Discrepancy: So Who's Right & What's Wrong?

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Mar 30, 2014
2,853
78
wv
I recently bought a tin of McClelland's Ringlow Syrian Reserve, but I've noticed a HUGE difference between the description on P&C and TobaccoReviews.com. I believe P&C nailed it, but TR.com fails to even mention it contains Syrian Latakia which is clearly labeled right on the front of the tin. I've noticed more than a few mislabeling of contents on TR.com. I know it's consumer review based, but who is in charge of quality control for the basic information of the blends under review?
tobaccoreview's description
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P&C description
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phil67

Lifer
Dec 14, 2013
2,052
7
TobaccoReviews.com is interesting to get a general idea on reviews, but quite often their list of 'blends' is utter crap.

 

wyfbane

Lifer
Apr 26, 2013
5,117
3,517
Tennessee
I only go to Tobacco Reviews to see if people like Jim or Pipestud have reviewed a blend. I never use the canned info or the random idiot reviews.

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
Sadly, many of the folks giving tobaccos in blends or shapes of pipes are working with wrong information or none. One of the online sites names a clear bent Dublin shape as a Lovat -- it has a tapered stem just to add another clue. It's always wise to cross-check any information given, and check the description of tobaccos on several sites if you have any doubts. Some of the sites don't give pipe weights at all, and omit most shapes. I guess this is hours of labor they cannot afford, but I think it throws doubt in an interest that puts a lot of store by knowledge. Mentoring is hard work, and probably not many of the grand old men and women at these retailers enjoy teaching all that much. If a young person can find a good and willing mentor who knows the business and is a good communicator, they should hang on for life.

 

phil67

Lifer
Dec 14, 2013
2,052
7
I never use the canned info or the random idiot reviews.
And there are plenty. One person in particular gave a very lengthy review (and he has done so before) with an endless amount of utter pompous BS about the comparisons of a particular tobacco and his so called connoisseur expertise on food. Damn... I wish I could find it again as I simply had my eyes rolling to the back of my head with his pretentious rhetoric. It makes for a good laugh. :wink:

 

shanelktown

Lifer
Feb 10, 2015
1,041
71
Yeah I often wonder this two there was a blend I had just reviewed and on the tobacco reviews contents it had black cavendish... I was like hmm I must have missed that thought it was Latakia my mistake.lol

 

brudnod

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 26, 2013
938
6
Great Falls, VA
My favorite specification (not review) sites are P&C and Iwan Ries. Both accurately grade the blend but do not give a whole bunch of BS on the "qualities" of the blend.

 
Mar 1, 2014
3,646
4,916
Reviews almost always require interpretation (on any subject), as long as you know the reviewer their information will be useful to you.

Look at your favourite blend and see how many well experienced reviewers agree with your opinion of that blend, if their reviews on most of your other blends also agree, you can probably start putting weight behind that person's opinion.

The reverse is equally true, if someone consistently hates every tobacco you love and loves every tobacco you hate, then you would do well to try every blend that person hates.

Even if someone doesn't seem very consistent if you read them enough you can usually find the odd hint in their opinions that correlates to something specific in your experiences. That strategy would be less worth your time but could be useful if you're not having a lot of luck otherwise (e.g. your regular reviewers give conflicting opinions).

 

drennan

Can't Leave
Mar 30, 2014
344
3
Normandy
I recently bought a tin of McClelland's Ringlow Syrian Reserve, but I've noticed a HUGE difference between the description on P&C and TobaccoReviews.com. I believe P&C nailed it, but TR.com fails to even mention it contains Syrian Latakia which is clearly labeled right on the front of the tin. I've noticed more than a few mislabeling of contents on TR.com. I know it's consumer review based, but who is in charge of quality control for the basic information of the blends under review?
TobaccoReviews basic information is controlled by the people that use TobaccoReviews, much like wikipedia.
When you load up a blend page just under the name of the blend is a selection of options, add a review is one and edit this tobacco is another. If you select edit this tobacco then you can alter the blends contents to the correct one. It'll take all of a few seconds and make TobaccoReviews a far better site.

 
I've seen straight Virginias and VaPers listed as aromatics on there. I've also noticed that if someone gives a completely off review, sometimes others will just come along and echo what the first reviewers says, furthering the wrong. One of Formers VaPers was listed as a aromatic, and then a reviewer said it was an apple aromatic, and then others just echoed the first reviewer. When I popped my own tin of it and tried it, I tasted no toppings or casings.
There are a lot of people on there that either don't have the palate for tasting or just haven't ever tasted the tobacco that they are reviewing. It's entertaining to read through some of them, but for the most part, I think most of it is bogus BS.

 

brass

Lifer
Jun 4, 2014
1,840
7
United States
The information in this thread is a little discouraging. I've depended on tobacco reviews to provide information on ingredients, classifications, cuts, etc.
I enjoy reading the reviews but I don't have the palate to distinguish between raisens and dried plums and apricots. Fruity is about it. Mostly, I can taste Latakia, Virginians, and dark fired - and even then can be fooled. I can distinguish burley blends, VaPers and VaBurs, English, maybe Balkans and Lakelands. More than that, I would probably fail the blind fold test.I'm sure others have better palates, just like some are blessed with keener vision.
Thought I could taste pepper, then found out it was Perique. :oops:
Pax

 

settersbrace

Lifer
Mar 20, 2014
1,565
5
The best way to utilize the TR site IMO is search a blend that you've smoked a ton of and enjoy and scroll through the endless reviews until you find a few that describe and express almost exactly what your take on that blend is. Make a note of who these reviewers are and see what else they've reviewed. It's not full proof but it does allow you to gain a more honest perspective on some blends you may want to try. I trust the reviews here more than anywhere though.

 

okiescout

Lifer
Jan 27, 2013
1,530
6
I enjoy reading the reviews but I don't have the palate to distinguish between raisens and dried plums and apricots. Fruity is about it. Mostly, I can taste Latakia, Virginians, and dark fired - and even then can be fooled. I can distinguish burley blends, VaPers and VaBurs, English, maybe Balkans and Lakelands. More than that, I would probably fail the blind fold test.I'm sure others have better palates, just like some are blessed with keener vision.
Thought I could taste pepper, then found out it was Perique. :oops:
Pax

Sadly, I am in agreement with you, brass. Had tongue surgery at one point in my life..... maybe that effected my taster. Has not done it with food though! :lol: I think a blindfold test would be an interesting event.

 

bigpond

Lifer
Oct 14, 2014
2,019
13
Well, the entries at TR, including the header information, is created by users. There doesn't seem to be much curation. If a user makes an error in the header it sticks. This explains why there are occasionally multiple entries for the same blend.

 

forest7

Starting to Get Obsessed
Sep 8, 2014
190
2
Is there a difference between a American English blend and a England English blend?

 

buroak

Lifer
Jul 29, 2014
1,867
14
One person in particular gave a very lengthy review (and he has done so before) with an endless amount of utter pompous BS about the comparisons of a particular tobacco and his so called connoisseur expertise on food. Damn... I wish I could find it again as I simply had my eyes rolling to the back of my head with his pretentious rhetoric.
Hey, that's me! Just kidding, but I hope you can rediscover some of those reviews. I could use a good laugh.

 

Briar Boy

(astrange1)
Apr 8, 2013
245
5
Well anybody can go in and modify the particulars of a blend on that site, I have seen a lot of misinformation there.

 

escioe

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 31, 2013
702
4
Look at your favourite blend and see how many well experienced reviewers agree with your opinion of that blend, if their reviews on most of your other blends also agree, you can probably start putting weight behind that person's opinion.
I'm with you on this. There are a few reviewers there whose opinions I take into account. Chief among them is DK, whose tastes usually comport with mine. That said, I've had a few blends he was over the moon for that didn't do it for me, and vice versa.

 
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