May 2005
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Tuesday,
June 7th at 7:00 PM
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Meeting
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Club Info & Events
Another Outstanding Meeting
May brought another excellent meeting. Eighteen members showed up
including a couple of folks we haven't seen in a while, even Cyndi was
able to fit us into her hectic schedule. And seeing our 3 newest members
back for another meeting was also very encouraging, glad you all could
make it.
Jack Broderick, who attended last month's meeting also joined our ranks
this month and we'd like to officially welcome him aboard. We're glad
to have you with us and look forward to seeing you at future meetings.
Speaking of which, our next will be held on Tuesday, June 7th, 2005 at
7:00PM.
We all had an opportunity to take part in Phase 2 of the Smokers Haven
tobacco sampling. It's always a treat to sample new tobaccos because you
never know... one of them might just be the perfect blend (for you anyway).
Read on below for a few reviews of these blends
(provided by Dock Perry) and find out what's in store for Phase 3 at the
June meeting.
Dante Canarozzi recently returned from a trip to Amsterdam and gave a
very informative report, complete with postcards, maps and books, of his
visit. Of particular interest were his trips to the local pipe shops and
his many excursions through the red light district. For all the sordid
details you'll have to come to a meeting and ask him yourself.
2005 Club Pipe and Tamper
Money was collected for all of the 2005 Club Pipes made by Mark Tinsky
and the Catnip Hill Tampers. If you wanted a pipe and/or tamper and have
not yet made payment unfortunately you will have to wait for the 2006
club pipe. Tinsky had made 8 pipes and seven were sold to members. The
club agreed to buy the 8th pipe with club funds which will be presented,
donated or raffled off at an appropriate time in the future.
What's in store for the June Meeting?
I've received word from Dock Perry that the tampers are in and they
look great. They will be available at this coming meeting. We hope to
have the Club Pipes by the July meeting.
Bye Bye Bobbie
For
those of you who haven't been to a meeting in a while, next month might
be a good one to attend. Our own Dr. Bob Kiess will be attending his last
meeting before moving to Vermont. Bob has come a long way since he first
started with the club and quickly went from smoking Dr. Graybows to creating
his own line of Dr. Bob's Pipes which he has sold at a number of pipe
shows around the country and seems to be doing quite well. While attending
the March pipe show in New York someone said to me, "Hey, is that a
Kiess?" to which I replied, "Why yes it is!" So he has to be
doing something right. Unfortunately we haven't seen much of Bob since
the smoking ban forced us to change our meeting night to one that's difficult
for Bob to attend but he will be here on June 7th. Colonel, Gavel, Suit,
Decoy, Sterling, Steve Smith (we don't meet on Wednesday's anymore Steve)
and Paul (to name a few), we haven't seen you guys in a while so we hope
you can make it to the meeting to help us wish Bob well as he moves on
to bigger and better things.
Ted Blank recently returned from beautiful "smoke free" Santa Monica, Ca. where smoking is banned pretty much everywhere including the beach, parks and bus stops. He will provided us with a full account of his visit and trips to local pipe shops at this coming meeting.
Smokers Haven Tobacco Tasting - Phase 3
This
month we will be sampling 2 of the last 3 Smoker's Haven blends. Cognac
and In-B-Tween Mixture will be cracked open at the June meeting
with sample bags available to bring some of your favorite home with you.
We will also have what's left from the last two samplings available for
your smoking pleasure. Remember, if you like any of the Smoker's Haven
blends make sure you visit the Smoker's
Haven website and pick some up for yourself. The last 4 cans of tobacco
were pretty moist so unless I hear back from a good number of you, I plan
to dry out these two blends a bit before I bring them on the 7th. Email
me if you object.
The United Pipe Clubs of America - UPCA
We are now official members of the United Pipe Clubs of America. Their
annual meeting is held each year at the Chicagoland Pipe Show. This year
Bob Kiess was our only member that attended the Chicago show and agreed
to represent our club at the meeting (thanks Bob). He will give us all
the details of the UPCA meeting at the June meeting. Membership dues in
past years has been $100 per club, per year and will be paid for with
club funds. If you'd like to find out more about the UPCA you can visit
their website at http://www.upca.org.
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Pipes & Tobacco News & Info National Treasure By Nelson
Pidgeon The
Smoking Blog Cambridge Citizens for Smokers Rights. More smoking news for Massachusetts and around the world. The United Pro Choice Smoker's Rights Newsletter Websites Worth A Look Synjenco's
Pipe Smoker's Haven Heading to Canada for a vacation this summer. Make sure you visit the local pipe shop. Here is a page with links and info to pipes shops in Canada. [Take a look] This Month's Tobacco Raffle For this month's raffle we have two blends from MCConnell.
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Scottish
Flake 
Maduro
Member Contributions
Smoker's Haven Tobacco Reviews By
Dock Perry
Smoker's Haven opened it's doors at it's first location in Columbus
OH in the early 40's. Like it's neighbor Iwan Ries in Chicago IL they
specialize in high end briar pipes,cigars and well respected hand blended
English tobaccos. Originally these were tinned by the famed House of Sobranie
in England and were designed by the store's owner along with it's head
tobacco blender Sid Ritter. These popular blends were produced up until
1983 by then being tinned by England's J.F.Germain & Son's. The reduced
demand for pipe tobacco eventually sealed their fate and they were finally
discontinued. By 2002 new owner Premal Cheda set out to revive these time
honored blends. I've had a chance to sample several with solid results.
Below are my findings...
Best Blend... Virginias, Full Syrian Latakia & Turkish leaf
his one has a wonderful tin aroma though is moist to the point of needing
to be "wrung out". A day spread on a piece of newspaper sufficiently dried
it to a more hospitable level. B.B. is the sort of blend that I've always
gravitated towards. A smooth and rich full English that you can enjoy
from morning to night. It won't make your head spin either, as some in
this genre can. Probably most similar in character to Esoterica's "Margate"
and is a favorite of author Regis McCafferty as well as myself... B.B.
is medium-full in strength and rated * * * * *
out of five stars.
Exotique... Long VA leaf , Latakia & subdued Turkish tobaccos
The very dictionary definition of an oriental tobacco. Rich, complex and
delicious! Upon lighting my mouth was greeted with a rather soapy flavor.
This goes away quickly and settles down to a superbly cool and flavorful
blend slightly reminiscent to my staple weed "Balkan Saseni", though with
less Latakia Too rich to be smoked all day especially in warm summer months.
Moisture in the tin was near 100% and a little over two days was needed
to dry this one out!... Exotique is medium in strength and rated
* * * * out of five stars.
Select Mixture... Virginias, Latakia & Turkish tobaccos
A mild English suitable for those hot summer month when you're looking
to scale back on your Latakia intake. MUCH lighter in character but similar
to "Exotique". Va's sing subtly while the Turkish leaf add a bit of spice.
The Latakia is well in the back ground. If it's presence wasn't apparent
in the tin's aroma you may not even know it's there at all! A bit too
weak for my tastes... Select Mixture is mild in strength and rated *
out of five stars.
A Surprise Package By Dock Perry
I left work early on a sunny afternoon in mid May to wash my car and do some much needed yard work at home. My dad called me there a few hours later to tell me that one of my friends had been in and had left a package for me. Surprised at who it could have been and what they could've left I eagerly waited for his arrival home so I could find out. He brought in the house a large and quite heavy shopping bag and handed it to me. Inside I saw a HUGE plain black binder. Upon opening it I was astonished to see an amount of ephemera relating to pipes like I had never imagined! There were pipe catalogs from the 50's-70's from companies like Erlich's, Iwan Ries, Dunhill and Peretti's. More than this though there were articles from magazines like Esquire and G.Q. from the glory days of pipe smoking in the 60's and comics from Sunday papers featuring pipe themes. There were also human interest stories about pipes and tobaccos and newspaper articles featuring pipesters male AND female. All were matted and painstakingly archived into this amazing volume of lore.
My benefactor called me at work the next day. Paul was a regular attendee of my own pipe club which ran in Connecticut for about a year some time ago before the "anti's" forced us out. I hadn't seen him in quite a while and was quite happy to hear he was doing well. His best friend who had put this book together passed away and willed it to him. As soon as he saw it he knew it was something that I'd love to have and generously made me a gift of it. I never got to meet the man who crafted this book but if I could I'd buy him a scotch, share some tobacco and have a nice conversation with him about the subject obviously near and dear to his heart. Come to think of it, I should take Paul out to lunch soon.
The Red Carpet Smoke Shop By Dante Canarozzi
On Tuesday May 10th, Steve Gutz and I visited the Red Carpet Smoke Shop in Providence, RI. Detailed information about the shop can be found on their website at http://www.redcarpetsmokeshop.com. We had a great time at this wonderful pipe shop located in the heart of downtown Providence adjacent to the Brown University campus. His selection of pipes was quite good and included Dunhills, L'anatra, Viprati, Savinelli, and a some Armellini's to name a few. He even has a few estate pipes. He does not give a discount on the list price and there is a 7% sales tax in RI. He did have some good tobaccos. Steve and I both got some Golden Flake which is similar to Orlik's Golden flake but in longer strands. I got some English blends which he claims to blend in the store: Full dark English and #10 Downing . He also has an English blend that he claims is close to Balkan Sobranie but I was not impressed with the sample in the store. The owner, Eric Chaika, is friendly and very knowledgeable about pipes and tobacco. Well worth the visit !!!! We also had lunch at the old Holiday Inn of Sherlock Holmes Pipe Club fame.
Occasionally I'm
looking for a news item to help fill out this newsletter. So if you have
some interesting
pipe, tobacco or smoking related news, or would like to share your knowledge
on a particular
pipes and tobacco related subject, please send it along and maybe I'll
use it. (Preferably by e-mail).
