I'm always interested to hear what GLP has to say on pipes and pipe smoking. I've always found it intuitively obvious why heavier blends in the English and Balkan line are suitable to late fall and winter smoking, and why a refined Virginia or Va/Per has a sort of affinity for warmer months and outright heat. However, I have to admit that my own tastes sometimes buck that trend, and sometimes I just want a strong burley or hearty English at the end of a summer day, not inevitably, but from time to time. I smoke a lot indoors, with beloved a.c., so that is part of the explanation, as is my affinity for variety in all things connected to pipe smoking.
I'm not much hooked on nicotine; I can take a two week vacation from smoking at any time, recently for a crisis in the health of a pet that required full attention. But now I will turn my attention to some of the pleasing Va/Pers in my stash and enjoy a lighter smoke while the summer runs it course. Usually one day in late August or early September in these parts (central N.C.) the heat changes and loses some of its overbearing power, like a fever breaking, and I'll go for one of those strong English blends, Bayou Night or Tuggle Hall, to suit my mood.
