asked. Immediately the employee recommended one of the house blends. I smelled it and asked if he had a blend with even more vanilla. Also a direct answer here and I filled my pipe with a pleasant sweet mixture. The knowledge of the employee was pretty impressive, I mean, they have about 170 house blends! Peter Heinrichs himself must give them one hell of an education!

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Inside Peter Heinrichs

I also was looking for a tasty plug. Once again the employee was helpful and produced a bag of the well-known Curly Block. “Ehmm.. That is a curly, not a plug.” I answered. “I mean (while making square movements with my hands) a square piece of pressed tobacco.” The employee rushed to the front of the store and fetched a plug of Peter Heinrichs Reserve Crue No.6. That was more like it! On the upper floor of the shop were cigars and I could not resist the temptation to ask if they had my favourite cigar: My Father Cigars La Antiguedad. Immediately I was guided into the (surprisingly large) climate-room and yessss… A box of the rolled tobacco leaves was produced. But I only took two. I smoke cigars in summertime and a whole box is just too much (and too expensive) for me. I thanked the employee for his help, paid for the goods and we were on our merry way again.

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Painting inside the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum

It was time for some culture so we walked to one of the big museums in Cologne, the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum. It houses an art gallery with a collection of fine art from the medieval period to the early 20th century from painters like Vincent van Gogh, Peter Paul Rubens and Hieronymus Bosch. We started in the lower level of the building where there was an exhibition of Godfried Schalcken, mostly portraits with candlelight. Because of that the rooms were sparsely lighted and everything was really quiet. Until my mobile phone began to loudly rang. Arghh!! I dug it up from one of my pockets, immediately turned off the hellish noise and silently apologized myself.. One of the fun things about museums for me is to discover paintings with pipes or pipe-smokers in them. And I can say, I found several in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum. I am not going to say where and which ones, find it out yourself.

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Busy crowd before the cathedral

Next stop was the eternal landmark of Cologne, the cathedral. Although I saw it from the inside several times now (I’ve been in Cologne a couple of times before) it never fails to impress me. The enormous space inside, the stained glass windows etc. All really beautiful. What is also beautiful is the Cathedral treasury which one can reach from the side of the big building. Here all kinds of religious artefacts are displayed under which the famous wooden sarcophagus of the Three Kings (the gilded one is placed above and behind the main cathedral altar). Quite fitting was that I brought a tin of Cornell and Diehl’s We Three Kings with me, the Christmas blend from last year. I held it up to the sarcophagus and asked the holy remains of the three wise men to bless the tin. Afterwards it still tasted the same.. A good but not remarkable blend of red Virginia, bright Virginia and Katirini orientals with flavours of allspice, cinnamon and vanilla.

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Salvador Dali’s La Gare de Perpignan

Behind the cathedral is the Museum Ludwig which houses a collection of modern art. It includes works from Pop Art, Abstract and Surrealism and has one of the largest Picasso collections in Europe. It also features many works by Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. To be honest, I am not a fan of modern art but Ellen loves it. However, there is one painting there which changed my life. Many years ago as a boy I visited the Museum Ludwig on a school-trip. Uninterested I strolled through the hallways of the museums from room to room until I saw a large painting which impressed the hell out of me: Salvador Dali’s La Gare de Perpignan (Perpignan Train Station). For some reason I still don’t know it spoke to me and I sat down in front of it. It wasn’t until then that I noticed the image of Christ on the cross, floating in the centre of the composition and I just was in awe about how that was integrated in the painting. This changed the way I looked towards art and to this day I am still a huge fan of the works of Salvador Dali.

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Wolsdorff Tobacco

Well, Ellen had her fill so it was time to visit another tobacco-shop. A couple of streets from the Cathedral the Wolsdorff Tobacco GmbH Tabac-Collegium store is located. I now realize that Ellen has a fine nose regarding tobacco-shops. If she wants to wait outside, the store is mwahh, if she goes inside the shop is good. She went for a walk further down across the street so I should have been warned.. Well, warned.. The assortment of the store was fine, nothing to complain. Pipes and tobaccos from a lot of brands  galore. Like most German pipe tobacco shops they have their own brand which means the same blends as every other tobacconist, only with a different label. Also on a shelf were some Samuel Gawith tobaccos and my opinion is that a pipe-smoker never can have enough of that excellent English brand. I saw a tin of Perfection (the favourite blend of Samuel Gawith’s Bob Gregory) and asked the lady behind the counter if I could have one. “Perfection? Samuel Gawith?” “Yes, brand is Samuel Gawith, blend name is Perfection.” I answered. She looked at me questioning and asked another lady behind the counter: “Do we have a blend called Perfection?” The other lady shook her head. “No.” I had enough of it and pointed with a forced smile to the tin on the shelf about a meter from the lady. “Oooh sorry!” *sighs* I also bought a tin of the great Bothy Flake from the Kearvaig Pipe Club, good to see that one on sale in Germany.

Sadly I did not find these lovely figures..

Sadly I did not find these lovely figures..

Darkness was falling rapidly so we headed to the Christmas market on the Alter Markt in front of Cologne’s city hall. On a picture when I was looking up info about the Cologne Christmas Markets I saw a stand there that sold wooden Sherlock Holmes figures with a pipe in the mouth. Although the market looked absolutely wonderful we did not see everything of it and I did not find the stand. Problem was that it was very, very, very busy. I hardly could take a look at the wares sold and we had to shuffle and squeeze our way through the vast crowd.

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Yummie!!!

So we went to look for a restaurant where we could sit down and eat something. And preferably smoke of course. The latter would not be problem since the wind had gone down and it was… Warm outside! A bit strange for the end of December but ok. Sitting down proved to be more difficult, every time we found a table folks sat down at it before we could reach it .. Grrrr… Suddenly Ellen saw an empty table at a restaurant opposite the Christmas Market. We rushed over there and yessss, we finally could sit down. It was an Austrian style restaurant called Servus with waiters walking in traditional “Lederhosen“. I filled up one of my corncobs with Dan Tobacco’s Sweet Vanilla Honeydew while we waited for the foods and drinks. I learned that German (and Dutch) people appreciate the smell of that one. What smelled (and tasted) even better was the 300 gram steak on my plate! Yummie!!! Ellen had some kind of sausage with mashed potatoes. All by all we ate wonderfully for little money, one of the things I love about Germany. Afterwards the way back home also went smooth. The day had been great with lots of culture, fine foods and drinks and good tobaccos!

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Arno_kerst_2015

UPDATE 4-11-2016:
Today I sadly heard that Peter Heinrichs passed away. Also see this link. May he rest in peace.

Zestful Zutphen 2015

Store of Willem Schimmel

Store of Willem Schimmel

On a warm and sunny June Sunday it was once again time for the annual Zutphen meeting of the Dutch/Belgian Pipe Smokers Forum. Unfortunately like last year my good friend (and part time driver) Ed could not make it, it was his birthday. Also it turned out once again that the original date was the day after the Fortarock festival and for quite a few visiting forum members a meeting after a day of metal and beer was just too much. So once again I waited on the train (I live in a tiny village but somehow it managed to have an intercity train-station!) praying it would arrive at all, on time and get me safe in Zutphen. With the Dutch railways you never know.. Luckily it did all that and when I walked out of the station building in my place of destination I bumped, like last year, into Freek. “Oh, you here again?” Some things never change. Together we walked through the old streets to the store of Willem Schimmel.

IMG_2197At 11 o’clock sharp we entered the shop, precisely on time. It was not too busy yet so I had enough time to greet Willem and his staff after which I climbed the stair to the smoking lounge on the floor. I fell into a chair and noticed a new face, Hans, who looked pretty tired. It turned out he had just worked a night-shift and then came to the meeting. No wonder! But a nice man to talk to, I hope to see him at a next meeting. After chatting away with some people I decided to look downstairs where I saw some new Tsuge pipes that had just came into the store. I already saw those at the Inter Tabac last year and I was still amazed at how small they were. I mean, it was optimistic to think that smoking some of those pipe would last 15-minutes. However, because I got some explanation by the Tsuge salesman I was able to tell someone of Willem’s staff that with a certain model you had to screw off the bowl and fill the space beneath with tobacco. Why? Because it then functions as a filter.

Further below like every year stood Mr. Josef Nöring with his wife. He always has very nice high end pipes (Wallenstein, L’Anatra etc.) but sadly too pricey for my budget. I just bought some tobacco and… some cigars. Huh? Cigars? Traitor! No.. I have no interest or ambition whatsoever to know a lot about cigars (I just learned the difference between a short filler and long filler so go figure..). But last year I had a mini-meeting at Willem and at the same time there was this dude who knew really a lot about cigars. Being naturally curious I asked if he could pick out 4 (not too expensive) ones for me so I could venture a bit in the world of rolled tobacco sticks. From those 4, after smoking them, one (the most expensive..) stood out: My Father Cigars La Antiguedad. So I bought a couple of those more so I could enjoy them at warm summer evenings. Mr Pease already said this once, but cigars are just designed for hot climates. They definitely are not made to smoke indoors in my house. Once I smoked such a cigar in the small living room and had to apologize to Ellen because the room literally looked blue with smoke.. Whoops..

On the right the elder gentleman

On the right the elder gentleman

When I was below an elder gentleman holding a pipe entered the store. Apparently he saw the shop was opened and he needed to buy some tobacco. While in essence it was a closed meeting Willem thought like, well, business is business! I talked to the man, he had never heard of the forum and asked for a contact card. Ehrr.. I did not have one on me so I just wrote the internet address on a small piece of paper. The pipe of the man was interesting, it had a white dot on the mouthpiece. So or a Dunhill or a Vauen. I was allowed to look at the bottom of the pipe, it was a Dunhill Shell from 1972. “Ah, that could be correct!” said the man, “I believe I bought that one in 1973. How did you see that so fast?” Well.. Ehm.. I am a bit of Dunhill nerd so.. I also asked what he liked to smoke to which he answered that he liked latakia. So for the most part the Dunhill tobaccos that contained the dark leaf. Quickly I grabbed my tin of GL Pease Odyssey and let him smell it. He put up big eyes and made approving noises. “If you become a member of the forum and tell what you think of the blend you may keep the tin.” I said. He thankfully nodded and shook my hand.

Me with the fez of Jos

Me with the fez of Jos

A new face to a forum-meeting was Frisian pipe-maker Meindert. Because of his health it was a bit shaky if he could make it (a 2 hour drive) but his daughter had come with him and drove the distance. It really was good to see and talk to him and I think he thoroughly enjoyed the whole meeting experience. I almost forgot I owned him a tin of tobacco but Meindert is the type of man that reminds you of that. Earlier he refurbished one of my Dunhills and the tobacco was his payment. I did not even need to ask what he wanted, “A tin of that new Peterson St. Patrick’s Day please!” So I got it for him. On the first floor I sat down for a while and chatted a bit with Mark when Willem came along with a fez which obviously belonged to Jos. Jokingly he put it on my head while Mark snapped a picture. It came out rather nice!

In the late afternoon at the end of the meeting it was time to eat. Willem had arranged a BBQ at Fort Bronsbergen in the Zutphen countryside. Luckily I could ride along with Rob(bie-San) and we took Pascal with us. After a bit of a detour (Rob his Garmin GPS device had other thoughts about the route) we arrived together with Jos. The friendly lady behind the bar guided us outside to the big wooden terrace on which we had a stunning view of the surroundings: a little lake with lots of green around it. Unfortunately when it came to drinks the choice was a bit limited. Rob could not drink a heavy beer because he had to drive and the only pilsner they had was Heineken. Ehrr… No, no sewage water please. “Do you have Coca Cola then?” he asked. Nope, just Pepsi. Rob buried his face in his hands and made crying noises. Luckily for him they had a brand of Weißbier and for me there was one excellent Belgian beer: Affligem Dubbel. On the good side, we were outside so we could smoke! Also, thanks to Rob I tried my first bit of snuff, some mint flavoured one from Pöschl. A not unpleasant experience.

The BBQ was not really a BBQ but (sometimes pre-grilled) meat on a hot plate. It was ok but only just that. I mean, perhaps I am a nitpicker but at least properly defrost the garlic-butter before serving it, provide a small trash can for bones and clean the hot plate now and then instead of baking all the meat in already charred black fat. I appreciate Willem’s arrangement but next year Rob and I will be eating in the old Zutphen city centre again where there is a restaurant which serves the most delicious spare-ribs. After the BBQ Rob hastily drove me to the station because otherwise I would miss my train. When I stepped on the platform it was already waiting so I quickly hopped on. While I saw the sun going down over the green fields, all by all I could look back at another wonderful day.

I would like to thank Willem, his staff and Mark for organizing the meeting. All pictures were made by Meindert, Paul, Mark and myself.

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