Lessons Learned and Un-learned

I've come to recognize that I've been a pipe and tobacco snob.  For many years of enjoying this hobby I thought that the best "experience" would be high-end tinned or "boutique" tobacco enjoyed in a Dunhill or Ashton pipe (for production pipes, my thoughts on "art" pipes is for another post).  I admit and submit to you, gentle reader, that this is not the case.  Of late, due to a reduction in personal economy, I have been trying more American blenders, like L.J. Peretti (great flake & Amerenglish tobacco, not the cheapest, but excellent value), Russ O of pipesandcigars.com (Russ is fairly new to me...and turns out marvelous products), and Cornell and Diehl (the call to them alone is worth it for the great conversations and knowledge that they give out so freely).  I'm also revisiting "drug store" tobacco...some of which is really quite pleasant, with a little extra attention.  Yesterday was a classic example - I had ordered a pouch of Sail Green (the description fascinated me and the reviews were mostly good) and stumbled upon a small, but lovely Dr. Grabow Grand Duke rhodesian (had a round shank which spells rhodesian in my book) in my travels yesterday.  I purchased the pipe and when I returned home I let the Sail dry for maybe 30 minutes and then loaded the pipe and had an enjoyable 35 minutes on the patio watching the storm front roll in.  That combination taught me about Oriental tobaccos - that perfume/incense like quality in the burn and that musty hay like aroma in the pouch.  It also taught me that Cavendish isn't a dirty word (if this tobacco is top dressed/flavored/whatever, it is very faint)...in fact the softly sweet vanilla quality of the Cavendished Virginia melded beautifully with the Oriental. 
Getting back to the snobbery reversal...in my errand running Saturday (which always seems to take three times longer than it should, and costs a fair bit more too), I also found a drug store that stocks most of the OTCs - Prince Albert, Half & Half, Captain Black (Gold, White, Royal), Carter Hall, Granger, and some others.  I picked up a pack of CB Gold & Royal and a pack of Carter Hall and will be testing those out (after some attention...seems that for many tobaks a good drying is in order) in a Grabow or maybe a Kaywoodie. 

So lesson learned: price alone is not an indicator of value nor of end user satisfaction.  Lesson(s) unlearned:  a good smoke doesn't need to cost a mortgage payment to buy the set up for. 

This does not mean I won't buy another tin of something "expensive" or "boutique" but it does mean I will try more to evaluate a tobacco on its merits rather than price and hype (or complaints).  I had started this blog over at pipesmagazine.com but have had several issues getting the posts to work so I'm back here at Blogger.  I am looking forward to recording my encounters with pipes, tobacco, retailers, and others here.