A Ruminative Discourse Concerning Expensive Blends

[Briar Lee]

During the course of a weekday my Star Grade Lee pipes are filled with fruity, sweet, aromatic, candy flavored cheap blends that smell wonderful and are excellent all day, everyday smokes.

Then, on evenings and weekends I’m prone to pack my larger pipes with more expensive blends.

There is a reason blends with lots of Virginia, Perique, and Latakia cost more. They are better tasting, more satisfying, stronger and more rewarding to smoke. Expensive blends are at least twice the cost of the cheap stuff, and often four to six times more money.

The sad truth is high fructose corn syrup is cheaper than cane sugar, and margarine less dear than real butter, and imitation maple syrup less expensive than the genuine article. So also it is cheaper to sweeten and flavor burley than blend more expensive tobaccos into pipe blends.

I wonder how the manufacturers mass marketed cheap tobaccos, before propylene glycol.

There’s always been something cheaper to smoke, than the very best. And they sell more, of the cheap stuff.




Po’ Folks

 

[anotherbob]

my wine lady said wines aren't priced by quality but by how much goes into growing and producing the wine. That said no one is going to work that hard to make a bad wine. She also explained that expensive wines have to appeal to a smaller set of people but appeal more intensely. I am sure there are some parallels with tobacco. I think it's less that the cheaper is lower quality then that with the process to make a candy flavored tobacco quality isn't as important. Something that would have to get thrown out in a tobacco forward blend can still be used if it's drenched in vanilla. Or as I put it some blends could be made out of cardboard for all you can tell by the taste.

 

[telescopes]

I'm not sure I would differentiate the two groups in terms of expense; although, much of what you smoke does come out of a bag found at the local Cheap Smokes stores. So, excluding "that" tobacco, I found the differences in price to be less pronounced. It seems to me that volume and packaging can quickly drop the price of even the "expensive" blends to where they are much more reasonable per ounce.

 

[sablebrush52]

Smoke what you like, like what you smoke. Different strokes for different folks.

All tobacco is relatively cheap when compared to retail. The rest is, and has always been, the magic of marketing.

 

[mso489]

I naturally tend to disbelieve categories. I do savor premium blends, recently hand grating a tin of McC's Dark Star to get the essence of its famous reluctance to burn evenly or at all. But I also have had some excellent smokes out of bag tobaccos and pouches, sometimes by mixing them, but also just out of the bag or pouch. Same thing goes for "classes" of people, "levels"of automobiles, and prices on pipes. Often, the categories lie, and we are deceiving ourselves by thinking that the more lowly regarded are actually lowly at all. Some folks who aren't fancy at all have saved my ass more than once. So when I reach for a blend, price and packaging have little to do with the decision.

 

[augiebd]

I don’t assume a cheap tobacco will be an inferior product because in my experience that has not always been the case. Nor do I automatically expect an expensive tobacco to deliver nirvana. Expectations and adjustments to the blend can do a lot to effect the outcome.

 

[Sweet Home Alabama]

My local tobacconist’s blends cost pretty much the same. So, no reason to wait for the weekend.

 

[macaroni]

Sometimes, cheaper can be better. Certainly not always the case. So, here's my two cents on a great tasting tobacco for me--Newminster 400 and it's inexpensive. It rivals the flavors of most of my higher priced Virginias, again--for me. It normally costs about $1.80 per ounce (not a sale price), if one is willing to buy a 5 lbs. package (without taxes) and shipping is free from a Richmond, Virginia online seller. I learned of it from posts here on the forum. Two members mentioned it, who's preferences I've learned to value. After reading their posts, along with others--I tried it and love it. To each her/his own. Thanks to all for so many great posts!
kindly,
mike
p.s. I'm also glad for those here who've shared their successes using mylar bags for storing and cellaring. After learning about his option from some of you here, this made my life much easier when stocking up deeply on this great tobacco, and at a super price

 

[telescopes]

Sometimes, cheaper can be better. Certainly not always the case. So, here's my two cents on a great tasting tobacco for me--Newminster 400 and it's inexpensive. It rivals the flavors of most of my higher priced Virginias, again--for me. It normally costs about $1.80 per ounce (not a sale price), if one is willing to buy a 5 lbs. package (without taxes) and shipping is free from a Richmond, Virginia online seller. I learned of it from posts here on the forum. Two members mentioned it, who's preferences I've learned to value. After reading their posts, along with others--I tried it and love it. To each her/his own. Thanks to all for so many great posts!
kindly,
mike
p.s. I'm also glad for those here who've shared their successes using mylar bags for storing and cellaring. After learning about his option from some of you here, this made my life much easier when stocking up deeply on this great tobacco, and at a super price

That’s an excellent example Of a tobacco blend to demonstrate your point.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

And, the Knight of Rumination is back. There's really no point in arguing about how 90% of what you've posted is just wrong, ha ha.

 

[telescopes]

When I think of cheap pipe tobacco, the stuff I think about is whats found in the generic bags of pipe tobacco at truck stops and “smoke” shops. Man, that stuff is awful.

 

[kcghost]

You never can tell what people will like. I mean after all there has to be a reason behind spam (the food).

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

I bought 3 oz. bulk of some tobacco from a local shop when I was out of town last week and just realized after going and checking out the bag it was coming it at about double what something similar would cost from SP or Wilke, for example. Didn't think about it at the time, I wanted to try some of his tobacco and turns out I really enjoyed it. Now, more than something similar from John Brandt at half the price? No, but I'll probably stop in that shop again this weekend when I'm that way and try a couple more just because.

I guess I don't know what the $/oz. dividing line is between cheap and "normal" prices and then what the threshold is for expensive.

Leaving out aged tins I might get just to see what they are about, in general most of what I buy tends to fall in the same range and I'm okay with that, but doesn't seem out of line (now, I don't have years and years of experience to relate tobacco prices back to).

 

[jpmcwjr]

Cheap. Inexpensive. Expensive. Reasonable.

Many have very different ideas of what's in the range of each of those categories.

 

[warren]

I simply only have blends I like near at hand. Cost doesn't enter into what blends are handy. I only smoke what I like and cost simply isn't a factor. It's like buying a beef steak, it's the cut you need for the meal you are preparing.
If a skirt steak is required, it's what I cook. A graded prime rib? Then that's what gets burned. Cost isn't a factor, I'm blessed to be able to say. Burning up money (smoking) for personal enjoyment means I don't consider cost, only what Igives me an enjoyable experience. I try to keep pipe as simple as possible.

 

[telescopes]

I simply only have blends I like near at hand. Cost doesn't enter into what blends are handy. I only smoke what I like and cost simply isn't a factor. It's like buying a beef steak, it's the cut you need for the meal you are preparing.
If a skirt steak is required, it's what I cook. A graded prime rib? Then that's what gets burned. Cost isn't a factor, I'm blessed to be able to say. Burning up money (smoking) for personal enjoyment means I don't consider cost, only what Igives me an enjoyable experience. I try to keep pipe as simple as possible.

Warren. I am pretty sure that for many people what you wrote is the definition of "out-of-touch". LOL.

 

[warren]

I work very hard not to be "in-touch." Just handling things in my life the best I know how. As they, unknown who "they" are, say; "Living well is the best revenge." I worked hard, studied hard, to be able to buy what I want, when I want it. Life is indeed great for this old guy, 3/5ths of a heart and all!

 

[telescopes]

I work very hard not to be "in-touch." Just handling things in my life the best I know how. As they, unknown who "they" are, say; "Living well is the best revenge." I worked hard, studied hard, to be able to buy what I want, when I want it. Life is indeed great for this old guy, 3/5ths of a heart and all!

As it should be?

 

[judcole]

There's blends I like that are bulks, and relatively inexpensive - Sutliff Virginia Slices, for example. Then there's blends I like that are a bit more dear - Capstan, for example. The big difference is that I smoke more VS because it is less expensive - and, although I am not impoverished, I would have to think twice before buying 10 tins of Capstan as opposed to an equivalent amount of SVS.
As has been said more than once in this thread - smoke what you like, like what you smoke - and don't worry about it.

 

[sablebrush52]

Premium blend is defined by what my taste buds tell me, not by price, or by marketing copy. Sometimes that's bulk. Sometimes it's tinned. And there are blending houses I prefer.

A blend you truly enjoy is a premium blend because you enjoy it.