Benchmark Straight Virginias

[MikeDennison]

I have little experience with Virginias, having been a codger burley and OTC smoker for my short piping career. But this thread is incredibly informative, and may inspire me to pick up some VA again.

[sisyphus]

Nothing beats a Va in the evening, they smoke slow and are packed with flavor. I can nurse a group 3 billiard filled with flake for 2 hours.

[Toshtego]

For me, the benchmark Virginia was MacBaren's Virginia. Not sure if they still offer it. Sweet smoke, as I recall.

[Clemson Tiger]

I’m still mourning McClelland.....and angry with the universe over their going “bye bye”.......it pains me to see people discuss them, lol, it’s like talking about the dead

I dropped the ball with a couple of delisted Burleys I should have stocked up on and didn't. In the case of McClelland, I caught on they were going away even before it was official and started buying all I could, and then I continued to do so after it became official, even paying too much for tins of Christmas Cheer on eBay when the rush was well on. I don't regret it, I have more McClelland Va than I can smoke in my lifetime.

Yeah- I have about a two year gap between “stock ups”- I go about 2 years before some jars need refilling, tins in the cellar need replacing, etc- it was about that time when I noticed- hey- where’s the Christmas cheer this year? -Oh, you didn’t know??? LOL-!!! So yeah- I have 2 cellared tins of Christmas cheer (2014, 2016), their 40th anniversary cellared, 3 Oaks Syrian, and a St James Woods. That’s it. I am definitely smoking what’s left of my two frog Morton’s much MUCH slower- lol- my Boston 1776 is gone, my Virginia ribbon cut 35 is almost gone. so yeah. McClelland was the standard for MANY things- GL Pease and C&D became my stronghold for many things- I’m going to miss the Christmas cheer- I was wondering if any of the companies put out an annual “cream of the crop” tin like McClelland did. My search continues- In the meantime, I have 8 Oz of Esoterica Pembroke slumbering in the cellar...my time interval between getting anything from there is greater than my 2-year replenishment cycle, lol-

[sisyphus]

I will say that anybody looking for something to fill the vacuum McClelland left behind should order some of the Va and VaPer blends from Watch City. Super great stuff.

[Try Cob]

Just posted about Savinelli Juno tobacco that came as a freebie with a new pipe, in the ...Smoking Now? thread. Had no idea what it was, but knew it was a Virginia with the light-up. I still don't even have a good handle on the burleys, and have only tried a couple Va flakes, so have little with which to compare in my subjective little realm. I can only say I love this stuff, and will definitely be ordering more. Those of you with more experienced palates may not care for it, IDK. Will be interesting for me to see whether the blend garners enough interest to generate comments/comparisons/critiques, but regardless, Juno will always be my first love in Virginia tobacco blends. All I know about it is that it has red and bright leaves, is less filling and tastes great.

[billinrio]

my oldest son is going to inherit a nice stash of well aged tobacco

I figure I have another good 30 years of pipe smoking at the current rate. Eventually I will slow the pace I am sure. So... 20-24 lbs a year times 30(ish) years. This would be a lot for me to have in inventory.

I realize that this isn't a very current thread, but reading it, and particularly the quote above, I got the calculator out ..... I'm going to put these figures in grams, since where I live we use the metric system, and most tobacco is now marketed using that system. So, "20-24 lbs a year" is right around 10 kilos per year. In 30 years, that's 300 kg - a huge amount of tobacco. 30 years totals 10,950 days. This all comes out to a daily pipe tobacco consumption, ("current rate" above), of 27 grams - more than half of a "regular" 50g tin. I find this difficult to believe or even imagine. Perhaps I should begin a thread asking about how much pipe tobacco the members here consume daily.

[Fr_Tom]

my oldest son is going to inherit a nice stash of well aged tobacco

I figure I have another good 30 years of pipe smoking at the current rate. Eventually I will slow the pace I am sure. So... 20-24 lbs a year times 30(ish) years. This would be a lot for me to have in inventory.

I realize that this isn't a very current thread, but reading it, and particularly the quote above, I got the calculator out ..... I'm going to put these figures in grams, since where I live we use the metric system, and most tobacco is now marketed using that system. So, "20-24 lbs a year" is right around 10 kilos per year. In 30 years, that's 300 kg - a huge amount of tobacco. 30 years totals 10,950 days. This all comes out to a daily pipe tobacco consumption, ("current rate" above), of 27 grams - more than half of a "regular" 50g tin. I find this difficult to believe or even imagine. Perhaps I should begin a thread asking about how much pipe tobacco the members here consume daily.

I approve of the math content in this post. Welcome to the PSF.

[Kevin Keith]

I figure I have another good 30 years of pipe smoking at the current rate. Eventually I will slow the pace I am sure. So... 20-24 lbs a year times 30(ish) years. This would be a lot for me to have in inventory.

I realize that this isn't a very current thread, but reading it, and particularly the quote above, I got the calculator out ..... I'm going to put these figures in grams, since where I live we use the metric system, and most tobacco is now marketed using that system. So, "20-24 lbs a year" is right around 10 kilos per year. In 30 years, that's 300 kg - a huge amount of tobacco. 30 years totals 10,950 days. This all comes out to a daily pipe tobacco consumption, ("current rate" above), of 27 grams - more than half of a "regular" 50g tin. I find this difficult to believe or even imagine. Perhaps I should begin a thread asking about how much pipe tobacco the members here consume daily.

I approve of the math content in this post. Welcome to the PSF.

Dolphin squeaks, man, dolphin squeaks!

[billinrio]

Thank you. It's a pleasure to participate. Reading this "Benchmark Virginias" thread inspired me to crack open a 2 year-old tin of Gawaith Best Brown Flake, which I decided to smoke in my Savinelli "Spigot" dress pipe in their 315KS ("author") shape. This is a great pipe that I picked up at a "Savinelli Night" event at what I believe is the best pipe shop in Paris (À la pipe du nord). I rubbed out a few flakes and let them dry for an hour, and this is turning out to be (so far) a "one-match" smoke. Quite cool and very nuanced, with some citrus and some leather.