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A blast from the past

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mwaller

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As many of you know, Albert Einstein was an avid pipe smoker. He was reportedly a fan of Philip Morris Revelation, a mass-market aromatic pipe blend containing virginias, burley, perique, kentucky, and latakia.
Here he is with a tin of Revelation:
Albert.jpg
Revelation - especially the original and discontinued Philip Morris version - is now thought of as a "collectible," though it doesn't seem to command the crazy prices of certain limited production boutique blends...
Curiosity got the better of me, so I decided to order a tin of Revelation to see what the fuss was about.
The tin I found was described as being from the 1960's-1970's, so I knew off the bat that Einstein would have never crossed paths with this exact tin in the drugstore...
Rev1.jpg
Rev2.jpg
I felt a bit guilty popping open an intact ~50-year-old tin...
rev3.jpg
The inner paper contains a sales offer that expired on December 31, 1964. I would guess that the this tin was produced sometime in the early 1960's.
rev4.jpg
The contents look great, and still have a bit of 'spring' to them. The tin note is exactly how I envisioned pipe tobacco to smell before I ever picked up a pipe: sweet with just a hint of smokiness.
I look forward to giving this a try in the coming days!
 

Jitterbugdude

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I thought he smoked House of Windsor Revelation (HOW). Phillip Morris(PM) came along later. I know HOW was around in the 20's but I don't know about PM (in relation to Revelation)
 

mwaller

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Actually, Philip Morris Revelation came before HOW Revelation.
Revelation was originally introduced in 1923 by Continental Tobacco Co., a major competitor. 1934, Philip Morris bought Continental, and presumably continued manufacturing Revelation under the PM brand.
Have a look here:
https://www.industrydocumentslibrary.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/#id=gldy0002
HOW later bought the PM pipe tobacco business, but I don't know exactly when that happened. Probably in the 1970's or 1980's.


I thought he smoked House of Windsor Revelation (HOW). Phillip Morris(PM) came along later. I know HOW was around in the 20's but I don't know about PM (in relation to Revelation)
 

mwaller

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I couldn't wait to try Revelation, so I loaded up the Kirsten and took it for spin last night...
revelation.jpg
I found this to be a pleasing, albeit one-dimensional smoke. The nuttiness of the burely comes through, but other components are rather indistinct. The aromatic topping is present throughout the bowl, but is never over-powering. It seems very well balanced in that regard. As you might expect, the smoke is very smooth unless you really push it. Strength is medium. There were very few off-notes; I detected a hint of soapiness here and there, and a bit of black pepper near the bottom of the bowl. I look forward to enjoying another bowl sometime!
 

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