Popular Blends That Hit Your Blind Spot?

[BingBong]

There are a few much-loved blends that I have expected to enjoy, but no. Either cannot abide or think them "meh" and it gives me a concern, what's wrong with me?

While I can scarf up SG FVF all day long, Best Brown? Awa wi ye! No no no.

Rattray's Marlin Flake, dreadful cloying articial sweetness. Finished a tin, stubbornly, three years after opening.

Dunhill Elizabethan, aged. Meh. That lasted a year.

While there are surely others I give a bodyswerve, these three came to mind immediately. Makes no sense to me. Who else's palate has rejected popular blends?

 

[AcesAndEights]

I tried Haunted Bookshop in my early days of pipe smoking. It was just ok. Ended up using it as a mixer to finish the tin. My tastes have changed quite a bit since then, plus I feel I’ve gotten better at smoking pipe. I kinda wanna try it again now.

 

[Hutch Piper]

I’m sure I can think of some others but you mentioned Marlin Flake and I had the same experience. I don’t get any taste from it whatsoever and it bites the dickens out of me.

 

[The Hermit]

In my early pipe smoking days, I ran the gamut of blends of recommended by various presenters, learning what I liked and didn't. I quickly learned that my tastes were quite different than the Internet's. Early Morning Pipe was a disaster. I thought I was going to be in for something special as the tin I acquired had several years on it. Smelled like a hay bale. Dreadful stuff. My Mixture 965 fell flat. Tried Haunted Bookshop (at the behest of the late Matches 860) and while I like the jar note, the smoke is not to my liking and the retrohale much less. Capstan Blue, meh, pedestrian at best. Lord knows, I have tried and failed at liking Virginia and Virginia-dominant blends. Tried a few aromatics and got it in my head that there was a rich, vanilla blend out there that smell/tasted like the old mall (remember malls?) Tinder Box stores did when I walked in as a kid. And to that end, on a recommendation, I tried MacBaren's Vanilla Roll Cake which absolutely destroyed my tongue. That went in the trash. Found out I wasn't a fan of MacBaren's anything, in general. I still chase the occasional aromatic hoping to find something that actually tastes like it smells without being phony. Would love to find that pure vanilla blend for when I get that after-dinner sweet tooth. Maybe someday.

 

[Akguy59]

For me it's aromatics .I know that many people enjoy them, but they don't do anything for me. I love the taste of tobacco but most of the aromatics that I have tried are either made from bland, flavorless tobacco or are overly sweetened goop. I am not trying to bash anyone else, but I just don't care for them at all.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

I wouldn't describe it as not liking it. There's very few blends I wouldn't get some enjoyment from smoking. I simply wouldn't enjoy them as much as I do Virginia Flake.

 

[HeavyLeadBelly]

For me its Old Joe Kranz and Pegasus. Even after a few months neither really caught on with me and I tend to enjoy burly blends. Maybe Ill revisit them in the future as they seem to be lived by many.

 

[elvishrunes]

Marlin flake I just got some tins has caught me a bit off guard, I expected more a Va type flake, but it has lots of black Virginia and Cavendish in it, very dark. I get lots of smoothness and not much on it, haven’t got the sweet yet but will look for it, only had 2 bowls so still deciding. But it sells out fast and is quite popular.

Orlik may be my favourite Virginia so far off memory, people’s opinions, meh

 

[SmokingInTheWind]

I still chase the occasional aromatic hoping to find something that actually tastes like it smells without being phony. Would love to find that pure vanilla blend for when I get that after-dinner sweet tooth.

Wilke 191 is good stuff.
It is topped with Vermont honey and real vanilla bean. I think it is Wilke’s number one seller. To me, it does taste like it smells.

 

[tartanphantom]

While I'll disagree on the Marlin Flake, I like it, but for me it performs best when not rubbed out, but simply broken and stuffed in a narrow small chimney briar or cob. I've tried smoking it in larger bowl pipes, but I admit that it's a bit lackluster under those conditions.

On the main topic, three fairly popular tobaccos that just don't do it for me-- (in no particular order)

1) Erinmore (flake or mixture) - I don't dislike the underlying tobaccos, but the infamous Erinmore "topping" is too much for me. On my palate, It's like smoking burnt fruitcake.

2) Haunted Bookshop - Like others here, I find this one just a bit too one-dimensional. Not necessarily a bad place to start for those getting into burleys, but a little on the lackluster side for me. It also can get pretty hot and dusty on the palate if you don't pace yourself. There are other burley blends that I like far more.

3) Gawith 1792 Flake - Like Erinmore, this one definitely has its own small but dedicated cheering section. However, I think the tonka bean flavoring completely overshadows the underlying Virginias, and is just "too much, too soon" in the flavor profile.

Not to disparage the taste of those who enjoy these blends. The just don't trip my trigger.

 

[FLDRD]

And So To Bed
Briar Fox
Blood Red Moon
We Three Kings
Pennington Gap
Yep, I've had a few that stand out as not working for me.
Furthermore, with the change in my palate I'm wondering if I'll ever love Latakia / English blends. I'm scared to go back and open any Nightcap, Old Dublin or similar for fear I won't like it anymore; due to having a heck of a time trying to finish any English blends that I do have open. Fingers crossed it's blend specific and not genre wide.

 

[Brad H]

Marlin flake I just got some tins has caught me a bit off guard, I expected more a Va type flake, but it has lots of black Virginia and Cavendish in it, very dark. I get lots of smoothness and not much on it, haven’t got the sweet yet but will look for it, only had 2 bowls so still deciding. But it sells out fast and is quite popular.

Orlik may be my favourite Virginia so far off memory, people’s opinions, meh

Ditto on the marlin flake. It’s almost not in the BaPer category at all to me. It’s in its own little world.

 

[sablebrush52]

The list of much loved blends I find to be crap would go on for pages.

Many of them are inferior modern clones of classic blends that I enjoyed years ago.

With a few exceptions, C&D.

Orlik Golden Slices, which I renamed Orlik Golden Showers. The rest of the Orlik lineup.

Almost all Danish versions of British blends. All garbage. Denmark is where British blends go to die.

I could go on, but you get the point.

 

[Servant King]

Pegasus, Tilbury and both Capstans. The first two were just harsh, seemed like I was drawing bus exhaust through my pipe. The Capstans weren't bad; they were fine enough, really. Just not deserving of their twenty-something dollars a tin price tag is all.

 

[IrishBadger]

Burley forward blends. Lord knows how many times and blends I've tried over 4 decades of pipe smoking but they leave me flat. I do enjoy burley as a mostly silent partner to a Virginia blend to help balance the mixture. Taste preference is a mysterious human trait.

 

[BriaronBoerum]

Count me in on the group that doesn't get much from Haunted Bookshop and Pegasus. I've got HB cake aging and will try again.

Ditto on a lot of popular aro's, although crossover English blends are a totally different category for me that I enjoy a lot.

But why the hate on Marlin Flake? Ok, it's not high end, and it's sweet, but I guess I like some sweetness in my Va's. Ravenwood Moose Marmalade and Wilke Lizzie Blood are similarly enjoyable.

Wait, after reading these posts, will I stop liking it? Should I stop liking it even though I like it? Am I already infected by other people's opinions? Can I be sure any of my likes and dislikes are truly mine? Who am I, really???

(Unplugs computer, goes and hides in a corner)

 

[seanv]

I too find most blends at the minimum to be smokeable. The lone exception so far has been Blockade Runner. I really enjoy Black Frigate so I figured I would enjoy Blockade Runner, but no. Hard no. No matter what, this is the only blend to absolutely fry my mouth.

 

[IrishBadger]

I too find most blends at the minimum to be smokeable. The lone exception so far has been Blockade Runner. I really enjoy Black Frigate so I figured I would enjoy Blockade Runner, but no. Hard no. No matter what, this is the only blend to absolutely fry my mouth.

Totally agree. Weird since runner is the base of Frigate which is one of my favorites.

 

[Sea Lord]

Most of the C & D and GL Pease have proven very disappointing.

 

[timt]

Wait, after reading these posts, will I stop liking it? Should I stop liking it even though I like it? Am I already infected by other people's opinions? Can I be sure any of my likes and dislikes are truly mine? Who am I, really???

Stay strong man. You can keep liking it, but remember, we know now.

I also enjoy an occasional English Aro but otherwise stay away from Lat and most aromatics.