How Many Different Blends Have You Tried?

rmbittner · Feb 13, 2014

I know some folks pick one or two blends they fall in love with and stay with them forever. But I've always enjoyed trying a wide variety. Because I'm neurotic enough about such things to keep a tobacco journal, I just noticed that the sample I just got of Ennerdale makes it the 160th blend I've tried since I started smoking a pipe. That sounds like a lot, maybe, until you figure I've been smoking a pipe for 34 years. That's just under 5 new blends every year. . . which seems like a drop in the bucket. (Or whatever the pipe smoking simile would be.)
Does anyone else keep track like this?
Bob

spartan · Feb 13, 2014

Oh dear Bob.
Who has the time to track things like this?!
Actually I used to, until I started participating in the box pass. Then I gave up / lost track.
I'd say I'm around 50 blends tried in 3 years of pipe smoking.

rmbittner · Feb 13, 2014

Well, apparently I do!

But I used to keep a wine journal too.
I've often recommended here that folks keep tobacco journals. It's a great way to look back at your journey, revisit the blends you liked and didn't, tie them to specific points in your life, and have a record of blends that may, in the future, disappear entirely.
But, then, I'm nostalgic by nature.
BTW, Spartan, if you keep up this pace, you'll hit 564 blends by the time you've been smoking as long as I have. And that would definitely be something to shout about!
Bob

winton · Feb 13, 2014

Actually I was thinking of tracking the blends I try at the next Chicago Pipe Show.

mso489 · Feb 13, 2014

Like most, I have no idea. I would guess I've had a tin or bulk bag, or at least a sample, of about

forty blends, but that could be low-ball. I don't think it's fewer. I don't think it's more than eighty.

If I sit down and make a list, I'll post it. I think I have about 25 tobaccos and blends on hand, some

unopened, so that might suggest more than my 40 minimum. Good question. Murky answer.

shutterbug · Feb 13, 2014

What I would find more interesting is: Out of the 160 blends that you have tried, how many have you moved to your 'like list', and more importantly what did you do with the blends you didn't like? Did you give them away to a friend? Let dry out in the back corners of your cellar?

I personally have tried 56 blends, and I don't want to know how much it would cost to try all out there that interest me.

Imagine a tobacco co-op (like a box pass), but a central bank where someone can go in and sample from hundreds of blends without the worry of it going stale or dry... mmmm. I guess we just need more get togethers to sample...
Shutterbug

cosmicfolklore · Feb 13, 2014

I just counted 22, that's including all of the aros that I tried in the beginning. I only ever keep four in my rotation at a time though, one light Virginia, one VaPer, Molto Dulce (for my girlfriend), and something on the strong side, like Haddos or ODF. I have to finish a tin before I allow myself to crack another one open. This keeps things in order for myself.

rigmedic1 · Feb 13, 2014

Up until 2005, I had tried about 20 blends and regularly smoked two. Since 2005, I have documented 175 blends, and have about 30 that I return to from time to time. I started smoking a pipe in 1975. Funny thing is, my favorite regular blend is Sutliff's Revelation Match, and I never smoked the old Codger blends until just a few years ago.

condorlover1 · Feb 13, 2014

I was trying to remember how many blends I have tried. I have smoked a fair few tobacco mixtures on route to the twist/Condor staple diet I have now existed on for the last thirty years. If I was to hazard a guess I would say something in the region of twenty or thirty different types but unlike cosmic folklore if I don't care for it I would give the tin away to a chum to smoke. That being said I do fancy trying the new Capstan and the new incarnation of Three Nuns just for old times sake.

anglesey · Feb 13, 2014

No more than 15 if I'm to be honest. I'm one of those thats found a blend at stuck with it, I only deviate really if someone offers me something different, or I see some tin art I like the look of. Drunk the same beer for years, smoked the same tobacco for years, I'm a creature of habit.

lestrout · Feb 13, 2014

I keep journals of all sorts of things. Lately I've gravitated to misusing Excel spreadsheets as a kind of lightweight database. So consulting the 'puter, I appear to have 1095 blends on hand, mostly accumulated in the last 6-7 years since I got back into pipes after a 43 year excursion into cigars. Several hundred haven't yet been popped, but the rest have been checked out and each bowl rated with information on chronology and specific pipes. Additionally I've sampled 164 random blends at my several pipe clubs and shows, and these didn't make it onto my list of acquisitions to have on hand. In most cases I didn't like the first bowl enough to seek out a tin or sample; in others, they were essentially unobtainable.
I am trying to narrow down my cellar to the Top200, having failed at the 10, 25, 50 and 100 thresholds. Cellar items earn a minimum of a pound stocking level, or a 8-9 tin minimum (depending on whether each hold 2 oz or 50g). Although aromatics have been on my mind lately, almost all of what is on my list of 1095 are Englishes and VAs and VA/Pers. I do have targeted another several dozen blends to get and try out.
hp

les

crazypipe · Feb 13, 2014

Lord I'm all over the place with this one .For years I have smoked so many blends , just to many to name them all.

And some I have forgooten what they were. : puffy

:

petes03 · Feb 13, 2014

Right at 100 or so for me, about 30 or so have been good enough to make it into my cellar. I've been smoking pipes for roughly 6 years, but I really didn't start exploring different blends until two or three years ago. Before that, I only had about 1/2 dozen blends that I smoked. Now I have a vast rotation, consisting of everything but Lakelands (I can't stand those)! I've really liked having a large variety to choose from. I used to smoke only Lats and aros, but some days I just wanted something different. Now, I have a wide selection to suite whatever mood I'm in at the time!

swilly · Feb 13, 2014

Rmbittner, I am also the nostalgic type. When I think of Peterson Deluxe Mixture, I still remember that one day someone's trash bag exploded outside my door while I was asleep. I was rudely awakened by the strong stench of rotting fish, and to combat the odors, I opened my tin of Peterson De Luxe, put it next to my nose, and went back to sleep.
I can name the blends I've tried off the top of my head.
Rattray's Highland Targe

Dunhill Early Morning Pipe

Dunhill Royal Yacht

Dan Tobacco Patriot Flake

Peterson Deluxe Mixture

Peterson Hyde Park

MB Vanilla Choice

MB Vanilla Flake

SG Best Brown Flake

SG Firedance Flake

SG Chocolate Flake

SG 1792

H&H Anniversary Kake

GLP Quiet Nights

C&D Habana Daydream

Two Friends English Chocolate

Prince Albert

McClelland Arcadia
I've been smoking two-and-a-half years, and the count is at 18. I think I have another 18 blends waiting to be opened.

metalheadycigarguy · Feb 13, 2014

I keep a word document of the tobacco blends I've tried and ones I have in my cellar. Between samples, bulk blends, pouches, and tins I've had about 100+ blends over the past 3 years. Currently I have about 75+ blends on hand and overall I've tried probably about 80 or so blends of tobacco in those 3 years. Some hits and some misses.

warren · Feb 13, 2014

My low ball estimate is around 50 over the last 50 years. I've found a couple that I thoroughly enjoy and am not on the hunt others. These days if I try a new blend at because something someone wrote on the forum piqued my interest.

puffy · Feb 13, 2014

I'm not exactly sure,but it's well over 300.Probably more than half of them I didn't like.

spartan · Feb 14, 2014

Here's a side question you can answer in addition to how many blends you have tried.
What is the blend you have collared the most of?
I just started my cellaring so currently: 32oz of Newminster Superior Round Slices
I plan to have many pounds of PS Luxury Navy Flake too. It just strikes a very nice cord with me.
Like music to my soul.

sfsteves · Feb 14, 2014

I have no idea what the definitive number is ... more than a hundred, less than a thousand ...
Seemingly countless numbers in early years, followed by a single blend for more than a few years until it no longer existed, followed by several years of self-imposed exile before a return to sampling seemingly countless blends again ...
In addition to what I'll call the 'tried and true' that I have 'in stock', there've been probably three dozen tried within the past year that I've decided against, the remnants of some remaining on hand ... plus, there are 3 new ones that I've never tried before that are currently in transit ...
IF I were to again find a "Holy Grail", I'd take pains to stock it heavily enough that I'd be sure to never again be without it, but I'd also augment it with some of those that are among my current 'tried and true' ...

rmbittner · Feb 14, 2014

shutterbug wrote:
"Out of the 160 blends that you have tried, how many have you moved to your 'like list', and more importantly what did you do with the blends you didn't like? "
I would say that I've ended up cellaring about half that number. That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy more than that; just didn't love them enough to add to the cellar. (Or, at least, not yet!)
As for the blends I didn't like. . . It's a rare blend that I dislike so much I don't finish the tin. I can recall exactly two in the last 15 years, say. In those cases, the blends just got tossed. Otherwise, I at least finish the tin. (And some of these blends were smoked when I worked at a tobacco shop and could sample widely without even buying a whole tin.)
Bob

How Many Different Blends Have You Tried?

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