Embarcadero

Digging through the archives of this wonderful blend, asking myself why I haven't smoked Embarcadero lately. I can't come up with an answer. It seems like we already know it's glory (many of us), but I thought I would refresh our collective conscience.

Embarcadero is well-heeled, tasty smoke. It is what a hot summer day is all about. Not too heavy, like my favorite Balkans, not too light. Great on a hot summer night. I can't explain why most Virginia blends are so much better in the heat, but I would venture to guess they just require less focus. Maybe it's important to look at all the scenery in bikinis this time of year and not pay so much attention to what's in the pipe. It's pleasant to smoke in public, too, wherever it is you can get away with that now. :bounce: Embarcadero is a low maintenance/high reward blend. I'm smoking on a tin from 2007 currently. Definitively sweet and exceptionally balanced with smooth Turkish leaf. Smooth as a baby's bottom. I wouldn't say this tin is better than other newer tins I've had of it, but it does have better smoking properties that I prefer. Cracking this tin yesterday has me "discovering" it all over again.

Thoughts?

i haven't smoked it fresh, but i like it with a few years on it. i'm finishing up a pipe tomorrow that will either be dedicated to brown pigtail or embarcadero depending on which it likes. one thing i noticed is you need to smoke the barc in a pipe about three to four times in a row to really get the nuances of it. also you need to make sure your pipes are cleaned thoroughly. to me te taste is a nice sweet well balanced VA with some background flavor that comes in and out as it pleases to grace you with it's presence, but like a fine looking lady, it's okay to deal with the temperament for when she shows up happy. i can't really describe what that taste is, but it vaguely reminds me of when my fiance cooks indian food or carnitas. kind of a twang, you know? i like the stuff, and a few tins will be on my next order. two to cellar, one for fresh comparison. also, please note, i haven't yet been smoking a pipe for a year, so my palate is unrefined. but everyone's own palate is all that matters to that person.

Lat-head that I am, there are times when I venture away from the latweed. Embarcadero is one of my absolute favs...Just great ginnyweed blended with superb Orientals!! I can smoke it for hours on end. One of GLP's genius concoctions!!! FTRPLT

'barc certainly seems to have it's devotees, and much praise has been sung about its qualities. Sadly I cannot add myself to the role of those who think it's nirvana.

And it's not for a lack of trying, mind. Did all the things that were supposed to make this great - selecting a more or less virgin pipe dedicated to it and smoking multiple bowls, a meer, a fresh palate, prep methods, etc.

Just couldn't get the stars to line up unfortunately. I really wanted to. Including and especially after all that's been written about it here. Seemed it like it would be a slam dunk. It wasn't.

Frankly I found it much too mild for me. And I hasten to add that I do like a good several milder blends. This just wasn't one of them however.

So at the end of the day we all smoke what we like. No harm, no foul. Kudos for those of you who favor 'barc. Guess more for you, eh?

There's a good many Pease blends I favor, so this one isn't a dis on the line. Nor should it be construed as such.

:tongue: 

<ducking>


Cheers,

RR

Just another reason there are so many blends!! We all have our "likes" and "dislikes!!" FTRPLT

Embarcadero:  one of my favorites, but a few things to touch upon.

It certainly isn't what I would consider low maintenance.  Derlict, perhaps you did what I did and simply stumbled across the right combination for Embarcadero...I know it happened for me by accident.  I started smoking the stuff in a barely-seasoned Todd Harris pipe, and I went to the moon and back several times.  I wasn't expecting it.

Later I found out from already-in-the-know fans of the stuff, initially it was Yak here on the forum, that "The Princess" ("Princess 'Barc," as I like to call her) is pretty picky about not only on the pea under 100 mattresses that disturbs her, but the varietal, shape and freshness of said pea.  Meaning, not all pipes will handle her pickiness the same.   Of course, I had to test this theory.   I threw her in Pete pipes known for their performance glory.  No go...flat as a pancake.   Tossed her unlovingly in a cheap cob...she got lost, or stubborn, or both.  Nope, not that either.  How about some old, seasoned briar?   Didn't work...actually revived ghosts of smokers' past.   There's one pipe, a prince that Kirk Fitzgerald gave to me, that almost works, though... no surprise the chambers of the Todd Harris and Kirk's gift pipe are very similar.   And the briar has a similar tone and flavor to it...

...if you find a winning combination, stick with it.  Appreciate it as a lucky gift, because if she were that easy, everyone would be with her.   As you'll read from more head-scratchers than those cheering, they probably gave up on the Princess.   I don't blame them.  If I have too much trouble with a tobacco, I have my limits, too--hence my recent McC Virginia Woods breakup (...in fact, Embarcadero was the comparable standard I was hoping McC would lead to...)

I guess I lucked out.   8)

I think it is a nice morning tobacco. I prefer it fresh. I once smoked some with five years on it. I just scraped it off, and it was fine, just milder. 

:face: ":bfb682z4 said:

I began my acquaintance with Sheherezade properly. Princesses don't live in hovels, so George Dibos rolled back the odometers on two well-seasoned, classic billiards to zero for me. (NBB : heed Pipeline 's advice ! The Izmir in Embarcadero can really, really clash with the residues of some other tobaccos).

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Kyle's on it but (IMO) sideways. Shape, size, briar &c. don't seem to be a variable. But no residual ghosting of any kind does.

FWIW, If I were going to switch a pipe over to it, I'd smoke Union Square in it until it was tasting good with it (un-colored). From there it would be a short hop over to Embarcadero.

:face:

I've found that although Embarcadero has more taste in some pipes than others, it's pretty much universally awesome. It doesn't slap you with flavor but feathers you. Pipesmoking 101: experiment until you find something you enjoy. Settling on a fixed way you like a tobacco is OK too! I like bigger chambers so that new, old Castello 65 I acquired recently makes it SIIIIIING! I've smoked several bowls of it over the last couple days and it is reaaaaal nice, Clark (Randy Quaid voice). Because it's a mildish Virginia type smoke, it's cleaner on the residue side of things, ghosts, what have you. I wouldn't think it has the tendency to take over a pipe, but maybe I should explore that notion a bit. Why wouldn't a couple bowls of a Balkan clear it right up? Then again, if you have the luxury/discipline of dedicating a pipe to it, that's all for the best, too.

derlict311":5jo2f50u said:

I've found that although Embarcadero has more taste in some pipes than others, it's pretty much universally awesome. It doesn't slap you with flavor but feathers you. Pipesmoking 101: experiment until you find something you enjoy. Settling on a fixed way you like a tobacco is OK too! I like bigger chambers so that new, old Castello 65 I acquired recently makes it SIIIIIING! I've smoked several bowls of it over the last couple days and it is reaaaaal nice, Clark (Randy Quaid voice). Because it's a mildish Virginia type smoke, it's cleaner on the residue side of things, ghosts, what have you. I wouldn't think it has the tendency to take over a pipe, but maybe I should explore that notion a bit. Why wouldn't a couple bowls of a Balkan clear it right up? Then again, if you have the luxury/discipline of dedicating a pipe to it, that's all for the best, too.

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i use five brothers to neutralize pipes. seems to work okay for me.

This baccy is an odd one for me. I don't enjoy it in the typical sense. Nothing about it is what I generally love about my other blends, and I'm not always in the mood for it mind you, but every once in awhile, particularly in the summer it seems thus far, I get a hankering for the stuff.

Yak":co0m0co5 said:

Kyle's on it but (IMO) sideways. Shape, size, briar &c. don't seem to be a variable. But no residual ghosting of any kind does.

FWIW, If I were going to switch a pipe over to it, I'd smoke Union Square in it until it was tasting good with it (un-colored). From there it would be a short hop over to Embarcadero.

:face:

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I think this has something to do with how I smoke more than anything...larger bowl pipes for whatever reason seem to change my flavors a lot, plus they take forever for me to finish, then when I do get to the end, it's not the kind of taste I enjoy.   We've talked about it before--probably the dryness around here?   okeyslowsmoker:   <img class="emojione" alt="?" title=":shrug:" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/emojione/assets/png/1f937.png?v=2.2.7"/>    As always, mileage will vary...

...universally, clean, dedicated pipe of known quality (that means by its own merits, not necessarily brand) is key.   The Union Square "priming" of a pipe to be switched over is right on the money.

derlict311":co0m0co5 said:

It doesn't slap you with flavor but feathers you.

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Yep! When you have the slow, clean hand she likes, she gives back. Wholly.

Yeah. I wasn't translating between the worlds involved.

I.D.s here range from 11/16" up to 15/16" and the wide ones don't get smoked much. All chamber heights are well under 2"

My assumptions didn't correspond with your case.

My bad.

:face: 

No sweat, my friend...(or plenty of it out west right now... heh)

I think there may be something with chamber size and 'Barc, but only inasmuch as the smoker smokes and where he smokes it. Just something to pay attention to for any of us hangin' out with Her Highness, whatever situation it may be. Details, details. :lol:

The two Embarcadero Pipes here are old, group 4 English billiards (Loewe & Parker) ca. 1950s/60s that LL de-toxed & re-stemmed in 2007 that have smoked nothing else since. They sing with it.

:face:

This is one of my favorite blends, also. I'm generally in agreement with the Yakster, particularly in terms of making sure to smoke it in a dedicated pipe. It's a blend that changes throughout the bowl, and oftentimes those changes are very, very subtle as the presence of the Izmir rises and falls. If any other blend is lingering in the bowl, even if its not a fully-blown "ghosted" pipe, I think you can miss out on a lot of those subtler shifts. In fact, I keep the cake on my dedicated Embarcadero pipe to an absolute minimum, just to keep it from getting the way of itself!

I smoke Embarcadero all year long, and find it enjoyable every time...still, I smoke it more frequently and get the most enjoyment out of it in the warm weather months. I'm sure temperature, humidity, and other sciency stuff play a quantifiable role in that, but from a purely aesthetical point of view, the sweets seem sweeter, the richness richer, and the tang tangier in the Summer. Plus it hits on the sweetness and smokiness without being cloying the way many aros are or the heaviness of other VA or Lat blends (cloying and heavy NOT being something I'm looking for when sitting out on the deck, in the heat).

Hear hear, Ian.   Especially about the Izmir changing throughout the bowl.   Probably why Embarcadero can dig up long-dead ghosts of smoker's past.  I tend to keep a pretty tidy cake on any given pipe myself, and with the subtle stuff, it's important.   Just a pipe nail and a little daily care.

As for group sizes...hell, I never got used to what was what.  I'll fully admit I don't know them at-a-glance like some chaps do, I have my own generic measuring system using my pinky finger (don't even say it, Yak).    :lol:   Meanwhile, my sole 'Barc pipe probably falls somewhere just over an inch and a quarter deep and probably 3/4" wide.   <img class="emojione" alt="?" title=":shrug:" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/emojione/assets/png/1f937.png?v=2.2.7"/>   Same with that Prince that Kirk gave to me, it's very similar in dimensions.  

It reminds me I'm going to need another pipe or two for Embarcadero if I want to actually smoke it more often than every other day.  :fpalm:  Which...I do.

Reviving this thread as it was the one that got me to purchase a few tins of Embarcadero back then.

Tried it in 2014 and did not much care for it, the tobacco just didn't do anything much for me, so I've had three tins sitting there since then.

I just opened one of them and my goodness what a difference a few years make. The tin note was like a good Spanish red wine, just beautiful to sniff on, almost like Syrian Latakia.

Lovely sweet aged Virginias with orientals popping in and out of the flavour profile as I puffed.

I used a large meer pot to smoke my first bowl and was blown away at how good it was.

So if you've got some Embarcadero floating around and you didn't enjoy it first time around, give it another try in a large wide bowled pipe. You may be pleasently surprised.

Embarcadero is magic. My top blend. I agree with long ago posters that a few years (or more) does wonders with this one.