Category: Tobacco

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Lane Ltd. BCA (“Dark Horse”)

My local shop has a blend they call “Dark Horse” that I found out is bulk Lane Ltd BCA. It’s a nearly jet black Cavendish, with virtually no tobacco smell — the tin note (or bag note, I guess) seems to be mostly sugary, with some rum or whiskey. You smell the casings (toppings?), not the tobacco. I tried a bowl of it last night in my Peterson Atlantic 221. It’s quite mild and inoffensive to the point of being too mild. It’s a little boring, actually. There’s smoke there, but really not a lot of character. I don’t think I’ll make this a regular smoke in my rotation, but it might be nice for taking some of the edge off of a Virginia or VA/Perique blend that’s otherwise just too stout for my taste. Time will tell. I’m glad I tried it, but so far it’s not a real “keeper” for me. I’ve read a couple of reviews that say it gets better the more often you smoke it; I’ll use up the ounce I bought and see how it does.

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Pipe smoking

I’ve smoked a pipe before at various times. The first was back in the very early 1980s for a while. I started up again back around 2016-2017, and in fact picked up some absolutely wonderful tobacco at the Danish Pipe Shop in Copenhagen. I hadn’t smoked one in probably a year or so until earlier this year, when I stopped by Ted’s Tobacco again.

Once upon a time, we had some pipe shops in Omaha that also carried a few cigars. I’m reaching back to the 1970s and 1980 here… the days of David’s Briar Shop at Westroads. You could also likely find pretty fresh pipe tobacco at your local grocery or drug store. You could even buy pipes, albeit cheap ones, at one or two of the local drug store chains.

Those days are, of course, long gone. I don’t recall the last time I encountered another pipe smoker, either around here or while traveling (not counting the pipe shop staff in Copenhagen). I can find four shops in Omaha that sell pipe tobacco now — and all of them clearly sell cigars as their overwhelmingly major primary business. Of those four, two are way too far away to be practical — one is in the Old Market, the other on the northern edge of town. One, Ted’s Tobacco, is only a few minutes’ drive from my house. that’s where I’ve done most of my shopping for tobacco and pipes. Of the five pipes I currently own, two came from Ted’s, two from Missouri Meerschaum, and one I bought at Selfridge’s in London.

I’ll be posting more about the pipes and the tobacco I have tried and like, or dislike, or simply can’t smoke, as time goes on.