I will be doing some traveling next week and plan to visit a Tinderbox store in Metaire, LA. I am wondering what store blends to try. I'm steering toward tastey aromatics. Otherwise I like Balkans and Burleys. I read up on some blends on TR and made a list of sorts to help narrow things down.

Peach Melba
Captain Spice
North Sea
Sunset
Peach Mango
Reserve 1928
Balkan

What do you guys think? Are there any noteworthy blends I should consider? Kyle, you're a Tinderbox junkie. Got any suggestions? Haven't been to a Tinderbox in well over 15 years. Hope to score a nice pipe for my small collection of course.

Philosopher is a nice English blend.

Is that 1928 the McClelland in a can they have? That stuff's alright. A bit sweet for me. Their bulk stuff is mostly Lane, which I'm very "meh" on. Philosopher is alright, too. Their Balkan is really salty.

Used to love Philosopher. Can't get it anymore so I don't know if it's still as good as it used to be. But I happened to find myself in a TB, I'd get a pound of it just on the chance that it might be.

Someone recently gifted a friend of mine (who let me share it) one called Special. I don't remember this one from the days when TB was my nearest tobacconist, but I quite liked it and would definitely try it again.

Thanks guys. I've heard good things about Philosopher.

Yes Kyle, 1928 is blended by McClelland according to their site and like you say, their bulk blends don't seem to cause a lot of excitement.

Tinderbox is where I bought my first pipe in 81 and their bulk blends were all I smoked then. This will be for ole times sake. Getting a new pipe there will be a nice momento for sure.

My Tinder Box is pretty old school. There's chairs, a TV playing sports or movies, coffee, sometimes booze, great people, and a good atmosphere. It's a locally-owned franchise. While I don't get the majority of my tobacco there, I do buy pipes and the occasional tin of something I can't wait for. There's a tub of open tins that folks are welcome to rummage through and try different tobaccos. Though I might night enjoy their house Lane mixtures, they sell well. College kids, adults, old farts, weirdos like me...we all hang out there in perfect harmony. Geez, I might go there today. I have this feeling a meerschaum might catch my fancy. :\ I heard word a new batch came in.

jlong, I'll see if I can pick you up a few things to try out if you like and send 'em to ya. PM me your addy.

Test the airway on the meer first. Pinhole = hot/wet/nasty frustration.

Been there.

I found a Tinderbox here in town out at a new mall south of town. Went out there yesterday and was sorely dissapointed! They had NONE of their house branded pipes, and one small case in the back next to the glass store blends display that had about a dozen Lorenzo pipes. The only tinned brands were a complete range of the Sutliff Private Stock blends at TWICE what they sell for on-line ! Over one half of the store was given over to a HUGE walk-in hummidor for cigars and the rest of the store was various amounts of lighters, ashtrays and table hummidors and "gee gaas" . Not what I remember them being for sure !! Oh well

Kyle, thanks! Sent PM

Monbla, yes a lot of pipe shops have gone almost total cigars. Sucks.

I smoked a good bit of the Tinderbox blends back in the early eighties. The had Special availble, but my favorite at the time was Connisseur. Tried some of them recently, and they have changed dramatically, nothing like they used to be.

Sending out sometime this week, hopefully a few of those work for ya. Are you planning on ordering them through a store and having them ship to you?

Also, I picked up a pretty cool SMS meer on sale there, but the SD card slot on my eight-year-old laptop has taken a dump. :\ I'll try to use my phone...