Comparison of Current Popular Shave Cream
Re: Comparison of Current Popular Shave Cream
Brown-Forman owns a good deal more than that slack including their flagship Bourbon label, Old Forester, which has the distinction of being the longest continuously produced Bourbon brand in the Country. B-F is still owned by the Brown family.
The Jack Daniels label was correct when Lem Motlow (Daniel's nephew) reopened the distillery in the late 1940s listing himself as proprietor and the population of the town at the time. I doubt they'll change it now in part to preserve the label's continuing use status under the Trademark Laws.
The Jack Daniels label was correct when Lem Motlow (Daniel's nephew) reopened the distillery in the late 1940s listing himself as proprietor and the population of the town at the time. I doubt they'll change it now in part to preserve the label's continuing use status under the Trademark Laws.
Regards,
Squire
Squire
Re: Comparison of Current Popular Shave Cream
One of my favorite cartoons, a guy is sitting at a bar and says to the barkeep, O'Mally, to most people this is just a gin joint but to me it's Walden Pond.evnpar wrote:Yeah, and Walden Pond is a little lake in Concord, Mass.
Regards,
Squire
Squire
Re: Comparison of Current Popular Shave Cream
If I may, here are my two cents. JM Fraser's comes in a 16 ounce tub, and ranges from about 0.86 to 1.18 per ounce, shipping not included. One of the best values out there. I fear that some folks tend to disrespect it for one stated reason or another, but really for the fact that it's just a little "too" inexpensive.
Gary
SOTD 99%: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, soaps & creams, synthetic / badger brushes, Colonial General razor, Kai & Schick blades, straight razors any time, Superior 70 aftershave splash + menthol + 444
SOTD 99%: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, soaps & creams, synthetic / badger brushes, Colonial General razor, Kai & Schick blades, straight razors any time, Superior 70 aftershave splash + menthol + 444
Re: Comparison of Current Popular Shave Cream
There are a number of value price shave creams out there that do a good job and if price is one of the decision factors there's no reason not to use them.
Regards,
Squire
Squire
Re: Comparison of Current Popular Shave Cream
Hear, hear.Squire wrote:There are a number of value price shave creams out there that do a good job and if price is one of the decision factors there's no reason not to use them.
Bryan
Re: Comparison of Current Popular Shave Cream
Good point, and the opposite is also true. If one is pricey, but happens to be the apple of someone's eye, they should buy it and enjoy it to the maximum.
Gary
SOTD 99%: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, soaps & creams, synthetic / badger brushes, Colonial General razor, Kai & Schick blades, straight razors any time, Superior 70 aftershave splash + menthol + 444
SOTD 99%: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, soaps & creams, synthetic / badger brushes, Colonial General razor, Kai & Schick blades, straight razors any time, Superior 70 aftershave splash + menthol + 444
Re: Comparison of Current Popular Shave Cream
I use Trumper creams because I enjoy using them. I can get an excellent shave using
Gillette's canned cream but I don't enjoy the process as much. To stretch the point a
bit, using Trumper or whatever-the-preference versus canned cream is like the difference
between kissing a pretty woman and one not so pretty; Naturally I would
prefer the pretty one ... even at almost 83.
Gillette's canned cream but I don't enjoy the process as much. To stretch the point a
bit, using Trumper or whatever-the-preference versus canned cream is like the difference
between kissing a pretty woman and one not so pretty; Naturally I would
prefer the pretty one ... even at almost 83.
Re: Comparison of Current Popular Shave Cream
And my current oneSquire wrote:Sounds like one of my ex-wives.
Bryan
Re: Comparison of Current Popular Shave Cream
High maintenance, and worth every penny.
Gary
SOTD 99%: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, soaps & creams, synthetic / badger brushes, Colonial General razor, Kai & Schick blades, straight razors any time, Superior 70 aftershave splash + menthol + 444
SOTD 99%: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, soaps & creams, synthetic / badger brushes, Colonial General razor, Kai & Schick blades, straight razors any time, Superior 70 aftershave splash + menthol + 444
Re: Comparison of Current Popular Shave Cream
brothers wrote:High maintenance, and worth every penny.
Funny, that's what she says...hmm
Bryan
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- Duke of Silvertip!
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Re: Comparison of Current Popular Shave Cream
Harper, Well, I'm not surprised that Trumper products are available in quite a number of countries ( so are Taylor of Harrogate teas and many other 'specialty' products ) but I doubt that they're very widely available. Hell, I gather that they're not in most high street stores even in Britain. It seems to have been in the later '70s or very early '80s that Trumper gave up on making their own shave cream. So, along with Mr. Bargepole you apparently started out with the Almond cream that really was whipped up in the basement...lucky you. They do still actually make some of their own products ( as do Harris's and Floris ), the colognes for example. In fact, they sometimes make colognes on contract to other companies. I had some 'Countess Mara' cologne one time that was actually manufactured for them by Trumper. Anyway, I don't think that any of these firms are really very large even if they may have wide distribution. Taylors clearly moves the most product; which isn't surprising considering the price spread between them and the others. I'm told that quite a few more upper scale traditional barbershops in London and throughout the UK use the Taylor products and the one US shop I ever visited that actually lathered you up with a brush ( in Celebration, FL. ) did likewise.
FWIW, I haven't done any drinking in 30 years, but when I did Jack Daniels was always one of my favourites. But I must say that I found the ultimate in that type of whiskey to be something called Mitchell's. NO, Wendall!...NOT the Bradford soap people! No. This was a whiskey made in western Penn. that was actually pot stilled by some member of the Beam clan. It was hard to find even in the late 1960s but it was something else.
Regards,
Gordon
FWIW, I haven't done any drinking in 30 years, but when I did Jack Daniels was always one of my favourites. But I must say that I found the ultimate in that type of whiskey to be something called Mitchell's. NO, Wendall!...NOT the Bradford soap people! No. This was a whiskey made in western Penn. that was actually pot stilled by some member of the Beam clan. It was hard to find even in the late 1960s but it was something else.
Regards,
Gordon
- Craig_From_Cincy
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- Location: Cincinnati, OH USA
Re: Comparison of Current Popular Shave Cream
Gordon, Countess Mara brings back some memories. I used to wear Countess Mara ties back in the 80's and early 90's, they were of very good quality. You don't find ties like of that quality very often these days. Could that whiskey have possibly been Mitcher's instead of Mitchell's? Mitcher's was one of the greatest whiskey producers in the history of American distilling. They produced rye and bourbon that was classy and had stylish. I have a little bit of their 20 year old bourbon in my collection, it has a cognac like finesse.
Cheers,
Craig
Craig
Re: Comparison of Current Popular Shave Cream
Ha, I know something that Gordon doesn't, so here goes. The whisky he is referring to is Mitchter's. In the early 1950s the Pennco Corp. reopened an old, disused distillery in Schaefferstown, PA (distilling had been done on that site by one group or another since the late 1700s but that claim can also be made elsewhere) to make whisky for the post WW11 market and named it after the sons of the company president, Mitchell and Peter, (thus Mitchter's) then hired retired Master Distiller C. Everett Beam to develop the product which he did using his own formula. Mr. Everett created a very high rye recipe that is technically neither a Bourbon or a rye but is otherwise a traditional sour mash style. The whisky was not pot stilled in any traditional sense, rather it was made in a standard column still and finished in a pot shaped doubler, which is the usual practice in Kentucky and a process with which Mr. Everett was familiar. Mitchter's did have a small, one barrel a day pot still made up and ran it for the tourists selling it's distillate in ceramic jugs at the distillery gift shop. It's this small still that is featured on the brand label and they were not the only group to claim a 'pot still' heritage for marketing purposes. When the Mitchter's distillery was dismantled and it's assets sold off in bankruptcy David Beam bought the small still with it's distilling apparatus and it now sits in a garage behind his house in Bardstown, KY.
The Mitchter's brand has been relaunched by a group in California who doesn't make any whisky, rather they buy it from those who do then sell it at a ridiculous price claiming a heritage going back to the 18th century for a brand that was created in the mid 1950s.
The Mitchter's brand has been relaunched by a group in California who doesn't make any whisky, rather they buy it from those who do then sell it at a ridiculous price claiming a heritage going back to the 18th century for a brand that was created in the mid 1950s.
Regards,
Squire
Squire
Re: Comparison of Current Popular Shave Cream
Now I'm wondering if the product Craig has is from the California group, or is it the good stuff from 'way back?
Gary
SOTD 99%: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, soaps & creams, synthetic / badger brushes, Colonial General razor, Kai & Schick blades, straight razors any time, Superior 70 aftershave splash + menthol + 444
SOTD 99%: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, soaps & creams, synthetic / badger brushes, Colonial General razor, Kai & Schick blades, straight razors any time, Superior 70 aftershave splash + menthol + 444
Re: Comparison of Current Popular Shave Cream
It would have to be from the CA group if it carries the Mitchter's label as Pennco never produced a 20 year old expression. That doesn't mean it's less desirable though (the original was a 5-6 year old product) and is in fact better if one prefers aged Bourbons (which the original wasn't, actually) and Craig is correct in that it is somewhat Cognac like, just grossly overpriced.
Regards,
Squire
Squire
Re: Comparison of Current Popular Shave Cream
Squire, thanks for the good information. Interesting subject.
Gary
SOTD 99%: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, soaps & creams, synthetic / badger brushes, Colonial General razor, Kai & Schick blades, straight razors any time, Superior 70 aftershave splash + menthol + 444
SOTD 99%: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, soaps & creams, synthetic / badger brushes, Colonial General razor, Kai & Schick blades, straight razors any time, Superior 70 aftershave splash + menthol + 444
Re: Comparison of Current Popular Shave Cream
Gordon: I suspect you are right and distribution does not necessarily equate to sales volume. My point about the wide distribution (over 150 nations) is that I was surprised the firm was that well known outside of the UK and various shaving fanatics. Perhaps they like to give the impression that they are a small, select high-end company because that permits them to charge more for their products than, say, any mass distributor like P&G, etc. Or, maybe unlike Jack Daniel's, the high end companies are really small firms appealing to select groups of people who like and can afford their products.
I would love to get some hard facts about the high end companies. However, being privately held as some are, they are under no obligation to let anyone outside the owners know. And while their companies may seem "gentlemanly" to those on the outside the situation may be much like the university milieu where manners and high mindedness are thought to be the norm but the actuality remains "publish or perish" as it has for what seems like eons. In marketing it is called "stealing market share" and is done in any number of ways, some legal, some questionable, some outright unethical.
As for being "proprietor made" this can be a good thing but it can be deceiving. In many areas machine-made is superior to hand-made. Only a machine can make a microchip. Tech specialists can conceive of almost infinitely smaller and smaller microchips but no human can manufacture them and devising a machine that can make them is the key to producing them. However, I do like to think that gnomes are working in the cellars of GFT to make shaving cream especially for you and me: "this one is for Gordon; that one is for Harper; this one is for Gordon, that one ...."
As for whiskey, I have drunk a small river of it, but I know little about how it is made (I was once in gin distillery but never one where whiskey is made). I do now the name of my Dad's favourite whiskey. It was Old Fitzgerald, a great sour mash whiskey ... whatever the hell sour mash is.
Best,
Bob
I would love to get some hard facts about the high end companies. However, being privately held as some are, they are under no obligation to let anyone outside the owners know. And while their companies may seem "gentlemanly" to those on the outside the situation may be much like the university milieu where manners and high mindedness are thought to be the norm but the actuality remains "publish or perish" as it has for what seems like eons. In marketing it is called "stealing market share" and is done in any number of ways, some legal, some questionable, some outright unethical.
As for being "proprietor made" this can be a good thing but it can be deceiving. In many areas machine-made is superior to hand-made. Only a machine can make a microchip. Tech specialists can conceive of almost infinitely smaller and smaller microchips but no human can manufacture them and devising a machine that can make them is the key to producing them. However, I do like to think that gnomes are working in the cellars of GFT to make shaving cream especially for you and me: "this one is for Gordon; that one is for Harper; this one is for Gordon, that one ...."
As for whiskey, I have drunk a small river of it, but I know little about how it is made (I was once in gin distillery but never one where whiskey is made). I do now the name of my Dad's favourite whiskey. It was Old Fitzgerald, a great sour mash whiskey ... whatever the hell sour mash is.
Best,
Bob
Re: Comparison of Current Popular Shave Cream
In the tour of the Jack Daniel's distillery, they show you the whole process. When the tour guide (clad in bib overalls) shakes the lid of the fermentation vat, he admonishes minors not to breathe the vapors. I walked away from the vat feeling as if I had consumed a glass of Jack even though I didn't touch a drop!
Re: Comparison of Current Popular Shave Cream
The sour mash phrase sounds exotic but is just a chemical process developed by a Scottish physician, Dr. James Crow, who was employed by a Bourbon distiller in the 1830s. A brand named after him, Old Crow, was the favorite of U.S. Grant, Mark Twain and other luminaries of that era. It is now standard industry practice around the World, the Scots and Irish call it backset, and virtually any whisky you buy today is made that way whether the label mentions it or not.
Interestingly, the original distillery where Dr. Crow worked was purchased by Brown-Forman, completely refurbished to produce the Woodford brand of Bourbon, and is the only major Bourbon distillery using genuine pot stills.
Interestingly, the original distillery where Dr. Crow worked was purchased by Brown-Forman, completely refurbished to produce the Woodford brand of Bourbon, and is the only major Bourbon distillery using genuine pot stills.
Regards,
Squire
Squire