Tobacco Sampler?

Welcome! You are sure to get a lot of opinions and advice here. You should introduce yourself here: http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/new-members-introduce-yourself-1
Many online retailers are supporters/advertisers here and most offer samplers. Some are pre-set samples, others are mix and match. Good luck and welcome again!

First of all, welcome to the forums! As far as wanting to start with the best quality, youre actually doing well to start off that way. I think a lot of new smokers start off with lesser quality blends and dont get the satisfaction that they should. If you want a sampler, you have a few options. Cornell and Diehl is about as high quality as it gets, and you can call and order a sampler directly from Chris. Hes an outstanding guy and great to do business with Cornell and Diehl. They have an excellent range of Virginias, Vapers, Burleys, English, and Aromatics. You could also go with something like a Hearth and Home sampler that is house blended by the folks and pipesandcigars.com Hearth and Home Sampler. Pipes and cigars also has a number of other sampler packs in tinned varieties as well as bulk, and if you call and talk to Scott Bendett or maybe even Russ if you can catch him, they can help steer you in the right direction.

Welcome!
If you live within a reasonable driving distance to a fine tobacconist, start there. They usually have their blends of more popular blends sitting in jars in their stores for just a few dollars per ounce. Great, cheap way to find out what you do and do not like. Often, a tobacconist may offer to fill up your pipe for free if you're interested in trying a certain blend. But that's where I would start, if I were you. It's cheaper at this stage in the game than it is to order from a website and pay S&H charges.
Then once you've figured out what you do like and want to smoke, it becomes much cheaper and easier to order it in bulk off a site like smokingpipes.com, pipesandcigars.com, hilandscigars.com, cupojoes.com, and others that people around here will tell you about.
Best of luck, buddy, and welcome to the Brotherhood (and Sisterhood) of Briar.

And my own personal recommendations for the purpose of answering your query are:
Captain Black White (regular) - Don't let the "drugstore OTC" label scare you off from trying it; it's a good Aromatic with very little tongue bite, good use of a cavendish blend, and is, so far, the ONLY pipe tobacco that I can smoke in public and NEVER get any complaints about the room note (smell). Instead, they all tell me how great it smells to them.
Dunhill My Mixture 965, Sutliff Private Stock Blend No. 5: A strong English with strong, but not overpowering, Lakatia.
Frog Morton On The Bayou - A Balkan blend with Perique from Louisiana. Just about everyone enjoys some FMOTB.
Peterson Sherlock Holmes: An aromatic Virginia and Burley blend with sweet taste. Most of the forum posters on this site also agree with Sherlock Holmes, but not all.
I am a HUGE fan of Dunhill Nightcap, which is the smoothest tobacco I've ever smoked, and Dunhill Early Morning Pipe. The G.L. Pease blends are themselves among the highest of quality of pipe tobaccos. Highly recommend trying some of those blends out. C&D makes some high quality, tasty tobacco too. PipesandCigars.com sells the Brigadier Black Alamo, Gettysburg, Waterloo, and Bull Run. All four as tasty aromatics at really great prices.

Welcome aboard. I haven't dealt directly with C&D, but I have purchased a Hearth and Home sampler, and it worked out quite well.

Enjoy your explorations.

You have a couple of options.

1) Build your own sampler from a list of recommendations. In that vein, here's my shortlist I would recommend
A good Burley: Sterling Tobacco - Double Eagle or Solani 656 Aged Burley Flake

A good Virginia: Cornell and Diehl - Opening Night or Samuel Gawith Full Virginia Flake

A good Virginia/Perique: Escudo or Esoterica Dorchester

A mild aromatic: The aforementioned 1-Q

A stronger aromatic: Cornell and Diehl - Autum Evening (Maple) or MacBaren Vanilla Cream (Vanilla - Duh [;-)] )

A good Latakia / English blend: I usually leave this to others that are more appreciative of these blends, but you the EMP in this category, so that's a good start.
2) Call PipesandCigars.com or Cornell & Diehl and ask them for some help to build you a sampler of their blends. As PipeNovelist pointed out, PipesAndCigars allows you to build a sampler of Hearth & Home tobaccos, which are all excellent. In that case, I would probably go with something like

Burley: Classic Burley Kake (although not pure Burley, I recall liking it)

Virginia: LJ Heart Virginia (has a little Perique apparently, but if so, very, very little)

Virginia / Perique: AJ's VaPer (a regular in my cellar too)

Latakia / English Blend: Daybreak or Larry's Blend (but others should definitely weigh in on this since it's not my cup-o-tea bowl-of-baccy)

And then pick a couple of aromatics to fill it out. I like Grandma's Kitchen. I know others here like Berry Nice as well.
But remember... my tastes may be completely different from yours. Which is why the exploration of new tobacco's is about as much fun as anything else ::
Good luck, hope it helps.

In my opinion, the best sampler combination of price and selection package is available from C&D direct. You choose the blends. You do not receive my blends (if interested) unless you specify. Trial Pack, (5 blends, 2 ounces each, you pick'em, including premium blends - pressed, too, if it's available) for $35.00, or 8 blends for $43.00 plus S&H. The trial pack may include C&D tinned tobaccos, GL Pease tins, Two Friends blends, and Hermit Capt. Earle blends but the sample will be 1 ounce. Go here and scroll way down: http://cornellanddiehl.com/oldindex.html

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I'm so glad I found this forum!

I just bought a pipe and the sample pack from hearth and home after seeing how simple it was to select a lump sum of them.

I have smoked cigarets for about 10 years now and its starting to take a higher toll every year so I am hoping to at least cull some of that habit(for my lungs sake).
BTW Belgian Mick I actually ordered the the list you gave but with Ten to Midnight instead of the second aromatic.

hope to have some opinions in the coming future.
BIG HELP GUYS, THANKS!

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