Contreras Pipe Tobacco Blends is based in Rathdrum Idaho.My business is ran by me of course and my CFO(wife)Jaime Contreras.
Now let it be a point that beside's the fire cured cavendish all the tobacco I use to blend is 100% raw tobacco and I buy my tobacco's through a independent distributor who supplies me with what I need and all the tobacco I get is fresh.Exept for the fire cured cavendish I also get my turkish tobacco's from the same man.
The main tobacco's I use in my blends because I love the taste of them so much is fire cured cavendish and red virginia.The challenge over time was to create blends with my favorite tobacco's but not all my blends are limited to just these two tobacco's.
The other tobacco's I use is high grade latakia,perique that come's to me as fresh as possible,burley,yellow virginia,and of course the turkish tobacco's.As simple as all these tobacco's might seem you would be suprised what you can do with them and all the different tastes you can get them to produce for you.
Let me start out sharing with you all the way that I cure my tobacco's and how the taste's I create are done.
In the tradition of how the spanish stored there tobacco in rum barrels I use good quality rum in some of my blends but most of my blends contain no rum.There is one blend that I will be selling that is a limited edition blend called Contreras Spanish Rum were I used 12 different style's of tobacco half raw and half cured,topping it with 15 year old rum.When I use the rum thoe the tobacco is treated in the rum but not to taste like rum soaked tobacco which I do not like anyway.If done right the rum will give the tobacco a unique taste.
Then there is wanna the oldest method's in pipe tobacco used even today and that is pressing the tobacco.There are a few reasons why a pipe tobacco blender does this, one of them being to marry the tobacco quicker so the tobacco's used come together quicker but agian there are a few more reason why one would press.One of my blend's Burgos #2 is pressed for a longer period of time then required to get a unique taste out of it that I enjoy very much and it will also be one of the blends up on my website.
With burley and virginia's or even a already put together blend sometime's I haft to stove them to either change there taste all together or tone them down abit it all depends on what I'm trying to get out of it.I stove the tobacco's the good old fashion way.
Now another method I use to altar a tobacco is to steam it.There are so many reasons why I do this but wanna the reason's is when for example I use black cavendish to sweeten burley, I then steam the burley before I stove it.Like I said there are alot of reasons why I do this.Also stoving some tobacco's may go into the steamer to put moisture back into the tobacco etc.
I am getting ready to go into business and I am very exited.My website will be up in august and my blends.I am looking forword to doing business with fellow pipe smokers and those who wanna smoke unique hand crafted pipe tobacco's created by a blender who love's what he does so much.There is a saying I was told by wanna the best blender's in the United States he told me"you do not call yourself a master blender,others will".
I will rave about a couple blends I love smoking and have sold well in the shop.I will make a nice gallery of my blends but I do not want to get into detail about them,I am saving that for my website.
Fireside is wanna my top seller's and just so happen's to be wanna my favorite blends to smoke.This blend I consider to me is wanna my master piece's.Fireside is a perfect balance of red virginia and yellow virginia and then I add a fine turkish red to it.Then I stove some burley and add it in.The final stage to this blend is just he right amount of latakia to seal the deal.
And the next blend is my first blend I ever made.Over time of course it only got better as my blending improved and now this blend is also a top seller at the shop and stands alone in the tobacco world giving the Contreras Tobacco's it's orginal style.Spicy Spanish Cavendish all I can say is cavendish will never be the same anymore.Fire cured cavendish,stoved burley and a liberal amount of perique but not to the point were it over powers and a touch of latakia is a perique lover's blend all the way.I would recommend these two blends when my website opens to anybody there two great blends.
Here is a gallery of my blends and know there coming to your pipe very soon.
When I sell my blends there will be HOUSE BLENDS which will always be blended over and over and in time I will add more blends.
Then I will have LIMITED EDITION BLENDS which will be very special hand crafted blend's that I find very unique and will rotate all the time.This keeps it interesting for me while I blend away and give people different type's of tobacco to smoke every month or so.
As the site grows like all business's so will the selction of tobacco's.
My goal is this,I want to provide the best quality tobacco blends to my customer's and because I am a small business it's alot more personal. I also want to know my customer's who enjoy my blend's to the point were they keep coming back.There will be many who browse on by and purchase a blend or two but having my customer's who come back on a regular basis are the one's who I would like so much to get to know them and they can feel free to contact me and I will always answer back.This is really what I am pushing for in my business.If I grow that is great but I do not want to grow to the point were I loose touch with my faithful customer's or have someone else deal with them instead of me.
What I think is cool also is that I have surfed the web checking out other online pipe tobacco vendor's and it look's like I will be one of the first latin pipe tobacco blender's going into business on the web.There is alot of latin cigar vendor's but I could not find any in the pipe world,that makes me very exited.
TO PURCHASE CONTRERAS PIPE TOBACCO VISIT
www.contreraspipetobacco.com
Music
I love many type's of music I am open minded to it so as long as it's not a bunch of noise.
My favorite type of music above all thoe is Jazz.
The song I chose for this page is funny to me because living in northern Idaho there is the prairie which has alot of farm land before you come into my town then past my town goes into thick forest all the way to the canadian border.
We have one highway in and one out.There are alot of small roads that go by the farms so some times you get stuck behind a tractor for a short distance.I your from the area then it does not really bother any of us because we have know were to go in a hurry.But Washington State driver's are rude about it and actually ride a tractors ass like it's gonna make him move any faster lol! or you can tell someone is from California because they get pissed off when the tractor is just cruising down the road,anyway that is why I chose this song.
Movies
Here are my three favorite movie's
It's about time they make the Joker look evil,great movie thoe and Batman begin's was cool to.
Television
Since I do not watch TV here are a few pics to fill this space lol!
Most people know Tobacconist who own a tobacco business are hating this with a passion
WHAT A JOKE COME ON NOW! Control control control...
Whatever happen to choice,where those in office cry choice and the right to choose, I truly am scratching my head at that.
I am not getting into politics because that is the last thing I will do on this page,just speaking my mind.
If your a adult 18 years or older you have the choice to smoke.This is also a right that a adult smoker should not be punished because they choose to enjoy tobacco.
Books
Here are some good books for you all...
Heroes
Questions Or Comments Or Any Other Reason...
contrerasblends@live.com
Fax (208)687-3910
I am permitted by the state of Idaho to sell tobacco.
You must be 18 years or older to purchase tobacco..
Tobacco may cause health issues and can be addictive...
I support the FFA 100%
Support American farmers who are having a hell of time keeping there farms including tobacco farmers.
Most of the picture's on this page are my own.Some of the picture's I used were taken from the web.
Contreras Pipe Tobacco Blends 2009
www.contreraspipetobacco.com
Contreras Pipe Tobacco Blends Rathdrum, Idaho US Owner
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Contreras Pipe Tobacco Sometimes in the tobacco business you hit roadblocks,but like a freight train it does not stop me I plow right through them. Posted at 7:59 PM Jul 31 view more
My name is Christopher Contreras and I am a young 31 year old pipe tobacco blender who blends in the old world style of tobacco blends from 100% raw tobacco.I do not blend other blends into blends and I also do not buy from other pipe tobacco company's to use there tobacco's in my blends.The only tobacco I use that is not raw and by my own doing is the cavendish's which I purchase from a local Tobacconist and is also a personal friend and fan of my blends.
I also take pride in being spanish and the history in which the spanish played a huge role in trading with the native's from the America's and bringing back tobacco to Spain and introducing it to Europe.There is alot of history to this good and bad but either way tobacco began to spread it's way around the world.
I am well aware of the bigger pipe tobacco company's out there going toe to toe with each other one trying to produce the same type of tobacco but only better than the other company.
The difference between them and me is that I do not use all the bells and whistle's to produce all these tobacco's that have gone off track from what was smoked by the spanish and the english in those day's so what I mean by that is I do not blend aromatics,cavendish in itself nomatter what type it is will be sweet in it's process,also burley can be cured to be sweet tasting as well.I do not case my tobacco's,I do top some of them but that's a whole different method all alone.Some blenders do blend in the old way still blending full bodied tobacco's in there raw form.Because I am a business in the making I have blended sweeter tobacco's on the mild side for pipe tobacco smoker's who do not always want a heavy full bodied tobacco.It's not my goal o stick with a method that just pushes out heavy full bodied tobacco's but also blend out pipe tobacco that is sweet and mild for those who enjoy that.
I know in the time when the spanish sailed they had to twist and rope there tobacco and after finding that storing there tobacco in rum barrels preserved the tobacco they would chew the tobacco while sailing so they wouldn't blow there ship's to hell with all the gun powder on board and when they made landfall the clay pipe's would come out and they would take there roped tobacco and smoke it.There is so much history behind tobacco I wish that I could cover it all.
Blending for me is a art form something I love very much and take great pride in.When I blend I do so from scratch and all my blend's are not copied from any other but hand crafted by me straight into the pipe.The way I cure,ferment and press my tobacco's is in a crude manner but the end product is something I love to smoke myself.I have not given up on other tobacco blends produced by other company's that would be foolish there are some blends out there I really enjoy besides my own.
I am also a cigar fan and love a good cigar when called for.Because I smoke cigar's and have done so since I was a teenager that has played into the role on how I blend also.
It's in the blood to smoke and love the cigar lol!
To me the raw blended pipe tobacco and cigars go hand in hand.The taste of a good full tobacco with depth and weight is what I seek and so do many other's.That right there is what I have to offer.
Here is a wonderful painting of were my side of the Contreras's come from Burgos Spain in the 17th century when the spanish were trading there goods including tobacco.
The style and art the history and the love for tobacco play's a huge role in how I blend.Sitting down and taking my sweet time putting the tobacco's together to create a blend that can be smoked by me on a daily basis is what has lead me to go into business so that one more blender can make his way in the .com world giving smoker's another option of a different type of pipe tobacco to smoke.
The one's who deserve the real credit is the Native American's for introducing tobacco to Spain.In history all country's have made there mistake's but time's have changed not tobacco.
Thank you for taking the time to read this,enjoy the rest of the page.
To purchase Contreras Pipe Tobacco Please Visit www.contreraspipetobacco.com
Do to restrictions based on tobacco vendors finding web hosts and high risk vendors has taken it's toll on me. The cost of getting a high risk online business is harder than even a year ago. New laws have effected not only me but many other vendors thanks to the FDA and are government.
The pipe tobacco blended by me is unique and I am proud to say different.
Please help support me put Contreraspipetobacco.com online and into business.
Your support helps me to continue blending great pipe tobacco and keep tobacco sales going through these tough times.
Who I'd like to meet:
Today times have changed with pipe smoking and cigar smoking.No longer is the pipe smoker a old man wearing his favorite sweater in his chair reading his book or the man with his wife beater drinking a beer watching the game and smoking a cigar,a new generation of smoker's are coming into the scene and I am proud to be one of them.It is exciting to see guy's even gal's 18,19 20 years old taking up the cigar or pipe or even both.When working in the shop I have opened a world of pipe smoking to alot of people ranging in there early 20's and to my suprise they come back for more pipe tobacco,or wanna upgrade there pipe.
There is one good old pipe smoker that has been smoking the pipe as a cartoon figure for years.
Here is my very first fine pipe my wife bought me years ago.
And finding this pipe was a great find and I am so happy I found it BUT no offense Savinelli needs to just stick to making there beautiful pipes because there pipe tobacco is horrible.I am just using the canister as a example on how close the two pipe's resemble each other.
Below my pipe picture is a GALLERY I put together of some art work annd pics that I love.I also added in one pic I took wanna my pipes resting in a bed of sunflowers.
When it come's to cigars I will say "I LOVE THEM" a fine cigar is a wonderful treat with 100% all natural tobacco's from filler to the wrapper.Like I said before cigars have played a huge role in how I blend my pipe tobacco.
I am picky with my cigars and have a taste for certain type's.Full bodied cigars is what I love the most but there are a few medium bodied cigars that are great as well.The spicy pepper like cigars with just the light hint of cream is right up my alley.Here is a pic of some of cigars I love,there are many more I am a fan of.
I know I'm on the right track with my pipe tobacco blends because one night I was smoking my blend Fireside in the living room watching a show when my wife walked in and asked if I was smoking a cigar,she always say's that a cigar smells like cow shit so when I told her no I was smoking my pipe she still made the remark that it smelled like cow shit,I was glad she said that to me.
So with my pipe tobacco sometimes I need that heavy rich smoke with depth and weight to it like a fine cigar.
I believe that some of my blends would please some of you cigar smoker's as it does me.My father is a cigar smoker and he love's smoking some of my blends.So a different style of pipe tobacco going hand in hand with cigar tobacco is a must with me.I plan on making a blend were I will use my blending skills along side with a choice cigar wrapper it will happen one day,maybe sooner than I think.Knowing that this thought is not original there are a few blender's out there who have already created some blends were they use the wrapper in there blends but that's them not me.
Before I go on to my next subject let me leave you with a famous quote I just love.
When I have found intense pain relieved, a weary brain soothed, and calm refreshing sleep obtained by a cigar, I have felt grateful to God and have blessed His name. – C. H. Spurgeon
My only vice I can truly say with tobacco is snuff.The history and tradition dates back to the 17th century and is the oldest form of using tobacco in Europe.Because there is a wealth of history to snuff I will just share with you all on how it fit's into my tobacco use.
My wife and I are snuff user's and we love the stuff.With me being as traditional with my tobacco as possible I learned years ago about snuff and the pipe smoker.With the pipe smoker who uses snuff we have a couple sniff's before we light are pipe's.Sometimes I will put some snuff in my bowl while I'm smoking the pipe to altar the taste abit and to also add just alittle more nicotine to the tobacco.
It is traditional and a method that goes way back but at the same time I love doing it.
When sniffing my snuff I just take a small pinch and sniff it gently into my nose,I get a smooth nicotine rush of sorts and then light up.The key is sniffing,not snorting it like it's dope or something lol!
Here is a small gallery of beautiful snuff boxes and a collection of snuff jars.
Here are some pipe charts for you who wish to purchase a good pipe if you have not done so yet and even the pipe smoker may discover a shape they like and give a good idea.
Here is a little blast to the past of vintage pipe tobacco that started it all in both America and England.Some of these brands are still around and have stood the test of time.
I really do enjoy smoking my own blends because I blend them the way I want my pipe tobacco to taste but there are a few blends out there that I do respect and smoke sometimes when I want to switch it up.Here are a few blends I really enjoy.
MAC BAREN is wanna the pipe tobacco company's out there who produce some wonderful blends and they blend in the old world style still with there non aromatics and stick close to tradition.I respect this pipe tobacco company because there the only one's who make tobacco's the way I like them.
I do have a blend called Contreras Balkan which is just my style of a balkan that is blended the way I like it and will be on my website.There are many balkans out there of course with there own way of blending it out.Besides smoking my own balkan blend I have tried all sort's of other balkans and the one balkan besides my own that I enjoy smoking is this version of it.
For the company Dunhill I am not a big fan of there tobacco's but one of there blends Nightcap is the only Dunhill I like because it is a deep heavy traditional English tobacco.It is to bad they do not produce it anymore but there still is plenty to go around out there for awhile.
I am not to big on the aromatics there are a few of course that I do like but for the most case I'm just not a fan.When I want something sweet I smoke my blends that I use differnet cavendish's in that provide me a sweet smoke.There is one aromatic thoe that I do like because it is very different,agian it's to bad that they are not producing it anymore.
There is a Tobacconist friend of mine who is a great blender as well.For the same reason he enjoy's my blend's I also enjoy his very much and when I am not smoking my own I will also be smoking on his stuff as well.
PURCHASE CONTRERAS PIPE TOBACCO AT
www.contreraspipetobacco.com
Still thinking up names nothing steller has come to mind yet. I keep forgetting to turn on Skype, I'll remember to do so I guess today, but when I get up in the morning.
Fantastic Blends. I am looking forward to the day when they will be for sale. I am gonna send you a sample of a couple of things I have been smoking and maybe you can give me some suggestions to tweek them. I will include the recipe as well. Thanks again for giving me the opperatunity to check out your talent.
