I don't know if this will work as I haven't figured it out.
Allergic To Red Virginia
- Thread starter BROBS
- Start date
- Status
It only took me since 2012 to put a video into a thread, how pathetic is that. Oh yeah you have to listen to songs like these at least ten times to be able to appreciate them. These are not one note head bangers from the Ramones.
One of the greatest intro's in music history.
Sorry for the high jack, can't believe I got a video to play.
I share your excitement. ?
I was always a fan of the 90125 album from Yes
I agree, Squire has an unmistakable sound. You have me curious about Topographic Oceans now. I'll have to revisit that album.
I just ate some raw red onion at dinner time and decided to try a bowl of FVF instead of brushing my teeth. Turns out I got no bite from the smoke like I usually would
if you smoke a pipe while you cut onion your eyes won't water.
Good, I'm glad Python reopened this one, so that you guys could all stay on topic... because Chris Squire, Yes, and Lou Reed are important indicators for tastes in Red Virginias. I secede the point over Harris's tastes, although something more Americana, like John Cougar or John Fogerty would have shown a better propensity for color cured Virginias, but Lou Reed overrides any inclinations towards Yes as an exemplar of big city aesthetics, transgender appreciations, and a tolerance for heroine use. 
"Stick a fork in me, I'm done."
"Stick a fork in me, I'm done."
I think it may have more to do with percentage of Red Va in the blend.
When I was starting to grow tobacco and wanted information on how a red Virginia is made, I found a huge riff between the terms used on tins of pipe tobacco and between the terminology used by growers and even a difference in terms used by processors. Even the term "Virginias" seems to be just a marketing term. "Red Virginias" is also, and it is merely a color cure, similar to how some cigar leaf is processed... which Jeremy hits on. We as pipe tobacco users rely mostly on what marketing terms are used on tins, and yet the rest of the industry would look at you like you're speaking Chinese when you go asking about Virginias, red Virginias, etc...
To hold a company accountable for having a "red Virginia" in the mix is ludicrous, because they just made that term up in their own little niche that exists between processing and blending.
Sure sure, some farmers and processors may be aware of terms used by the blenders, but I had a hard time finding someone who could help me learn how to cure a red. Then, when you learn how to make a red, you realize how little the differences is between a gold and a red, like a few degrees that most people probably wouldn't realize to the touch in temperature. But, there is a difference in taste.
Anyways, my point is that terms that we know as pipe smokers and the terms used by the rest of the industry don't necessarily mesh.
I was reading in another thread about Rattrays using DFK. People just assume that anything that tastes fire cured is Dark Fired Kentucky, when most likely the company had way more tobaccos to chose from than the average pipe genius in the states could identify. Why not go with one of the many fire cured imperial leaf?
All the tobaccos the average pipe smoker is aware that exists...
Virginias (yellow, orange, red, African, stoved)
light burley
dark burley
orientals (maybe a few more can differentiate between all of the different types of Turkish, but not many)
latakia
perique
dark fire Kentucky
cigar leaf
rustica
...when there are hundreds of varieties that most aren't even aware of the names. How many different varieties of "Virginia are you aware of?" When you hear "red Virginia" which variety of seed stock did you mean? Did you think there was just one plant called the Red Virginia?
Now, not to make it seem like we as pipesmokers and consumers of pipe tobacco are stupid, keeping the terminology for different varieties just makes sense on a marketing perspective. One year, to make a blend taste the same due to differences in environmental issues, a blender/company may have to tweek a blend by adding another variety to keep the tastes consistent. Plus, can we handle knowing six hundred different leaf varieties? Or, would that just muddy the pond?
To hold a company accountable for having a "red Virginia" in the mix is ludicrous, because they just made that term up in their own little niche that exists between processing and blending.
Sure sure, some farmers and processors may be aware of terms used by the blenders, but I had a hard time finding someone who could help me learn how to cure a red. Then, when you learn how to make a red, you realize how little the differences is between a gold and a red, like a few degrees that most people probably wouldn't realize to the touch in temperature. But, there is a difference in taste.
Anyways, my point is that terms that we know as pipe smokers and the terms used by the rest of the industry don't necessarily mesh.
I was reading in another thread about Rattrays using DFK. People just assume that anything that tastes fire cured is Dark Fired Kentucky, when most likely the company had way more tobaccos to chose from than the average pipe genius in the states could identify. Why not go with one of the many fire cured imperial leaf?
All the tobaccos the average pipe smoker is aware that exists...
Virginias (yellow, orange, red, African, stoved)
light burley
dark burley
orientals (maybe a few more can differentiate between all of the different types of Turkish, but not many)
latakia
perique
dark fire Kentucky
cigar leaf
rustica
...when there are hundreds of varieties that most aren't even aware of the names. How many different varieties of "Virginia are you aware of?" When you hear "red Virginia" which variety of seed stock did you mean? Did you think there was just one plant called the Red Virginia?
Now, not to make it seem like we as pipesmokers and consumers of pipe tobacco are stupid, keeping the terminology for different varieties just makes sense on a marketing perspective. One year, to make a blend taste the same due to differences in environmental issues, a blender/company may have to tweek a blend by adding another variety to keep the tastes consistent. Plus, can we handle knowing six hundred different leaf varieties? Or, would that just muddy the pond?
Yes but what about herion use? Since from what I understand Lou used both heroin and herione.a tolerance for heroine use.
"Stick a fork in me, I'm done."
so what you're saying is who knows? And that like most things stated on the tin it means what ever the person who printed the label thinks it means.
I thought I would post this here as am interested to see if anyone else has a similar experience. I loaded a bowl of 403 in a trombone meerschaum pipe the other night and I got zero zing from the red Virginia. Despite being somewhat sensitive to red va, I do sometimes enjoy placing my tongue into the smoke stream and getting a small controlled bite from this blend. Kinda adds a tangy apple note to the smoke.
Anyways, I had the fullest flavour from this blend ever.
Could it be the meerschaum, or the long shank?
Anyways, I had the fullest flavour from this blend ever.
Could it be the meerschaum, or the long shank?
I tried to read this whole thread but went into anaphylactic shock halfway through.
It's amazing what not brushing your teeth can do for you. ?
- Status