I hear you Daniel! I have been tempted to do the same - it’s that good! I am looking forward to visiting it again sometime soon! So many great blends, so little time to enjoy them! Thanks for stopping by - very much appreciated!
Thank you for the review. Ive never even heard of that blend. Nice to see you enjoying a pipe and drink. Sounds like an interesting blend. Hope all is well. Sweet pipe and thanks for the list.
Absolutely! And thank you for stopping by! I had a lot of fun working through these blends - and can honestly recommend most of them! But the Shepherds Pie was quite special! If you haven’t done so already - I highly recommend placing order from the Country Squire! You will not be disappointed! Cheers!
Thank you sir! It was a fun list to work on even though I still didn't get the chance to really give all of them a fair shake... not to mention ALL of the others that I never even got to during these 3 months!?
Howdy John! I am sorry to hear about losing your mother - I hope you and your family are doing better since then and are continuing to heal and find peace. And I am humbled that you and I could spend some time together over a pipe and a pour, and hopefully bring some inkling of happiness and peace to a very tough time for you. I appreciate you stopping by and letting me know how you are doing - thank you!
Great recap of your English journey! So many great blends out there still to be tried. I haven’t yet tried any Country Squire blends, need to put Shepard’s Pie on my list to try. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
You said it - SO many blends to try - I feel like I barely scratched the surface! I highly recommend anything from CS, but the Shepherd's Pie was a standout, and Northwest Trek is a really good English Aromatic, if that's more your style!? Appreciate you stopping by Todd!
Thank you Ethan! You are exactly right - I realized that within the English family of blends, there's several smaller sub-categories that I could dig into next... as if I needed something else to do!? But I do want to try a similar exploration with some other types of blends this summer - not sure what kind yet though?!
Good Morning Donnie 😊 Thanks for an amazing video 👍🏼Appreciate you sharing a pipe and a pour ☕ Have a blessed Sunday 🙏🏽 God Bless You 🙏🏽 Greetings from South Africa 🇿🇦
Thank you for joining me Yusuf! I hope you and your family are doing better these days!? Take care of yourself and your family! Greetings to you from middle TN!
Good morning Donnie. Sorry but living in Martinsville Indiana, farming growing up, and my brother graduating from there I am for Purdue. Have a blessed week. Pipe On
I like a good English from time to time, makes a refreshing change. Not an all day smoke but a welcomed treat. Thanks Donnie nice to have a relaxed smoke with you buddy 🙏👊🤝🇺🇸🇺🇸🇬🇧🇬🇧
Apologies for the delayed response Gary - but it's always good to have you join me for a pipe and a pour! I think I've learned that I prefer English (or english-ish blends!?) because they do have more depth of flavor for me? But I am looking forward to a change of pace once I get the chance to sit down with a pipe again... maybe a VaPer or VaBur or maybe just a good old codger burley blend?!?!
Thanks Gary! I was surprised how many of the ones I chose to try were light-to-medium English blends - none of them were over-powering by any means! But there were several good ones to choose from! Cheers brother!
Hiyas Donnie, Arango Balkan Supreme is my #1 Balkan blend. Both Shepherd's Pie and Proper English are delicious as well. You certainly made a nice dent in that genre of blends. For future reference, Rattray's has a couple of great blends worth trying as well; Red Rapparee and Black Mallory are in my rotation. I find myself more interested in the women's basketball countdown this year. Serene smokes, Gary
Howdy Gary! I want to thank you for your support and recommendations for me during this adventure! Sadly, I did not get to ALL of the multitude of blends that I wanted to - there were just too many! I missed out on Red Rapparee, Kings Fool and Merry Monk, Star of the East Flake, Westminster and so many others! Needless to say, there will have to be a part 2 to my English exploration! And yes, the women's tourney was very entertaining this year - as the dad to a basketball girl, I was really glad to see that and enjoyed watching several games! Thanks again for stopping by - Cheers!
The hunt and the journey, be it complicated or simple is where the fun is. After 52 years of wading through countless blends and styles, I still find new blends to try and enjoy. A few favorite blends have lost their luster for me, blends that I didn't care for initially, I now find to be interesting. I haven't gotten bored with the hobby yet.
Wow Proper English is a surprise to me in tier 1. And now i need to revisit Shepherd's Pie as well.😄 Thanks for your recap😊👍 ...Please try Sillem's Black 😉
I was surprised as it's one that we don't typically hear about? And something about Shepherd's Pie just stuck with me and I kept comparing everything else to it as I tried more and more blends. Sillem's black, huh!? I'll have to add that one to the list - haven't tried any of Sillem's blends. Cheers bud!
I would agree with you on most of these. Especially the two stokkeby blends. If you like the floral English blends, have you tried Orient Express or Odessa. If our palates are similar, you might enjoy these as I have.
I was genuinely surprised by the Stokkeybe blends - not that I wouldn't expect them to be high quality tobaccos, I/we just don't often hear about them. And thanks for those recommendations - I haven't tried either of them, but I have heard about Odessa before - especially the Red Odessa that can be had in bulk. May have to add those to ever growing list of blends to try! Great to hear from you Nathan!
Yep Donnie got some Shepherds Pie late spring last year tried it but can’t re much about it. Think I’ll have to dig it out & revisit it ! Thanks good video 😎👍
Hey, hey Darryl! Great to hear from you, my friend! So, tell me - were you able to dig out that Shepherd's Pie you had stashed away and give it another try?! Would love to hear what you thought if you were able to locate it!? Cheers!
Woot woot! Another Pipe and Pour😊 Love the Butz Choquin😅 Easier to spell it than say it lol I need to get my Ol Fashioned skills fine tuned😂 Looks so good Donnie❤ Cheers is right! Wow, 15 blends! Good way to really find your taste and notice the differences, rather than an english here or there😊 Haha Make sure to recommend CC setting for ones who dont listen 😅 StamperTamper sent me Balkan Supreme by Arango, I really liked it but it had some age so not sure the fresh nuances😊 Balkans seem to hit the spot for me in the evenings, with a nice Pale Ale❤ Squadron Leader was my first English, I love it amd have one tin in my cellar😮😊 I use the silver hvac tape to seal my tins, not sure if you do anything to ensure the seals or lids are good while in the cellar? Being in Canada, it is difficult to acquire any blends from the great sounthern tobacconists such as Watch City, Country Squire or Boswells but I take your word for it brother! Cheers Donnie
Great comment brother! Always great to hear from you! I don't know that it matters if it's new or has some age - I'm pretty certain that Arango's Balkan Supreme is always going to be a winner! I've revisited the Squadron Leader a couple more times since, and it's growing on me - it's still a light/medium blend but I'm enjoying a little more complexity to it now. Another thing that I learned about English blends - they paired well with a pour of just about anything! I had coffee, tea, IPAs, Stouts, lagers, cocktails and neat pours of whiskey - and it was all good! Cheers!
I appreciate it Scott! It was a lot of fun to work through those English blends and try to compare/contrast each one! But lots of lessons learned and I am ready to try something a little different now!
Great blend re-cap. Sorry, your team did not win the game. Purdue was the better team. Congratulations in advance for your upcoming 500 subscribers. 👍🏻
Ah Bob... thank you sir! Can't believe that I'm this close to 500 subs!?! Doesn't seem possible, does it!?! Especially when you and I started all this craziness at about this time last year!?! WOW! What a year my friend!?
You might want to try a fresh tin of Artisans Blend, because I have found the blend anything but bland. Sounds like a faulty tin, or how you handled it.
Thanks for stopping by - good to hear from you again Howard! You're exactly right - I got a bum tin that had lost its seal when I received it - I talked about it in more detail a few videos back when I gave my thoughts on it. I had really high hopes for it because it is so well thought of and in the regular rotation for so many pipers! I'm sure I will grab another fresh tin of Artisan's Blend at some point in the future to compare with this one - seems only right to give it a fair shake. Cheers!
Haha! Nope - no one but the smoker enjoys that nose/aroma of blends with Latakia! But I sure do enjoy the way it tastes! Cheers to you bud - thanks for stopping by for a few!
