| Author | Message | ||
     Paul Tummers Member Username: Paul_tummers Post Number: 68 Registered: 12-2007 |
Today I went to my local tobacconist to get some new supply of my favorite van Rossem's Troost. Mr. van Aken, knowing I am always willing to try out someting special, offered me an opened tin of Three Nuns at no cost, he got it free and did not want to make any profit on it. Back home I took a Dunhill no 4 and filled it half way with this tobacco and lit it.This is real good stuff, I only wonder what is in there that makes the smoke so very strong? | ||
| Ian Minton Member Username: Ian_minton Post Number: 7 Registered: 03-2008 |
Bell's Three Nuns is one of my favorite smokes- I have some tins stashed away and try to keep a mason jar filled in the rotation for at least a few months out of the year. It's a Virginia perique blend so it's probably the perique that you are experiencing as "strong." It's quite present  | ||
| Bryan Nolte Member Username: Revelation4me Post Number: 176 Registered: 01-2006 |
I have been lucky enough to find 6 Sealed Tins of The Original Bell's Three Nuns on Ebay...I open about one a year and put it in a mason jar...This now defunct blend is one of the finest Va/Per's ever, IMHO! I wish someone would give me some for free!!! ENJOY!!! | ||
| Paul Tummers Member Username: Paul_tummers Post Number: 69 Registered: 12-2007 |
Thank you! It still tastes great, I fill my pipe with it in the morning and let it rest untill the evening because the tobacco is not as dry as I like to smoke it. I doubt, I do have the original Three Nuns, because on the tin I can read blended in Denmark- perhaps blended by Orlik?I never smoked it before, so I cannot eventually compare the quality of old- and new blend, which is an advantage too sometimes. My tobacconist is a clever guy, I am one of those customers who care about buying in the local community if possible, and I am sure he made enough profit on my tobacco and pipes etc. that the costs of this tin really does no harm to him,even when he has opened it himself, because it is a good way to keep customers committed. | ||
| Kurt Toelken Member Username: Michigander Post Number: 7 Registered: 09-2008 |
Paul, I used to smoke Three Nuns as my only tobacco 30 years ago. Unfortunate that it is no more. I have found a very good substitute. Davidoff's Flake Medallions. | ||
| Lloyd Cole Member Username: Lloydcole Post Number: 1 Registered: 06-2009 |
What a place for my first post... I was planning all sorts of questions as a 48 year old neophyte pipe smoker, but they will have to wait. As a young boy I used to fill my father's pipe with Three Nuns when he was driving. I always enjoyed the smell from the tin and the smoking pipe. I don't think he ever smoked anything else - his father had given him a pipe and a tin of it and he liked it! Dad has had to stop smoking on doctors orders - asthma - and when I told him I'd recently decided to give it a try (I quit smoking cigarettes about ten years ago) I thought he'd be horrified at the idea, but all he said was 'Good for you, I envy you'. | ||
| Rusty Pipes Member Username: Rustytoo Post Number: 11 Registered: 08-2008 |
Yes, the current commercially available Three Nuns is manufactured by Orlik. There is some skepticism that it even contains Perique. Orlik's description mentions Kentucky and Virginia. http://tinyurl.com/q4hprr In any case, like may of these old war horses, they've changed manufacturers hands so many times that it's beyond hope to expect them to be the same as they were 30 years ago. BTW J&F Bell of Glasgow was acquired by Mitchell (Mitchell was one of the founding companies of Imperial Tobacco along with Wills) in 1904. Bell's created the blend in the early 1890's so they manufactured it for about 10 years. And, ignoring age, you'd have to find something that is over 100 years old to taste Bell's version. "Bell's Three Nun's" should be thought of entirely as a TM name. Mitchell's old Glasgow manufacturing plants were folded in the early 1980's as part of a Imperial's modernization. The blend was moved, probably to one of Imperials Liverpool plants. Imperial also created a pouch version (course ribbon rather than curly cut) that was also manufactured in Liverpool but of course the real blend was lost in the process. Stainless steel and automation is not kind to old blends. Not so long after Orlik was created in 1990 they started manufacturing it in a tinned curly cut version under contract to Imperial for the continent even while that dreaded pouch stuff was still being sold in England. | ||
| Hawkwood Member Username: Hawkwood Post Number: 4 Registered: 04-2009 |
I've been wanting to try the Danish produced Three Nuns. Does anyone know of an online European shop that stocks it? Thanks, Hawkwood | ||
| Rusty Pipes Member Username: Rustytoo Post Number: 12 Registered: 08-2008 |
Synjeco in Switzerland carries it and will ship to N. America. For Three Nuns select 'Imperial' from the list in the green box at the left.... http://www.pipesandtobaccos.com/pipesandtobaccos/tobaccos/tobaccoall.htm They also have some Synjeco blends made for them in England's lake District that look quite good. | ||
| Hawkwood Member Username: Hawkwood Post Number: 5 Registered: 04-2009 |
Rusty, Thanks very much for the link. A very easy to use set up. I ordered 2 tins each of Three Nuns and Capstan Medium. Hawkwood |