Dishonorable Mentions

[orvet]

That's basically how I always felt until very recently. I found one that really jives with me and I can't get enough.


Pretty sure Stirling Flake doesn't have latakia.

You're right, Latakia is not listed as part of the blend. It must have been the clown shoes or the jockstrap that I was tasting!
I see now that it's predominantly burly and I have never had a great relationship with burley. I don't know whatever possessed me to buy it in the first place other than to try something different.

If anyone is feeling adventurous, my offer still stands, send me a PM and I'll send you a full can of Sterling flake minus one bowl.

 

[NC TX ID pipeman]

I always found SWR to be about like smoking kerosene soaked cardboard.

I’ve never found a C&D I liked enough to buy more than once.

Mac B Old Dark Fired tastes more more like Ol’ Tire Fire with hints of burning cat hair, and notes of melted clown shoes. It’s room note is reminiscent of burnt clutch with a fleeting whiffs of xylene. It burns to a hard glassy slag and can be used as an heat source for thermally bonding train rails.

I am with you on MB old dark fired...It really taste creepy.I did have the first issue of it 2x 100g square tins...Another unlikable one is their vanilla tobacco..I did not liked CD easy times and SG FVF aged for 5 years was boring and waste of money...I might of aged it wrong -left it in 250g paper box and forgot about it..Not a fan of 70s or 80s Revelation..There may be some Peterson aromatic in this box of unlikable tobaccos but forgot which one it was...

 

[autumnfog]

Trout Stream made my tongue burn like no other tobacco.

Mac Baren HH Vintage Syrian.
Didn't like latakia and kentucky in the same blend.
Love both but not together.

 

[EvertonFC]

CD Gentleman Caller or any blend with deertongue.

This. I'm convinced it's an actual deer's tongue in the tin.

 

[EvertonFC]

Cornell & Diehl. I've somehow had 28 blends (<-- yeah... that's on me) by them and not liked one. They've mostly existed along a spectrum ranging from "not My Thing" to "OMG. What died in that tin?"

 

[metalheadycigarguy]

Worst tobacco for me was Prince Albert. Absolutely terrible.

All aromatics from the Sutliff Private Stock line are terrible. The worst was Moulin Rouge as it tasted like cherry cough syrup. So disgusting. They were included in my subscription to my tobacco of the month club. So disappointed that those were included in the subscription.

Many of the C&D blends don't do anything for me, and I've found that I don't enjoy most of them.

 

[dog_park_piper]

Whatever it was SmokingPipes mailed me on accident once. So bad. No way of knowing what it was. It was scary.

 

[orvet]

Worst tobacco for me was Prince Albert. Absolutely terrible.

All aromatics from the Sutliff Private Stock line are terrible. The worst was Moulin Rouge as it tasted like cherry cough syrup. So disgusting. They were included in my subscription to my tobacco of the month club. So disappointed that those were included in the subscription.

Many of the C&D blends don't do anything for me, and I've found that I don't enjoy most of them.

It has been near 40 years since I smoked Prince Albert, as I recall it was not a particular favorite. In general I am not impressed with Sutliff's tobaccos, their Crumble Cake Red Virginia was a huge disappointment.
On the other hand I have been impressed with a couple C & D tobaccos. I tried their Bayou Morning Flake and liked it enough that I cellered several tins and also smoke their bulk version. Three Monks is acceptable from time to time but what I like best are their blending tobacco. The Red Virginia Cavendish, Virginia flake and Yellow Virginia ribbon are key ingredients ingredients in my current home blend, along with odds and ends of several unfinished tins of various Virginia's and va/per's.

 

[orvet]

This is a very entertaining thread, I read it start to finish. I can see there are some people who don't like tobacco that I enjoy like new Minister 403.
On the other hand some of the things that some of you don't like sound positively disgusting like Captain Black Grape!

The only two tobacco's I have tried recently that I found unsmokeable were Rattray's Sterling Flake and Dan Tobaccos Tordenskjold Pibe Tobac Virginia Slices.

The Sterling Flake has way more Latakia then I like. Not sure why I bought it in the first place!
The Tordenskjold is way too sweet for my taste and it smells like someone spilled really bad vanilla perfume in the tin!

If anyone here likes either of those or wants to try them, PM me and I'll send them in your direction!

I revisited my tin of Sterling Flake. The tin note was off-putting. It reminded me of the creosote buildup and the stove pipes for our wood stoves on the ranch where I grew up. It was often my job too clean out the stove pipes and I remember distinctly that creosote smell. Very similar to the tin aroma of Sterling Flake. I think that aroma was what I mistook for Latakia.
I decided to give it another try, I'm smoking it in a small estate pipe that was ghosted with aromatics. There is no aromatic overtones coming through in the smoke, so that's a good thing! It reminded me a bit of Mick McQuaid cut plug and and Capstan Full, though it does not have the richness of the Capstan Full.
I think I can use the SF judiciously in blending.

This amazing thread has prompted me to retry a tobacco I was ready to toss out! Thank you all for your discussions and opinions!

 

[David D. Davidson]

Autumn Evening tastes like somebody found a 10-year-old Eggo waffle in the back of the freezer, soaked it in gas-station-tier maple syrup, left it on the counter for a month to add staleness, and then crumbled it into my pipe.

The tin description says “lightly cased with a delicate maple flavor” - these aromatic tin descriptions keep hoodwinking me. Everything is touted as light, delicate, ethereal, and barely-there, and I keep ending up with tins that smell like a candle from Bath and Body Works. I have at this point at least 15 tins of various aromatics I’ve only smoked once or twice but can’t bring myself to repeat the experience.

Every time I read the description and think “this one will be different”, and it never is! The worst part is I know I’ll do it yet again (and probably again after that).

 

[woodsroad]

What blends would you not recommend to anyone? For me its Macbaren HH Rustica. It made me gag and it was too strong. Only smoked half the tin before throwing it away.

It made you gag, so you smoked half the tin, just be sure?

 

[AcesAndEights]

I always found SWR to be about like smoking kerosene soaked cardboard.

I’ve never found a C&D I liked enough to buy more than once.

Mac B Old Dark Fired tastes more more like Ol’ Tire Fire with hints of burning cat hair, and notes of melted clown shoes. It’s room note is reminiscent of burnt clutch with a fleeting whiffs of xylene. It burns to a hard glassy slag and can be used as an heat source for thermally bonding train rails.

Now THAT’S a review. JimInks better watch out!

 

[Akoni808]

For me, it’s SG St. James Flake and Full Virginia. The flavor is incredible, but the 3rd degree burns on my tongue speak a different story.

 

[Hutch Piper]

Apricots and Cream.

 

[username]

I'm not sure if I posted this in this thread already and I'm to lazy to look. 1792 flake made me want to

 

[Wet Dottle]

Semois tobacco. Tried several brands and all tasted awful to me.

 

[K.E. Powell]

I've a new one to add, and this is one that I'm pretty sure was mentioned in this thread by several others: Mixture No. 79.

Now, I should like this blend, at least as an occasional way to satisfy a sweet tooth. I'm one of those weirdos that love black licorice, and boy, is this stuff cased heavily. It's an old codger blend in a pouch, so I'm not expecting much. I just wanted a smooth and clean smoke with strong licorice flavor. But man, is this stuff vile. It tastes like black licorice, but in a way that tastes stale and oily. This would not stay lit, it left a rather nasty aftertaste, and ghosted my pipe something fierce. It took a good cleaning and roughly three bowls of Haunted Bookshop to exorcise that ghost!

I've had some good codger blends (SWR and PA) and bad ones (Borkum Riff Whiskey), and but this one is pretty nasty. I still have most of the pouch left, and I have a feeling I'm just going to eventually trash it.

 

[sandollars]

after experiencing some really bad Virginia in the 2021 release of Esoterica Dunbar

Ohhhhh, that WAS bad…. The aroma was like a fetid barnyard floor.

 

[Bassman65]

Sutliff 515 RC-1. Nearly needed therapy after trying it. Easily dethroned the previous spot holder, C&D Autumn Evening.

As a Canadian who loves his maple syrup and pancakes, I’m surprised I didn’t like Autumn Evening more than I did.

 

[TexJake]

I’m surprised to see as many mentions of Haddo’s Delight here, as I’ve more often seen it mentioned by people in a positive light. However, it’s definitely on my list of not to try again, I did not enjoy it at all.

Sillem’s Black is the other one that I won’t be going back to. All I could taste was cough syrup.

For the most part, I feel like I’m pretty agreeable to most flavor profiles, but these two didn’t work for me. Fun to read about others’ opinions on some blends that I thoroughly enjoy.