Impact of Expectations on New Blends

I usually make my mind up pretty fast. I don't necessarily need a bunch of bowls to figure out I like a blend. Most of the times my taste change. I'll like something, then in a few months I don't care for it. Squadron Leader was like this, but the other day my wife was smoking it and I sampled it to find that it tasted like it tasted when I first had it. Smoking blends in different pipes sounds like a bunch of crap, but there is something to this. Charring Cross taste better in a wide briar than a cob. I used to believe everything smokes better ina cob, but that's not the case anymore. Everything taste better in a Meer but in a few months that may change. I don't know. Expecting something based on some one else's taste will set one up for a huge let down. Expectations from components of blend will let you down too.

I recently smoked a bowl of Dunhill Dark flake for the first time. Being a flake I normally get excited, being a new Dunhill flake, I was more than normally excited. Being as it is a new vaper with no red virginia's I got even more excited.

My first impression was that it was a decent flake, my expectations of it being a great flake were not reached.
Now I only smoked one bowl and in only one pipe so I will reserve judgement until I have smoked it in a few pipes. I do predict this blend will get a lot better with age as do most vaper flakes I have experience with. I smoked the bowl in one of my dedicated vaper pipes, one I smoke only Escudo and Dunhill Deluxe Navy Rolls. I am going to smoke it again in a new estate pipe that has been refurbished to see what it tastes like without a vaper ghost in it. I normally give a new blend that I should like at least 6 bowls in a variety of pipes to see how it performs. Sometimes I get a real great match with blend and pipe right off the get go and that is fun. I remember when I first tried Samuel Gawith Full Virginia Flake, it took a while before I got the right combo with pipe, tobacco preparation and humidity level.
There have also been times when one bowl was all I needed to know I did not like the blend. Samuel Gawith Firedance flake, GH Ennerdale and Rum Flake were all one bowl and done. SG Brown Rope no 4 and SG XX Black Twist took about 3-4 bowls each before I decided they were not for me.
I remember when Mac Baren Old Dark Fired first came out, I tried it and did not care for it. I put it away and then about 6 months later tried it again after it had dried out a bit and settled and ended up loving it. Sometimes you never know what will flip that switch and you fall in love with something.

First impressions carry quite a bit of weight with me; but whether good or bad, my opinion does change on occasion, so I'll usually re-visit a disappointing blend.