What are you smoking June 2020

Started the day with some Mac Baren HH Rustica in an MM Mark Twain, black coffee to drink.

PS LBF in the Dunhill Shell 6104

At the park. Having some Sutliff Crumble Kake Red Virginia in my Savinelli 320. 😀

Something delicious in the morning. A real indulgence.

So on a slow morning where you don't have to run to work or church, this is a delightfully indulgent idea. I don't know why but this works best before I become totally awake.

This is what I do:

A week before, open a one litre bottle of Coke or in my case Coke ZERO, and let it go flat. In my home there is always a supply of flat coke zero around.

The night before I make a pot of coffee. I pour the pot into a beer pitcher and put it in the fridge.

Next morning, after bathroom but before shower, I pour a cup of cold coffee into my huge mug. The mug is about two normal mugs of coffee. I add my half and half. THen I add a couple of shot glasses of flat coke.

I sit in my comfy chair in my smoking bathrobe. Sip some of the coffee drink. Sip sip sip. Then I light up, in a large bowl pipe (I don't exactly know why a large bowl is best, but in my experience it is) some G.L.Pease Stratford. To my taste Stratford is a little stronger but not as complicated as Telegraph Hill. Sip some smoke.

The two go together really really well together at all times. But with a half sleepy no hurry morning brain the combination is amazingly delicious. Really drool worthy. Something you don't want to hurry through. Sip one sip the other back and forth.

The caffeine and the nicotine slowly build up in my brain. The idea is slowly. Even on a work day, I am not a fan of having the day shoved in my face. Sometimes unavoidable. But on a slow morning, it is wonderful to gradually meet the coming day on my terms.

Sipping a large bowl takes me 45 minutes to an hour. In this indulgence I try to stretch it out to an hour or more. And I try to sip the coffee drink to last the same hour, i.e. when the pipe is done the large mug is empty, and not before. Tiny sips, no hurry. Ohhhhhhhhhh delicious.

Music is good for a background, but nothing crazy. Not hard rock, or if you are a classical fan, don't play Holst's Mars. Mozart, something nice. Respighi's Ancient Airs and Dances is perfect. If you are a classicrock fan try Tom Petty's Free Fallin. Or if you are an old guy like me, try Alan Parson's Dream Within a Dream. Your tastes may vary, these are mine. They even have mindless meditation music you can find on line, though I don't care much for music that lacks a narrative.


Look this is absolutely not a hippy dippy be here now mindfulness meditation thing. Maybe it sounds like it. But I don't mean it that way. I am not and have never been a druggie, I don't enjoy getting high because I don't like the feeling of exiting the world. I have always had too much work to do to have time or the inclination to escape. I am not trying to "transcend" reality, or anything.

What it really is is a fantastic "leave me alone" morning. A morning refuge maybe. And so darn tasty.


Of course not everyone is as fortunate as I am to be able to smoke inside my house with impunity. Well this is a fine porch ritual, on a not yet too hot sunny day. And if you are lucky enough to be married or have a significant other, sitting together and gently talking is an excellent substitute for the music.

Infinite moment that takes about an hour in measurable time.

Afterwords shower up and take on the world. 

Manil La Broom in a bent Dublin shop pipe.

jeffd ... sounds like an amazing start to the day!

I believe Coca-Cola was going to introduce a coffee based cola called Coke Blak but think it bombed.
The home-made version is, no doubt, better anyway.

Dude... It. Was. The. Worst. Like, reprehensible.

Halfway through some KBV Live Wire in a Portland belge looking thing.

I had one. Pretty bad.

Mac Baren Navy Flake in a bent Dublin shop pipe. I'm really digging this stuff.

I drink flat coke with a pipe anyway, as carbonation burns my tongue when i am smoking. But I fell in love with flat coke as a kid, because it was administered as an antiemetic.

Finishing up Two Timer in a shop pot.

Wilke Cherry Cavendish in an old Jobey

Rare indeed.

No mention anywhere on the net. It must have been a one off for a friend of Mike’s.