English Never Grows Old

[hawky454]

I don’t think I will ever grow tired of English blends, I just love them. I probably smoke more VA based blends now but I just love a good Lat blend in the cooler weather. However, now that I can smoke inside I find myself breaking out the lat blends all year round. I can’t imagine smoking pipes without having a Lat blend from time to time. If we ever run into a situation where Latakia becomes extinct it would really be upsetting.

If I ever run out of Skiff Mixture and can’t get more... I don’t know what I’d do! May that day never come!

 

[Chasing Embers]

I don’t think I will ever grow tired of English blends

I though that too, then overnight it changed.

 

[Country Bladesmith]

I though that too, then overnight it changed.

So was this because of a discovery that you like other genres of blends better, or did Englishes stop tasting the same to you?

 

[Chasing Embers]

So was this because of a discovery that you like other genres of blends better, or did Englishes stop tasting the same to you?

It was what made me branch out to other genres. I could no longer taste components in an english blend except for latakia. Now and blend with more than a condiment amount tastes exactly the same. As far as I can tell, Penzance and Pirate Kake are the same blend.

 

[PipesRock]

I love Englishes as well. Being new (creeping up on a year now) I'm really mastering the components. Very flavorful (but can't describe), Weaker (weaker than very flavorful, you know) and flat (described in detail as... flat). On second thought, I like them but certainly do not have the capacity to articulate the various components. I think the Virginias and VaPers in between help keep it all varied, fun and interesting.

 

[hawky454]

I though that too, then overnight it changed.

I really hope that doesn’t happen to me. How long were you smoking before the overnight change. I’ve been smoking English blends for 11 years now... I like them more now than ever, I can taste the differences between all the different types of Lat blends whereas when I was a younger smoker I could just pick one blend and be fine with it cause they all pretty much all tasted the same.

 

[danimalia]

I like Latakia in all seasons too, though living in the East Bay of California, we really only have 3 seasons: Mild/cool, mild/warm and mild/wet!

That said, i can certainly imagine the appeal of a nice bowl of Latakia with snow falling outside and a log in the fire. But I also enjoy latakia on a warm summer evening, in the same way I like spicy Nicaraguan cigars and used to enjoy tequila on hot evenings.

 

[danimalia]

I hear you, lat heavy almost all the time for me. The first lat blend i bought was almost 10 years ago when I had started getting into pipe smoking, it was a Brebbia Latakia blend, don't think they make it anymore. I lit it and was pretty much in shock, I was thinking 'what in the hell am I smoking?!', it wasn't love at first puff but it was really interesting. Put it away but I started remembering the taste and smell and was drawn to it, tried it again, after a couple bowls (after the first smoke it may have been months before that second try) I was like 'this is the best' and I've never looked back. It's been english blends ever since as well as some trusty OTC's. Once and a while I try a virginia forward non lat blend, but I just never had yet.

That was my initial experience of smoking a Latakia blend too! Shocked my palate, even though I thought I had prepared myself by reading descriptions and reviews and from sniffing the tin. It actually took me a few months and several blends to get a feel for it (was McC Bombay Court that did it).

I agree with Dimitri and OP. Sometimes, I find taking a break from Latakia blends really does make me appreciate them more when I fire them up again.

 

[saltedplug]

Weather-related latakia smoking, winter/yes, summer/no, seems like pipe myth to me. Why? Because no one has a reason for it. It's done because it's done.

Greg Pease has long been known for his latakia mixtures. I believe Bohemian Scandal had both Cyprian and Syrian latakia in it, but then the big load of Syrian that he and Craig Tarler bought went up in smoke and he had to stop production of multiple blends. Everyone wants to say that thus and so is the best blend, and many said this about the "Scandal."

I often think of the fate that would destroy first the latakia that his blends so loved, and then FDA's upcoming coup de grace. To spend, what, 20 years becoming a preeminent blender and producing such nuanced tobaccos, and then to have half? of those blends and the years of work it took to produce them yanked out from under him by a bureaucracy more concerned wth political correction than the best policy for everyone could make a man bitter.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I

How long were you smoking before the overnight change.

I would say between 13 and 15 years.

 

[karam]

I used to smoke just Nightcap in my first couple of years of pipe smoking, now I'm more directed to VaPers and VaKys with the odd aromatic thrown in here and there. But once or twice a week I need a good Lat blast, just not more often than that.

 

[irishearl]

I

I would say between 13 and 15 years.

It was 10 years or so for me and then overnight developed an intense dislike for it which continued for 20 years. Then, just as mysteriously, the desire for it came back for another 10 years. Then, about 6 months ago, the desire faded. Only reason it didn't absolutely flame out again for me was because I started limiting my smoking of it to once daily in the evening.

 

[B_Rock]

I enjoy a good English blend in the morning/afternoon and a Va/Per at night - the sweetness of the Virginia makes it more of a dessert smoke for me. I hope there is always room for both in my pipe smoking future!

 

[F4RM3R]

I can definitely relate as I did basically the same thing this year. The wife isnt the biggest fan of me stinking like old man when I come back from a pipe, so as the warm weather rolled in I experimented with more stoved Virginia, Kentucky and perique blends. I do my own blending and processing with whole leaf, so it was nice to focus on those leaves for a while and figure out some good ratios for blends. I also did some experimenting using latakia in small condimental amounts, to add richness but not smokyness. It worked out well.

It's also nice to keep the heavy lat to a certain time or every other day, I even got sick of the smell sticking on myself when I was experimenting with super heavy lat blends at the start of the year. It all depends on how often one smokes too, I smoke a few bowls a day and if I did lat blends all the time it would get a bit bland and I would start to not detect the nuance in otherblends.

 

[F4RM3R]

But it is true(for me) that there is something special about a good English/balkan/latakia blend that doesn't get old. And as this weather is getting cold, foggy and rainy I feel drawn more to the warm comfort of those blends. Can still remember the first time I bought some English house blend from a tobacconist some 10+ years ago and it really blew me away. * Music from Aladdin starts playing. "A whooole neeew world!" *

 

[DAR]

For me, English blends get old right after one or two consecutive bowls. Then a few days later I have a craving for an English blend that won't quit until the cycle starts again......

 

[uprightman]

English mixtures hold a special place for me, and I hope I will always continue to enjoy them. I do not reach for them all the time, but do look forward to sampling more variety in time as I work through the handful of tins I have opening in jars. I remember enjoying a tin of Ashton’s Artisan blend in college, and being really blown away.

 

[kola]

I kinda' burned out on the lat blends (for now). I'm into straight VA's and VA-Burleys. Often I like to put just a pinch of Syrian Lat on top though. St Bruno and Best Best #2 ate now in my rotation as well.

 

[--dante--]

I though that too, then overnight it changed.

Me too. But years later, I've started drifting back into them. Only one or two per day though (I smoke about 6 bowls/day).

 

[Chasing Embers]

Me too. But years later, I've started drifting back into them. Only one or two per day though (I smoke about 6 bowls/day).

It's been nearly fifteen years for me now and still no interest. Yenidje seems to have replaced latakia for me.