Compared to Cigar Descriptions, Why So Nebulous with Pipe Tobacco?

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puffndave

Starting to Get Obsessed
Apr 9, 2015
208
1
When I took up cigars years ago, I enjoyed learning about the facts on their tobacco components (for example, I learned that Maduro produces a rich and full flavor, but that Connecticut Shade is buttery-smooth and has an exquisitely vibrant taste like no other). When I switched to pipes, I had little interest in flavored tobaccos, although the local pipe store (Edleez) is truly masterful in blending non-fruity, and often bold-flavored burleys with Virginias, and/or their own black cavendish (if you are ever there, I recommend Ed's Best as a burley/cav blend which really tastes as full as the aroma it produces, plus you can smoke it all day or night). I have since sought out less expensive sources online, and have been doing a lot of business online with Pipes and Cigars, tried a few of the popular Dunhill blends, lots from the Hearth and Home Signature line (I'm also a Latakia fan, but can't really handle more than a bowl or two of that per day), and I have also ordered a couple of their Marquee blends as well as well as some recommended Cornell and Diehl blends which are on their way. I don't know, but it seems to me that pipe tobacco, for what they tell you about the Virginias, the Burleys, the Orientals, the Latakias, the Perique, and especially the "Cigar Leaf" in the H&H Stogie blend (what kind of a cigar leaf????) is more of a black box. Especially so with Cavendish, which can be anything they press together with sweetener - hmmmm.... I just got finished reading an article titled "The Tale of Two Latakia", over at Pipedia, and boy do the descriptions of Cyprian and Syrian product tell of different flavor, but it's rare that the sellers of these blends ever give you that distinction - they just call it "Latakia", like the old 80's fast-food chicken commercial where they said "parts is parts".
All long-winded ranting aside, I do find it fascinating how different two blends with the same description over at tobaccoreviews.com (for example, "Virgina, Latakia, Perique" will taste so different when you try them. Can anybody lend insight on this, and possibly some sources for relief to an inquiring mind?

 

beastkhk

Can't Leave
Feb 3, 2015
327
1
I came from cigars too and can relate to exactly what you are saying.
In my mind I have justified that lack of flavor descriptions due to the additional variables added when smoking out of a pipe. i.e. briar vs. cob vs. meerschaum; dimensions of bowl; openness of draw; etc.
Cigars can have some differences with the same blends based on gauge size chosen, but cigars seem a little more straight forward with their flavor profiles.
It seems like there is something different with the palette as well. I can smoke a cigar and I may not get the exact flavors someone else does, but enough hints I know what they are talking about. With a pipe, I noticed sometimes there are distinct differences with the flavors I pick up vs. what other smokers or reviews mention.

 

settersbrace

Lifer
Mar 20, 2014
1,565
5
I smoke both cigars and pipes with pipes being my first and more often favored choice simply because I can get what I'm after taste wise with pipe tobacco without having to hope I going to get what I'm after. I like Latakia blends and smoke them frequently but i also like Virginias and VaPers and VaBurs so I have the luxury of satisfying whatever my desire might be at any given time. I used to be a full flavored cigar guy, double Maduro and all that but since I've developed my palete with pipe tobacco over time I find myself really getting into and enjoying the milder Connecticut wrapped Puros over the former. I'm picking up those little nuances I always read in the cigar rags but never could relate to before. I think with experience and learning to slow down with the pipe, it's helped me to enjoy both and at the same time broaden my tastes.
All that being said I don't put too much stock in what others claim to taste or detect in either cigars or pipe tobacco. Sometimes I get it, I'm right there with the reviewer. Other times I'm on the other side of the parking lot wandering if we are comparing the same cigar or pipe tobacco. Smoke what you like, like what you smoke.

 

settersbrace

Lifer
Mar 20, 2014
1,565
5
Another thing to think about, blending houses source tobaccos such as Virginias and Perique from any number of countries. There's no obligation on their part to be more specific than to list the blends key ingredients. Cigars are the same. Not all Shade Grown Connecticut is grown in Connecticut. It might be grown in Pennsylvania or Nicaragua, it's shade grown and it's the right plant, close enough. One could get rather obsessed over exactly where their favorite varietal is raised and harvested but life's too short to worry about all that. What's important to me as a consumer is consistency, I want the blend I enjoy to be as familiar as an old blanket when I'm smoking it be it a cigar or pipe tobacco. I don't like surprises from one lot release to the next and I've experienced that, more with cigars but every so often with pipe blends.

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
People aren't going to roll their own cigars, so giving quite a bit of information isn't going to incite imitation except by other cigar makers, and even then, maybe not too much. With pipe smokers, though people don't really blend their own blends, usually, they do mix and "meddle," so being mysterious about the contents of a blend makes sense. Or that's my take.

 

beastkhk

Can't Leave
Feb 3, 2015
327
1
I came from cigars too and can relate to exactly what you are saying.
:) Seeing other responses I may have missed the mark on what the OP was pointing out. Is the thread intended to address the lack of detailed tobacco description i.e. Syrian v. Cyprian latakia not being specified? Or is it more the lack of details regarding a blend's flavor profile? I was thinking the latter when I initially responded.

 

freakiefrog

Part of the Furniture Now
Dec 26, 2012
745
2
Mississippi
This depends greatly on the smoker and how in tune their taste is. I've smoke both types of latakia and I'm not skilled enough to tell the difference. While you might not be able to tell the difference between "Bright" or Stoved Virginias I can and the little differences make a huge difference in a blend to me. The other thing is the percentage of each in different blends will make a huge difference for example Bayou Morning and Escudo are both Va/Perique blends but they couldn't be farther from each other in smoking experience because of the amount of perique in them (bayou morning is heavy perique. There is also something to be said for the type of prep that a blend is pressed, rolled, crumble cake flake ect ect all will make a big difference in the flavors. I equate it to like this I can cook a hamburger over a charcoal grill, or a hickory wood grill, or a gas grill or pan fry it. Same meat same cook time but because of the way it was prepared the final experience is totally different from each other.

 

blendtobac

Lifer
Oct 16, 2009
1,237
213
The cigar leaf in Stogie is Pennsylvania Broadleaf Maduro. As to the Latakia distinction, there's so little Syrian available that if there's any in a blend, they'll certainly say so in the description. If it just says Latakia, count on it being Cyprian.
Russ

 

cigrmaster

Lifer
May 26, 2012
20,249
57,280
66
Sarasota Florida
I also came from cigars and in the beginning it was difficult to understand the flavors I was tasting. It was Escudo that really wowed me and showed me how great a pipe could be. Now 15 years later, when I smoke a cigar, it tastes totally one dimensional and no where near as good as my pipe tobacco. I was able to learn how differentiate all the flavors in my pipe tobacco after some time.

 

puffndave

Starting to Get Obsessed
Apr 9, 2015
208
1
Beasthk, it's really about me wanting to know more information about the tobacco, hoping that this would make it easier for me to predict if or how I would enjoy the product. For example, I went and ordered a half-pound of Classic Burley Kake when I saw the flavor description, and when I took some out of the can I tasted no chocolate, and no maple whatsoever, and an overpowering taste of anise (licorice), which was not in the description kicked me hard in the face - much too strong! Guess I should have stuck with Anniversary Kake, but I have experienced very well-balanced burley burley/cav and burley/virginia blends at the local pipe store, and I need to find something like them at online prices. Anyway, I intend to give the Burley Kake a chance by seeing what a few weeks in a jar can do for it, and then I'll report back on any difference which that may make.
Russ, you did an excellent job with Stogie blend! It's definitely more complex than any Fuente, and then it's not missing that pungent, heavy-flavored and thick smoke which I could otherwise only get from cigars. It burns real easy, and the high-nicotine kick really had me floating off to Happy Land.

 
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