Your Absolute Hands Down Favourite Tobacco...

[Tennessee Dave]

Haddo's is my favorite as well. You could do a whole lot worse than trying all of the Pease tobacco's as they really give a good intro to all the flavors out there. You will probably find several that you like and that will become part of your permanent rotation. If you like Haddo's try Barbary Coast as well.

 

[Wet Dottle]

Oh, boy! There are too many in the list and no clear favorite. Lately, GLP Westminster has been taking the cake.

Happy days and happier puffs.

 

[Vito]

We did this over on ASP a few years ago and the hands down favourite from well over 200 of those responding was MacBaren's "Navy Flake"which also happens to be mine too...

What's yours?

Absolute hands down favorite? Of all time? Including weedages that are now extinct? Impossible for me to answer; there's no such thing in VitoSpace. I could do it by category, maybe:

• Burley—Edgeworth Extra High Grade Sliced (EEHGS)...the original, by Larus & Bro. Co. of Richmond, not the version tinned in the EU until it went extinct a few years ago...which was good in its own right, but not close to the original
• Non-Vintage Straight Ginnyweed—Fribourg & Treyer Cut Virginia Plug
• Single-Crop Ginnyweed—McCranie's Red Flake, 1996
• Virginia/Oriental Blend—No contest here...GLP's Embarcadero, by a wide margin
• Balkan English—J.F. Germain Eighteen Twenty
• Balkan English w/Perique—GLP's Nocturne, coming soon to a weedmonger near youse
• Traditional (Maritime) English—GawHogg Coniston Cut Plug
• Hybrid English—PCCA Jubilee 2000
• VaPer—Tavern Tobacco Laurel Flake

Yeah, I know—this could go on for days..."Syrian Latweed/Burleymalt With Extra Hops"...but the point of the list above is not to get anal about weed differentiation. Rather, it's to say that after more than four decades of pipe smoking with a genuine spirit of exploration and thankful appreciation for an abundance of wondrous tobaccos, one comes to realize that the incredible breadth and depth to which blendmeisters have brought the art of weed blending provides limitless opportunities for weedular enjoyment.

To wit, how many tobaccos on the list above are no longer available? Only two, and one of those (Jubilee) occasionally appears in re-release form when demand supports it. One (Nocturne) is not available yet—which bodes well for the future. All the rest are extant. The lesson is clear: Weep not for the "loss" of bygone weedages you never knew you missed, brethren & sistren. "The best" is here and now, and there's more yet to come.

My apologies in advance for not adhering to the spirit of Dock's original post, but the truth is that it's just not possible for me to pick ONE tobacco. Forty or maybe even thirty years ago I might have been able to do it, but the pleasures of abundance and variety have disqualified me from such a task. I'm spoiled by the knowledge that judgments like "better" and "best" become increasingly irrelevant where possibilities multiply to infinity. There's no reason to make such judgments. The smoking experience between, say, EEHGS and Nocturne is of such a vastly different character and quality that I can't imagine choosing one over the other. It's sort of the moral equivalent of asking, "Which would you prefer—food or water?" ...uh, I'll take both, thanks.

None of this is to cast any aspersions on those folks who actually CAN pick an absolute hands-down favorite tobacco, any more than they should pillory those who can't. Let's face it, not all tastes are created equal. Just as there are folks who know precisely what they like, there really are minds in this universe that do not see life in such terms as "the best" or "the worst". Neither deserves disdain. Better to fire up a bowl and celebrate the whole bunch. :mrgreen:

 

[Justpipes]

Vito, good to see you back brother but you got to stick to the rules of the thread!
:lol!:

 

[Vito]

Sorry, JP...no can do on this one. Besides, I was born a damn Yankee, but I'm still a rebel at heart. :mrgreen:

 

[Justpipes]

Vito go ahead and admit it! We know you just recently ordered six 12 oz. cans of John Middleton Walnut!

 

[puros_bran]

The real answer is What I'm smoking right now. Better than 90% of the time I'm thinking 'I need more of this' when I'm smoking.



I'd bet dollars against donuts that there's some real Middleton Walnut from the 60's/70's stashed in Dr Vito's Lab.

 

[Vito]

Vito go ahead and admit it! We know you just recently ordered six 12 oz. cans of John Middleton Walnut!

No...that was twelve 14 oz. tubs of Mixture No. 79. You must be confusing me with CP. Walnut is his favorite. He denies it, of course...but to no avail. :twisted:

 

[Vito]

...I'd bet dollars against donuts that there's some real Middleton Walnut from the 60's/70's stashed in Dr Vito's Lab.

pb:

Just about anything else, yes...but Walnut was one I somehow missed. Never burned a bowl before recently, when JP graciously sent me a generous sample. I'm still working my way through the bag, trying to get a handle on it. It's the doggone strangest 'baccy I've ever smoked. No question about it; Mike Brissett got it exactly right—there's nothing else like it...that I've ever smoked, at least.

I'm gonna review the stuff after I finish the bag. For now, I think it's one o' them thar psychotropic weedages, or something...like it depends on what you're thinking at the time. If you think you like it, you really like it. If you think you don't like it, you can't stand it. If you're not sure, you're just confused as hell.

 

[Sumo]

I still have many to try, but right now it's gotta be Boswell's Pennsylvania Dutch Treat. I'm pretty sure he blends this himself, but it might be a bulk from someone else. But I don't care, I reach for it more than not.... I need to order about a pound or so soon.... almost out.

 

[jj1015]

There is no way I could narrow it down to one, really, but I'll go ahead and say Haddo's Delight (aged at least one year). Old Joe Krantz, Morley's Best, and Odyssey are all pretty much tied for second, depending on my mood.

 

[Hud]

A year ago I would have said Dunhill Nightcap.

Currently though it would be GH Sweet Rum Twist, followed closely by a whole bunch of other lakelands.

Next year, who knows?

Continually discovering great new blends is a good thing, right?

 

[Vito]

A year ago I would have said Dunhill Nightcap.

Currently though it would be GH Sweet Rum Twist, followed closely by a whole bunch of other lakelands.

Hud:

You are obviously a man of discriminating taste. 8)

Continually discovering great new blends is a good thing, right?

Yes. :mrgreen:

 

[gallant]

Gotta be Sam Gawaith's Squadron Leader, favorite by far now that the producer of my favorite local blend is gone.

 

[gospelman]

Oh yes, Squadron Leader. I am trying to lay in a good stash of this wondefully lat-rich weed. (picked up two tins from Knox just the other day). It is rapidly becoming a go-to English for me.

I still have to go with Westminster as #1 currently though.

Mike

 

[smokey422]

I'll have to say that right now I have a new no. 1. It's Peter Stokkebye Balkan Supreme, a blend that supposedly is similar to the old Balkan Sobranie. It's been so long since I had any Sobranie that I can't make that comparison but will say this is one darned fine tobacco.

Smokey

 

[earl]

Not even close-it's C&D Haunted Bookshop in a landslide. :bounce: Earl

 

[Fia]

Although not readily available any more, I would have to say GLP Mephisto.

 

[Piperorsh]

I'd have to say Pease's Tribute for OoP.

Then in production Haddo's Delight by the Dark Lord.

 

[Mr_Houston]

My ATF is Pease Renaissance. I've been stockpiling it for several years. But the prices are now prohibitive.

I've also been looking for a substiture for awhile, with limited success.

I have recently been smoking Kensington. Very nice.