This past winter I ran the Elimination Game thread. Every now and then the game grew heated when a beloved blend was on the chopping block. One of the heated-est of these battles surrounded the legendary (and best-selling) GH blend: Ennerdale. At the time, I hadn't tried it. But recently, @FLDRD reminded me of it and I decided I'd give it a whirl. Thanks to the good folks at smokingpipes.com I was able to snag a tin for practically zero dollars (this shit's priced too low) and my thoughts on the blend are to follow.
I popped the tin and gave it a whiff. From that first moment, the most apt word I could choose was, and still is: unimposing. These flakes were topped with almond, rum, citrus, and vanilla, but these scents were far from prominent. If anything, they coalesced into a single semi-sweet aroma that touted no particular dominant strain. I couldn't decide in that moment whether to applaud this fact or to balk at it. So I packed a bowl.
As a side note: I take aromatics in spells. I only open a few tins a year and oftentimes, they're DTM releases. My favorite aromatic is Blue Note (fruit, bourbon, vanilla atop VA and black cavendish), with Milonga (vanilla caramel broken flake) not far behind. I'm not often a fan of Americanized aromatics since they tend to run though a stummel like syrup, but Ennerdale represented the opposite end of the aromatic spectrum.
From first light, I noticed the distinct taste of... mellow tobacco, and not a damned thing else. I didn't taste fruit, nor did I detect citrus, rum, or vanilla. And while I like the taste of tobacco, I found this particular blend... well... unimposing; same as before. "I'm not sure if I like this," I said aloud, but to only myself. I kept on puffing and the same thought recurred: I'm not sure if I like this.
"It smells good in here," my wife said after getting home. "What did you smoke?" I showed her the tin of Ennerdale and when she lit it later and I wasn't smoking, I found myself equally impressed with the scent. In fact, it made me want to give it another try. So I loaded a second bowl, lit up, and sat there pensively. I told her the same thing I'd told myself earlier: "I'm not sure if I like this."
Every time I lit up, I repeated that thought to myself like it was a mantra. I'm not sure I like this. After several smokes, I began to tell myself: I must not like this very much. If I keep telling myself that I'm not sure I like it, then maybe I don't like it. Maybe I'm being indecisive.
Then, next thing I knew, I was packing the final bowl I could from the now-empty tin, and it had only lasted a matter of days. I let out a single word. "Fuck." That's when I knew that, despite what I myself thought, I liked it. Fuck.
Was this my new favorite? No. Was it my favorite aromatic? Also no. But was it the very archetype of the old-world aromatic? Yes indeed.
In the days of old, aromatics were just that: tobacco + aroma. The French had invented smoking jackets just to be able to discard the shroud of scent that comes with our fair hobby, the smoking jacket which eventually morphed into the tuxedo. Aromatics gave smokers the ability to, in-turn, ask those prudes to please shut the fuck up, that we put vanilla and shit into our tobacco to make you feel better about it. Ennerdale, perhaps, represents the pinnacle of such stodgy thought.
On a taste-based scale, Ennerdale is roughly equivalent to Capstan Yellow, plus aromas for your passersby. It's subtle, light, and, once more... unimposing. It's not the greatest smoke in the world, and I couldn't in good conscience recommend it to beginners in flake form, but it represents a defining line of old. If it's better than Ennerdale, then it's a fine aromatic. If it's worse than Ennerdale, then it isn't worth repurchasing. This blend is a veritable benchmark, and that's why I'd give it a 4 on a 5 scale. Because when you run out... "Fuck."
I popped the tin and gave it a whiff. From that first moment, the most apt word I could choose was, and still is: unimposing. These flakes were topped with almond, rum, citrus, and vanilla, but these scents were far from prominent. If anything, they coalesced into a single semi-sweet aroma that touted no particular dominant strain. I couldn't decide in that moment whether to applaud this fact or to balk at it. So I packed a bowl.
As a side note: I take aromatics in spells. I only open a few tins a year and oftentimes, they're DTM releases. My favorite aromatic is Blue Note (fruit, bourbon, vanilla atop VA and black cavendish), with Milonga (vanilla caramel broken flake) not far behind. I'm not often a fan of Americanized aromatics since they tend to run though a stummel like syrup, but Ennerdale represented the opposite end of the aromatic spectrum.
From first light, I noticed the distinct taste of... mellow tobacco, and not a damned thing else. I didn't taste fruit, nor did I detect citrus, rum, or vanilla. And while I like the taste of tobacco, I found this particular blend... well... unimposing; same as before. "I'm not sure if I like this," I said aloud, but to only myself. I kept on puffing and the same thought recurred: I'm not sure if I like this.
"It smells good in here," my wife said after getting home. "What did you smoke?" I showed her the tin of Ennerdale and when she lit it later and I wasn't smoking, I found myself equally impressed with the scent. In fact, it made me want to give it another try. So I loaded a second bowl, lit up, and sat there pensively. I told her the same thing I'd told myself earlier: "I'm not sure if I like this."
Every time I lit up, I repeated that thought to myself like it was a mantra. I'm not sure I like this. After several smokes, I began to tell myself: I must not like this very much. If I keep telling myself that I'm not sure I like it, then maybe I don't like it. Maybe I'm being indecisive.
Then, next thing I knew, I was packing the final bowl I could from the now-empty tin, and it had only lasted a matter of days. I let out a single word. "Fuck." That's when I knew that, despite what I myself thought, I liked it. Fuck.
Was this my new favorite? No. Was it my favorite aromatic? Also no. But was it the very archetype of the old-world aromatic? Yes indeed.
In the days of old, aromatics were just that: tobacco + aroma. The French had invented smoking jackets just to be able to discard the shroud of scent that comes with our fair hobby, the smoking jacket which eventually morphed into the tuxedo. Aromatics gave smokers the ability to, in-turn, ask those prudes to please shut the fuck up, that we put vanilla and shit into our tobacco to make you feel better about it. Ennerdale, perhaps, represents the pinnacle of such stodgy thought.
On a taste-based scale, Ennerdale is roughly equivalent to Capstan Yellow, plus aromas for your passersby. It's subtle, light, and, once more... unimposing. It's not the greatest smoke in the world, and I couldn't in good conscience recommend it to beginners in flake form, but it represents a defining line of old. If it's better than Ennerdale, then it's a fine aromatic. If it's worse than Ennerdale, then it isn't worth repurchasing. This blend is a veritable benchmark, and that's why I'd give it a 4 on a 5 scale. Because when you run out... "Fuck."
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