1OLDGI's blog

OK, I went and loaded my Mandarin with Riverboat Gambler and I'm about half a bowl in so this is real, real preliminary, almost real-time. I can't say I've ever had anything like this. And I must say that I am truly surprised and very impressed. Bob Runowski is generally synonymous with codger burley and all things retro and old school. There are certainly aspects of this in RG but there's a much bigger portion of the blend devoted to this amazing complexity and synergy, something totally different. I never in a million years thought I would ascribe these adjectives to a Runowski blend but RG is sophisticated, panoramic, and eclectic.

While I've casually spoken of smoking this blend with increasing frequency over the last month or so, I thought that it was time I gave this blend a proper review.

My first purchase of Haunted Bookshop was 8 oz bulk from Habana Smoke Shop. After hearing Matches, Muddler, and Quaffer gush about this blend I thought it was high time I see what all the fuss was about. Even a cursory comparison of the constituent tobaccos of this blend and OJK will immediately gear you to expect something very similar to OJK. Nothing could be farther from the truth. While the ingredients are indeed the same, the presentation, character and taste of HB is an entirely different animal.

No, not one of those days burdened with the minutia of making a living, I've long sinced conditioned myself that work is...well just work...a means to an end...a necessary evil. My memory of a bad day at work only lasts as long as the walk to the door at five o'clock. I work hard for my money and give it my all during the work day but I figure that once I've earned the days wages, they can no longer lay claim to anything that is mine and I'm no longer obligated to care so I don't.

We've had a few discussion on the site about dedicating pipes to certain blends. The only consensus we seem to come to is that there is no consensus, some of us smoke whatver we have in whatever we want, others have pipes dedicated to tobacco types (burley, va, english), and others have detailed line ups of what blend to smoke in what pipe. As I said, I'm very middle of the road about this, I have burley pipes, English/Virginia pipes, and Flake pipes. What specific blend I smoke in these pipes is (to me at least) unnecessary detail. This works out fine 95% of the time but occassionally a certain pipe will step out and tell you, "This is the tobacco I was meant to be used for!" That's what this blog is about.

Lest the Virginicans celebrate a resounding propoganda victory and my fellow Burley Codgers label me the Jane Fonda of their guild, I suppose I should clarify the intent and purpose of my recent exploration of NBTs (Non-Burley Tobaccos) As I've said before, burley is, and will remain my identity as a pipe smoker. If occassionally I want to broaden my horizons and in so doing only reaffirm my committment as a staunch advocate of burley then, I become not only the guy that smokes burley all the time but the guy that has taken a few side trips and always defaults to his identity as an avowed burleyphile. Convictions properly tested are always more powerful and credible than those that are hung onto simply because that's what you've always done.

Call it destiny I guess, so today, I phoned previously unknown (at least to me) B&M not far from my job looking for Edgeworth RR. Of course he didn't have it and of course I had to figure out what he did have. After our brief discussion I decided to run over at lunch time and have a look. Pretty decent place actually but the guy is obviously a Virginican and despite a fair selection of tinned tobacco and a dozen house blends or so, he could only point me to one burley blend (which looked and smelled a bit like Lane BLWB, YUCK!). My attention then turned to his selection of tinned tobaccos. From there it got a bit more interesting.