@ghost wrote:
"(For example, I've never tried Penzance but I have one lonely tin in my cellar. Waiting...)"
Penzance is my all-time favorite tobacco. But I'd encourage you not to wait. For me, it's one of the few blends that is much more flavorful when fresh. Not that I don't have tins in the cellar; I do. But that's simply so I can always have a blend on hand that somewhat resembles Penzance. But it loses something with time in the tin. Or, rather, it loses something that I really enjoy if it spends more than a year or so in the tin.
@lostandfound wrote:
". . .regularly offered to gift me his tins of Balkan Sobranie, or Balkan Sasieni... he couldn't remember. . ."
For me, there's a huge difference. Even though I love Balkans, I don't think the current Balkan Sasieni deserves the name. This is a bizarre theory, I know, but Balkan Sasieni smokes as if it's artificially Balkan flavored: Flavorful for the first half, then that flavor completely disappears halfway down the bowl. Just like some inexpensive aromatics. When this stuff came out, it was priced at $6.99 a tin, I believe; I think "flavoring" explains why it was so inexpensive. Now, I still have 20 tins from 2008 in the cellar, so it's possible that something magical has happened since I first tried it. But my initial impressions were not good at all.
Bob
"(For example, I've never tried Penzance but I have one lonely tin in my cellar. Waiting...)"
Penzance is my all-time favorite tobacco. But I'd encourage you not to wait. For me, it's one of the few blends that is much more flavorful when fresh. Not that I don't have tins in the cellar; I do. But that's simply so I can always have a blend on hand that somewhat resembles Penzance. But it loses something with time in the tin. Or, rather, it loses something that I really enjoy if it spends more than a year or so in the tin.
@lostandfound wrote:
". . .regularly offered to gift me his tins of Balkan Sobranie, or Balkan Sasieni... he couldn't remember. . ."
For me, there's a huge difference. Even though I love Balkans, I don't think the current Balkan Sasieni deserves the name. This is a bizarre theory, I know, but Balkan Sasieni smokes as if it's artificially Balkan flavored: Flavorful for the first half, then that flavor completely disappears halfway down the bowl. Just like some inexpensive aromatics. When this stuff came out, it was priced at $6.99 a tin, I believe; I think "flavoring" explains why it was so inexpensive. Now, I still have 20 tins from 2008 in the cellar, so it's possible that something magical has happened since I first tried it. But my initial impressions were not good at all.
Bob
