Esoterica Blends... Where are they???

[MarkinAZ]

Being a member on this forum and on another, there's talk from time to time regarding "out of stock" issues with Penzance and Stonehaven, and possibly other blends. I was wondering what the deal was with this outstanding blend. Is there a production issue with the manufacturer? Is the manufacturer having a hard time with locating quality ingredients for their blends? May the manufacturer is having personnel issues?

I decided to pose the question to blender Russ Ouellette with Pipes and Cigars and see what he could tell me about this. I received a return email from Russ, who also gave me permission to reprint it here:

"The problem lies with the actual manufacturer of Esoterica (and Balkan Sobranie), J.F. Germain. They’re a smallish British company, and they use older equipment and have limited staffing. Beside the aforementioned brands, they make tobacco for Smoker’s Haven and they have a full line of blends under their own name. The obvious answer to the problem would be to add staff and to buy more equipment, but they won’t do that because they feel that the quality of their products would suffer. They seem to be doing better, but because some of these blends fall into the “unobtainium” category, there’s a buying frenzy whenever it lands. If they continue to step up production a bit, and the folks who buy large quantities for their cellars finally feel that they have enough, supply will begin to catch up with demand. I hope this was helpful. By all means, feel free to share this information..."