The Codger Cabin

[steveclarkus]

Love your comments. All we need now are more park benches for us springtime pipers.

How about big rocks in a trout stream? Getting settled in and my mind keeps hearing water running over rocks, birds in the trees and the scent of some codger weed in the air. Lying in bed with a bowl of H & H scenting the room thinking of the warmth of Spring just ahead.

 

[ksblazer]

Velvet is another codger blend I’m enjoying more. Like PA it is best packed loosely (gravity fed in Velvet’s case) and smoked casually. If drawn to hard and overheated, you will not get the flavor at all. When smoked well, it is a delicious blend.

I kinda want to try Velvet next.

My Great Grandfather smoked it throughout the day in a cob pipe as well as rolled up in cigarette papers. He said a tin tub would last him a little over a month and he liked to put a few thin apple slices in the tub to keep the tobacco from drying.

One of the things I liked most about visiting with him was the room note of those codger blends.

The only other pipe tobacco I recall him smoking besides Velvet was Prince Albert. He said he liked to smoke it during the holidays. But it costed a little more than Velvet. So with his fixed income, Velvet was what he smoked.

The only other pipe tobacco I recall seeing was a box of Half & Half. He said it was gifted to him and he liked it. But all he smoked while I was there during that time was Velvet.

I remember asking him about Sir Walter Raleigh. He said it was good but liked his Velvet better.

 

[steveclarkus]

I got a tub of Velvet because the Artful Codger, Ben, touted it and said it was his favorite. I was sorely disappointed because I couldn’t get a damn thing out of it but I kept trying from time to time and sometimes would get a taste of something wonderful but couldn’t get it with any consistently. I kept trying on occasion but couldn’t unlock it for the life of me. Then @Columbo got this PA thing going then the codger cabin and mentioned the breath method, loose packing and what I call smoking almost as an afterthought. I applied this to velvet and it opened Velvet’s door. It is a beautiful smoke but requires an invitation. You can’t make it happen but you can let it just like PA, H&H, LLRR, etc. Sometimes I wonder if codger blends are an appropriate genre for the novice piper. If you don’t have your piping skills dialed in the chances of getting much out of them are pretty slim. Then again, it could be an attitude thing. It took me a long time to get my head right but it was worth the trip.

 

[ksblazer]

I recall reading that in the codger reviews I read. It was mentioned that you have to sip them, to get best flavors out of them.

I tried that and they really opened up. But then after a while. I kind of want away from that and wondered why they didn't taste the same anymore?

Thought it was because I wasn't resting my cob long enough. Then when I figured that wasn't it. I figured my palette was off and it needed a few days rest. That seemed to work, but then a few days later. I was back in a funk?

Then I think I read some more codger reviews and realized that I needed to slow it back down. It was the best smoke I'd had in weeks.

I still sometimes catch myself puffing away to hard though.

For some reason I want my PA or CH to smoke like a train and still get the flavors when I patiently sip it.

Problem is, that it just doesn't work that way.

 

[ChefJohnBoy-ardee]

One of my pipe mentors owned the local cigar and pipe shop. I got a LOT of estates from him. He bought a cheap pipe and some terrible unknown brand of pipe tobacco before he shipped out on for his first Vietnam cruise on the Kittyhawk. His chief saw him trying to smoke it and the the forgotten cherry blend he was trying to keep lit...

First real port call was Hong Kong and the chief took him to a Dunhill store. He has nearly only smoked Dunhill pipes since. His tobacco of choice was Revelation.

Revelation of course ceased to be and he tried every match blend there was. He didn't care for any of them. He settled on Three Friars and London Squire. The only blend I see him break from those two is Smoker's Haven Cognac or Esoterica Pembroke. I gave him an 8 oz bag of Pembroke last Christmas. He loves it when he can bring himself to smoke it.

If I could settle on two or three blends, I'd sell or trade all the other tins I have yet to even try as they are coming up on three or four years old in my cellar but variety is the spice of life.

I'm also slightly jealous of those that can walk into a place that sells beer and without even thinking grab a sixer or more. That is a 10 minute decision for me sometimes. Heaven help me when I go into a place with nearly 1000+ different craft beers every Friday night after dinner service.

 

[Benzadmiral]

I think I'm handling the H & H and the Raleigh pretty well. But I have to walk a line between not puffing enough and having to relight, and puffing too fast and letting the blend get too hot. When I'm standing outside, relighting is tough without strike-anywhere matches. (I know, I know, "Get a pipe lighter." In good time, folk.)

I have discovered that they both work better for me in smaller-bowled pipes like my straight apple or the GBD bent apple. Maybe it's that I'm finding it easier to pack those more effectively with the codgers.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Plenty of logs out in the woods. Something wonderful about sitting on a log in a forest enjoying a good pipe.

Not quite the same, but on my first visit to New Mexico in '92, I took a smoke break at a hiking rest spot in Bandelier National Monument. Some thoughtful person had put a wooden bench up there, and I puffed away for a little bit while enjoying the dry air and the sunshine. (I made sure to put the tobacco out completely and dump water on it before I moved on. It's dry up there, and I sure didn't want to burn the forest down. Part of being a responsible smoker.)

 

[Columbo]

... Sometimes I wonder if codger blends are an appropriate genre for the novice piper. If you don’t have your piping skills dialed in the chances of getting much out of them are pretty slim. Then again, it could be an attitude thing. It took me a long time to get my head right but it was worth the trip.

I always try to steer new pipers directly to these OTCs to get their sea legs, and to master them first. And for a real reason.

Learning how to smoke these blends does two big things. Besides teaching how to smoke a pipe in the classical (most effective) way, it also teaches a new smoker what tobacco actually tastes like, and how to taste it.

Most of these OTC blends are 95% base leaf. Basic Burley, minimally cased. If you abuse these, usually the worst they will do is run and hide. They don't punish you as sternly as some other more heavily processed, stronger or sophisticated blends can.

In exchange, they teach cadence. They teach patience. They teach letting the tobacco run the event. And that is the key to the pleasure of piping. Don't work the pipe. That turns the pipe into work. Sit back, and let it relax you instead.

Once you've mastered these blends, it so much easier to approach the VAs, the Periques, Latakias, Orientials, and all the others.

Many novice pipers are led into this pastime by their noses. And dive into it relying on room and tin notes as their guide. That inevitably leads them straight to the aromatics. A room note is the last thing a smoker notices. The room note is for others. The tobacco is for YOU. That's not to condemn a good aromatic; they are packed full of flavors. It's just that in most, very little of it is from the tobacco. How can a new piper even know what a Burley or VA should taste like, let alone savor it, buried under an avalanche of marshmallows and chocolate?

Learning on a heavy aromatic is good for learning bad habits, IMO. And that makes appreciating and managing more complex blends down the road more difficult and less satisfying.

The heavy puffers who quickly condemn these old standards are usually the same ones making the "Mac Bite" quips about the Danish blends. For the exact same reason. And it ain't the tobacco.

I've never heard someone who knows how to handle PA or CH or the others ever complain about a Danish blend biting them, or letting an aromatic, strong Kentucky, or an English run out of control. And they so appreciate the tobaccos in those blends, and all the others, too. Because they know what the foundation leafs should taste like, and how to let the tobacco come to you and reveal itself on its terms.

Pipers who have mastered OTCs can smoke anything gracefully. It's why I mean it when I tell my piping buddies, "I'll smoke anything".

And that's why I always steer a new piper to them first. I'm just gratefully paying forward what some very sage old timers once taught me.

Many of those wise old pipers, having circled the pastime many times over, and loved many an exotic tinned mistress along the way, typically come home to settle down with these humble but great classics. And they are never embarrassed to say so.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Pipers who have mastered OTCs can smoke anything gracefully. It's why I mean it when I tell my piping buddies, "I'll smoke anything".

I'm no master, that's for sure, but I'm tentatively an "I'll smoke anything" pipe smoker too. By this, I don't mean I enjoy all tobaccos, but I'll take each tobacco as it comes, and for what it gives, without necessarily having to compare it or score it against something else. I either enjoy it, or I don't, aand there's a wide range I do enjoy.

Those blends heavy in Latakia or Kentucky, and even those particularly heavy in Burley, are not for me. I prefer Virginia led blends, but am open to all forms of leaf additions, and almost all casings too. VaBur, VaPers, Cavendish, Orientals, Lakelands, and other aromatics. The only topping or casing I cannot abide is tonka bean.

Thankfully, that does seem to be the way the UK market has geared itself towards, and I'm very comfortable with that.

 

[steveclarkus]

I always try to steer new pipers directly to these OTCs to get their sea legs, and to master them first. And for a real reason.

Learning how to smoke these blends does two big things. Besides teaching how to smoke a pipe in the classical (most effective) way, it also teaches a new smoker what tobacco actually tastes like, and how to taste it.

Most of these OTC blends are 95% base leaf. Basic Burley, minimally cased. If you abuse these, usually the worst they will do is run and hide. They don't punish you as sternly as some other more heavily processed, stronger or sophisticated blends can.

In exchange, they teach cadence. They teach patience. They teach letting the tobacco run the event. And that is the key to the pleasure of piping. Don't work the pipe. That turns the pipe into work. Sit back, and let it relax you instead.

Once you've mastered these blends, it so much easier to approach the VAs, the Periques, Latakias, Orientials, and all the others.

Many novice pipers are led into this pastime by their noses. And dive into it relying on room and tin notes as their guide. That inevitably leads them straight to the aromatics. A room note is the last thing a smoker notices. The room note is for others. The tobacco is for YOU. That's not to condemn a good aromatic; they are packed full of flavors. It's just that in most, very little of it is from the tobacco. How can a new piper even know what a Burley or VA should taste like, let alone savor it, buried under an avalanche of marshmallows and chocolate?

Learning on a heavy aromatic is good for learning bad habits, IMO. And that makes appreciating and managing more complex blends down the road more difficult and less satisfying.

The heavy puffers who quickly condemn these old standards are usually the same ones making the "Mac Bite" quips about the Danish blends. For the exact same reason. And it ain't the tobacco.

I've never heard someone who knows how to handle PA or CH or the others ever complain about a Danish blend biting them, or letting an aromatic, strong Kentucky, or an English run out of control. And they so appreciate the tobaccos in those blends, and all the others, too. Because they know what the foundation leafs should taste like, and how to let the tobacco come to you and reveal itself on its terms.

Pipers who have mastered OTCs can smoke anything gracefully. It's why I mean it when I tell my piping buddies, "I'll smoke anything".

And that's why I always steer a new piper to them first. I'm just gratefully paying forward what some very sage old timers once taught me.

Many of those wise old pipers, having circled the pastime many times over, and loved many an exotic tinned mistress along the way, typically come home to settle down with these humble but great classics. And they are never embarrassed to say so.

I’m happy I’ve finally joined the old timers - for many reasons actually. Ive lived at a good time.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Enjoyed a half-pipeful of Sir Walter Raleigh out on my stoop while reading. I do believe I'm getting the hang of smoking these OTC blends. Part of it is loading the pipe right -- more on that in a moment. The other part is not puffing too fast. My half-bowl (the pipe was a smallish no-name bent apple) lit well and burned happily for some 20 minutes, which is about right for me. The tongue sensation afterward could be described simply as "peppery" -- I would not say it bit, and after a glass of sparkling mineral water, the sensation is gone.

As for loading, I've tried a couple of ways, but the best seems to be what Mr. Jansen of the long-gone tobacco shop on Chartres Street taught me to do with his ribbon-cut blends. Take a solid pinch of the tobacco, a bit more than you expect to smoke, and sort of *twist* it gently into the bowl. A lot of the pinch will fall out, and that's fine. Press the mass of tobacco down a little bit into the bowl, so you know it won't fall out, then light, puff a bit, tamp lightly, and relight. Presto.

 

[Benzadmiral]

By the way, if EGR blend is considered a codger tobacco, then I'm happy to announce my tin arrived just now. I probably won't get to it tonight, but I love the rather plummy scent of it!

 

[RookieGuy]

I, too, would steer a new smoke to codgers but for a very different reason. Latikia can be a bit much if you're not ready for it. And aros can be tricky. Virginias and burleys take two different approaches to learning.

Va will punish bad behavior. Push it and it'll burn you. Don't dry it long enough it'll bite you. That's enough to cause many new participants to leave. Same reason we don't recommend aggressive razors to newer shavers.

Burleys on the other hand reward good behavior. Dry it correctly and smoke slowly and the flavors will dance jigs on your pallette. Rush it and it doesn't taste as good, but no pain.

By the way, if EGR blend is considered a codger tobacco, then I'm happy to announce my tin arrived just now. I probably won't get to it tonight, but I love the rather plummy scent of it!

I don't know if it's a proper codger. But it looks, walks, and talks like one.

 

[steveclarkus]

By the way, if EGR blend is considered a codger tobacco, then I'm happy to announce my tin arrived just now. I probably won't get to it tonight, but I love the rather plummy scent of it!

It fits coderdom. Has all the attributes. I’m working on it now as my bed time smoke. It is quite mild with some sweetness and some fullness to it. I like it quite a lot already and I will like it even more after spending more time with it. So far it is working up to one of those blends that just may cause a tub. Smoking a Missouri Pride at the moment.

 

[steveclarkus]

I, too, would steer a new smoke to codgers but for a very different reason. Latikia can be a bit much if you're not ready for it. And aros can be tricky. Virginias and burleys take two different approaches to learning.

Va will punish bad behavior. Push it and it'll burn you. Don't dry it long enough it'll bite you. That's enough to cause many new participants to leave. Same reason we don't recommend aggressive razors to newer shavers.

Burleys on the other hand reward good behavior. Dry it correctly and smoke slowly and the flavors will dance jigs on your pallette. Rush it and it doesn't taste as good, but no pain.



I don't know if it's a proper codger. But it looks, walks, and talks like one.

I’m having similar experience as you. I do love Latakia but not as a daily smoke. There are times it is a must have bit not so often. There are days when VA smoke is simply wonderful bit my regular all day go too blends are mild Burley codger blends smoked lazily. EGR is coming on nicely. I’m not rushing it but it is definitely coming into the fold. I enjoy comfort over excitement in my tobacco. Being able to smoke in the house while watching TV or reading is a great advantage as well as I can take my time. Spring is nearly here so the ultimate smoking on the patio is nearz.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

It fits codgerdom.

That sounds like a contraceptive with built in stiffeners

 

[Benzadmiral]

My inaugural smoke of EGR Blend was this morning, in my Savinelli sandblasted billiard with the lightly-bent P-lip stem and military mount. I packed the pipe last night so the tobacco could dry out a bit; lit up after breakfast and stepped outside in the cool bright morning. And . . . it may take a little getting used to. As usual I smoked a half-bowl, about 20 minutes' worth. No tongue bite; it refused to run hot. However, there is an odd under-flavor, I guess you'd call it -- perhaps that's the Latakia? Not sure I've ever smoked a tobacco with that, though I tried some English blends in the '80s and '90s.

I was definitely aware that I was *not* smoking Sir Walter or Half & Half, or my chocolate-maple blend.

Perhaps I should put some in a saucer about a half an hour before smoking, to let it dry out a bit more?

 

[ksblazer]

As for loading, I've tried a couple of ways, but the best seems to be what Mr. Jansen of the long-gone tobacco shop on Chartres Street taught me to do with his ribbon-cut blends. Take a solid pinch of the tobacco, a bit more than you expect to smoke, and sort of *twist* it gently into the bowl. A lot of the pinch will fall out, and that's fine. Press the mass of tobacco down a little bit into the bowl, so you know it won't fall out, then light, puff a bit, tamp lightly, and relight. Presto.

I'll have to give that method a try and see if it works for me.

I usually just do the codger scoop and when the bowl is full. Give it a light tamp with my thumb and light. Sometimes I add a few flakes on top after the tamp. I believe Columbo calls it kindling.

 

[steveclarkus]

That sounds like a contraceptive with built in stiffeners

Truly hilarious Al

 

[steveclarkus]

That sounds like a contraceptive with built in stiffeners

The Mrs. got a real kick out of it too.