Love the Frog - Nightcap nightmares

Nightcap takes a special breed to love. Many cant handle the Perique portion of it. I enjoy Frog Morton Cellar as my everyday English and nightcap......well before i go to bed haha. I loved nightcap from smoke number 1. Did you have something refreshing to drink with it and had a full stomach? That helps with its enjoyment.

I smoke all variety show of fm. Fm on the bayou favorite for perique. 965 isenglish balkan type has more Latakia m. Dhel

Is "a few months" enough time to decide that you don't like them?

I like all of them, but one man's nectar is another man's poison. Nightcap is the strongest and FMC probably the mildest. The 965 is a bit of an outlier with its Oriental component.

Frog Morton is one of my favorites, and it is a very easy smoke. It's flavorful, but mild, and it really seems to resist biting me.
I can't smoke Nightcap at all, even though I love the taste. I'm guessing that it's the Perique, but I'm open to the idea that it might (at least partially) be my technique. Here's why I'm starting to suspect my technique...
I've run out of Frog Morton, and re-opened my tin of 965. When I first started the 965 a couple of months back, I found the flavor kind of not-good, and it had a tendency to bite. NOTHING like the Nightcap, but just not really pleasant. This time, it was... better.
I'm still out of Frog Morton, and 965 is my only handy English, so I've been smoking it every day, and every day it's gotten better. Finally, as of yesterday and today, I really, really like it!
Has my taste changed that much, or do some tobaccos just need a lot more attention? I don't know, but I'm suspecting that I can learn to smoke and enjoy almost any blend, if I slow down and learn it's individual quirks.
I want to give Nightcap a try again...

There are thousands of blends that you could throw under a banner headed 'roughly medium strength english blends' but you will still find favourites and blends you cant stand within that pile. If you are liking the frog maybe try branching out but sticking to the brand, mcclelland do plenty of blends that have perique like nightcap, or cavendish like 965. It is possible for example that something about dunhill blends does not work for you. Definitely come back to them in a year for another try though.
Isaac

I love Night Cap as well as the Frog Morton series. I can smoke FM everyday but only occasionally enjoy a bowl of Nightcap. Mostly because it is very strong.

I haven't smoked any of the FM blends but I have smoked MM965 and GLP Quiet Nights which I believe is similar to Nightcap. I did not enjoy either of those blends at all when I first encountered them. I disliked everything from the opening tin note to the actual smoking of both blends....horrible stuff was my first impression. I sealed them back up, 965 in it's tin and Quiet Nights in a Mason jar and tossed them in the cellar for a few months. When I got around to revisiting these blends I was pleasantly surprised at how they had each mellowed and smoothed out with a little age, approx. 4 months I believe. Neither of these has become a daily smoke for me but I do enjoy them now and they are a somewhat regular part of my smoking rotation, especially QN which I enjoy as a nice relaxing evening smoke. Based on my encounter with these two blends I would suggest you store them away for a few months and revisit them in the fall to see what you think of them. A little age and a bit more palate "experience" might make a world of difference. ::

For entertainment purposes her is the little write up I posted when I was first trying Quiet Nights.
Opened a tin dated 10/22/14 a couple weeks ago and I've been trying to become friends with it ever since.

So far I haven't had much luck enjoying it.
I will say that it's one of my first attempts at a "stronger" tobacco and I anticipated needing a few bowls to get used to it. It is also my first time smoking a broken flake and my first tobacco that has Orientals in it. Lots of firsts here.
I did not find the tin note very appealing...horse manure is what came to mind? The room note was much the same and it was not appealing to me. I've smoked a bowl every 2nd-3rd night since opening the tin hoping it would grow on me. So far it hasn't grown on me yet.
I tried it rubbed out straight from the tin and also letting it sit out for an hour or so before lighting it. I also tried it folded and packed fold down in the pipe and fold up in the pipe. As always a glass of cool water was on hand to sip while smoking. Each time I ended up a bit dizzy and with my stomach feeling a bit uneasy.
I'm not giving up on making friends with this blend yet but for now I've decided to jar it and let it sit in the cellar for awhile before trying it again. I hoping by then maybe it will mellow a bit and that I will be more experienced with stronger blends of tobacco.
That has been my experience with this blend so far and I'm hoping when I try it again in a few months, maybe May or June, that we will get along a little better.
Happy puffing. Jim
Posted 4 months ago #

MM965 was my "big jar" blend for years, until Dunhill stopped importing to the States several years back. Then I switched to GL Pease's Westminster. When MM965 again became available, it joined Westminster in it's own "big jar" (yeah, now I have two).
Along the way, I tried, and enjoyed Nightcap, but found it a bit stronger, so it gets relegated to an occasional rotational turn. Very much enjoy it, but my tastes have stepped downward a bit in the past couple of years.
I've heard people say that QN is also on the strong side, but I find it quite enjoyable, and would keep an open tin always, if not for all the others I keep trying.
Love FM & FMOTT! I reserve them for special treats, not wanting to lose the attraction if they became regulars. Funny that MM965 & Westminster never lose their favored status, even tho' they are right up there in the rotation.
Bottom line, for me, is to sample new blends from time to time. If I really like them, I move them to a higher spot in the rotation until/if they start to lose their appeal. If I don't care for them, I set them aside for 6-8 months, and give them another try; after that, if they still don't appeal, I get rid of them. Life is too short to smoke unsatisfying tobacco! Find the ones you like, smoke them, try others from time to time, but, most importantly, ENJOY the pipe!

Right now, you like mild blends a lot. That's reasonable. You are a new pipe smoker and you are trying different blends. Nightcap is similar to 965 but with Perique, and although it is not the nicotine kick it was a few years ago, it still has some. I'd put these blends aside in a jar "to age." Try them in a year or two. You may not like them, but you could. It doesn't matter, but people's tastes do change and evolve over time. I don't think you "should" like any particular blends, nor do I think that some represent a more developed taste than others. It's more a matter of finding what pleases you, and knowing when to try something new, or something you tried before you didn't like, to see. P.S. I really like some pretty strong blends. Recently I tried and enjoyed GH Black Irish X rope. It's not as strong as their brown rope, but it's plenty strong. But I also like a variety of really mild tobaccos like Nat Sherman 536 and PS Luxury Navy Flake, among many others. It's not just one thing you'll like, most probably.

I'm with you on Nightcap. I've never like blends with Perique and Latakia, midway through the bowl I wind up green around the gills.
Keep smoking the milds, then venture on to stronger blends later. If 965 is too much for you maybe try Lane LEO (very mild), Presbyterian or McConnell Oriental, they are pretty soft but still contain Latakia and Orientals. Give the 965 a couple of months and try it again and see if you tolerate it better.

+1 mso489
I've always seen FM as a crossover blend. Its sweet enough to scratch that aromatic itch but gives you a good taste of what latakia is like, plus eases the transition into English blends.

Five blends in a few months at one bowl a day is not giving yourself a fair chance at vetting any of them to any great extent. I'm not being snobbish or critical, just honest. If you like one of the FM blends, smoke through a couple tins and really get intimate with all the subtleties, (they are top shell tobaccos) and then try something a little different and see what you think. It's very easy to experience sensory overload with the vast array of pipe blends available to us with a simple "click". I still find myself sometimes having 5-6 different tins going at once and it muddles my palate to the point where I have to take my own, above advice and I've been at it over a decade and smoke 3-5 bowls a day in fair weather. Give it a try, I think you'll discover flavor you didn't know existed.

Grey:
The journey is the reward, pal.
In six months, if Nightcap still doesn't float your boat, let me know and I'll buy your remaining stock.
Fnord

Nightcap is great but it's a nicotine bomb. It remains a mystery to me how anyone would load his vegetative nerves systems with a highly effective stimulant prior to sleeping.