Lane Limited 1-Q

As I mostly smoke virginia/VaPer blends, I'm going to review this based on what it is rather than what it is not.

I usually have a couple of ounces of this in my tobacco bar. It is a nicely flavored cavendish aromatic mixture that is light on the palate but with a pleasant vanilla taste and aroma. Not nearly as flavorful as my other two "standard" aromatics (McClellands #2050 and Stokkebye's French Vanilla), perhaps I smoke this because this is what I started on decades ago. My first tobacco was Captain Black Royal, and this is its higher quality "tobacco shop" counterpart. At my age, romance is where it finds you - usually in the reminiscence phase!

If you're looking for complexity, you won't find it here. It's not geared for that. It's purpose is a simple, mild smoke that is a nice palate cleanser for a later headier blend. Very inoffensive to both smoker and those around him. And if it bites, SLOW DOWN!!!! Everyone that is not adverse to aromatics should try this once. There's a reason it's the best selling premium bulk tobacco.

If you have ever purchased bulk pipe tobacco from a brick and mortar shop, you have almost certainly smoked Lane Limited 1-Q. But you probably bought something with a proprietary name other than 1-Q, Willshire at Tinderbox, for example. This mixture has been the best selling bulk in the United States for decades under a plethora of names.

Basically, 1-Q is Captain Black Blue with less humectant (propylene glycol). It may be that 1-Q uses a better grade leaf, but personally I doubt it. But it is not as moist as CB Blue, and smoked slowly it leaves less goop in the pipe.

Open the bag and you find a mixture consisting of about 75% ribbon cut golden Virginia and 25% black cavendish. The dark tobacco is blackened Green River Burley. In contrast to Captain Black White (and its bulk sibling RLP-6) this is predominately a light rather than black mixture with a slightly brighter taste.

The sniff test reveals vanilla. Light up, and it is not difficult to get an even light, and you will note in the flavor a combination of vanilla, chocolate, and maybe a touch of caramel. The room note is a real winner variously described as toasting marshmallows or baking cookies. Few if any pipe tobaccos elecit more compliments on the smell from non smokers. Although not as moist as the CB Royal, 1-Q is still a pretty moist mixture, but you have no difficulty keeping it lit with a relaxed puffing cadence.

The taste is milder than the fulsome room note would indicate. When the pipe is done you will find a little gray dottle, but again less than you would expect from a mixture with a decidedly sweet room note. Unless you puff wildly 1-Q does not bite. The nicotine level is well below medium. Many smokers will like this aspect, although those who like a full nicotine kick will find it a bit wimpy in that regard.

Is this a gourmet blend? Of course not. But the chances are that you are in the mood for a hamburger more often than for prime rib. Likewise budget issues may steer you toward the hamburger more often. This bulk blend is easy on the budget. If you are looking for a smoke at the high end of the complexity scale you might well choose something else. Although 1-Q does have a significant coterie of pipesters who smoke it and it alone, I personally find it best as a utility tobacco. I suspect that will be true of many others.

Use pipes dedicated to aromatics, or else choose a cob or meerschaum. 1-Q will ghost a pipe.

Aromatic pipe tobaccos are the best sellers by far. There are many who smoke only this type of pipe tobacco. Likewise there are many who get the majority of their smokes from the aromatic range. Of the remainder, quite a few will puff happily on an aromatic as a change of pace. Each of these groups will likely find 1-Q a satisfying experience.

There is a minor segment of pipe smokers who eschew aromatics. There is probably a larger group of these on this board than in the pipe smoking world at large. Aromatic haters need not try 1-Q!

I have been a pipe smoker for over 30 years and have smoked mostly non aromatic and English blends for the last two decades. I as of late have been revisiting aromatics that I have more or less ignored for so many years. I remember smoking this blend back in the 70's and 80's and enjoying it. This blend is made up of nice cavendish, toasted cavendish, and some VA ribbon that contributes to a nutty sweet flavor profile. Finally as mentioned in most of the reviews of this blend the room note is quite appealing. I really like this blend and will be adding it to my new rotation of aromatics.

*Update* Took away a star. This blend is good as an aro, but it isn't "knock your socks of good." It's more or less a better Captain Black White. So, if you like sweet aro's you should enjoy this blend. If you don't, avoid it, and don't give it bad reviews because you don't have a sweet tooth.

I purchased this tobacco from a smokeshop under the name "Wellington." It was love at first smoke. It's not something I want to smoke every day, maybe once a week, but it sure is good. I'll definitely purchase it again.

1-Q is nutty, sweet, and tastes like tobacco. It took me a while to get the sweetness, because I didn't realize my estate briar was making all my burley's more bitter than they really were. I tried it in a brand new briar, and the sweetness suddenly stood out...

The tobacco smokes very well, stays fairly cool, isn't goopy, and needs few relights. It has a enough nicotine to notice, which is more than I can say for Captain Black. Though like the former brand, I get many compliments on the aroma it leaves behind.

I don't know why the blend doesn't get better reviews. Maybe I just got an abnormally good batch of tobacco; or I just haven't been smoking long enough (I've only been smoking for a year now). Either way, compared to Captain Black it tastes better, is less goopy, smells almost just as good, and leaves a much better aftertaste. Oh, and last thing, did I mention that it's inexpensive?

Sometimes you just want a no nonsense tobacco to throw in your pipe and go. I see a place for easy smoking, relaxing, “all day” smokes in my rotation. I cut my teeth on Bur/Va/Cav blends such as Captain Black - Original so I always have a bit of nostalgia for these kind of aromatics.

I think the absence of burley makes this blend age slightly better than some aromatics I’ve had. In my experience, burley ages a blend like fine milk so it’s absence makes this a good blend to cellar. It mostly just melds the flavors together a bit more so don’t expect anything exceptional from the aging, but at least it won’t ruin the blend and make it taste like ash and dust.

The topping is neither light nor heavy and sits comfortably in that Goldilocks “just right” zone. The vanilla and caramel come through more than anything else, but you can still taste tobacco, unlike some heavier aromatics I’ve tried. The Virginia gives this blend a light but solid enough body that a lot of aromatics seem to lack. Between the warm vanilla and rich caramel I occasionally get some light notes of citrus, grass and hay. The cavendish doesn’t take up too much of the mixture and only comes through as a rare (but welcome) note of dusty old cellar. The overall blend has a warm toasty, bread like undertone that comes through more toward the middle and bottom of the bowl.

Overall, this is a good all day blend that you can maybe get away with smoking indoors. It smokes nice and cool and has a good amount of smoke in spite of the lack of burley. Good for something light in the morning and pairs well with coffee. I always make sure to keep a few ounces of this lying around, even if I don’t smoke it everyday.

Simply a great tobacco. I bought it first from justforhim.com under the name of "just for him" tobacco. It has deep hints of vanilla and maybe caramel, and its aroma is delightful. This is definitely a good evening smoke with a cup of tea. It also works well as cigarette tobacco for all you RYO's out there.

I actually buy quite a bit of this. It is handy to have a blend that visitors can remark "Now that smells very nice"... though I always suspect they actually mean "Your other tobaccos smell very bad!".

But occasionally I just want something bland when I'm alone even, so I have to say, even though this is kind of the "newbie" blend, I actually do poke it into a pipe and smoke it... often the first smoke of the day.

But the main reason I use so much is that I can use it to cut other blends if they're a little too strong for me or if I need a little "figgier" texture. I keep two bowls* of Larry's Blend Latakia, for instance, one at full strength and one cut 25% with 1Q (infidel!!). It also mixes well with Louisiana Red and comes out close to Anniversary Kake with a little more punch at around half and half!

I smoke a lot of pipes each day and my tastes change rapidly, so this particular inexpensive blend helps me give myself a wider variety.

Update 7/15/07: Well last night I had another fortunate accident while dishing out a sample of 1Q for a beginning friend. I put a quarter cup of 1Q in the envelope, thought a while and then reached up to get my bowl to give him another 1/4 cup... but accidentally grabbed the trout stream which was sitting next to the 1Q (at a glance they look a lot alike). I should have smelled the butterscotch scent of the trout stream but somehow wasn't paying enough attention... ended up with a new mix that wow golly I really like! Trout Queue... I love it! Already smoked 4 loads of this stuff today and it's only 3pm. Tell ya what, if you want to really help a newbie find a blend he can make all by himself, this will be a good one. The full blown trout stream tends to get a little hot midway and lose its fullness... somehow the 1Q picks it up and runs the rest of the way to the goal and does a back flip!

*I keep my bulk blends in 2-cup Pyrex bowls with a snap-on lid. These stack nicely and are clear on the sides so I can easily identify them in the stack, and I simply tape the name of the tobacco on top of the lid. Makes it very easy to load my pipe right over the bowl.

There isn't much more for me to say about this blend that hasn't been said already. I do have an interesting story about 1Q and am wondering if anybody has heard this rumor. I used to get custom blended tobacco from a guy that had a smoke shop from the 50's to the 80's and then he was blending in his garage in his house. The story goes that Lane blended this tobacco for President Eisenhower. They named it 1Q for the public but named it 'Ike' internally for when he would have it ordered. I dont know if this is true or not but I heard it from a couple of old timers that knew alot about the pipe business and its golden age.

Aromatics have a place in my tobacco rotation, but they don't dominate it - I keep a variety on hand. I have probably smoked this at one time or other, but only recently did I place an order for 1-Q by name. Upon first sampling the blend, I was surprised by the quality of the base tobacco flavor. Don't get me wrong, it was by no means spectacular, but its there and its not bad.

The flavoring was another surprise. I expected it to over ride the tobacco, but instead it was nicely balanced. Also, great burn, no bite, no nasty after-taste. This is a very well behaved aromatic that doesn't stand head and shoulders above the field but does hold its own.