The rumor must be correct !

[Blackhorse]

Threads and conversations like this sure can't be of help, or positive in any way, for them.  Patience and sshhhhhh...

Indeed. Monbla is seriously flawed for starting this. lol.

Really though...I don’t think a discussion about what’s going on will hurt them or their business...likely the opposite. If the business were mine I would never object to having my name widely referred to by potential customers.

 

[monbla256]

Threads and conversations like this sure can't be of help, or positive in any way, for them.  Patience and sshhhhhh...

Indeed. Monbla is seriously flawed for starting this. lol. .

 

I've been seriously flawed my whole life !! :twisted:  But to eep a good RUMOR going here's what SP replied about this :

Hi Michael,

My name is Chris Panos, one of the customer service representatives here at Smoking Pipes. Thank you for your inquiry and your patronage.

They very well may be, but we just don't know. Based on the recent multiple discontinuances, it certainly seems possible, if not likely. Sorry that I couldn't help more, but please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any further questions or concerns.

Best Regards,

Christopher Panos

mmmmmmm :twisted: :twisted:

 

[Blackhorse]

“They very well may be”...WHAT?


Jeez. If yer gonna fuel the gossip fires you gotta at least be clear. lol

PS: by definition this is total guesswork based on hearsay, right?

 

[monbla256]

That's what rumors are, hearsay!! :twisted:  But sadly that is what 21st century truth is now days ! :twisted: :twisted:

 

[Fazby]

Well, you guys put this on the internet, so it MUST be true. There is never any disinformation on the web.

 

[Fight'n Hampsters]

I have confirmation that GL Pease is going to cease production, so quit buying their tobacco.

Also, any aged tins in your cellar must be returned for quality control purposes. They want you to send them all to one central clearing house location to be inspected. Luckily the location is my home address.

PM me and I will send you the address.

Sad day in the tobacco world. He also happens to make most of my favorite blends. What a shame.

 

[monbla256]

Well, you guys put this on the internet, so it MUST be true.  There is never any disinformation on the web.

It's the truth of the 21st century ! If it's not on the web it can't be true!! :twisted: :twisted:

 

[riff raff]

I know two guys in the business and both say you'll never get a straight story out of Mike, and no one but him knows what he is doing to do. (He's apparently been "going to close the business" for many years). One day, he may just follow thru, we'll be the 2nd to know.

 

[Old Nate]

One thing I thought of, maybe McClelland is just streamlining production, cutting back a bit... they had so many blends, perhaps this will end up being a very good thing.

However, some of the blends they seem to be discontinuing are in my opinion some of their more popular products. I don't know, I try to keep a positive outlook on the situation, things could be worse, I guess.

 

[jefe1037]

Popularity of blends is hard to gauge. We talk about certain ones that appeal to our educated palates, and turn our nose up at overly-topped aromatics, but my guess is we are off on our assumptions.

Compare to beer: if you go by the forums and review sites, Hoppy IPAs and Imperial Stouts top the lists, but the fact of the matter is that Bud-Miller-Coors still dominate the market.

Back to tobacco: it wouldn't surprise me that hard to find Red Virginia leaf was costing them an arm and a leg, and while a component in their most "acclaimed" blend, the cash is to be made elsewhere. Fewer and fewer people are growing tobacco. In Kentucky, Virginia and the Carolinas, people are pulling up crops so they can plant something that still gets the federal subsidy money.

Tobacco is produce: when tomatoes are coming in season, they are plentiful, high quality and cheap all at the same time. Have you ever had a winter blackberry? Triple the price, crunchy, bitter and tasteless. Tobacco is "out of season." Supply is down, cost is up, and quality suffers.

The mass consumption of tobacco is going out of style in the first world. We will be left with a niche luxury market (hopefully). We will have to lament the loss of some of our favorites, just as we saw Syrian Latakia fade away. Hopefully, a few quality growers, and producers will stay the course. Pipe tobacco seems to play second fiddle to Cigars in the current luxury market, but because of the "stuff" that goes with it (pipes, mainly) there is profit to be made by retailers. Snuff and quality RYO should fit in here, too, but they lack the paraphernalia. I don't know the fate of chewing tobacco because of its more pedestrian reputation.

All in all, we already have compulsions to hoard as much tobacco as possible. This is an effective defense mechanism. Keep fighting the good fight.

 

[Ozark Wizard]

My question is this,

When you store/age tobacco, you do it for some time. I measure by years. It has been claimed that McClelland's would store theirs for years. A bad crop in 2017 should take years to show up in the product. Am I off base here? 2017 Christmas Cheer, and previous versions, were from crops aquired years in advance, and then processed and tinned. Logic dictates that years does not equal a couple of months. Maybe I use an old math calendar. But when I read 5100 was aged in cakes, sliced and rubbed, I didn't think that meant Wednesday you got the leaf and Saturday night it's being sold.

Now I know I'm small time, and lack a lot of experience that others have made a career of, but words are words, time is time, and facts are facts. At least in my little world.

The FDA thing is going to make **** hard on these guys, as Russ has pointed out. Maybe bulk tobacco is to hard to control. Hard to label with dead baby pictures and such. I get it. Maybe McClelland will have to resort to packaging all their products and no bulks to play with for the brick and mortar guys. My bottom line is, what happened to the previous years tobacco? If 2017 Christmas Cheer was a 2012 crop, then is 40th anniversary from 2013? So what of 2014, 15, 16? Did Sutliff or C&D buy it out from under Mike? I'm just saying something is out of tune in the orchestra.

 

[jefe1037]

Tobacco was deregulated in 2004 and the payouts expired in 2014. The number of acres has decreased steadily over and since this period. I think this might be more causal than weather.

 

[JimInks]

I have lived in North Carolina for over 40 years and in that time, I have seen a lot of places that used to grow tobacco not growing tobacco. Some of those farms, big or small, have buildings there now. Some are empty fields and some grow other crops. Once, it seemed like I could hardly go very far, even in the outskirts of cities as I was driving towards the country without seeing tobacco. That's changed to some extent, sad to say.

 

[monbla256]

I have lived in North Carolina for over 40 years and in that time, I have seen a lot of places that used to grow tobacco not growing tobacco. Some of those farms, big or small, have buildings there now. Some are empty fields and some grow other crops. Once, it seemed like I could hardly go very far, even in the outskirts of cities as I was driving towards the country without seeing tobacco. That's changed to some extent, sad to say.

I had an uncle whose family were tobacco farmers in North Carolina for almost 4 generations and 8 years ago, my cousins sold the farm and now there is a shopping mall where I spent summers in tobacco fields! Time marches on!! :twisted: :twisted:

 

[monbla256]

OOPS :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

 

[Blackhorse]

OOPS :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

???

 

[Zeno Marx]

Everyone wants to directly, and only, blame regulations, but had the tobacco industry not been such a sinister lot, they very likely would have not become a whipping post practically only rivaled by actual crime and sentencing. Sure, western culture is a lot more health conscious these days, so tobacco wasn't going to get a pass, but it's an easy out made a lot easier an out because of how it went about business. Unfortunately, the good guys, and admirable businesses, get thrown out with the filthy bathwater. Guilt by association.

The virginia crop must have been decimated at some point. I can't believe how many sellers are sold out of blends, of all makers, cored by quality virginias.