Do tobaccos actually taste as described ??

[oldenglish]

Hi there, first of all I am a complete novice at pipe smoking so please be gentle with me lol.
I have very fond memories of my Grandad and my Dad both smoking pipes in the late 70's, early 80's.. Holland House, St Bruno and Clan I think I were there tobacco's of choice. I tried cigarettes in my youth and never liked the taste or the aftertaste or the smell that was left behind on clothing and furniture etc...
I then tried cigars as I got a little older and slightly better heeled and after trying many different kinds I found that I really liked King Edward Invincible's and Phillies Titan, as they all had a mellow sweet favour, which was great as I used to inhale. These cigars were very hard to come by in the U.K. or just ridiculously expensive, but I was fortunate enough to have a family friend in the states who could send me some over from time to time, which was a great help.
After a few years of smoking cigars I was forced to quit all together, due to lung problems. Any way, I miss having a nice smoke so I decided to give the pipe a good go with no intention of inhaling to try and avoid further lung problems. Now as I have fond memories of my Grandad and Dad smoking aro's combined with my sweet tooth, it made sense to me to try some nice mild aro's until I find my feet.
I had a run out to the one and only tobacconist in my City and purchased a selection of Gawith Hoggarth's Black cherry, Kentucky nougat and Cherry-vanilla, which all smelled amazing in the tin.. Each one costing £7.00 per 25g or each flavour I might add. I rushed home and packed my Dads old Italian Polo Bentmore and set about smoking my first ever bowl, after watching many videos and reading many articles on how to go about it correctly.
Now I was expecting sweet, mellow cherry and vanilla flavours with a lovely mild room note and what I actually got was something that just tasted like a hand rolled filter-less cigarette, awful in other words. I know that I am smoking tobacco not eating some kind of desert, so I was expecting tobacco flavours, but I thought there would be much more of the flavours described. The pipe that my Dad had given me had been thoroughly cleaned, reemed and rested for the last 30+ years and so it had no smell at all and I wouldn't imagine that it should have any ghosts either.
I was massively disappointed and gave the pipe a really good clean and sweetened it with some high proof Rum then left it to rest for 48 hrs before trying again with the Black cherry. Once again a dreadful strong cigarette tobacco taste, no hint of cherry, the room note was no better than a cigarette and the tongue bite was horrible. Again I cleaned the pipe thoroughly and sweetened once more, this time with a vanilla Rum in a hope that my next smoking experience would be a better one. To cut a long story short all three tobaccos were dreadful.. Strong hand-rolled cigarette type tobacco taste, no hint of the flavours they claimed to have, even when retro-haling, horrendous tongue bite and a room note almost identical to cigarette tobacco.
So today whilst out of town I visited a different tobacconist and decided to treat myself to a £10 pouch of Mac Barren Vanilla toffee cream, after reading reviews that describe the flavours as, and I quote "Delightful sweet caramel aroma, sweet and very creamy Cream Caramel flavor with hint of Vanilla in the background"... So I then rushed home and packed my well cleaned and rested pipe and guess what? Horrible!... No better than the other three what so ever... God knows what I am doing wrong?..or is it just that the tobaccos really don't taste and smell as they are described?
I've tried different packing methods, tried packing loose, tight, in between etc, I've tried sipping at it so as not to smoke too hot and everything I try just tastes horrible to me. I'm a non-smoker and I am also a bit of a foodie, so I consider myself as having a half decent palate but all my tobaccos up to date taste dreadful.
I have a beautiful brand new Chacom 1202 XL that I was going to start using, but now I really don't want to use it as I am starting to think that pipe smoking may not be for me and it is a fairy expensive pipe to smoke once then stick it in a drawer some where. To top it off I have also recently ordered from the U.S. two tins of Sutliffe Molto Dolce, two tins of Maple Street and 6oz of Altadis Vanilla Custard, as they all sound amazing in the various reviews and I was convinced that I would absolutely love them, so I am now desperate to correct what ever I am doing wrong, before my order lands in the U.K.
Please help and and suggestions will be gladly received, as I was really looking forward to being a pipe smoker and now I am starting to think that nothing ever tastes as it is described and it really may not be for me after all.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Retrohaling is your best friend when it comes to aros. Draw the smoke into your mouth, and exhale through your nose. Really opens up the flavor.

 

[shutterbugg]

Strawberry-scented Chapstick does not taste like strawberries and cream. Lemon-scented furniture polish (I suspect) does not taste like lemon meringue pie. Cased/topped tobacco does not taste like whatever cutsie name the blender thought up and his marketing people described it. The best you'll get is enough aroma to fool your tastebuds into thinking they taste what your nose is smelling. Taste and smell are closely related, which is why things taste different when you have a cold.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Cased/topped tobacco does not taste like whatever cutsie name the blender thought up

Honestly, I didn't read the original post in this thread, it was very long winded. But, I did read the responses.

There are some that taste as described. Molto Dolce has won the People's Favorite Award and is constantly brought up as one that tastes exactly as described if smoked straight out of the tin. I taste it as well, and I keep quite a few tins set back. Coconut Twist rope tobacco tastes exactly like coconuts. There are a few more.

But, I know what you mean, shutterbug. Most of these damn aromatic companies takes bunk burleys and loads them with aromatic goop and sells it to us as tongue burning incense for the room. But, there are also some Virginia aromatics, good stuff usually made by some of the better tobacco companies. You just have to try them to see what you like. But, even the best aromatic isn't going to be as tasty as a better non-aromatic. If you like the taste of tobacco, then get out of the aromatic area and head on over to better living. Aromatics are like the artificially flavored Boone's Farm of wines, whereas the non-aromatics are the wines for grown ups.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

Over the last two years my palette has definitely developed. It will take a while, keep your expectations low for the first few months in particular.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

Now that I've read the OP (Sorry, some bad habits die hard), I should point out more specifically that even the mighty Molto Dolce probably won't do the trick if you're new enough. I remember my first bowl of Lane Limited 1-Q (very similar to Molto Dolce) and it was pretty much just hot air, but three months later, after I had smoked half a dozen other blends, it tasted like Vanilla.
Just make sure you keep a regular schedule and don't get too excited about any one aspect in particular. Even if it feels like "going through the motions", it helps to just familiarize yourself with the process.
My last suggestion is a good VaPer like Samuel Gawith St. James Flake, which on my first bowl tasted like sipping on cup of water with a teaspoon of sugar (very feint but it was there).

 

[jefff]

I find most non aero blends are close to the description.

 

[rfernand]

Only Lakelands do, if you use the descriptions often used in these forums. :twisted:

 

[samon]

Sadly, aromatic baccy is really deceiving. They can smell great in the bag or tin, but taste like cheap tobacco covered in rank flavouring once lit. They always burn badly comapred to the good tobacco, and that's due to the topping that's added.
The only flavoured tobacco thats tastes just like it smells (with a bit of smoke taste.. obviously) is Condor. Now that is one truthful little blend. Unique taste, burns well and always does the trick for me. Can't beat it for an over the counter blend.
Don't be lead astray by all the fancy names, labels and bs descriptions the makers put on blends. It's all the same constituant baccy, but in more or less quantities.
As for user reviews. Well.. they can be as reliable as an amazon review lol!
Get yourself a cheap MM corn cob pipe and a bag of Condor. The flavour may not be what you're after, but it will be in every puff and the room note is lovely.
Oh and Clan is considered one of the worst blend available in the UK. Avoid it and avoid Blue ridge. Both as pleasant as a hot bowl of pube soup.
For a reliable load of video reviews, try Toking Tommy. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHBr7x7nrZpzpGJIZ0neGPA/videos
He does great reviews of over the counter pipe tobacco and isn't a ponce!

 

[griffonwing]

An aromatic that is my go-to smoke is MacBaren's Vanilla Cream. In a good pipe, you get a delicious vanilla flavor coming through. I also like MacBaren's 7 Seas Royal. Both of these have a good flavor and the Royal has a very tantalizing room note.
One suggestion that I may add is to go out and buy a cheap corncob. That 5 dollar purchase can be used to test out the various blends of tobacco, and it leaves no ghosting in the bowl. Once you try several blends with several packing methods, you can take that knowledge and apply it to a briar pipe.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

Samon:

They always burn badly comapred to the good tobacco, and that's due to the topping that's added.

That hasn't been my experience, quite the opposite, Aromatics are the only class of tobacco where I've found blends that burn unassisted. With 1-Q and Sutliff Top Shelf I have to smother the pipe in order to get the tobacco burning slow enough to cool down.

That's straight out of a fresh tin, no drying.

 

[cigrmaster]

Since you were a cigar smoker, you need to get a tin of Escudo. Learn how to smoke it and you will have real pipe tobacco flavor. Escudo opened my eyes to how good pipe smoking can be, as I also was a cigar smoker first.

 

[cortezattic]

I have found that the descriptions of G.L. Pease blends (they are not aromatics) are consistently pretty close to what I taste.

That said, the tastes I do discover sometimes vary due to the circumstances, like: appetite, mouth chemistry, humidity, pipe selection, previous smokes, etc.
As for aromatics, Hearth & Home's Classic Burley Kake tastes pretty close to its description: Anisette, Cocoa / Chocolate, Rum

 

[jvnshr]

Can someone please shorten that thread?

 

[mso489]

I think taste is impossible to predict for any individual. Most tobacco companies want to describe their blends glowingly but with enough accuracy to attract buyers who will keep coming back. You may do better with non-aromatics. Try a few milder blends in small quantities and see if that goes better. No law saying you have to enjoy smoking a pipe, but you might want to try around more and see. You may just crave a chocolate milkshake or a coconut cream pie. I prefer food flavors in food.

 

[oldenglish]

Thank you all for your kind replys and advice. I have bought a MM bent Legend to give the tobaccos another fair try and I think I'll buy another one or two for when my Sutliffe/Altadis order arrives, once again thank you for your kind replys and advice.

 

[tuold]

Here's one observation I've made watching guys smoke a pipe for the first time, especially former cigar smokers. They tend to get the ember way too hot in an effort to generate as much "taste" as possible, sort of like taking a spoonful of ice cream instead of just putting a bit on the tongue and actually tasting it before gulping it down. All that does is produce harshness and tongue bite.
Think of wine tasting. You don't just take a swig like you would a Coke. Tasting the flavor nuances in tobacco is a fairly gentle art that doesn't come naturally. So try taking small sips and lightly let the smoke out in front of your nose so you get your olfactory receptors involved. Aromatic tend to be very mild and there's the tendency to smoke it heavier and faster.

 

[shutterbugg]

Some tobaccos I'm glad don't taste like they're described, especially in tobacco reviews. The ones I laugh at most are "grass and hay". If I wanted to taste those, I'd just smoke them, they're a damned sight cheaper than pipe tobacco. Oh and "leather". Lots of discarded shoes and belts lying around.

 

[mortonbriar]

Grousemoor smells AND tastes like apricot jam.

 

[disinformatique]

No they don't 95% of the time, they just smoke like the tobacco family they are from. Moreover you chose the wrong tobacco for a new smoker.
Buy these: G L Pease Westminster, G L Pease Virginia Cream, G L Pease Barbary Coast, G L Pease Six Pence. They are not available in UK but you cna buy them for $40-$45 + shipping from the US (4noggins.com is a great website)
Smoke these, slowly in a different pipe (you need 4 pipes with medium bowls) and report back
Cheers,

Chris