Experimenting with Old School Blends

[john218]

I bought Carter Hall and Prince Albert a while ago to see what they were like, as I hadn't smoked them in many years . I smoked them mostly in a cob while doing yard work. I liked them enough to try the Solani and Wessex Burley flakes.
English Blends are my favorite, but lately I have also been smoking a good amount of Vapers and the Burley flakes for a change of pace.
Earlier this evening, I smoked a bowful of Harkness Tower, one of my favorite English blends, followed a short while ago by some Prince Albert in a MM Diplomat. I enjoyed both smokes and they led me to the thought that if you are smoking several pipefuls, changing the next smoke to a different type of tobacco makes for an even more enjoyable smoke than continuing to smoke the same blend.

 

[msandoval858]

I had a chance to try my first bowl of PA on the way to the office this morning. Overall I found it to be pretty enjoyable.
The flavor is certainly not what I would call dymanic by any means but is very pleasant and packs, lights, and smokes very easily with no bite at all just like the package claims. This is one I'll probably keep a pouch of around for those times I want something extremely mild and easy to smoke or maybe a good one to throw a little something extra in as a blender if I ever feel like it.

 

[jpbass]

I had a chance to try my first bowl of PA on the way to the office this morning. Overall I found it to be pretty enjoyable.
The flavor is certainly not what I would call dymanic by any means but is very pleasant and packs, lights, and smokes very easily with no bite at all just like the package claims. This is one I'll probably keep a pouch of around for those times I want something extremely mild and easy to smoke or maybe a good one to throw a little something extra in as a blender if I ever feel like it.

Give it time. PA can be a strange thing depending on what pipe you use. I find I enjoy it best in my red Dr. Grabow Color Duke that I've had since 1996 if it's been properly rested in between smokes. But it can be different each bowl, even in that same pipe. The perfect PA bowl is when that subtle sweetness from the sugar casing comes through. And yes I've used it numerous times as a blending tobacco and it always seems to fit the bill.
It was my Dad's favorite and he bought me my first pouch of it back in 1981. I was strictly an aromatic smoker then and didn't get it at first, thought it was too cigarette-ish (which is what my wife thinks it smells like). Then one day after using it as a blender, I decided to just do a straight bowl of PA and revisit it, and bam, I had one of those "perfect bowls", and have kept it in rotation ever since.
Now CH I did not like, In fact I actually thought it was unpleasant, in a dark, sort of ashy way, and used I the rest of the pouch as a blender. CH just made me realize how much, and why I like PA.