Only have 6 Tobaccos a.t.m.

[anotherbob]

And have been enjoying them much more. Just an observation. I feel like I never really got to know them before. As far as quantity of mass I am good just not a lot of selection. This is just more propaganda for the don't jump around from blend to blend and expect to get the most out of them.

 

[Morrison Jeremiah]

Less can be more.
My cellar has no more than ten tobaccos, and some of those I don't touch for months.

 

[gamzultovah]

I long for the simpler times, but too late, I drank the Kool Aid…

 

[mso489]

Blends have to be learned, so if you are perpetually seeking variety, you may never learn any of them well. This from a guy who has only a small stash, but about about thirty blends open and a hundred in all. I'm currently "taking a course" on the discontinued McC's blend Dark Star, and having learned to hand grate it before packing it, I feel I might have graduated to Dark Star 102. That's why, if you don't like a blend, you should jar it and come back in a year or two, while your subconscious has been working on the complexities and might just deliver a delightful surprise.

 

[Cappy]

Tobacco schizophrenia has bitten me too. I am trying to simplify and reduce also.

 

[Servant King]

Tobacco schizophrenia has bitten me too. I am trying to simplify and reduce also.

^^^^ This

Thanks to @anotherbob for the perfect timing on this thread. I envy your position, actually. As I type this, my wife's hair straightening iron is cooling down, as I just finished packing into mylar six redundant blends I haven't touched in a long time. They're not bad blends; I would just classify them at this point as cellar clutter.

Now, some may say something like, oh big deal, six blends, what difference does that make? Well, it makes a big difference when you have the cellar I have (this isn't the first time I've de-cluttered in this manner), and as Mso pointed out, too much variety can sometimes create as many problems as it solves. So for me, cutting down my number of jarred blends from 38 to 32 actually does make a noticeable impact. I want to "get to know" the blends I have, rather than overwhelm myself with options, because as silly as it might sound, the greater the variety, the greater the chance that I'll pick a blend, and ten minutes into the smoke, I'm regretting the choice. The more I reduce, the more I feel that deeper smoking experiences are actually achievable, rather than being some abstract, hypothetical concept. At this point in my pipe smoking journey (for lack of a better word), this is my main goal.

Besides, in addition to the jars, I have about 30 sealed tins, and at least 40 samples. I'm not going to break into any new tins right now, and I will eventually make it through all the samples. So I'll still be overwhelmed, just not quite as much. Now, to make my for sale ad on here...

 

[mingc]

I've limited myself to over 100 open jarred tins or bulk blends in my rotation. I could do with more. Heh.

And I never smoke any of them back to back.

 

[anotherbob]

^^^^ This

Thanks to @anotherbob for the perfect timing on this thread. I envy your position, actually. As I type this, my wife's hair straightening iron is cooling down, as I just finished packing into mylar six redundant blends I haven't touched in a long time. They're not bad blends; I would just classify them at this point as cellar clutter.

Now, some may say something like, oh big deal, six blends, what difference does that make? Well, it makes a big difference when you have the cellar I have (this isn't the first time I've de-cluttered in this manner), and as Mso pointed out, too much variety can sometimes create as many problems as it solves. So for me, cutting down my number of jarred blends from 38 to 32 actually does make a noticeable impact. I want to "get to know" the blends I have, rather than overwhelm myself with options, because as silly as it might sound, the greater the variety, the greater the chance that I'll pick a blend, and ten minutes into the smoke, I'm regretting the choice. The more I reduce, the more I feel that deeper smoking experiences are actually achievable, rather than being some abstract, hypothetical concept. At this point in my pipe smoking journey (for lack of a better word), this is my main goal.

Besides, in addition to the jars, I have about 30 sealed tins, and at least 40 samples. I'm not going to break into any new tins right now, and I will eventually make it through all the samples. So I'll still be overwhelmed, just not quite as much. Now, to make my for sale ad on here...

Yeah it's a lot easier to pick one when you don't have too many choices. It's way easier to pick English or VA then pick which of 78 VAs to smoke.
Still nice to have variety but not so much that you never really dig into a blend. And you know you got the right stuff when you find you keep loving a blend more as you smoke it.
Mountain Camp is one I am glad I got in bulk because if I only smoked a tin of it I'd really like but would not see the true glory of it. That perique and Cavendish in it really elevates above English in some way. Adds a smoother dimension.

 

[kcghost]

I sold all my tobacco just to stop this foolishness. Then I picked three I really liked and ordered them. This went on for a year or so and then one day I look at my cellar and there are three others in there also. WTH???

 

[daytonsean]

Do people buy like thirty different brands of cigarettes just to have a nails rotation?

 

[Scottishgaucho]

I've only been smoking four blends for many months now. As I like them all I don't mind in the slightest not having a vast array of blends to confuse myself with.

 

[sablebrush52]

Depends on the individual. For decades I smoked just a couple of blends at any given time. Now it's different. I like the variety, and I like the choices of blends that I've stocked. Some I smoke quite often. Others from time to time, and still others when I want that particular blend.

Some people lack the palate to pick out subtleties in the flavors of a blend and to appreciate the subtle differences between various blends of the same genre. Others can taste and appreciate those differences.

Regardless, the bottom line remains the same. Smoke what you like and like what you smoke.

 

[burleybreath]

Blends have to be learned, so if you are perpetually seeking variety, you may never learn any of them well.

Long suspected, and recently verified after a half century of tobacco whoredom. Currently addicted to Granger, of all things, due to my "giving it a chance." Took a quarter of a tub, but eventually the craving took over, and now my Esoterica crap, et al., rot in a closet along with the weird aromatics and blends that will never see the light of a match. Scoop and light, tastes sweet and amazingly like what one thinks real tobacco ought to. Thought it was burning cardboard at first. (I make no claims of having a discerning palate, just one that works. Sort of.)

 

[Waning Embers]

I've mainly only smoked Engine 382 and Sutliff TS24 for the past several months. I had a break when I was exclusively smoking Scarecrow but I quickly killed two tins of it and would like the other eight to last if it doesn't get an annual release.

 

[alaskanpiper]

I also only have 6. IN MY CAR! Add a few zeros for the number in my study.

I envy the simplicity. I often toil over how to organize, pare down, etc.

 

[Waning Embers]

I often toil over how to organize, pare down, etc.

After many years it just happens organically.

 

[alaskanpiper]

After many years it just happens organically.

Yeah, that process has begun. But has a long way to go.

 

[mortonbriar]

I like to smoke 2-4oz of a blend before moving on to something else, I might smoke a bowl of something different here and there, but for the most part I go through one thing at a time and quite enjoy that.

 

[DanWil84]

If your happy with those 6 blends than why not. As mentioned, most ppl smoke 1 brand of cigarettes or eventually settle for 1 for their whole smoking life. Ive never seen a cigarette smoker who has multiple packs open. Or cigar smokers who smoke just one brand or even one vitolla of that brand/line. Or grandpa just smoking one of the OTC / Codger blends.

My tobacco journey is still very young and I try to buy as much different blends as I can, but my ideal is settle for 10 to 15 blends (and dedicated pipes to those blends) I really enjoy and that would be the end of it. May take me a few years but i'm fine with that. In this short time I have found 1 blend I think I will keep enjoying and i'm stocking on that every time I get hit by PAD.

 

[Morrison Jeremiah]

Do people buy like thirty different brands of cigarettes just to have a nails rotation?

Cigarette smokers tend to be practical people with better things to do than play around with pipes.
They know what they want and they know how to get it. Good luck to them.
But having given up the ciggies in favour of a pipe 14 years ago, I'm not about to rejoin their ranks.