Of course, you certainly are entitled to your opinion, but since you made it public, I think it's fair to challenge it. I would stand Blend #5 favorably against most other Englishes. It's won several top English awards at pipe shows over more "popular" offerings, which says quite a bit in my book. It may not have some of the nuances some top rated blends have, but a blend doesn't have to be overly complex to be a very good tobacco. Ten Russians and Nightcap immediately come to mind here because they don't have much nuance, but nobody can deny that they are premium English products. Sutliff's Kasimir, Sutliff 1849, and Court of St. James are also top blends, and I'd rather smoke them more than a lot of fancy boutique offerings. It is true that Sutliff doesn't offer many VaPers or straight Virginias, which are my two favorite genres (FVF is my favorite straight Va.), but they have enough good stuff worth pursuing. They make a lot of aromatics because that's almost 90% of the market, which makes good business sense to me, and I'm hardly the biggest aro smoker you will know.
And no other company has come anywhere near supporting pipe clubs like Sutliff has. I don't think that is an indicator being at the bottom of the gene pool, if that is what you are inferring. I think it's good promotion whether you like the blends or not. I don't see a correlation between price and quality regarding Sutliff. In fact, a number of people would say some of the boutique blends are over priced.
Yes, taste is an individual thing, and everybody has their preferences. I could never argue against that. But one thing you should realize is that most pipe tobacco companies use quality tobaccos, and I think you'd be surprised at how many of them are getting them from Sutliff. Some people have the mistaken idea that companies use cheap leaf for aros because the toppings cover up that leaf. That's simply not true 99% of the time.
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