May 2023 marks the tenth anniversary of  Mac Baren’s acquisition of the Altadis USA Pipe Tobacco Division, now Sutliff Tobacco (the original name which Mac Baren promptly restored). The pipe tobacco operation was of little significance as a division of Altadis USA, itself a subs …

Cavendish origins U.S. and English Style Cavendish Black Cavendish How Cavendish is used in a blend Stoved Virginia Brown Cavendish Unflavored Cavendish Blend base What is Cavendish tobacco? The first thing you’re likely to hear is that it’s not really a tobacco as much as a proce …

It all started on the first weekend of October 2021, when pipe smokers from all over descended on the Sutliff Tobacco building in Richmond, Virginia for the 33rd annual CORPS Pipe Smokers Gathering. Mark Ryan arrived with a brand new varietal to share, Katerini Perique. The short version; Ryan …

Pipe smokers will soon have the rare opportunity to try a new varietal included in some special and limited blends from the Sutliff Tobacco Company— Perique-Processed Katerini. A high grade of the rare Oriental leaf has been anaerobically pressure fermented in barrels—the same process that P …

Alternatives to: Dunhill McClelland Sobranie House Captain Black Other My Mixture 965 5100 Red Cake The Balkan Sobranie Original Penzance The Royal Yacht Frog Morton Bengal Slices Royal …

Barling Pipes History The New Barling Pipes In the mid-19th century, Saint-Claude, the small French commune nestled in the Jura mountains, changed pipe making forever with the popularization of briar as the wood of choice for the smoking instruments. And since …

Briarwood, meerschaum, and a good ol’ corn cob—though there are any number of materials a tobacco pipe might be made from, these three comprise a trilogy essential to most modern pipe smokers’ collections. Given the price difference between the humble maize and an ornate meerschaum or arti …

Update: Sept 2022Sadly, Seattle Pipe Club’s Master Blender, Joe Lankford, has passed away.Capturing the palates of pipe smokers the world over was never the goal when Joe shared his home-blends with his friends at pipe club meetings. But now, some 15 years since the first Seattle Pipe Club blend was …

So you’re looking for a pipe to smoke and enjoy. You can go with a corn cob, or maybe even a classic briar pipe. For the purist though, you are not likely to get a better smoke than with a meerschaum pipe.What is Meerschaum?From a literal translation, meerschaum is the German word for seafoam, while …

There is a famous story that in 1921, the Prince of Wales was out hunting and had lost some of his pipes. His search for the pipes made it to the newspapers in London and did not specify the brand of pipe, but had a description of them. It turns out that a manufacturer’s name was not needed, since h …