December meetings.

Please note; both of December's meetings will be at Henrick's! I will update the sidebar as soon as I can get on a pc.

Update: Calendar of events now updated.

November meeting (2).

Thanks to Neil and Steve for braving the miserable weather.

The raffle has been held...thanks again to our sponsors! The winners are:
Marcin, Peterson Limerick and Bagpiper's Dream.
Peter, Carey's Magic Inch and an EPC mouse mat.
Johnny, Samuel Gawith's Limited Edition 2013.
Steve, Carey's voucher and an EPC mug.
David, Samuel Gawith's Jubilee 2012 and an EPC polo shirt.
Neil, EPC mug and a pack of pipe cleaners.

Marcin, Johnny and David I will keep hold of your prizes until your next meeting.

November meeting (1).

Apologies for forgetting to take any photos at the last meeting.

Another very pleasant meeting at Henrick's with Neil, Steve, Ricardo and newest member Dragos. The friendly, relaxed service here is definitely making this venue a winner for me...please let me know in the comments if you have any objections to making this our regular meeting place. Although we will be giving The Beehive Inn another chance as they do have more space in their beer garden.
Sold quite a few raffle tickets but there will still be tickets available at the next meeting (25th November)...I will bring all the prizes and we will hold the draw then. If you have tickets but can't make the draw, don't worry, I will hold onto your prize(s) if you're a winner.

Website update.

The website has now had over 1,000 views! Edinburgh Pipe Club.

If you have any suggestions for content, please let me know.

Raffle prizes (part 3).

Many thanks to Bob Gregory of Samuel Gawith for the 100g tin of their "2013 Limited Edition" tobacco.

From the tin description it sounds very nice..."For this 2013 Limited Edition Tobacco we have chosen and blended a number of Virginias together with a Sweet Black Cavendish. We added some Burley tobacco and a Vanilla Creme flavour. To complement the already smooth characteristic of the blend we added a soupcon of Almond Essence. The result is a very smooth, medium strength tobacco with good volume of smoke and a delightful room-note."

There will be additional prizes as well so do come along to the November meetings to buy some tickets (only £2.00 each).

Peterson's Hyde Park, tobacco review.

I know this is slightly unusual on the blog but thought it would be easier to post this here so you can add your own comments as you try it:

Thanks to Rob Young of Gawith Hoggarth for the sample tin he provided.

"Hyde Park is a traditional English blend of bright and dark fired Virginias, sun cured Indian and Burley tobaccos. This luxurious smoking experience is achieved by the addition of rum and maple sugars to pressed mahogany tobacco."

First surprise was the packaging: a plastic liner in the tin...it doesn't open out as much as the traditional pleated paper but it is quite deep so easy to load a bowl straight from the tin (as long as your hands aren't too big).
Inside was a very densely packed block of tobacco, I would describe it as "broken flake" as there's a definite mix of lengths and widths. Nice attractive mix of colours as well from almost golden to dark mahogany.
The block breaks up easily with your fingertips for ease of packing. The tobacco initially felt very moist but not sticky.
Tin note is full of rum and (to me) fruit cake. The underlying aroma is definitely Virginia in character...not the "smokiness" I would expect from an "English" blend.
Pack this quite lightly in your bowl, especially if you use some of the longer, thicker strands otherwise they will expand like a flake reducing the draw.
Despite the initial moistness, this baccy lights very easily, I also found it burnt very well and evenly throughout the bowl.
I did get the sweetness from the rum and maple but it wasn't overpowering or excessive, the predominant flavour was the citrus grassy note of nice Virginia tobacco. Personally, I would say it's medium strength...nicotine is noticeable but not enough to make you light headed! I did get an occasional hint of Orientals but nowhere near as much as a blend like Dunhill's Early Morning Pipe.
It was hard to detect a distinctive room note as we were smoking outside (I will try some at home later) but again I wouldn't call this an "English" blend...lovers of Latakia might be disappointed but as someone who prefers straight Virginias I will definitely be adding this to my rotation.

Anyone free today? (Saturday 3/11).

A couple of us will be meeting again at Henrick's this afternoon, from about 2pm. Feel free to come along and join us if you're in the area.