Effects of Tobacco Type on a Blend

Well, as best as I can figure, I think it makes blends taste different. But, someone else may have a better answer. Welcome to the forum.

You're getting it. Virginia does it too. ::

You've asked a huge question. One that we probably couldn't be answered very easily. The best way to start is for you to tell us what you've tried, what you like, don't like, etc...

Latakia, Burley, Perique, Dark Fired and virginias pretty much stand out on their own. It's when orientals are blended in that I lose what's what. Unless the blend only boast one oriental. Which is what you've got to do. Try different blends and get the feel for them. A great place to start with orientals, is McClelland Grand oriental blends.
Latakia is smoky
Perique can be spicey or plummy, raisins and figs.
Virginias can be grassy, hay, malty, bready and citrusy.
Burley is earthy, nutty, sometimes malty.
Dark Fired is slight smoke, earthy, a bit of wine like acidity.
Black Cavendish is sugary, brown sugar. Very rarely do I enjoy this crap.
Orientals:
Katerini is slightly spiced with a curry powder note.
Turkish/Izmir is a sour spice.
The rest of the orientals I have no clue. Still trying to figure ithem out.
Hope this answers your question. I'm sure someone will contradict my notes and add to it. Because pipe tobacco can be very subjective.

There ya go, Perdurabo's Cliff Notes of tobaccos. There are more complexities than that, such as when you put different things together in different ratios, magic happens that really is... well, then we get into the novella version.

I tried. But yea, as Cosmic said, start mixing them together, well that's why Pease is Pease, Reeves is Reeves, the McNiells are the McNiells(Hope I spelled it right), Gawaiths are Gawaiths etc. ad nauseum.

Honestly, I've tasted perique in Orlik, but only slightly. To be completely honest, I believe it's the power of suggestion, because perique in that low of percentage doesn't come off as spicy but only adds dimension to the Virginia. I think the spice you are getting is problably from the Virginia and the topping of bergamot. Try C&D Chenets Cake or Pease Haddos Delight to get a more conclusive idea about perique.

If you've smoked Scottish Cake then you've tried a very sublime smoke. DarkFired, red Virginia and a smidge of perique. I get more of a plummy, date spice from the perique in Scottish cake. Plus the dark fired in Scottish cake has that wine acidity I was talking about. Have you smoked Scottish Cake bone dry? To me drying out a blend until it's bone dry helps me pick out notes that otherwise get lost in steam. There are exceptions to this rule but very few.

Yea, the notes you get will not be like the notes I get because we are different. They are only sign post to comparing ideas. I know that if I smoked Scottish Cake straight from the tin, it would be tasteless. That's my experience, your taste are different. Try drying it bone dry. Then try drying it keeping a little moisture. It will change, and you'll get different notes. Or you may not. You have to experiment to your taste.

Whoa, perdu' did the heavy lifting here. I might mention that proportions have a major effect as well. Latakia used sparingly can have an undetectable influence, as can other leaf. Blenders spend their lives trying different tobaccos in different proportions, so it isn't just merchandising that results in so many different blends. Tweak it this way or that, and it is a different blend. Most pipe smokers play with mixing a little, just for sport, and learn a little about blending. It teaches you that professional blenders earn their pay.

The back of my four year old tin of OGS says "with a very light touch of perique." Orlik does state that there is perique in OGS, so there is no debate on that; however, the debate is usually centered around whether you could call OGS a VaPer as it really isn't enough perique to make it VaPer.
Perique is like cinnamon, not that it tastes like cinnamon, but in the way you can add a pinch of cinnamon to a pastry to bring out the natural sweetness of the other ingredients, or you can put a lot of cinnamon and get a redhot effect. a little sweetens, a lot makes it peppery. And, you can change the flavor even more by adding in different burleys and orientals to get even different flavors.
Latakia is similar, in that just a whisper of latakia gives Virginias a chewier leathery flavor, and a lot gets more like a campfire flavor.
Then you get into orientals, which vary in the hundreds of different regional varieties, with their pungent aromas that change also by what other leaf is in the mix.
Virginias are all a brightleaf that depend on some delicate nuances of temperature to "cook" them to a range from yellow, to gold, to red, to brown, all giving them different flavor profiles.
Burleys rely on casings or processes mostly to provide them with flavors and make them easier to smoke.
But, thinking that tobacconists just mix things to give them a blend is very shortsighted. That would be like saying that a good chef just measures things together. You have flue curing, cavendish-ing processes, casings, pressing, sweating, aging, marrying processes, and even topping them. Like making an omelette can be some WaffleHouse style glob on your plate, or in the hands of a chef can be transformed into a work of art with the magic of the whisk.

Welcome to the forums, workman! :clap:

There are lots of articles that you can find via the listings in the left hand column of this page.
A lot has been written about Perique. IIRC, it was pipemaker Julius Vesz who observed that Perique can improve almost any blend. It's a condiment that, for example, can be added to Virginias in vanishingly small quantities -- to the point of undetectability -- to mitigate the latter's piquancy.

Check out blender Russ Ouellette's many articles: https://www.pipesandcigars.com/faq/tobacco/1901022/