The Many Talents of Mr. Ripley

A Tobacco Review

Editor’s Note:

Today we welcome

Blake Bobechko

as a guest contributor. Early readers of P3 may remember Blake from my interview with him back in July 2023. Now, the author has returned with a tobacco review of Brigham’s Ripley Avenue, just in time for Father’s Day this sunday.

Enjoy,

- Frank Theodat

A very merry Fathers Day.

As I write this, I’m mere days away from welcoming my third child into the world. I am grateful to the good Lord for the family He has blessed me with, and have found a pipe amongst brothers an entirely appropriate means of celebration. Good for the soul, as they say. 

Perhaps it is doubly appropriate that I am finally cracking into C.S. Lewis’ Out of the Silent Planet for the first time, because a newborn will almost surely compromise our quiet evenings. Permit me this cheap pun on a merely surface level, as I plead ignorance and am fully ready to have my mind blown once again by Lewis’ keen intellect. In that regard, I suspect that this comparison almost certainly won’t hold up once I’ve come to learn just what “the silent planet” actually means. But I digress. It is in the vein of fatherhood that I present to you my musings on yet another blessing from God’s green earth.

Brigham’s Ripley Avenue, or The Talented Mr. Ripley as I now affectionately call it, was named for the old Brigham Factory which was once located in Toronto, Canada. This tobacco was released as an anniversary blend for a reason – it was a worthy retrospective on Brigham’s centennial year. Remember, “Toronto the good?” You know, The Queen City nicknamed for how conservative it once was. That feels like many lifetimes ago, but it seems worth remembering as me and the boys smoke on the porch and consider the blueprints for the future Christendom. And while I’m no urbanite, the throwback name reminds me of my own dad who grew up playing in the streets of that old Queen City. It’s a contemplative sort of blend.

Mr. Ripley’s ribbon cut features a wise balance of black and brown cavendish and is a sleeper amongst the Virginias you might be accustomed to. It burns evenly and holds well, even for the uninitiated. As for its aforementioned talents, Mr. Ripley has an agreeably mild aroma, while still offering a bold rum and vanilla flavour that will carry in your beard indefinitely.

I enjoyed a bowl, pressed down and heaping over, from a new Father’s Day gift; a choice Scandinavian-inspired pipe that Herb Brigham himself preferred. This one pictured is called The Helm, and features a rock maple distillator, which can really reduce the “bite” of some sharper blends. That said, even from an unfiltered pipe, Mr. Ripley doesn't have that kind of edge to it. It’s really quite amicable. 

Mr. Ripley comes in a 50 gram tin (unfortunately unbranded where I live) and is perfect for dadding from the porch on a hot summer day, or for celebrating new life.