nicotiana

Some years ago when in the midst of exploring pipe tobacco, some Esoterica blends came my way. My general opinion on these is that they are quite good and refined but that the patience required to acquire them is often not realistic to expect of oneself. As trends and prices have gone up, many of us have shrugged off the “unobtanium” style blends in favor of that which is abundant and good, of which there are many options.

One tin that came my way was Esoterica Margate, which immediately made an impression as a fusion of the light English with a solid dose of Latakia, making an old school style English blend that has lots of smoky flavor but melts down into an almost candy-like sweetness. I enjoyed it, but found its mild strength off-putting, so mixed in some Cotton Boll Twist and Black Twist Sliced. This improved it a great deal.

All of us can recognize the blasphemy inherent in that. This ornately manicured blend, cut in thin ribbons, now mixed with big chunks of rude and crude high-powered tobacco seems like a rejection of everything that makes it good. Some of us would beg to differ on that point because we recognize that the old school way of pipe smoking was not based on anything but enjoyment.

Back in the day, pipe smokers mixed up their tobacco blends all the time to get what they needed, and frequently shored up weaker blends with stronger leaf or threw in a little aromatic to give a gentle surface flavor to something they otherwise enjoyed. An old school pipe smoker might have mixed Margate up with some Five Brothers (an actual shag, not merely a thin ribbon cut) and then thrown a little cherry tobacco on top. Most likely, he or she did this in the pouch carried with the pipe in which roughly a week of tobacco would reside.

It is part of the fun of having a pipe. You play around with things and find out what works. I will always respect what Esoterica does, and enjoy these blends when I stumble across them, but at the end of the day, there are many good options and part of the joy is the serendipity to find something and enjoy it in the moment, then move on. I smoke the pipe; the pipe does not smoke me.