Ever just feel disappointed in a tobacco?
- Thread starter aggravatedfarmer
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Personally I really enjoyed Semois. Had a few bowls at last year's West Coast Pipe Show. It's very different with a rather complex flavor profile. Many who tried it were saying it tasted like a Cuban cigar. I've never had a Cuban, so I can't say if it does or not.
I was disappointed with Mac Baren's Plumcake. It's such an old blend with a great reputation. I haven't gotten into Latakia yet, to me it's still bitter and not enjoyable, so when that's all I could taste I was greatly disappointed with the blend. I traded it away for a tin of Honey&Chocolate.
Ennerdale Flake was another disappointment. It was touted as a great aromatic, but all I tasted was nasty soap. Gave me flashbacks of when I swore around my parents as a youngster. Lakelands are just not for me.
I was disappointed with Mac Baren's Plumcake. It's such an old blend with a great reputation. I haven't gotten into Latakia yet, to me it's still bitter and not enjoyable, so when that's all I could taste I was greatly disappointed with the blend. I traded it away for a tin of Honey&Chocolate.
Ennerdale Flake was another disappointment. It was touted as a great aromatic, but all I tasted was nasty soap. Gave me flashbacks of when I swore around my parents as a youngster. Lakelands are just not for me.
@lordofthepipering semois definetly tastes much like a cigar. It seems like it would be better off as one of it is stand alone. Maybe perhaps in a blend with Latakia and orientals it would be more enjoyable. I can see where it can smooth out those particular tobacco's. However, in my opinion, what I have is a block of crap that will remain untouched.
If all you had to smoke was Semois, you'd learn to like it. In fact, immediate reactions either way to a tobacco are not always your best assessment.
Anything brand new to you is likely to require acclimation within your taste buds and brain receptors for it to have a fair shake.
Anything brand new to you is likely to require acclimation within your taste buds and brain receptors for it to have a fair shake.
Aggravatedfarmer, if you want to donate to the Box Pass, you should get in touch with forum member woodsroad.
Whether you intended the TAD (Tobacco Acquisition Disorder) pun or not, I appreciated it.
I hear ya concerning tobacco orders after a child is born. My tobacco budget has dwindled to practically nil after our first was born. With our second on the way, I've been weighing the possibility of piggy-backing a tobacco order with the obligatory box of cigars that I'll bring to work to celebrate the birth.
Whether you intended the TAD (Tobacco Acquisition Disorder) pun or not, I appreciated it.
I hear ya concerning tobacco orders after a child is born. My tobacco budget has dwindled to practically nil after our first was born. With our second on the way, I've been weighing the possibility of piggy-backing a tobacco order with the obligatory box of cigars that I'll bring to work to celebrate the birth.
Actually, I fundamentally disagree with everything you just wrote 'Broom.
If all I had to smoke was Semois I wouldn't smoke.
Immediate reactions to taste are hugely important. In fact we're biologically wired to be able to taste in order to determine whether things we put in our mouth are potentially harmful.
If I have to acclimate my taste buds and my brain to something I don't like, I'm not giving the tobacco a fair shake I'm conditioning my brain to accept something I don't like.
I'm in the camp that says, go with your first instinct, find tastes you like, and go back to them again and again.
-- Pat
Good point Pat.
:puffpipe:
For anybody who hasn't seen these posts,
this is required reading:
:arrow: :arrow: :arrow:
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/a-matter-of-taste-%E2%80%93-part-1-what-is-taste
:
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/a-matter-of-taste-part-2-what-is-flavour
:
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/a-matter-of-taste-part-3-the-mechanics-of-tasting
:
:
:puffpipe:
For anybody who hasn't seen these posts,
this is required reading:
:arrow: :arrow: :arrow:
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/a-matter-of-taste-%E2%80%93-part-1-what-is-taste
:
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/a-matter-of-taste-part-2-what-is-flavour
:
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/a-matter-of-taste-part-3-the-mechanics-of-tasting
:
:
Ah...now we've got a discussion. I submit that first impressions are not always lasting, or even accurate.
A bowl of a beloved blend can and will taste differently depending upon many factors. The same is true of those blends you find distasteful on first try.
Has there never been a blend, Pat, that you've had a change of opinion about after trying it again in a different pipe or at a different session?
It seems to be one of the axioms we all see repeated: "Don't throw it out, keep it and try it again later, as palates and aging change or facilitate enjoyment.
I've never had quite the same glorious interaction with Escudo as with my first bowl. I still think of it as one of the best I've ever smoked, but it's almost like 'chasing the dragon' to experience what was that magical first taste.
A bowl of a beloved blend can and will taste differently depending upon many factors. The same is true of those blends you find distasteful on first try.
Has there never been a blend, Pat, that you've had a change of opinion about after trying it again in a different pipe or at a different session?
It seems to be one of the axioms we all see repeated: "Don't throw it out, keep it and try it again later, as palates and aging change or facilitate enjoyment.
I've never had quite the same glorious interaction with Escudo as with my first bowl. I still think of it as one of the best I've ever smoked, but it's almost like 'chasing the dragon' to experience what was that magical first taste.
"In fact, immediate reactions either way to a tobacco are not always your best assessment.
Yes indeed
Yes indeed
I really enjoy Semois...
But yeah... trying to finish a tin of C&D Chocolate Cavendish right now. Might as well be straight Burley/Cavendish, I sure don't taste any chocolate. I get more cocoa flavor from Carter Hall.
There are others but that's the most recent.
But yeah... trying to finish a tin of C&D Chocolate Cavendish right now. Might as well be straight Burley/Cavendish, I sure don't taste any chocolate. I get more cocoa flavor from Carter Hall.
There are others but that's the most recent.
I submit that first impressions are always accurate, and that every impression is a first impression. I agree that first impressions are not always lasting, simply because every impression is a new tasting experience. Sometimes over a long period of tastings consistent results can be anticipated.
Yes. There have been blends that, after different preparation methods or different pipes utilized, I've enjoyed more.
But I have yet to taste a tobacco that I hated that I felt compelled to explore again.
This for me is the area of your original post which I take issue with... One shouldn't have to smoke a tobacco they dislike to condition themselves to like it. There are many wonderful tobaccos available on the market. I also don't believe that someone needs to smoke multiple bowls, or full tins, to offer an opinion on what they taste. Taste, as a sense, is individual, mechanical, and subjective.
-- Pat
I think its initial reaction and after a number of trials in different pipes, time of day, etc. Took me three different times to like Dunhill London Mixture. I don't love it, but it's a nice smoke from time to time.
Not so much disappointment as I just don't like it... In order to be disappointed you have to have high expectations or any expectations for that matter, I'll look at reviews of tobaccos when I try something new, but i don't take them as gospel since we all have different tastes. Also since I've been smoking for about 25 years, I've come to realize the flavor profiles I like... SOOO I generally like most of the new tobaccos I try. It helps I'm quite forgiving with my tobaccos :P
I also agree that your immediate reaction to a tobacco is not your best assessment, we all know that sometimes certain tobaccos pair up better with certain pipes, also your mood and environment have allot to do with it. That's why you need to give it a few bowls at different times of the day in different pipes ... Number one reason I used to keep a tobacco diary, I haven't used it in years as I mentioned, I now know what I like now.
I also agree that your immediate reaction to a tobacco is not your best assessment, we all know that sometimes certain tobaccos pair up better with certain pipes, also your mood and environment have allot to do with it. That's why you need to give it a few bowls at different times of the day in different pipes ... Number one reason I used to keep a tobacco diary, I haven't used it in years as I mentioned, I now know what I like now.
P
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[/quote]semois definetly tastes much like a cigar. It seems like it would be better off as one of it is stand alone. Maybe perhaps in a blend with Latakia and orientals it would be more enjoyable. I can see where it can smooth out those particular tobacco's. However, in my opinion, what I have is a block of crap that will remain untouched.
That's the nature of the addiction pathology: seek gratification.
It's also your brain re-affirming what you DO like by finding other options.
You might give that semois a few months of aging and try again. It's not as transcendental and magic as the NYT article makes it out to be, but the NYT is pretty far from the truth on everything. It's just a good, solid, lovely, hay/honey/almond tasting tobacco.
When you demystify like that, you can then honestly accept its strengths. At least, that's what I had to do.
Nope.
I think that Semois tastes like a cigar that has been aged in the sweaty gym socks of teenage boys. This would mean I am now adding Latakia to a cigar that has been aged in the sweaty gym socks of teenage boys. I wouldn't do that to Latakia, or my palate.
In the immortal words of Dana Carvey, "Not gonna do it."
-- Pat
I smoke cigars, and most of those are cubans.
I can tell you emphatically that there is nothing about semois that tastes even remotely close to any cigar I have ever smoked. If you believe semois tastes like a cigar, then you must be smoking those swisher sweets or something lower on the totem pole, as much as I hate to malign swisher sweets by that comparison.
I can tell you emphatically that there is nothing about semois that tastes even remotely close to any cigar I have ever smoked. If you believe semois tastes like a cigar, then you must be smoking those swisher sweets or something lower on the totem pole, as much as I hate to malign swisher sweets by that comparison.
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