What is the deal with the availability with Penzance, not to mention the outrageous prices on ebay n' such???
Whenever I place a tobacco order online, I always check to see if any of OUT OF STOCK products (SG, Esoterica, etc.) are back on the shelf. I recently ordered from 4noggins. The site showed that they had Penzance in stock, so I ordered away. It isn't uncommon for a dealer to forget to relist one of their products as OUT OF STOCK. I did my best not to get my hope up, thinking that my order would show up without the Penzance.
My order arrived with the mentioned product. I spoke with Rich. He said that he acquired roughly 1000 tins, and they all sold in a day.
So, what's the deal?

j

An e-tailer that I'm close with bought 15K worth of Penzance on a Wednesday and it was all gone on Thursday. It was off the market for so long that as soon as it was available again hoarders all snatched it right up. I think there's a feeling that it could dissapear from the market like Dunhill did. Also, there's really nothing quite like it available. It would be very hard to substitute it with another blend if it was your daily smoke. There's just not alotta Latakia/Oriental flakes out there to choose from...

I have heard that Smoker's Haven Krumble Kake is more or less the same exact tobacco, if you love Penzance but can't find it, maybe give a tin of that a try.

Those are similar. Actually another similar blend that is readily available is Low Country Cooper. It has that almost buttery flavor similar to the others. Nice spicy orientals. Good smoke. C&D also makes another that sort of fits with this genre. That would be Sunset Harbor Flake.

Agreed, Krumble Kake and Penzance are very much alike. I actually did a blind taste test with a couple of guys one time and all 3 of us preferred the Krumble Kake over Penzance FWIW.

-Scott

Is there an actual problem with Penzance or is it just a little market panic?

Here's a comment from Greg Pease on the Krumble Kake that I found in my cyberspace travels:

"Not a clone, (Klone?), but a very similar blend. Both are manufactured by Germain. Krumble Kake kame first. It was originally blended by Sobranie House. When they ceased operations, the recipe was taken to Germain for production. Penzance came along much later, during a time when Krumble Kake was not being produced. Steve Richman (The Piedmont Tobacconist in Oakland, CA) contacted Germain to produce the Esoterica Tobacciana line of tobaccos. While very similar to the original KK, Penzance has slightly more Latakia in the recipe. I assume that under Butera's ownership, the Esoterica recipes remain unchanged.

Now that Premal has arranged for Krumble Kake to be produced again, the smoker has a choice. They're both great blends. Nothing else is like them."

In regard to these groundbreaking questions, my theories are illegitimate at best.

Perhaps one's financial status can be correlated with what one is willing to spend on a blend of tobacco that is still being produced. This is a valid correlation in my case.

I picked up four tins of Penzance that were hand dated to 1996 (pre Butera) as well as an 8 oz bag dated to 2000 while at the NY show this year. The tins were $8.00 ea and I believe the bag was $20.00. It can still be found at a good price. There's a fella over on smokers forums who had four old tins of it available for $20.00 ea....

Well I don't smoke a lot of Latakia, just trying to help out anyone who might be looking for an alternative. A friend who loves Penzance recommended Krumble Kake as an alternative, said he can't really tell the difference. It is sliced into flakes, not served in the raw "kake" form. Myself I enjoy Penzance, but the lack of availability sort of kills it for me.

You can argue supply and demand, but this is absurd to me... Anyone really willing to pay $50 for a tin of Penzance? I'm not trying to say that it's wrong if you're willing and in a position to shell out this kind of currency. But if you are, you're sportin' a different pair of space boots than I.

http://cgi.ebay.com/10-tins-Penzance-Tins-sealed-unopened-brand-new-/280531371353?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4150f90559

It's a dear price--epecially for a (presumably) in-production tobacco. But some perspective:

0.8 g tobacco in an ordinary filter cigarette = 16 g tobacco/pack = .57 oz / pack.

In NYC, cigs are $11/pack. (Admittedly, that's the nation's highest rate, but there are more cig smokers in NYC than there are pipe smokers in America.) That's ~$40 for the equivalent of one tin of Penzance. Fewer than three days of smoking for a serious smoker. That's the madness, not a little arbitrage on eBay.