John Patton's STORM FRONT

In ode to John The CobFather, I am smoking this blend in my trusty Missouri Meerscaum Legend. One word: Amazing. If you had to choose a blend right now - without hesitation I would say Storm Front is your blend!

I'm so glad you like Storm Front so much. And yes, I named it because of a violent storm that passed through the area while I was blending it. It's my favorite blend still, after all this time.

Honey tones with enough complexity to please. This is a great smoke, albeit somewhat mild-medium. If you don't love it, I'd be surprised.

Something about a deftly done mix of a couple of Burleys and Cigar Leaf just strikes a big old chord with me. I loaded up my trusty Radice twin bore faux bamboo eighth bent kinda Dublin thing and took off. All I've got say after one bowl is...bring on some more Baby! It totally ROCKED! And I'm usually not one to get all excited about the first bowl of anything. It's more a 'well, let's wait and see what the next six bowls are like' approach. But not this time. The cigar leaf was a totally balanced and excellent counterpoint to the Burleys. LOADS of smoke! Very dark feel...strong. Absolutely killer. Then a week later...on a dark and stormy day, outside in the carving shed with both banks of lights turned on so I could see what I was doing. Full carving day. Three bowls of Storm Front (chuckling to myself as the real world personifcation of the blends name swirled around me) one after the other in different pipes. Each and every time working perfectly. I can't tell you guys how excited I am...maybe I don't need to. How many times have we all popped for a new blend or maybe ordered a bunch of items hoping against hope that at least one of 'em would pan out...maybe be a 'homerun blend'? About a thousand? How long has it been since you tried something new that REALLY struck a chord. Of course I'm not sayin' that this is the right stuff for everybody...or anyone else for that matter...but for me, it's just about perfect. Try this: mix it between 50/50 and 70/30 with Gawith & Hogwarts Dark Flake (unscented) - I call the blend "DARK & STORMY" after the famed Bahamian rum drink of Dark Seal Rum and Jamaican Ginger Beer (also killer). It may just be the perfect bowl. IMHO.