HCraven":nksg4lex said:
Sutliff has been pretty good about taking care of loyal smokers, as well as trying to get a few new ones. In that respect especially, I think their recent acquisition by Mac Baren is a good fit: they're both very customer driven.
I admit I don't typically go looking for new aromatics to try, and I wasn't even aware of EGR's blend until last year. It looks intriguing, though there's always that nagging fear because of Mixture 79's reputation. Given your ringing endorsement (and ruffinogold's; did you send him a sample?) however, I may be persuaded to give it a shot.
By the way,
Pipestud has an old tin of this from Greenfield & Winther on his site right now, if you want to try an earlier vintage.
I think Sutliff has done more to encourage and support the pipe smoking crowd than any other company. They sure treated me with generosity and respect. As an aside, I've read on line about a couple of people who took advantage of the free Private Stock giveaway, and got aromatics instead of non-aromatics. They wrote Sutliff about it, and the company responded by quickly sending out a couple of tins to each person of non-aros. That to me is a company working to please it's base.
I'm not that much into aros either, but I wanted to try EGR because he's obviously one of my favorite actors. I was not sure if I'd even like the blend, and you can imagine how happy I was to discover that I not only like it, but it's become my favorite aro, even over Sir Walter Raleigh Aromatic, which I've smoked off and on for twenty-five years. Sometimes, I'm smoking something else, and I start craving EGR. In almost 40 years of pipe smoking, no blend ever had me doing that until now.
Yes, I sent Ruffinogold a sample of EGR, as I did to several other people. From what I can gather, 4 people have bought tubs of it. I know three of them like it a lot, and I'm waiting to hear what the 4th guy thinks. I sent out samples to seven people. Six really liked it. One guy isn't into aros at all, but he wanted to try it. He thought it was a little too sweet for him, but then again, he's not into aros. But he did say he thought it'd work for anyone who was.
You may know I've tried a lot of different blends over the years and have written a number of reviews at Tobacco Reviews. And if you check my reviews, you'll see I've always tried to be fair and honest. There are some blends I really hated and thought had no redeeming qualities, but there are some that deserve nothing but raves. It's all subjective and depends upon individual tastes, as everybody knows. I like a wide range of genres, and rate everything on the merits of how they compare to other blends in said genre.
That said, I just feel EGR deserves wider attention. We've all seen mixtures discontinued - like Edgeworth Ready Rubbed - and I don't want to see something I intend to smoke for the rest of my life go the way of the dinosaur just because people don't know about it. It may not be to everyone's taste (nothing is), but it's a good tobacco with a lot of flavor.
