"Stuck" with one blend for a month

[ontariopiper]

We're pulling stakes and moving to a new town later this month, which means 99% of my pipes and baccy are boxed up for the move. I've kept a briar and a cob on hand and just one jar of tobacco, Kramer's Blend for Carey Grant.

I usually have several blends on the go at any one time, so my biggest fear (apart from some clod-hopper mover dropping a couch on the box with all my pipes) was that I'd get bored with only one tobacco available to me. Somewhat to my surprise, I'm quite enjoying the "desert island" experience. At a time when chaos reigns in my house (packing boxes everywhere, lots of details to manage, etc), having the same reliable blend in the pipe each time is rather comforting. I picked the right blend for the time, I guess!

Carey Grant is a medium-ish English Lat blend with a touch of Irish Mist aro added. It adds a mild but noticeable sweetness to the smoke without suppressing the natural tobacco flavours at all. It's a very nicely blended English Aromatic for those wanting such a beast in the arsenal. The room note also passes the Wife Test.

 

[Brewdude]

I'll be going through this same thing shortly Charles. I'll pack two blends for the duration - Uhle's 300 and a ginny yet to be determined. Prolly 2 cobs, a wooden tamper, and a Bic. I'll be flying down after the truck leaves and if the TSA confiscates it in a misguided fit of pique I won't be out too much.

Best wishes on your journey. Fingers crossed for the both of us!


Cheers,

RR

 

[ontariopiper]

Thanks, Rande. Same to you! I'm not moving nearly as far as you are, but distance doesn't seem to affect the disruption of making a move very much. :lol:

 

[hobie1dog]

I've moved 4 times in the last 4 years, sounds like a good plan you guys have.

 

[Timbo]

Was in a similar position but I filled several tins with five or six blends so I didn't stint myself. I kept several Pete systems about to smoke and carefully packed my jars, tins and pipes in boxes and moved those personally in a car. All arrived safe and sound and am enjoying a pipe in the winter sun in my new backyard. About which, John Cotton's Latakia blend is splendid stuff, meaty, rich and creamy.

Cheers

Tim

 

[Corncobcon]

When we moved to Missouri seven years ago, it was with rental trucks, my truck, trailer, and car.  I packed my pipes in my truck along with my fridgedor and all my cigars.  I wasn't about to put my stash in a rental truck being driven by someone else.  The drive was only about 4 hours and about 250 miles long so it wasn't a bad ride.  I had two corncob pipes loaded with Carter Hall tobacco with me and smoked one on the way.  I had to put down the pipe as I drove through Kansas City, but after I got through there I lit up again and the pipe calmed me down.  It was a good trip, but I really don't want to move again!

 

[SteveMKentucky]

This is probably well-known on by regulars on the site, but I was not aware that Kramer's closed this year. This thread prompted me to do a little research on the shop and I found the following letter from Marsha Kramer attached to a Youtube video about Kramer's:

UPDATE 11/17/17 Mrs. Kramer-Keller sent this mass email today:

To our Friends and Loyal Customers:

With saddened hearts, we want to let you know that, after 68 years in the same Beverly Hills location, our family owned business, Kramer's Pipe & Tobacco Shop, will be closing its doors December 31. It is bitter-sweet for Jim and me, but times change and we are looking forward.

We are forever grateful to the Glassell and the Tronstein families, our landlords for 65 years, their care and friendship meant the world to my parents and to us. They were an important part of building and preserving the village of Beverly Hills, which was referred to in a recent Beverly Hills Courier editorial, ending with "Despite all the rhetoric, about Beverly Hills being a 'village', there is very little 'village' left."

Our decision was made, and made easier for us to accept, due to many factors:

1) CA state Tobacco Taxes (now 67% - which lumps together pipe tobacco & cigars with cigarettes. What other legal product do we tax so high?) causing people to buy out of state - over the internet. (It appears that marijuana will be taxed at a lower rate in CA come January!)

2) new pending FDA regulations which would make it nearly impossible for small shops to blend pipe tobacco,

3) both city and state restrictions/legislations – that, in our opinion, unfortunately have gone way overboard in their rulings regarding, again, a legal product,

4) the city deeming it necessary for construction purposes, and seemingly their only choice, to remove our on-street metered parking since the beginning of this year - turning Little Santa Monica into a virtual freeway - to the total dismay of small businesses lining our street,

and mostly 5) the end of our lease.

One saving grace is my father's 7 private house pipe tobacco blends (from the early 1950's) now having a new life (with our exact formulas and same blending tobaccos) on-line at smokingpipes.com under Kramer's Pipe and Tobacco. Sykes Wilford, Rick Newcombe, and Brian Levine - you gave my father's legacy a chance to live on.

Good-byes are too hard. I know we will see many of you. And we are keeping our website (kramerstobaccoshop.com), email ([email protected]), and our Facebook page (Kramers Pipe & Tobacco Shop) going.

Thank you from the depths of our hearts - and my parents' hearts - for your support and loyalty.

With a flood of warm memories of our neighbors, salespeople, customers, and friends throughout the years ~

Big Thanks,
Marsha Kramer Keller and Jim Keller