Changing Tastes And Challenging Assumptions

[ChonkyTonks]

I have been enjoying pipes and tobacco now for a little over a year. In that time, I have been fortunate to experience so many wonderful blends, but tended judge a lot of them based upon my first experience. So, those blends went into flavor savor bags and had their air sucked out. They sat there for anywhere from 6-10 months and were generally forgotten. Now I am at the point where I want to experience individual components to better understand them. Enter Izmir Turkish. I pulled that out of storage and found it to be bone dry. But, I was amazed at how subtlety amazing it is. I originally equated Orientals with Latakia (just not my thing), so I never tried it for my assumptions. Now, looking at all of the blends I enjoy above all others, I see they mostly have Orientals. I look forward to exploring more Oriental-forward blends. But, the point of this was to tell any new pipe smokers to have fun challenging your assumptions and never fear trying blending components to better pick them out in the blends you try.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

We had a member who grew some amazing Turkish leaf here in the US. He was growing some with almost a cologne like fragrance. I loved it by itself, but it would get very expensive and lack the vitamin N to keep me interested for long.
Congrats for finding one you love.

Are you going to stick with this one, or are you going to keep exploring your tastes?

 

[ChonkyTonks]

We had a member who grew some amazing Turkish leaf here in the US. He was growing some with almost a cologne like fragrance. I loved it by itself, but it would get very expensive and lack the vitamin N to keep me interested for long.
Congrats for finding one you love.

Are you going to stick with this one, or are you going to keep exploring your tastes?

I will always explore. Tobacco blends have so much nuance to offer that I rarely find myself smoking just one blend at a time. I so eager to see what else is out there. How blenders create unique flavor profiles using the same ingredients still amazes me. Also, I now better understand when people say they can taste the quality of components in a blend. I find that McConnel and Mac Baren continue to impress me with what they offer. Not discounting C&D (still greatly enjoy a number of blends from them), but I feel like the former blenders have cemented their offerings and they are much more consistent.

As an aside, my wife finally saw my cellar and was agog. I don’t hide anything from her. She knows how deep I go with my hobbies, but she had no idea I had so much tobacco. She just laughed, took a picture, and walked away.

 

[Pipewizard420]

Having a wide variety is what it's all about IMO. I would get bored with just a single tobacco blend or even a couple of choices and would rather have a wide array of choices than 10-20lbs of just 1 blend. Tastes do change over time plus lots of variables like food consumption play a huge role in detecting certain flavors. It is a cool hobby and FAR more enjoyable than the ol cigarettes.

 

[ThermionicScott]

As an aside, my wife finally saw my cellar and was agog. I don’t hide anything from her. She knows how deep I go with my hobbies, but she had no idea I had so much tobacco. She just laughed, took a picture, and walked away.

I feel like that's about the best response most of us could hope for.

Tangentially but sort of related to this topic, were you able to find that aged Visions of Celephaïs you were looking for?

 

[ChonkyTonks]

I feel like that's about the best response most of us could hope for.

Tangentially but sort of related to this topic, were you able to find that aged Visions of Celephaïs you were looking for?

I was able to find a few tins of aged Visions of Celephais. However, that seems to be a Fall/Winter blend for me now. I tried it during the swampy summer months and it just was not right. Also, aged Visions is way more toned down in the grap wine aspect. Even though there is no burley in it, it tastes very burley-forward to me with some age on it. I will surely have more punny posts about it later this year. :D

 

[ThermionicScott]

I was able to find a few tins of aged Visions of Celephais. However, that seems to be a Fall/Winter blend for me now. I tried it during the swampy summer months and it just was not right. Also, aged Visions is way more toned down in the grap wine aspect. Even though there is no burley in it, it tastes very burley-forward to me with some age on it. I will surely have more punny posts about it later this year. :D

I wonder if that's the Kasturi and DFK finding some common ground. The thing that fascinates me about that blend is that once I adjusted to the grape flavoring (and it also seemed to flash off as I worked my way through the tin), I never knew which tobaccos would present themselves. Some times, I really picked up on the dark-fired, other times I got a lot of the Virginias.

 

[ChonkyTonks]

I wonder if that's the Kasturi and DFK finding some common ground. The thing that fascinates me about that blend is that once I adjusted to the grape flavoring (and it also seemed to flash off as I worked my way through the tin), I never knew which tobaccos would present themselves. Some times, I really picked up on the dark-fired, other times I got a lot of the Virginias.

I have a similar experience with Mac Baren Scottish Mixture. It feels impossible to get the same experience every time with how the components align per pipe. I am looking forward to picking up where I left off with Visions. Just need it to finally get to fall temps here.