Pipe Blend Ponderings by a Grumpy Old Man Who Doesn't Like Anything
- Thread starter Skippy Piper
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I noticed it had some weird glow around it when I screenshot i’ll find the original and posted for our truth and journalismBut CE’s pic isn’t edited
that's the aura of pure joy and smoking pleasure. If you don't get that every single smoke with every single pipe, you're what the kids call a total newb. It's why real pipe smokers don't buy flashlights, we don't need them.
@Skippy Piper have you smoked any of the listed blends enough to know if you really like one? I found that blends would begin to stand out to me when I smoked them regularly for a period of time rather than moving around a lot. I also found that I kept my open jar and tin pile more manageable
I only have one blend I smoke almost daily, and would definitely stock up on if it was going away, and that's GLP Chelsea Morning. I go through about a pound a year. There are several others that I smoke regularly, but CM is my only true "regular" smoke.
As a former cigarette smoker I enjoy a sweet Virginia but they need at least 6 months of age to lose some of that acid you described.I was talking with a pipe smoking buddy earlier today about our cellars and stocking up on blends, and it occurred to me that after almost 4 years in the hobby and 3 years of smoking a pipe at least once a day I'm in the somewhat odd position of having never found a blend I liked enough to want to stock up on it.
I've tried over 150 blends at this point and still haven't found anything that really clicked with me. I've tried all manner of Virginias both bright and red, burleys, English blends, dark fired blends, Lakelands, all the codger blends, and both American and European style aromatics in every flavor under the sun; and still just never really found anything I liked the taste of enough to want to smoke it all the time.
It's a funny problem to have considering that I've been a cigarette smoker for 26 years and have never tired of my everyday RYO cigarette tobacco blend Golden Harvest Yellow (which tastes great to me as a cigarette but is strangely awful in a pipe), and before I started smoking a pipe 4 years ago I was a daily hookah smoker for half my life until my favorite everyday shisha tobacco blends Nakhla Strawberry & Nakhla Single Apple went off the market; and I never tired of my preferred hookah blends either. For some reason though with the pipe I just can't seem to find a tobacco blend that I really like.
I very much enjoy the act of smoking a pipe and find it peaceful and relaxing, so I continue to smoke my pipe once or twice a day with whatever blend sounds reasonably appealing that day, and I'm still trying new blends all the time in the hopes that one day I'll find one that resonates with me. I know how to smoke slowly to draw all the flavors out pipe tobacco, I just don't particularly like any of them! It's a shame there's not much of any strawberry or apple flavored pipe tobaccos on the market since those were the flavors I always enjoyed with the hookah, but none of the fruit flavored pipe tobaccos I've tried ever scratched that itch quite the same.
The closest I've found to blends that could be keepers for me have been Lane RLP-6 and Smoker's Pride Cherry Cavendish, which I do enjoy the flavors of for awhile but still find myself tiring of them after smoking them for more than a few days in a row. I have gone through about half a pound of each of them at this point though, which is a lot more than I can say for most blends since I usually don't get through more than an ounce of anything before deciding that I've had enough of it.
On that note, to keep my cellar from getting overly cluttered with Ball jars full of 1 or 2 ounce samples of blends I don't particularly care for, every 4 months or so I go through my cellar and sell off all the blends I know that I have no desire to smoke again. At this point I've whittled my cellar of 150'ish blends down to 37, and I'd like to get it down to under 10 at some point. I think if I do ever find a blend I like enough to want to smoke all the time I would stock up several pounds of it, but that day sure hasn't come yet.
If a cigarette is a hamburger from a fast food restaurant then a Virginia would be a ribeye from a Michelin rated restaurant.
Coming to this conclusion during the closing of Sutliff/ Mac Baren was a rather costly one for me but many of us bought what we could.
Maybe it's a good thing that no pipe blends have grabbed you like they have grabbed us in this hobby.
Cheers!
This is what I'm looking for. I want to be able to go on a week long vacation with one pipe and one blend and be happy...
Maybe I missed it, but I didn't see any Dan aromatics on your list. They're not cheap, but something like Devil's Holiday might be your huckleberry. I am also a big fan of Black Velvet. I'd argue that when it comes to aros, Dan is the best manufacturer out there, with Gawith a close second.
I’ve smoked hundreds of different blends over the decades and didn’t much care for the overwhelming majority of them.
The ones that I liked I stocked up on and I’m glad that I did so. So many blends and the tobaccos that made them are OOP.
But even blends that I like have gone in and out of favor.
Your tastes will change and change back over time.
Leave yourself some options.
Or, if you’re really not enjoying the blends in general, maybe this just isn’t for you.
The ones that I liked I stocked up on and I’m glad that I did so. So many blends and the tobaccos that made them are OOP.
But even blends that I like have gone in and out of favor.
Your tastes will change and change back over time.
Leave yourself some options.
Or, if you’re really not enjoying the blends in general, maybe this just isn’t for you.
You still on the St. Bruno kick Jesse
?
You know you turned me onto that simple pleasure