A Word about Pipe Tobacco

 I ordered a pouch of Mixture No. 79 made by the Sutliff tobacco company since 1936.  This was the tobacco of choice by both Hugh Haefner and Bing Crosby.  Suttliff built its factory around the Mixture No. 79, because the process of creating that particular blend was proprietary to Sutliff.  I know early in my pipe smoking experience I had at least one pouch of that tobacco as it is still an old codger over the counter blend.  I was tempted to order a 14 ounce tub of it, but decided on the much cheaper pouch, because I wanted to try it in a small quantity.

The reviews of Mixture No. 79 ate mixed.  Some say it tastes like grandma's perfume.  Others love it.  It is a very polarizing tobacco.  n addition to that pouch of Mixture No. 79, I decided to order a pouch of Half and Half as well.  Both these tobaccos are Burley based and while I had a pouch pf Half and Half a couple of years ago, I thought I would order that as well and compare the two.  I might wait on the Carter Hall right now.  both Carter Hall and Half and Half are simular.  Both Half and Half and Mixture No. 79 are Aromatics and it seems I have been smoking more Aromatics, but still love my Old Professor English blend.  

I like to get my wife's reactions to my various tobacco blends because her olfactories tell me a lot about any given tobacco.  She does not like most any English I have smoked including Plum Pudding Special Reserve by Seattle Club.  She seems to like Autumn Evening the best.  But since Hugh Hefner smoked his pipes around a lot of women, my thinking is that he may have had English tobaccos, but he would smoke something women liked.  I was tempted to buy a 14 ounce tub of Mixture No. 79, but I have only taken one risk on that much tobacco without first trying it.  

That tin was 14  ounces of Sir Walter Raleigh Original, and that is one of those tobaccos that borders on an Aromatic, but really is not.  It took me two years to funish off that tin.  Sir Walter Raleigh makes an Aromatic, but I don't think I have ever tried that one.  The problem is that I started on Aromatics and over the years a tobacco tastes different as one palate adjusts to various tobaccos.  

Someone suggested I do more tobacco reviews and I'll review Mixture No. 79.  Like I said, I've had one pouch of Half and Half and I don't recall what that tobacco is like.  I might make a comment or two about it, but I decided on a pouch of that more on a whim.  It seems to me older smokers tend to gravitate to the old over the counter blends, because the aroma of these blends are reminiscent of pipe aromas of days gone by.  I have a lot of Old Professor left, but what I'm not smoking I am aging.  I have a hankering once in a while for a good English blend.

But not having old professors who smoked pipes, Old Professor has no meaning to me, except it smells a lot like the pipe shop where I bought most of my pipes.  I enjoy the aroma of that pipe tobacco.  But today it is my Peyerson Sherlock Holmes pipe having started the day with a bowl of Old Professor.  Thank you for your time and Peace to each one of you.

Dave