Self review: Requiem

[Doctor Humo]

Hey!
I don't know what's wrong with my gmail acount.
Here are a couple of recomendations in Galicia, I don't know any thing at A Couruña but:
VIGO
Estanco .Expendeduría 1.(C/ Príncipe, nº 17) Preguntar por Juan. Están funcionando desde 1.873. Aunque es pequeñito está bien surtido en tabacos de pipa y puros.
PONTEVEDRA TUY
Estanco Joaquina Lourdes Estevez Piño ( Av. Portugal, 27 36700 - Tui, Pontevedra ) Posee una soberbia cava de puros climatizada, con un gran surtido.
La dueña conoce bastante de pipas y puede pasarse horas enseñandotelas, tiene
Savinelli, Peterson,Stanwell, Dunhill y por supuesto una gran variedad de
tabacos de pipa.
Por estar a pocos metros de la frontera con Valença, Portugal una gran parte
de sus clientes son de ese país, ya que el tabaco es sensiblemente más caro
allí.
I guess this is where you ended up.
enjoy!!!!!!!

[Requiem]

Trip to Galicia (part 1)

Me and the wife were really needing to take a few days off of routine and relax. The Spanish border is just 3 hours away from our hometown, and to A Coruña it´s another 2 hours. Having only 5 days to spend, it seemed like a perfect destination, plus... I could grab myself some baccy!

I already knew what pipe tobaccos were available at Spain (including Dunhill's) and where to buy them. Even so, I decided not to take any risk and packed a tin each of Squadron Leader, Black Mallory and Best Brown Flake, along with my four favorite pipes (3 dedicated to english blends, 1 to VA's).

The tobacco store I was looking for is located right on the border, in a town named Tui. Great place for cigar smokers (I guess) and very fine for pipers. There were available all the tobacco´s from Peterson, most of MacBaren, and some Dunhill's (EMP, MM 965, Standard Mixture Medium, Standard Mixture Mild, and Aromatic). Royal Yacht was sold out, while Nightcap and Navy Rolls aren´t sold at Spain, I think. Some other brands like Capstan, W.O. Larsen and most of the stuff that comes in pouches were also for sold. Samuel Gawith's tobaccos were not sold at the shop, although the owner told me they are getting them in a few weeks. The shop was crowded, almost exclusively with portuguese people looking to buy their stuff for cheap.
I ended up getting 5 tins of Early Morning Pipe, 5 of Standard Mixture, 1 Sherlock Holmes, 1 Capstan Mild Navy Cut Flakes, and 1 Paul Olsen MOB Balkan (100g.). In Portugal I wouldn´t be able to get any of it except for the Sherlock Holmes (which would cost me €22), while buying it all online (from Germany or Denmark) would cost around €140 to €150 plus shipping... total cost at Spain... €77.
Thanks to our friend Doctor Humo, who send me some samples, I passed without buying My Mixture 965, as I didn´t like it very much... I'm not a fan of cavendish in english blends.

at Riazor beach


Happy with my score, we headed towards A Coruña where we would stay at Hotel Riazor, very well located between Riazor Beach and the old town center, 10 minutes walk away from every touristic point.
A Coruña is much more cosmopolit then what I was expecting and it was a little hard to step out of the city's rythm and relax... 4 to 5 bowls a day did help, though. I always carried 2 pipes everywhere, and was very happy to almost smoke no cigs... just a few before breakfast and a few more while in the hotel room, before sleep.

at Plaza de Maria Pita


to be continued ...

[Requiem]

Trip to Galicia (part 2)
A Coruña is a cosmopolite city surrounded by sea and with lots of beautifull early 20th century buildings. "No one is a foreigner at A Coruña" is the city's motem, undoubtly inheridted from it's tradition as one of the most important european harbours... in fact people are quite friendly there; I'll never forget how nice a taxi driver named Paco was, who offered us many tips , a city map and a touristic guide, on our first night there while we where totally lost. Offering him a few extra euros was an insult to him and I just wish I could enjoy his company at a dinner or something... really a great guy (I suspect him to be a BOTL, heheh).

after a very nice meal


After spending three nights there we headed back south, stopping at Santiago de Compostela, a gorgeous medieval town, famous for it's cathedral and a major pilgrimage place, where the remains of St. James are held. I'm not a religious guy but I recognize that these holly places you can find all over europe really have a special atmosphere... Santiago de Compostela is a very quiet place, inviting you to reflexion and contemplation. Although there are many tourists, it is a perfect place to relax, so we decided to spend an extra night there... if visiting Galicia again, Santiago will be the place to stay, for sure.

at Plaza del Obradoiro - Santiago's cathedral


While in Spain I kept smoking Dunhill's Standard Mixture and Early Morning Pipe, to evaluate how much I like them.
My preferences on pipe tobacco can be divided in three categories: balkan, straight english, and straight virginias...
EMP is a delicious balkan blend. Not as spicy as Erinmore Balkan Mixture (one of my favorites) and not as tangy as Squadron Leader (another favorite). A 5 stars balkan, although not superior to those other...
Standard Mixture Medium is... well, it's standard and medium! A perfect all day smoke english blend. Not overwhelming in latakia, with an excellent virginia base, perfect for a afternoon smoke (maybe too bland for a late night english smoke, though).
Glad to smoke those Dunhill's blends, a second visit to the store at Tui was a priority, so... I stopped there again, on my way back home, and bought another 5 tins of EMP and 5 more of Standard Mixture.
Until the end of the year I plan to go back there and buy, at least, 100 tins of various blends (a little over €500). One trip per year would be enough to keep my cellar growing while saving an equal amount of money comparing to what I would spend from buying all that baccy from England or Germany... just the budget I need for a few new pipes

my baccy from Spain

[Requiem]

PAD & TAD month

Oh yeah, I'm currently choosing the american tobaccos I'll be getting from my trip to the US, in August. I'm going to place a online order from one american dealer, in the next few days, so that I'll have over 2lb.s of tobacco waiting for me when I get there... when that order is placed, I'll do another post.
Also waiting my arrival at the US will be my Boswell ****** poker pipe, which was shipped today. I'm really anxious to puff on that baby, which I'll probably dedicate to virginias, as stated in previous posts.

Not satisfied with that, today I ordered a new pipe and a few tins from a british online shop.



It's a Stanwell Hans Christian Andersen VI sandblasted, which is also going to virginias use. It was really hard to decide which HCA to pick, as I also like model I very much... bu this model VI is quite different from my other pipes, with a solid danish look which convinced me to choose it. I fancy the slightly curved stem, too... hope it turns out to be a fine smoker.

The requested tins are as following (all 50g.):
3x SG Best Brown Flake
1x SG Full Virginia Flake
1x SG 1792 Flake
1x SG Kendall Cream Flake
1x Rattrays Marlin Flake
1x Erinmore Balkan Mixture

One got to keep is small cellar growing, right? There are some dark clouds over the horizon, not too far away...

(I also bought some churchwarden size cleaners and a little snuff tin - those 8 hours in the airplane, without smoking, are giving me the chills)

[Requiem]

The order I placed last week, from the UK, is yet to arrive (I expect it tuesday).
During the weekend I've spent a lot of time browsing through tobaccoreviews and american online dealers... it's amazing the quantity of pipes for sale, at nice prices, in pipesandcigars and smokingpipes.

Also, friday I busted my Hilson apple while cleaning it... passing a cleaner through the stem I applied too much strenght and a piece on the bit got brocken. I'll try to glue it back together but right now I'm down to 3 pipes for english blends... way too low for my needs, so...

I think I'll be forced to get a couple of new pipes in the US... a Bjarne and a Brebbia are the ones catching my eye and at least 3 MM corncobs are also coming my way. I'll place my order monday or tuesday, for the pipes and the following tins (all 50g.):

2x GLP Westminster
3x GLP Union Square
1x McCl Frog Morton
1x McCl Frog Morton on the Pond
1x McCl Frog Morton on the Town
1x McCl Virginia nº 22
1x McCl Virginia nº 24
1x McCl Virginia nº 27
1x C&D Junkyard Dawg

also, will get another tin of Westminster and one of Abingdon from a trade with a fellow piper.

[Requiem]

Alright, order placed (and availability checked, previously) with smokingpipes.com, although I'll get my hands on it only at the beginning of August.
Union Square was not available, which is a pitty as I really was looking forward to try it... I replaced it with a Solani Silver Label 100g. tin... (I had just seen dmkerr and sounds7 praising it... and if those guys say it's very good it must really be).
Smokingpipes had no MM cobs either, but I guess I can find those easily while in the US.
The two pipes I just ordered are these:

Brebbia Sabbiata Nera bent billiard


Stanwell Golden Danish 113


I think this two are bigger then any of my other pipes, which is most welcome for that after dinner smoke. After this buy, and already counting with the Boswell poker, my collection gets up to 12 briar, and the cellar will exceed 5.5lb.s.... July as been harsh on my credit card, but very sweet on the PAD&TAD medicine.
Not big, but very long, here's a pic of me smoking the Stanwell HCA, right after it's arrival this morning:

[Doctor Humo]

Hey Gustavo I can't PM yet so I sent you a email.

[dmkerr]

Originally Posted by Requiem

I replaced it with a Solani Silver Label 100g. tin... (I had just seen dmkerr and sounds7 praising it... and if those guys say it's very good it must really be)

Oh man - nothing like pressure!

Interestingly, the Silver Flake, along with Reiners Long Golden Flake (or #71, whatever they wanna call it) are rapidly becoming my "all day" smoke. I put "all day" in quotations because of course I'm not going to smoke the same stuff all day. But I do plan to move them from tins to my tobacco bar (reasonably airtight jars) and dip into them almost daily... when I can't tolerate another heavy blend or something new at the end of the day, these two blends will calm me down. Really good stuff. Not overly exciting, just very relaxing.

[SmokinJohnny]

Gustavo, how does your new HCA smoke? Otherwise, it's a sharp looking pipe.

[Zeabed]

Originally Posted by dmkerr

Oh man - nothing like pressure!

Interestingly, the Silver Flake, along with Reiners Long Golden Flake (or #71, whatever they wanna call it) are rapidly becoming my "all day" smoke. I put "all day" in quotations because of course I'm not going to smoke the same stuff all day. But I do plan to move them from tins to my tobacco bar (reasonably airtight jars) and dip into them almost daily... when I can't tolerate another heavy blend or something new at the end of the day, these two blends will calm me down. Really good stuff. Not overly exciting, just very relaxing.

Mister Moo also recommended Reiner LGF to me, and I now have a couple of tins on order, hopefully on their way to me right now. It's reputedly made with excellent leaf ingredients and blended by one of the most highly regarded German blenders. I'm glad you like it too. I look forward to trying it.

[dmkerr]

Originally Posted by Zeabed

Mister Moo also recommended Reiner LGF to me, and I now have a couple of tins on order, hopefully on their way to me right now. It's reputedly made with excellent leaf ingredients and blended by one of the most highly regarded German blenders. I'm glad you like it too. I look forward to trying it.

If you don't like it, I'll be happy to take it off your hands, heh heh

If you do, you should also try the Solani Silver Flake. Then again, there are thousands of blends we all should try but haven't yet. I've had a tin of 1792 and Chocolate Flake for almost a year and haven't cracked 'em. They always seem to get bumped by something else....

[Requiem]

The HCA smokes VERY hot in the bottom... I mean, light it up, take 4 or 5 puffs and it's hot... maybe because of the dublin shape, I don´t know. The pipe is very light and my impression is that light pipes smoke hotter. I'll break it in very paciently, smoking as many 1/4 bowls as it takes to build a nice bottom cake... I was planning to dedicate it to virginias but if it proves not to handle the fire I'll move it to orientals and expect the Stanwell canadian to handle virginias better.
On the other hand, the churchwarden stem seems to soften the tobaccos a little... I mean, it makes me want to inhale often.


Getting the Solani Silver flakes was really a pressure decision, while I was on the phone with the guy from smokingpipes, right after he told me Union Square was sold out... I do well under pression, usually.

[SmokinJohnny]

Gustavo, thanks for that.

[Requiem]

You're most welcome, Johnny.

Are you planning to buy a HCA?
I must also say the stems are not perfect. The long one bends a little to the right, while the larger part of the shorter stem (you know, that fat part close to the shank) is not perfectly aligned with the bit.

However, I'm not unhappy with it... So far it smokes smooth and dry, although hot. The draft hole seems perfect. I'll need a few more weeks to properly evaluate it.

[SmokinJohnny]

Originally Posted by Requiem

You're most welcome, Johnny.

Are you planning to buy a HCA?
I must also say the stems are not perfect. The long one bends a little to the right, while the larger part of the shorter stem (you know, that fat part close to the shank) is not perfectly aligned with the bit.

However, I'm not unhappy with it... So far it smokes smooth and dry, although hot. The draft hole seems perfect. I'll need a few more weeks to properly evaluate it.

Yes, I've been looking at the HCA and Savinelli Prince of Whales. The PoW has a pot bowl and maybe absorbs heat better but I like the looks of the HCA better. Maybe the HCA with the calabash looking bowl would be a better choice for heat sink. I don't know. It's a bit more expensive which is a tough call since I plan to smoke it only occasionally. I agree, it's better to judge a pipe after a couple weeks of breaking in and getting accustom to a proper draw. Thanks for posting your experience so far. That's quite a pipe and tobacco collection you're building there.

My wife tells me she might try the pipe if I buy a churchwarden. Fasion statement seems to come first with her.