If you could only smoke one blend...

[bullet08]

As much as I would love to name some of my favorite blends, or just one, I know it's Marlboro Light (aka Gold).

 

[wolflarsen]

#7 Broken Flake
Ask me tomorrow and I might say Ennerdale or Frog Cellar

 

[judcole]

This has, indeed, been discussed multiple times.
I am not, and could not be, a "smoke one thing for the rest of your days" kind of pipe smoker. That would be like eating just one thing.
YMMV.

 

[Gimlet]

I think we've been conditioned by modern life to expect a level of choice which previous generations would have found bewildering. I knew plenty of pipe smokers 40 or 50 years ago who only smoked one blend, mainly because they had to pick a favourite from what was available, often from a shop within walking distance. They didn't have the internet and on-line ordering or much money.

There was an old boy who lived across the road from our house back in the '70s who smoked exclusively Three Nuns. He didn't drive a car and rarely left the village. There were many people like him. He bought his tobacco and his food from the village shop. The old post mistress ordered in the blends preferred by her regulars and set their quota aside, which most of them bought on credit along with their groceries and paid at the end of the week when their pension or wages landed.
My grandfather, who was relatively well off, also smoked one blend most of the time, two at the most, which he purchased locally. He had a bureau in the sitting room where he kept a stash of tins and jars.
Even in the '90s before smoking was banned in pubs in the UK, I remember at least four pipe smokers who always smoked the same blend. For one it was St Bruno flake, for another Condor ready rubbed. Another smoked Gold Block and another Erinmore (God knows why..).
My first job when I was 16 was labouring on a farm. My employer, a heavily bearded and irascible landed gent with a club foot ran his little empire from a dusty office above the grain store. A trip up the wooden staircase when summoned by the "old man" was a memorable experience. It was swelteringly hot in there and the air a blue haze from the smoke of Balkan Sobrani which he seemed to smoke continuously and which arrived by the case through the post from London.

The headmaster of the village primary school back in the 70's smoked Gold Block and only Gold Block. He even smoked his pipe in class. He would buy it one tin at a time from from the shop in the village. Often, if he found himself running short when he went to fill his pipe during a maths lesson (yes really..) a 50p coin and a covering note was placed in an envelop and one of the older pupils (I was given the job many times) was dispatched to the shop for fresh supplies.
In the little wooden hut where we had woodwork lessons there was a cupboard completely stuffed with neatly stacked Gold Block tins, all carefully labeled, which contained, screws, tack and panel pins etc.

It never occurred to any of these old stalwarts to keep half a dozen blends on the go at once and there was no talk of rotating pipes. Most for the majority of the time just smoked one which lived in their jacket pocket and when it was finished they tapped in out and stuffed it again.

 

[bluegrassbrian]

If there are no rules regarding the availability of said blend, or whether it's even still in production..
Just one? Jeez what a world.

I can't believe. I'm going to say this but it may actually be a C&D product - Steamworks.
There's just something about that stuff that yanks my crank just right.

 

[rsshreck32]

I think we've been conditioned by modern life to expect a level of choice which previous generations would have found bewildering. I knew plenty of pipe smokers 40 or 50 years ago who only smoked one blend, mainly because they had to pick a favourite from what was available, often from a shop within walking distance. They didn't have the internet and on-line ordering or much money.

There was an old boy who lived across the road from our house back in the '70s who smoked exclusively Three Nuns. He didn't drive a car and rarely left the village. There were many people like him. He bought his tobacco and his food from the village shop. The old post mistress ordered in the blends preferred by her regulars and set their quota aside, which most of them bought on credit along with their groceries and paid at the end of the week when their pension or wages landed.
My grandfather, who was relatively well off, also smoked one blend most of the time, two at the most, which he purchased locally. He had a bureau in the sitting room where he kept a stash of tins and jars.
Even in the '90s before smoking was banned in pubs in the UK, I remember at least four pipe smokers who always smoked the same blend. For one it was St Bruno flake, for another Condor ready rubbed. Another smoked Gold Block and another Erinmore (God knows why..).
My first job when I was 16 was labouring on a farm. My employer, a heavily bearded and irascible landed gent with a club foot ran his little empire from a dusty office above the grain store. A trip up the wooden staircase when summoned by the "old man" was a memorable experience. It was swelteringly hot in there and the air a blue haze from the smoke of Balkan Sobrani which he seemed to smoke continuously and which arrived by the case through the post from London.

The headmaster of the village primary school back in the 70's smoked Gold Block and only Gold Block. He even smoked his pipe in class. He would buy it one tin at a time from from the shop in the village. Often, if he found himself running short when he went to fill his pipe during a maths lesson (yes really..) a 50p coin and a covering note was placed in an envelop and one of the older pupils (I was given the job many times) was dispatched to the shop for fresh supplies.
In the little wooden hut where we had woodwork lessons there was a cupboard completely stuffed with neatly stacked Gold Block tins, all carefully labeled, which contained, screws, tack and panel pins etc.

It never occurred to any of these old stalwarts to keep half a dozen blends on the go at once and there was no talk of rotating pipes. Most for the majority of the time just smoked one which lived in their jacket pocket and when it was finished they tapped in out and stuffed it again.

I do agree with much of what you're saying. As a fairly new pipe smoker, I have no idea what it would be like to not have hundreds maybe thousands of blends available to me. Plus they are constantly in front of me through email, social media, and websites. At the same time, there is something different about pipe tobacco in comparison to other tobacco varieties. I used to chew Copenhagen Long Cut (for about 15 years). I may try something different once in a while, but I would never have had a day where Cope Long Cut wasn't in my mouth. For me, I think it's a difference between an addiction and a hobby/relaxation technique/adventure into the unknown.

 

[Gimlet]

I do agree with much of what you're saying. As a fairly new pipe smoker, I have no idea what it would be like to not have hundreds maybe thousands of blends available to me. Plus they are constantly in front of me through email, social media, and websites. At the same time, there is something different about pipe tobacco in comparison to other tobacco varieties. I used to chew Copenhagen Long Cut (for about 15 years). I may try something different once in a while, but I would never have had a day where Cope Long Cut wasn't in my mouth. For me, I think it's a difference between an addiction and a hobby/relaxation technique/adventure into the unknown.

I'm sure that if pipe smokers in the past had the array of choice available to them that we have today, many would have availed themselves of it. But i don't think a sometimes addictive habit necessarily becomes any less an addiction and more of a hobby when the substance in question is available if a wider range of varieties. In fact the opposite may be the case.

Having considered the question since starting this thread, based on what I've tried so far I'm sticking with my initial choice of Solani ABF. However, if it was the only blend I could smoke, while I doubt I'd give it up so long as I still enjoyed it, I know I would smoke less of it and less often to sustain that enjoyment.
In so many areas of modern life, whether it's food, drink, digital devices and products, television watching etc, availability and breadth of choice feeds consumption while paucity may be more likely to encourage self-restraint. Maybe we are literally spoiled for choice. Or spoiled by it.

 

[Sigmund]

Im not gonna pick. The question is too difficult. Id just roll the dice and whatever came up that would be it. Then Id smoke it if I felt like it. If I had to narrow the field it would probably be a VaPer

 

[Gimlet]

If I had to narrow the field it would probably be a VaPer

That was my first instinct too. There's a couple I smoke, my favourite probably being Peterson's Elizabethan. But the burley flake is milder, keeps very well and (apparently - I haven't tried yet) ages extremely well.
It is indeed a very tough choice.

 

[timt]

If I had to smoke 1 blend, meaning I had no other choice? If I stick to my guns, buy no more tobacco and smoke my cellar up, I’ll probably be left finally smoking that jar of 1Q that’s gathering dust.

 

[Sigmund]

@Gimlet I didnt take aging into account. I assumed it would be regularly air dropped with wine and caviar on my desert island. Stop messing with my fantasy

 

[Gimlet]

@Gimlet I didnt take aging into account. I assumed it would be regularly air dropped with wine and caviar on my desert island. Stop messing with my fantasy

No cheese..? You're from France! A bowl of aged burley would go very well with a nice piece of Etorki, vintage Gouda, or old Cheddar.
You need to pick a desert island with a cave.

 

[FurCoat]

You all are going to laugh, but I would go with Low Country Natural Virginia Burley.

 

[Gimlet]

You all are going to laugh, but I would go with Low Country Natural Virginia Burley.

Now I have to try some.

 

[rsshreck32]

Im not gonna pick. The question is too difficult. Id just roll the dice and whatever came up that would be it. Then Id smoke it if I felt like it. If I had to narrow the field it would probably be a VaPer

The lot has been cast...you get Captain Black Grape.

 

[rsshreck32]

Same

Now I have to try some.

 

[Gimlet]

The lot has been cast...you get Captain Black Grape.

Sounds like a substandard blended red wine that comes in a cardboard box. (Memories of drinking Kaizer Stuhl boxed wine in Australia).

 

[Sigmund]

Ripple in a pipe?

I actually tried to drink that once...just to say I did. I think I tossed most of it.

 

[FurCoat]

Now I have to try some.

It's not a complex blend and is an easy going blend. Just my opinion, it's underrated. I will say that it is ok fresh but ages very well. A couple of weeks in the jar for me and it's ready to go. After that it just keeps getting better. I buy pounds of the stuff when it's on sale. Are you able to get it in England?

 

[PA Piper Mike]

The whole "if you had to choose just 1" question is bizarre to me. With the amount of tobacco that many of us on here have, and considering there are quite a few that never have to buy any tobacco ever again, kinda negates the possibility of ever having to choose just 1 to smoke for the rest of your life. It's such a wild fantasy scenario, like what would be the 1st 10 things I'd buy if I hit Powerball? It's fun to think about, but we all know it'll never happen. But in this case, it's not even fun to think about only smoking 1 tobacco the rest of our lives lol!

BUT....I'll still play along. If I HAD to choose only 1 going forward, (and acquiring was not an issue) then I'd have to go with ABF. If we are going along with current availability of things, since ABF is tough to come by, then I would go with Mac Baren Plumcake. I don't smoke it all that much, but I could easily smoke that all day, everyday...IF I had to.

Maybe a more realistic question might be, what would be the 1 blend you would stock up the most on...I mean to the point you start dipping into the rainy day savings account or consider taking out a 2nd mortgage on the house....if you found out that your favorite blend (or blender/brand, a la McClelland or Dunhill) was going to be discontinued tomorrow, and you had the opportunity to stock up with pounds of it? For that scenario, it would be GLP, specifically Quiet Nights and Spark Plug. My reaction to losing GLP would be: