Were English blends ever thought of as a good room note?

[Isaac]

THere is a recent thread by JCinPA talking about his love for English blends and the not so pleasant room note. Were or are English blends ever considered tolerable room notes? Are codger blends the traditional "room note" tobacco that people fondly reminice about? I highly doubt everyone was smoking aromatics, or people cared about room notes way back when. I say this, because cigarettes have an abysmal room note, yet no one cared.

I think we as pipe smokers are lucky in that the smoke does not linger much. In my youth, I worked at a fancy steak house that had a downstairs bar that allowed smoking. But, on the entrance it would say no pipes or cigars allowed. I understand why the cigars would be an issue, but never understood the pipe.

 

[Salty O'Rourke]

In the days when coal and wood provided the energy for heating and cooking, horses provided the primary motive power, and raw sewage flowed in the gutters, a cloud of English tobacco smoke was probably viewed as having an excellent room note. The advent of central heating and air conditioning has given the English blend a bum rap as far as room note goes.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Over here, the Lakelands were probably the "indoor" tobaccos I reckon, or at least where room note mattered. As Salty mentioned, in some homes there were likely other offending odours, from coal, sewage, smog, work clothes, animals, damp, and who knows what else.

 

[nortac]

I can't imagine an English blend being perceived as having a pleasant room note by any non-smoker, but then times have changed. I remember that growing up in the '50s, most households had ashtrays for their guests even if they were non-smokers.

 

[RookieGuy]

A lot of it is subjective too. Every so often you'll run across the odd duck who likes the aromas of a fine English blend. I don't think it's a "bad" run not a much as it's strong. That smokey Latakia will definitely make its presence known in ways that other leaves don't.

 

[Multum in parvo]

Growing up in the 80ies I can only remember Danish Aromatics from the few pipe smokers around me. When I bought my first pipe - a Savinelli that I still own today - I left the shop with a dreadful combo of Borkum Riff Whisky and Radford Sunday‘s Fantasy. Also I had no clue about pipesmoking and how to work with wet/goopy aros . Needless to say the next ten years I was an avid cigar smoker.

When I then bought my much better advised second pipe (Stanwell Relief) I started out with EMP and this was an eye opener. Flavorful, cool and easy smoking and a honest roomnote about what was going on in the bowl. Nonsmokers always balked at it as they were expecting the usual tutti frutti aro stuff that seems to be the majority of pipe tobacco in German speaking countries.

 

[Hirsute]

I think a lot of fondly remembered pipe smoke aroma was from aromatics, largely vanilla or cherry aromatics.

We live in a small corner of the pipe smoking universe where most of us are smoking non-aromatic tobacco, but aromatics are by far the largest segment of the pipe tobacco market, and Lane 1Q is the best selling pipe tobacco out there. The simple fact is that most pipe smokers in the US smoke aromatics.

But, at a pipe show where everyone is smoking indoors, there's no denying the powerful funk of latakia and dark fired kentucky. Both of those are very sharp and noticeable in a room, even when several hundred folks are smoking pipes.

 

[Benzadmiral]

I remember Mr. Jansen of the long-ago Ye Olde Pipe Shoppe had a blend of his own that I smoked for a time, and which reminded me of woodsmoke. One of the reviews for Early Morning Pipe, either on TobaccoReviews or Pipes & Cigars, described EMP's room note as rather "woodsmoky." Would you EMP smokers say that "woodsmoke" is a note from that blend?

 

[Columbo]

I think a lot of fondly remembered pipe smoke aroma was from aromatics, largely vanilla or cherry aromatics.

We live in a small corner of the pipe smoking universe where most of us are smoking non-aromatic tobacco, but aromatics are by far the largest segment of the pipe tobacco market, and Lane 1Q is the best selling pipe tobacco out there. The simple fact is that most pipe smokers in the US smoke aromatics.

But, at a pipe show where everyone is smoking indoors, there's no denying the powerful funk of latakia and dark fired kentucky. Both of those are very sharp and noticeable in a room, even when several hundred folks are smoking pipes.

I think that may be more the case today, where most pipe smokers are avid pipe enthusiasts, and in relative terms they’re just not too many of them anymore. The consumption of premium and tinned blends (including Englishes) is much higher nowadays in relative proportions, for the same reasons.

But it wasn’t the case before 1970, when most pipe smokers were just smokers who preferred their tobacco in a pipe. There were still many millions of them. I just can’t see my pipe smoking uncle hopping in his Plymouth Fury to go to a pipe show in the early 60s. Not when he could puff away at the town’s bar and catch a Yankees game instead.

And the prevailing blends then were definitely not the aromatics or the tinned premium blends. Occasionally, you’d catch a whiff of some apple or cherry concoction (and they were noteworthy for their rarity). But most of the time not. Those are the aromamemories that anyone past a certain age recalls.

Stinky Englishes were a definite outlier then, too.

 

[Columbo]

THere is a recent thread by JCinPA talking about his love for English blends and the not so pleasant room note. Were or are English blends ever considered tolerable room notes? Are codger blends the traditional "room note" tobacco that people fondly reminice about? I highly doubt everyone was smoking aromatics, or people cared about room notes way back when. I say this, because cigarettes have an abysmal room note, yet no one cared.

I think we as pipe smokers are lucky in that the smoke does not linger much. In my youth, I worked at a fancy steak house that had a downstairs bar that allowed smoking. But, on the entrance it would say no pipes or cigars allowed. I understand why the cigars would be an issue, but never understood the pipe.

No, and yes.

Salty makes a good point about the aromas surrounding middle and working class urban homes of the deeper past. Not that many would be smoking higher grade English blends anyway. PA here, and St. Bruno’s over there, would have been closer to the street norms.

 

[Multum in parvo]

No, and yes.

Salty makes a good point about the aromas surrounding middle and working class urban homes of the deeper past. Not that many would be smoking higher grade English blends anyway. PA here, and St. Bruno’s over there, would have been closer to the street norms.

For non-English but tasty and with a punch, I found Condor Plug early on and cellared deep.
Tobaccoreviews.com sees it as an Aromatic. I would have labeled it as a Lakeland if at all.

Does St. Bruno fall into the same category? I only have one tin in my cellar (pre Mc Baren) but have never smoked it.

 

[Lefonque]

In the 1970 I bought a Dunhill pipe from the House of Dunhill and used Balkan Sobranie pipe tobacco as my go to. It sent people running. Alas the pipe got lost in a move. It was a beauty, but did smoke very hot.

 

[Columbo]

For non-English but tasty and with a punch, I found Condor Plug early on and cellared deep.
Tobaccoreviews.com sees it as an Aromatic. I would have labeled it as a Lakeland if at all.

Does St. Bruno fall into the same category? I only have one tin in my cellar (pre Mc Baren) but have never smoked it.

Condor's a good blend. Condor and St. Bruno were the big two over there at one time. I don't pay too much attention to the tobacco review website. St. Bruno may be technically an aromatic, but it doesn't behave like one. These were working man's smokes.

 

[JCinPA]

I think both @Hirsute and @Columbo make excellent observations here. Living in Chicago at the time, when I started with a pipe in high school and in college, I loved Iwan Ries & Co. Three Star Royale. Loved it to death. I never, not once, remember anyone coming up to me and saying, "Hey that stuff smells great!" and I got a lot of comments, too, so you can imagine what they were like.

Columbo probably nailed it in that there were millions of pipe smoker back in the day, and all smoking the stuff you just recommended to me--PA, SWR, CH, H&H, etc--and those actually do smell pretty good to others, apparently. Thankfully, although it did not bowl me over, I enjoyed my bowl of PA last night. I'll smoke it rather than not smoke at all.

But I'd really, REALLY rather have a bowl of H&H Magnum Opus. But that's not happening at my house. Thank God for the codger blends, and thank you guys again for steering me toward them, because in my 40 years of on again, off again pipe smoking I never tried any of them except Captain Black. I alway smoked what I was drawn to and it repelled everyone else.

I think I'll try the Lane 1-Q tonight, and see why it's the number one seller.

 

[Columbo]

I think both @Hirsute and @Columbo make excellent observations here. Living in Chicago at the time, when I started with a pipe in high school and in college, I loved Iwan Ries & Co. Three Star Royale. Loved it to death. I never, not once, remember anyone coming up to me and saying, "Hey that stuff smells great!" and I got a lot of comments, too, so you can imagine what they were like.

Columbo probably nailed it in that there were millions of pipe smoker back in the day, and all smoking the stuff you just recommended to me--PA, SWR, CH, H&H, etc--and those actually do smell pretty good to others, apparently. Thankfully, although it did not bowl me over, I enjoyed my bowl of PA last night. I'll smoke it rather than not smoke at all.

But I'd really, REALLY rather have a bowl of H&H Magnum Opus. But that's not happening at my house. Thank God for the codger blends, and thank you guys again for steering me toward them, because in my 40 years of on again, off again pipe smoking I never tried any of them except Captain Black. I alway smoked what I was drawn to and it repelled everyone else.

I think I'll try the Lane 1-Q tonight, and see why it's the number one seller.

I still have a good portion of Magnum Opus down in the cellar. I bought several big cans of it years ago, right after Russ first formulated it (back when he sold it in big coffee cans with inkjet labels). It’s a good, dependable smoke and well interpreted, if not quite a down the middle English. As time has droned on, I still dip into it from time to time, but have come to prefer the lighter all day behavior of SL and Presbyterian, or the uniqueness of Bengal Slices (old v. new notwithstanding). Like all the others, there’s a deceptive range of what falls into one genre or another.

And like you, I enjoy my discreet English affairs outside the home, so as not to annoy Mrs. Columbo (although she says not a word, a soulmate always knows). And usually as the weather dampens and cools, such as right about now.

 

[emwolf]

I was an English blend fan when I smoked. I bought a locally blended product that I had a few compliments on, one said it smelled like being on a farm but in a good way.

 

[steveclarkus]

I smoked English for years and my wife never complained. Latakia has a bit of a campfire aroma and there is no smell lovelier than a campfire. I remember people in the office enjoying the smell of a pipe and the relief from the stink of cigarette smoke. I don’t recall anyone smoking Latakia blends in the office though.

 

[Columbo]

I think both @Hirsute and @Columbo make excellent observations here. Living in Chicago at the time, when I started with a pipe in high school and in college, I loved Iwan Ries & Co. Three Star Royale. Loved it to death. I never, not once, remember anyone coming up to me and saying, "Hey that stuff smells great!" and I got a lot of comments, too, so you can imagine what they were like.

Columbo probably nailed it in that there were millions of pipe smoker back in the day, and all smoking the stuff you just recommended to me--PA, SWR, CH, H&H, etc--and those actually do smell pretty good to others, apparently. Thankfully, although it did not bowl me over, I enjoyed my bowl of PA last night. I'll smoke it rather than not smoke at all.

But I'd really, REALLY rather have a bowl of H&H Magnum Opus. But that's not happening at my house. Thank God for the codger blends, and thank you guys again for steering me toward them, because in my 40 years of on again, off again pipe smoking I never tried any of them except Captain Black. I alway smoked what I was drawn to and it repelled everyone else.

I think I'll try the Lane 1-Q tonight, and see why it's the number one seller.

I’ll just add this, as I have a long day ahead.

If you do a deeper dive over at the Codger Cabin (and the old ads start sometime in the mid 1920s), what you will find emphasized again and again in the advertising is their attractive and unoffensive room notes, especially with women. This is a constant selling point of regular SWR from its creation, and one we will see stressed in a few more years with PA, too. They go so far as to tout them as virtual women attractants. That selling point of mainstream everyday blends continued well into the 60s and 70s.

It’s not as if the room note issue is a sudden modern era malady that afflicts only Millennials. It’s been going on as long as pipe smokers and their families have been living together. The blenders dealt with it then, too.

 

[JCinPA]

Love those ads you are posting! And I have gotten some "farm smell" comments over the years, but mine were not "in a good way" lol

I'm taking your advice and leaving the codger blends alone, @Columbo

 

[steveclarkus]

Love those ads you are posting! And I have gotten some "farm smell" comments over the years, but mine were not "in a good way" lol

I'm taking your advice and leaving the codger blends alone, @Columbo

By the Spring, you just might find yourself loving those blends. By the way Ozium (available on Amazon) will remove any stale smoke from your house should you ever get a complaint about that.