I love my job. I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it a thousand times again. If I could have created something to make my life’s work 37 years ago, this would be it. It took me a while to finally find it, and it took a combination of past experience, a decent knowledge of tobacco and the great fortune to meet up with someone who was willing to roll the dice and give me a chance. I, we, have been fortunate that things took off, and now we have a pretty successful product line.
I’ve been out of work for a couple of months, recuperating from surgery, but I expect to be back soon, and I have a bunch of ideas that I can’t wait to get working on, so you would think
that I don’t want to take on any other projects, but you’d be wrong. Following my illness, I’m coming back with more energy than I’ve had in well over a decade, and I’m looking to return with a splash, and I’ll get into the details a little later in this post.
Hearth & Home is one of the most diverse pipe tobacco lines because I don’t blend to my tastes, but to the desires of a broad range of pipe smokers. I don’t usually smoke aromatics, but we have more than a dozen, and some of these, like Classic Burley Kake, have gotten a nice following. I love Virginia blends, and I’m a huge fan of Perique, but I lean toward Latakia blends, and yet we offer more than 20 Virginia-based tobaccos, because customers wanted them. Our best seller from the second year on has been Anniversary Kake, and that hasn’t changed, but Louisiana Red, Virginia Spice, Marble Kake and AJ’s VaPer are also very popular. We have a wide range of Latakia blends from the Lat light Victorian Stroll to the 67% Latakia Larry’s Blend. Three of our Marquee Series Lat tobaccos- BlackHouse, Magnum Opus and Cerberus have quickly become top sellers. Other blends, like Old Tartan, Capitol Stairs, Frenchy’s Sunzabitches and Steamroller don’t really fit any category.
So what is this blog post all about? Well, I want to make our line even better, so I’m asking for your help and input. Over the next year or so, I want to bring out some new products that will help us to become what you want. I’m asking you to give me some ideas in the comments section below. I won’t guarantee that your suggestion will be used, but I will assure you that every thought will be given consideration. I don’t care if you have a specific thought of a blend’s make-up or just an idea of the overall flavor. Be as creative as you’d like. When I select an idea, I’ll want to share the process with the person who suggests it, so please drop me an email after you leave your comment so I’ll have a way to contact you and I will send you a sample of the new tobacco to see if I’ve come close to your concept.
If we go ahead and offer your blend idea for sale, we will mention your involvement in the blend description on the website and if we decide to offer it in tins, your name will be somewhere on the label. We may not actually produce any, or we may offer a bunch for sale, but either way, I hope that you can become invested in the next stage for Hearth & Home. Knowing our customers, I expect that there will be fun, great, inventive and creative thoughts coming, and I’m itching to get started.
