Latakia blends taste similar to me

[geopiper]

Many blends that contain latakia taste similar to me because the smikiness of the latakia overpowers the other tobaccos. Maybe my palate isn't sensitive enough to detect subtle tastes imparted by other tobacco types in the blend.
Does this happen to you also? If so, does this mean the 100's of blends that contain latakia would all taste pretty much the same to me or you?
Off on my tobacco blend journey...

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Well, if you don't keep trying to taste differences, it will take much longer to train your taste buds to taste the differences.

Or, while your tastes don't pick out nuances, enjoy it, and select the cheapest latakia blend on the market and just enjoy.

 

[crashthegrey]

Solid advice from Cosmic. Maybe start with blends that have a lower percentage of latakia and move up over time.

 

[lawdawg]

Most "English" style blends are similar in the same way that dry red wines are all similar. At first you might not taste much of a difference between blends, but you will later as you gain more experience. If you enjoy your blend, that's what counts :: Keep on smoking it, and trying new blends, and the nuances will become apparent.

 

[sokrates]

I smoke latakia blends almost exclusively because I love the taste of latakia. The hard thing for me is figuring out why I do not like certain blends. I want to like Seattle Pipe Club english and balkan blends, but they do not do it for me. The same goes for Squadron Leader. I'm not sure if it is the type of Virginia that turns me off or the ratio of the components. However, if you keep smoking different blends the differences will become apparent.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I used to love English blends and smoked them nearly exclusively for about fifteen years. One day I went to smoke one and all I tasted was Latakia. Since then, any blend with anything more than a condiment amount of Latakia tastes exactly the same.

 

[unkleyoda]

I've been smoking pipe for 3 years. I gravitated towards Latakia mixes, because I liked them and they are forgiving. This was exactly how I felt, at least my first year and a half. All Latakia mixes tasted pretty much the same, not identical, but nearly the same. Fast forward to now, I've been adding more non-Latakia mixes into my rotation. I'm not sure if that is what did it, but now I can pick out nuanced flavors in the background of any tobacco I'm smoking. Ultimately I think it's just more and more exposure to flavors.
Basically, just keep smoking and watch your cadence and try to focus on the flavors.

 

[olkofri]

I wish it were easy to infer the proportion of latakia in a blend prior to purchase. I'm not batty about latakia: I like it alright, but it irritates my throat. I want blends in which it's only a condiment.

 

[hawky454]

When I first started smoking I felt the same way. I couldn’t really tell the difference between PS Proper English and Balkan Sasieni (just mentioned those two as an example) but the more I tried and the more experience I got, I started to notice very subtle differences, such as sweetness from the VA’s or the incense like flavors from the Orientals. Nowadays I can tell vast differences between English blends and I’ve honed down which ones I prefer. There are some excellent English blends out there and there are a couple on the current market that I find to be just as good, if not better than a lot of the legendary blends of yore. With time you’ll also be able to discern the differences between quality Latakia and subpar Latakia.

 

[dottiewarden]

Try Dunhill Early Morning Pipe while it's still available. The subtleness of the flavor takes some good sipping to really appreciate the Latakia. On the other end of the spectrum there's Samuel Gawith Balkan Flake: it will teach your taste buds a thing or two about Latakia! End of dilema. ::

 

[hawky454]

I really think people must confuse Skiff Mixture with Squadron Leader. To my tastes Skiff Mix is full bodied with a heavy dose of Latakia, Squadron Leader on the other hand is very light on the Lat and medium to light in body. I enjoy Squadron Leader but I usually add more Lat to it because it’s just too light for my tastes. Skiff is one of my absolute favorites and is just as good if not better than the Balkan Sobranie I’ve tried from the late 70’s. The BS was very well kept throughout the years and was absolutely delicious but certainly no better than Skiff. Skiff is the real deal, through and through and I hope to see it back on the shelves soon.

 

[geopiper]

Previously I've sampled Dunhill 965, Frog morton on the town, Kramer's Danny Kaye, and Stokkebye Eng. Oriental Supreme. Blends I recently purchased but haven't sampled yet are Sutliff's aromatic english and mixture 965 match, presbyterian mixture, maltese falcon, plum pudidng, bengal slices and sutliff mixture 965 match.
Frog morton was one of my favorites so I'm looking forward to trying the presbyterian and maltese falcon.

 

[seanv]

Mix it up a bit. Try some burley blends and some Vapers. You may taste the English blends differently after

 

[olkofri]

The only Frog Morton I managed to get a tin of is the plain Frog Morton. Is that a latakia-heavy blend?

 

[foursidedtriangle]

Whatever you enjoy is a good tobacco. Plum pudding is a good one, subtle and refined.

 

[scloyd]

To me Presbyterian and Balkan Sasieni taste very similar. So does John Cotton's Smyrna and Sutliff 503 Heavy English. I don't think I could pick them out in a blind taste test. I enjoy them all so I smoke them all. One of these days I'm going to perform a real taste test with these four blends.

 

[alexnc]

Could be latakia burn out. I used to smoke English almost exclusively - at some point I just started not enjoying it and avoided it entirely. I'm with Embers now - a condimental amount is good. But rarely even that now. I'm sitting on a lot of Latakia blends I'll probably never smoke. I say explore the non-latakia world a bit.

 

[mso489]

I'll sympathize with original post and repeat myself in saying that, yes, Latakia and Perique, condimental tobaccos I enjoy a lot, are overused as default condiments, both in frequency and proportion in blends. I like them in many blends. I appreciate where they are used in a subtle artful way, and sometimes as a dominant condiment. But they are, to me, overused and seemingly dusted into too many blends, anything non-aromatic, and plenty of aromatic as well. Good stuff, but a stern test for blenders' judgement and self-restraint.