Ode to Embarcadero

Brothers of Briar

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Anonymous

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Is there a nobler weed on earth
Than fair Embarcadero ?
Fairy stuff from Rivendell
Perhaps, that, like "Bolero"
Mesmerizes with a spell
Both subtle and entrancing
Driving worldly woes away
And setting spirits dancing.

Noble Red Virginia with
His arm around his love,
Coy Izmir who snuggles near and
Fits him like a glove.
Happy they who, two, are one
It passes comprehension
Happier this -- a pipeweed bliss
Where art transcends invention !

Only fair Sheherezade
Suffices for example
Charming sultans with a smile
That shows the merest sample
Of delights that wait in store,
Diaph'nously arrayed,
'til love-locked, irresistably
Are the master and the maid.

Let this hurley-burley world
Go chasing its illusions
Never satisfied until
It's multiplied confusions.
Leave me here in reverie
With my Embarcadero
Thoroughly contented -- yea,
Enraptured to the marrow.

:face:
 
Been wondering where you've been and what you've been up too! Now I know part of it. Guess I'll have to pop the tin I've got hidden away.

Jim
 
Very nice work! :cheers: Embarcadero is a fantastic blend. I need to stock up on more of it.
 
Yak, Very nice, a fine tribute to an amazing blend. Embarcadero is one of my favorites and I recommend that those who have not tried it yet should do so.
 
I just tried some today for the first time. The tin was pretty young, only a month old or so, but the description read that the blend is pressed and aged in cakes, so I thought it might be 'aged enough' to give it a go. Great stuff. I really appreciate that its good without first having to cellar it for months, and I'm sure it will get only more interesting with age. It starts off very similar to Fillmore, to me; they might share the same Red Virginia base, but she distinguished herself from Fillmore pretty quickly. Lots of interesting notes throughout the bowl. Good stuff. It will probably be a regular of mine along with the others from the Fog City Selection.
 
Shell B, I'm glad your first impression was good. I found that the more you take your time with this blend the more she reveals. Its like the dance of the Seven Veils, each layer revealing the next.
 
Its like the dance of the Seven Veils, each layer revealing the next.
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Great minds clearly run in the same channels ! TR, 10/25/07 :
I don't know how to describe this. But I take comfort in the fact that nobody else does either.

I think, on balance, that Weedmeister Pease should have named it Sheherezade.

For one reason, because the experience of it is as out-of-the-ordinary as the Sultan's encounter with her must have been. Because she's a figure from the Near East, where Izmir comes from. And because the diaphanous harem costume you visualise her in that (from the rest of the National Anthem that nobody learns) "half reveals, half discloses" is as close to an analogue with its flavor as weeks of pondering (and smoking) it can come up with.

"Big deal," you say. "Another tobacco." "Big deal," the Sultan said. "Another woman." But, in both cases, the range of expectations is transcended. It begins with Wow ! How often does that happen ? And it isn't a tin-note assault on your senses Wow (like the patchouli oil the rest of the harem girls probably slathered themselves with) either. It's subtle. Intriguing.

Subtle, intriguing and . . . diaphanous. How else can you describe the flavor of Embarcadero ? It eludes being pinned down to similarity with anything you're used to from the world outside of fairy tales. It's comprised of Virginias and Izmir, but GLP's alchemy transforms them into shifting combinations (plural) that have no analogues in the world of experience with the Virginia and Oriental peasent girls from the village. Well, except that they do. And it's this back-and-forth, yes-but-no character that 's going (I suspect) to get to you. Smoke a tin of it with careful attention, and you're no closer to having a handle on its allure than when you set out. It may be a lifetime quest. Especially as a friend who is extremely well-versed in matters weedular estimates that, in light of its constituents, it will probably reach its full flavor potential after twenty years.

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).

Suitably prepared, 1,001 nights await you. Each one a Revelation. (A term familiar to all from the Bible, where it is the English equivalent of the Greek apokalupsis : the removal of a veil).
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:face:
 
Thanks Yak,

Perhaps a great mind and a half. I agree that an accurate description of Embarcadero would be hard to pin down.
 
Yak,

I've stumbled across this thread before (as well as your review on TR.com) and while I enjoyed them both, they did not fully make sense to me until I recently tried and fell for Embarcadero. Truly a fine, fine smoke. And a fine, fine poem! :cheers:
 
Jeez ma-knees, if this stuff is inspiring poetry, I need to get some of this on my next order. Having spent a ton of my life in SF, I look forward to experiencing whether or not the tobacco flavor matches the locale.
 
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