Aromatics 101

Log in

SmokingPipes.com Updates

Watch for Updates Twice a Week

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

Jan 21, 2022
27
69
43
Newquay, Cornwall, UK
If you can enjoy Virginia and Latakia and everything in between what are you after with aromatics?
I mean, what are you looking for?

If you can find them, get some aromatics with yarbles like 1792, Bosun, Coniston, dark flake scented, Ennerdale.
Its more that I'm curious as to the abundance of aromatics, which implies that many must enjoy them, which implies some must surely be enjoyable to me. Or not and I'm just a English /Balkan blend kinda guy.
 

anotherbob

Lifer
Mar 30, 2019
16,980
31,856
46
In the semi-rural NorthEastern USA
Tobacco has flavor. Period. Different leaf offers different flavor profiles. I’ll never understand this “aro’s are for the experienced” dribble.

Experienced at what? A slow enough cadence to smoke wet, artificially soaked leaf that necessitates slowing your cadence so that it won’t bite or fill your pipe with condensate?

How about “experiencing” tobacco first so that you might recognize it hidden under all the gummy bears and unicorn toppings?

2022 ? - my year to stop aro bashing. 2023 is MY year. I can feel it!
what I find funny with aro bashing is that tobacco is very processed whether it's got a top note or not. Except a few really rare examples you're not tasting straight tobacco but tobacco with this and that added to it anyways. Hope that helps with the motivation and all that.
 
Jan 30, 2020
2,368
7,788
New Jersey
Smoking a wet mess of an aromatic and complaining about them being the worst creation in the tobacco world is like filling your pipe with a solid chunk of a plug and calling it the second worst tobacco creation in the world just behind an aromatic.

Hint: you are doing it wrong.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Pipespipespipes

Grangerous

Lifer
Dec 8, 2020
3,582
14,842
East Coast USA
what I find funny with aro bashing is that tobacco is very processed whether it's got a top note or not. Except a few really rare examples you're not tasting straight tobacco but tobacco with this and that added to it anyways. Hope that helps with the motivation and all that.
One isn’t tasting straight alcohol when sipping a 12 year old single malt either, but that’s a sorry excuse to drown it in cola.
 

tzinc

Can't Leave
Mar 24, 2021
346
1,395
Toronto
IMO with aromatics the tobacco doesn't really matter you are tasting vanilla or maple sugar which is fine it's like vaping in that sense. The reality is I like tobacco taste - now there are some blends that are supposedly flavoured that I like - like Bengal Slices and while I smell the anise I don't taste it and that's the way I like it lol.
 
Jan 21, 2022
27
69
43
Newquay, Cornwall, UK
Smoking a wet mess of an aromatic and complaining about them being the worst creation in the tobacco world is like filling your pipe with a solid chunk of a plug and calling it the second worst tobacco creation in the world just behind an aromatic.

Hint: you are doing it wrong.
Like I said I don't find them unpleasant, just haven't found one to do what it purports to do yet.

I've let them dry and I've smoked them slow and the advertised 'taste' is seemingly incredibly subtle for my palate. Too subtle to get excited about. But, again perhaps I'm just expecting too much or I haven't tried the right one. I'd love to find one that resonates with me so I can put it in rotation.
 
  • Like
Reactions: fireground_piper
Jan 30, 2020
2,368
7,788
New Jersey
Like I said I don't find them unpleasant, just haven't found one to do what it purports to do yet.

I've let them dry and I've smoked them slow and the advertised 'taste' is seemingly incredibly subtle for my palate. Too subtle to get excited about. But, again perhaps I'm just expecting too much or I haven't tried the right one. I'd love to find one that resonates with me so I can put it in rotation.
It depends on what you are looking to get out of them. There’s a huge spectrum from light to soaking wet regardless of how some simply claim all aromatics to be wet.

Consider different flavors you’d like to actually get out of an aromatic or any flavored tobacco. There is a lot of flavored tobacco that many anti-aromatic smokers smoke regularly smoke because for some reason they don’t personally classify them as flavored tobacco even though they are.

Maybe a Lakeland blend would be good for you? A blend category that has ghosted pipes for generations from the sauce but regularly enjoyed by the anti-aromatic or flavored crowd.

Ignore the noise and think about what it is you want, then go from there. I cellar a number of aromatics right up there with my straight Virginias once I found the ones that fit what I was looking for.
 

reloader

Lifer
Dec 5, 2021
1,982
23,994
Southern, NM
I smoke quite a few aromatics and don't always discern the flavors advertised. I can always taste the tobaccos used in the blend though. Every now and again I may be able to pick out something strong such as maple, walnut or chocolate. My wife can't stand the room note of English blends so the aros allow me to smoke around her while we have happy hour she loves the smell.
 

kschatey

Lifer
Oct 16, 2019
1,118
2,284
Ohio
What's becoming more obvious now to me talking to you all is there's a reason why they are called aromatic tobaccos and not flavoured tobaccos.
Exactly! I'm glad somebody finally said is and I was about to do so myself. Aromatic tobacco is just that: aromatic. Taste is really only sweet, salty, bitter, sour, savory/umami. Smell is what really contributes to the overall perception of "flavors" and this is overly evident when it comes to tobacco blends.