Recent content by aadelma

Sorry to see ABF is difficult to come by nowadays, I hope it doesn't go the way of Stonehaven, etc.  I find Uhle's Perfection Plug Burley to be very similar in flavor, though not in flake form. I've tried all of the C&D burley flakes and the majority of their burley blends, and while very good...

A number of years ago in the pre-cell phone days, 2 meter FM was overwhelmed with users with questionable operating habits (intentional qrm, bad language, etc.), so I stopped operating there and eventually sold my gear for that band. I got back on several years ago and was very pleased to find...

Haven't heard a lot of contest activity here in CA, just worked a few mountain top guys on vhf simplex and locals on 6, but it gave me a good excuse to smoke a bowl of billy budd and tune around for a while. My vhf setup is pretty poor, though, I'm more of an HF CW old-timer.

Pipe smoking and ham radio make a very nice combo; both require some patience and are a great escape from daily toil. -- Al, wb2erj

Billy Budd Haunted Bookshop Stormfront Oriental Dusk Virginia Gentleman

I find Solani aged burley flake is very similar to the sliced I have from 2004. In fact, I like the Solani a bit more.

I have a 1 year tin of 3Ps kicking around and decided to crack it open have tried several bowls. I didn't find it difficult to slice and prep. I didn't find it very aromatic, very natural, and very high quality. I would say if you prefer the sweet va end of the burley/va spectrum, it's the way...

I consider Irish Flake to be the iconic Peterson smoke. Strong yet tasteful. The Ernest Hemingway of tobaccos.

I bought a few ounces in bulk a few years ago and try it off and on. They must have spilled the perique jar in my batch, because that is all I taste, and it has a tremendous nic hit. A real pity, because when it was fresh off the truck and the flavors had not yet married, I liked the Va and...

My stash is 3 years old, maybe it's the va taking over with age. Now that there is more on the way, I'm smoking my last ounce with lustful abandon.

Does anybody else detect some black cavendish in OD?

I'm good for 1/2 pound.

I believe that if I could only smoke one blend, I would get bored with it after a while and stop smoking completely. If I could only have more bowl before never smoking again (due to illness, being executed at dawn, etc), I think I would choose a big bowl of C&D Billy Budd.

It's not quite as good as Oriental Dusk, but I have found C&D Lunchtime Blues to be similar to it. It lacks the cigar leaf, so adding a little of that condiment might make it a closer match.

Dunhill Early Morning Pipe in the fall; the aroma reminds me of the far off scent of burning Oak leaves on cool fall nights when I lived in the Northeast. My guess is they don't let you burn your raked leaves anymore.