C&D Red Carpet

I guess the question really is how many for the blend descriptions come from the maker versus an editor at TR who imposes his/her description of the said blend? I like TR because at least it gives some idea of what's in a blend. Back in the '70's you had no idea unless your tobacconist told you.

Like anything else, a grain of salt should be noted.

Interesting. Do you think that the last statement says that while there never should have been any, it might have been included? Or that there never was any included? Throws many reviewers into the "suspect" department.

Agreed.

I just got a sample last week in a trade. Now, I am more curious to try it. The friend (a fellow reviewer) who sent it to me described it as a VaPer, and he's a good reviewer.

I look forward to your review. I follow 4 reviewers, yours being 1 of the 4, and 2 of the other 3 found Izmer to play a prominent role in the blend. I may have to rethink 2 of the folks I follow.

Well, the power of suggestion can be strong with some people. I'd give them another chance as you had trusted them before.

I remember when someone first told me that there was latakia in GLP's Laurel Heights, I swore by Ser Jacopo that it was a straight Virginia, because I didn't taste it (I was rather newish to pipes) and it wasn't on the label. But, Greg himself, came on here and told me that it was in the blend, just not on the label.

Then we have the Orlik Golden Slices thing, where they never listed any perique, and still I swear I don't taste it. But, without direct word from the company, we just sort of came to the consensus that we can believe that there is some perique in there, but if so, it is used so sparingly that it is not a true VaPer.
If Red Carpet has Izmir , then it would be almost exactly like Sunday Picnic, because they are rather close in flavors already, but Sunday Picnic has the Izmir. Both are rather good. The only versions of these that I've ever had was from digging them out of Skip's back closet at The Briary and came with almost 10-12 years on them. I'm not sure what they are like fresh.

I smoked a bowl before I went to bed, and I can see how somebody could be fooled into thinking Izmir is present, especially as it was in the description when the older reviews were written. Among the other flavor aspects, there's a little woody sourness I have in the past associated with Izmir that's very noticeable in every puff. Both the wood and sour/savory tartness come from the red Va., and that sour note is one we don't always encounter with dominant red Va. blends. It's a little less sweet than some red Va.s I have smoked, which could add to the idea Izmir is present. Going to try a wider bowl (I used a Canadian pre-Republic Pete for my first smoke) today and see if bowl size makes any difference.

Interesting. I do not have the tobacco tasting acumen to discern the differences and this is the reason I have only reviewed a few blends, simple blends.

I'm a cynical retired journalist. I take almost everything I read on the internet with a grain of salt until I can verify it from different sources. (unlike modern day "journalist" who get secret messages written on gum wrappers and take it as truth".
The exception to this are reviews written by Jiminks and a few others on here and tobaccoreviews

Yes, Jim's are quickly becoming the only reviews I read. And like you, my inborn cynic combined with my trained scientific approach to the world cynic, makes it difficult to take much at face value, especially in today's general fact resistant world view.

Just had my second bowl, and though the characteristics I mentioned earlier were still obvious, I thought it was slightly less sour in a wider bowl. I'm not certain if it's the pipe itself or the shape, so I'll try another pipe on my next bowl. Even still, I still can see how one might think Izmir might be there in a small way, especially if it's suggested on a tin. We'll see what a different pipe tells me.

I'm half through my third bowl, and at this point, I think I'm right about what I have said earlier. This particular red Va. is not as sweet as say, McClelland 5100, Solani Silver Flake, or other reds of that genre. There are a number of ways to process red Virginia, which explains why some are sweeter, tangier than others. That difference of degree of sweetness in Red Carpet amplifies the wood and sour, tangy quality of this particular red to a small extent. As two major characteristics of Izmir are wood and dry, sourness, it's easy understand why some would think it is present in Red Carpet. Especially when they believed the old tin description.
I wouldn't be hard on the reviewers who made a mistake believing Izmir was a component. With all the different ways of processing tobacco varietals, and given that mixing different kinds of tobaccos together can often cause a shift in the flavors you might expect to encounter in a blend - not to mention variance of individual body chemistry - how one perceives what they taste will often vary.
Let me give another example while I am at it. When I originally reviewed Firestorm, I mentioned tasting cinnamon. The blend creator, Russ Ouellette, assured me there was no cinnamon added to the blend. I said I still taste it. Russ said he tasted it, too, even though he didn't add any cinnamon. Russ said things like that happen in processing and the marrying of tobaccos when a blend is created can cause unexpected chemical reactions.
Hope that clears up the mysteries.

I was always wondering if blenders even mention all ingridients contained?

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I have smoked a few blends that certainly tasted like burley was in it, even thought the label suggested it was a straight Virginia. I am not going to split hairs with a company that claims that there is no burley in the blend; however, if there isn't any burley in the blend, then IMO the tobacconist just sucks at working with straight Virginias. And, I avoid the Virginias by that company.

I'm not sure why a company would hide something like that. It would seem to be lose/lose to claim to be a pure VA, leaving the smokers to think they just pick horrible tobaccos to use or screw them up.