Yesterday I posted my review of McClelland’s re-release of Samovar, but I decided to omit some thoughts that weren’t salient to the review. A blog is a much more appropriate venue for the thoughts that follow, since it permits more breathing room to explore them. At the conclusion of my review I say

I am sated. I don’t feel a need anymore (for now) to keep looking for the Holy Grail of blends. With the discovery of Samovar my Desert Island Blend Collection (DIBC) feels complete: between this and my other four (and a few three) star blends I am content.

What I omitted was that I feel glutted by all the superlative blends coming out by so many blenders… that I’m overwhelmed by all these masterpieces. I’ve blown a fuse — it’s just too much.

I’m feeling ambivalent about McClelland right now — and, to a lesser extent, GLP and C&D. They’re churning out so many new blends, and they’re all getting great reviews. I’ve tried a few of them, and some of them are real masterpieces, like Chelsea Morning and Samovar. That’s why it feels uncharitable to harbor such ambivalent feelings towards these companies — especially McClellands, which has just released (or re-released), what, another two dozen or so blends? The Collector Series (6 tins); the Ashton Re-issue (6 tins); the Club Blends (18 tins!!); not to mention Three Oaks (Syrian & Original), Wilderness, Legends, & Ringlow Syrian Reserve, etc…

It’s too much! I can’t do it, I just can’t do it. I’ve reached my saturation point. I am glutted with a selection of blends of such quality that I feel I must declare a moratorium on trying any new blends for an indefinite period — I can’t juggle all these extraordinary new blends coming out.

With so many wonderful blends pouring forth from these top-notch blenders I can’t help but be miffed by the quantity of quality blends they produce. Truthfully, I am overwhelmed by the embarrassment of riches of all these blends. I don’t know how many more masterpieces I can take from these blenders, especially McClelland, but also other blenders like GLP & C&D. I want time to enjoy the awesome blend I just discovered, to get to know it more intimately. I don’t want to hurry to the next masterpiece, then the next, in a decadent orgy of tobacco consumption.

Of course it’s better to have a bigger than a smaller selection. Or isit? If there were only a handful of masterpieces in a crowd of dung they would shine out like beacons. But, still, I think it’s better to have more of a better selection than fewer. Nevertheless, one of my goals in exploring the vast range of blends I’ve tried over the past couple of years was to find the ones I couldn’t live without, so that I wouldn’t have to keep searching. And now I’ve found them. And that’s the root of my ambivalence: it feels unfair to tempt me with yet another blend, then yet more blends, just over the horizon, all promising to be The One.

But I’ve found The One. In fact I’ve found several The Ones. At some point I think it’s appropriate — nay, necessary!, for me at least — to say Enough!, and then settle down with my favorites. It’s understandable how people become obsessed with the notion that there’s got to be something better out there, the one that’s perfect. Hence websites like Ashley Madison come along, promising guilt-free affairs (not that that’s a bad idea per se), playing on people’s susceptibility to keep searching for the next one, the different one, the better one…

Enjoying the train ride rather than the destination is the point of life, but an unhealthy pursuit of The One unbalances one’s equanimity by forestalling the simple enjoyment of what one has. Now that my DIBC is complete, I don’t feel a need to keep searching. I don’t want to be tempted by all these new, wonderful, incredible masterpieces. I don’t need to look anymore, at least for an indefinite period of time. I look forward to getting to know each one of the blends in my DIBC much more intimately. I’ve found my DIBC, and I am content.

(At least for now…)

Addendum: My Desert Island Blend Collection (DIBC)
(in order, but not limited to 10)

1:   McClelland: Samovar
2:   McClelland: Royal Cajun Dark
3:   McClelland: Scottish Woods
4:   McClelland: Three Oaks Original
5:   A C Petersen: Escudo Navy Deluxe
6:   McClelland: Three Oaks Syrian
7:   Esoterica: Tilbury
8:   GLP: Abingdon
9:   McClelland: Dark Star
10: C&D: Opening Night
11: McClelland: Mellow Mack
12: SG: Perfection
13: GLP: Chelsea Morning
14: McClelland: British Woods
15: Hermit: Captain Earle’s Ten Russians
16: SG: 1792
17: Esoterica: Pembroke
18: SG: Commonwealth
19: Esoterica: Margate
20: SG: Black XX Rope