Ever Do A Taste Off

[Old_Newby]

Does anyone ever do a taste off? Where you pack 2 pipes with different but similar tobaccos and light both. You taste one, then the other, maybe rinse with your beverage, repeat, until you determine which to like better.

I started doing this on occasion to try and reduce the number if blends down to those I favor the most. I like non aromatic natural sweetness and there is not a sweetness category in TR or any site I can find. I do read reviews and seek out mentions of sweetness but I find that YMMV individuality more than a reliable metric.

I had my wife load 2 pipes last night. One with Haunted Bookshop and the other with Eight State Burley and not knowing which is which I had a very difficult time. I thought I would be able to easily tell which one had the Perique but honestly they both tasted identical. I did guess correctly only because the 8State appeared to have a toping note but so minimal I honestly would not have bet a nickel on my confidence.

Maybe they are so similar because they could have the same burley and virginia base in both.

Anyway even when comparing side by side it’s difficult to determine a favorite, but maybe my palate if not very refined.

 

[Sig]

I have not tried this, but it reminds me of the most feared activity on online cigar forums and meets......the dreaded blind taste test!!!
In the early 2000s when online forums were really starting to get popular, many cigar afficionados with extensive pallets were horrified when they could not decipher between a $20 stick and a $3 stick. Ohhhhh, the horror!
Before long the blind taste test was laughed and scoffed at as being amateur and childish. Well, at least that's what the "expert tasters" were saying.
It literally got to the point that the mere suggestion of a blind taste test could make you a villain in most settings......forums, meet ups, cigar clubs......
There were several big name cigar guys who said blind tests proved nothing. Big names that posted in magazines and are extremely well known in the cigar industry.
In my opinion....and many others, there needs to be a reason for a cigar that costs 10x more than another. Leaf quality? Blending? Rolling? Leaf selection?
Ok, then why couldn't most "experts" taste the difference?

 

[Auxsender]

I have not tried this, but it reminds me of the most feared activity on online cigar forums and meets......the dreaded blind taste test!!!
In the early 2000s when online forums were really starting to get popular, many cigar afficionados with extensive pallets were horrified when they could not decipher between a $20 stick and a $3 stick. Ohhhhh, the horror!
Before long the blind taste test was laughed and scoffed at as being amateur and childish. Well, at least that's what the "expert tasters" were saying.
It literally got to the point that the mere suggestion of a blind taste test could make you a villain in most settings......forums, meet ups, cigar clubs......
There were several big name cigar guys who said blind tests proved nothing. Big names that posted in magazines and are extremely well known in the cigar industry.
In my opinion....and many others, there needs to be a reason for a cigar that costs 10x more than another. Leaf quality? Blending? Rolling? Leaf selection?
Ok, then why couldn't most "experts" taste the difference?

Because the emperor is in fact, naked.

 

[Doctor Chopper]

What a great idea! I now have a new obsession in pipe smoking.

All of us with the palate of a goat love this kind of testing. Makes me feel better about my own abilities. I wonder how well a "super-taster" would perform with pipe tobacco?

 

[chilllucky]

Maybe 8-10 years ago when I found this forum and started "getting serious" about my pipe smoking I ordered 2 clay pipes an a bunch of 1oz samples of different blending components from SP. Red and yellow Virginia, white and dark burley, that kind of thing.

The most helpful thing to my future buying habits I got out of the experiment was that it turns out I don't have a particularly sensitive palette and am unlikely to get much out of 'this blend, but with that slightly different oriental variety' kinds of distinctions in either blend description or anyone else's tasting notes. I'm just not going to detect that level of subtlety.

 

[Sig]

Maybe 8-10 years ago when I found this forum and started "getting serious" about my pipe smoking I ordered 2 clay pipes an a bunch of 1oz samples of different blending components from SP. Red and yellow Virginia, white and dark burley, that kind of thing.

The most helpful thing to my future buying habits I got out of the experiment was that it turns out I don't have a particularly sensitive palette and am unlikely to get much out of 'this blend, but with that slightly different oriental variety' kinds of distinctions in either blend description or anyone else's tasting notes. I'm just not going to detect that level of subtlety.

Yea well, most people don't.
I don't mean to offend anyone, but I just saw a perfect example.
Ive recently been going through several WCC blends.
I decided to go to Tobacco Reviews just for giggles. I haven't been there in years.
I was smoking some WCC #558. Many of the reviews commented on the excellent placement of Kentucky Dark Fired in the blend. Dozens of reviews could pick the KDF out very well and lamented on its great quality and use.

The problem is.......#558 has no KDF at all. Someone had mistakenly said it contained KDF on the TR site. Ernie the blender added a note saying as much. But many reviewers with dozens of reviews not only tasted it, but raved about it's use and talked in detail about where in the smoke it peaked.
My point is, the only real way to find what you like is to try everything you can.
Again, not trying to offend anyone, but this is absolutely not the first time I've noticed this on TR.

 

[Manawydan]

I have started to do this as well. I recently did a 'rum-flavored aromatic shoot out', and Wilke 515 double shot won out for me, reducing my cellar by two other blends. On the other hand, I also did a Bob's Chocolate Flake vs SG Chocolate Flake shoot-out, loved both, and decided that mixed they were ideal; so now I have to keep buying both.