Familiarty Breeds Contemp vs Variety is the Spice

[Scottishgaucho]

All the pipesmokers I knew at work when I was a boy always smoked the same blend all day everyday during the years I knew them. My father only smoked St Bruno.

I dabble when I get the opportunity to buy some SG/GH blends I haven't tried before. However as they have become so expensive and hard to find here I now tend to stick to a few Argentine blends which are pretty good quality and only cost a quarter of the price.

 

[gerryp]

My tendency is to jump from blend to blend throughout the day. It takes an effort for me to finish an open tin (or jar) even of blends I quite enjoy, before opening something new. Sometimes it's a pattern such as Burley first thing in the morning. Va/VaPer later in the day. Latakia/Oriental at night.

I recently managed to focus on 2 blends (almost) exclusively for a few days (couldn't make it a week), and found that I enjoyed the growing familiarity.

How do other forumites feel about this? Perhaps you open a couple of tins and work them till they're done, or perhaps you jump around from blend to blend and genre to genre. I'd love to hear what and why, if you're minded to share.

I'm the same way. I have about 30 mason jars with about .5-1 ounce of tobacco in them. I tell myself that I need to finish some of them before I buy more, then I read a review of a blend and decide that it's a good idea to try that one...or SP gets a bunch of G&H in stock...or I drive by the tobacco shop with 20 bucks burning a hole in my pocket....

 

[Elric]

I have about 9 bail-top jars on hand plus another 50 or so mason jars to select from. I still find myself opening tins. I can organize everything but my behavior.

 

[Grangerous]

If it were, say BEER that we’re talking about; would anyone here own a wall length, clear glass reefer at home, filled with 150 varieties? Absurd, right?

I order a draft Guinness because I enjoy it; if they don’t have Guinness, then I’m resigned to see what they do have but I’m not happy about it. By this stage of life...I know what I like.

UncleRasta, it’s hard to reach for anything else.

 

[bullet08]

7 jars. 2 are aromatics I haven't touched in years. Other 5 are English, Va of some sorts, and whatever. So I actively smoke those 5. Since I only smoke a bowl a day (maybe two some days, and none on others), those 5 lasts months. They don't have labels on them, but 5 is easy to remember. I don't like opening things and not finishing, and don't like I have so many open I don't remember what they are. And I really don't like doing extra to tracking them. So, this works for me.

 

[Scottishgaucho]

If it were, say BEER that we’re talking about; would anyone here own a wall length, clear glass reefer at home, filled with 150 varieties? Absurd, right?

I order a draft Guinness because I enjoy it; if they don’t have Guinness, then I’m resigned to see what they do have but I’m not happy about it. By this stage of life...I know what I like.

UncleRasta, it’s hard to reach for anything else.

Good point.

I must admit I do find the hoarding of many, many blends a tad strange. Then again I don't have much choice but to stick to the same few all the time. I wonder if being a member of a pipe forum might have something to do with it?

 

[sablebrush52]

It varies. Lately I've been popping a tin and smoking from that over the course of a week or more. Sometimes I smoke several different blends from jars in the course of a day.

 

[mtwaller]

I must have 35 jars of opened stuff. I only regularly smoke maybe 5 blends, with another 4-5 that I smoke occasionally to change it up. The rest just sit there collecting dust. Kind of stresses me out, to be honest. I’ve been thinking I should put most of the blends somewhere out of sight and only have 4-5 out. Then switch up said 4-5 every couple weeks and only choose from those. Otherwise, I doubt I’ll ever finish half of the stuff I have jarred.

 

[Elric]

If it were, say BEER that we’re talking about; would anyone here own a wall length, clear glass reefer at home, filled with 150 varieties? Absurd, right?

I order a draft Guinness because I enjoy it; if they don’t have Guinness, then I’m resigned to see what they do have but I’m not happy about it. By this stage of life...I know what I like.

UncleRasta, it’s hard to reach for anything else.

Actually, I enjoy a number of beers as well. Guinness in the winter months, Corona in the summer. But I deviate based on mood to IPA or Steam styles as well.

 

[Jaylotw]

It’s only been in the last year or two that I’ve concentrated on building a decent cellar of favorite blends. Before that, I was focused on trying as many blends as I could, and the tins would get opened and jarred immediately. Consequently I have ~60 jars in the cabinet, and I pull from them as I see fit-although there are 10 or so blends that comprise 90% of what I smoke. I have stuff like GLP Robusto in a jar from 2011 that I take a bowl from every 6 months or so. When it’s gone, I might get another 2oz tin, or I might not.

I like options, but anymore my tobacco purchases are made with the idea of stocking up on my 10 favorites.

 

[Grangerous]

I must have 35 jars of opened stuff. I only regularly smoke maybe 5 blends, with another 4-5 that I smoke occasionally to change it up. The rest just sit there collecting dust. Kind of stresses me out, to be honest. I’ve been thinking I should put most of the blends somewhere out of sight and only have 4-5 out. Then switch up said 4-5 every couple weeks and only choose from those. Otherwise, I doubt I’ll ever finish half of the stuff I have jarred.

Now that paints an honest picture. Most of us have been down this road and guess what? Among those few that you reach for regularly, you’d better sit down for this, is your favorite blend.

 

[Grangerous]

I’ve done this with scotch, amassing quite a collection. Then one day, scotch became just scotch. You know what scotches have in common? They taste like scotch. Later in that journey, it’s boiled down to a few personal favorites.

Tobacco tastes like tobacco. My journey has boiled down to a few personal favorites.

I’m mindful of the fact that we’re all at different points on this journey.

And that for some of us the journey is better than the destination. Enjoying endless variety. That’s cool!

Some of us have arrived at our destination and are quite happy. Codgers

There’s no wrong way to enjoy yourselves. There are benefits to both paths and everything in between.

 

[sablebrush52]

must admit I do find the hoarding of many, many blends a tad strange. Then again I don't have much choice but to stick to the same few all the time. I wonder if being a member of a pipe forum might have something to do with it?

Of course it's strange. Everybody here is a bit strange. It comes with the territory.

What you call hoarding, others call cellaring. Some of us like different flavors at different times and like the effects that aging has on some blends. You need stock to to able to do that.

And there's the reality that a favorite blend can, does, and will, disappear without warning, never to be seen again. So if you're really into the variety of flavors that pipe tobaccos offer and want to be able to continue to enjoy them, you stock up.

Even stranger, people are willing to plunk down very goodly amounts of money on old and out of production tobacco blends, in some cases hundreds of dollars for 50 grams of mummy dust or zombie vomit. They'll pay $85 for a tin of McClelland 40th because they either came too late to the party to buy it when it was available, or they didn't stock up, I'm set and I paid $16 per tin. If I really like something I don't fuck around.

Of course, there are stages of dementia. I've enough stash to see me through at least a decade or a little longer. It will likely outlast me. Then there are guys in their late 70's with 400-500 lbs of weed who are still buying pound after pound like they're going to live to be 150. This is a good definition of an addict, a delusional addict at that.

Strange? Doesn't begin to describe it. Wacko Profundo is more like it.

Pipe forums are cesspools for breeding TAD. That's partly why they exist. People read someone's account of the wonders and transformation they underwent while smoking a bowl of Slobovia Supreme, and others will jump on the Slobovia wagon. Viva Slobovia! Rampant FOMO (for you semi literates out there FOMO = Fear Of Missing Out) is part of a forum experience.

Strange is the coin of the realm. Enjoy being strange.

 

[JOHN72]

A minimum of 10 diferent tobaccoes.For me,only two tobaccoes It would be very bored...............I like variety 60% Latakia - 40% virginias............Rookie opinion....... tobacco pipes.I'm still learning...of fantastic masters here.......?

 

[pip01]

I have about 10 different blends going at any one time that I have most of the time. Plus I have a lot of others that I consider every so often blends that I reach for when the mood strikes me.

For me if a blend sucks after a trying it for a while, I'll put it to rest...try it again after a period of time and if it still sucks to the compost pile it goes. I'll NEVER smoke through my entire collection because I'm a 4-5 bowls a week pipe smoker. Sometimes much less. But, I like to mix it up and try to experience as many as I can. That is what makes the hobby so fun. So if I toss a bad blend I don't care so much. Life is too short.

 

[UncleRasta]

Good point.

I wonder if being a member of a pipe forum might have something to do with it?

For sure, following other folks' favorites, and new package deliveries piques my interest. Makes me more curious about blends I may not have tried before.

 

[mso489]

I end up smoking a lively variety with several open jars and tins topped by a few tubs, pouches, and generous samples from Forums members. However, I am miserly about opening new tins, like it's some breach in my sense of thrift, though it helps me age some blends that benefit from that. It's probably healthy to go ahead and open a few more tins than you "should." Go for it.

 

[Scottishgaucho]

Of course it's strange. Everybody here is a bit strange. It comes with the territory.

Well I'm not "strange".

 

[mtwaller]

Now that paints an honest picture. Most of us have been down this road and guess what? Among those few that you reach for regularly, you’d better sit down for this, is your favorite blend.

No doubt! I’ve learned that I really, REALLY like quality English blends. Second to that are Dark Fired flakes. Those are the few I smoke all the time. The rest... I rarely ever crave them.

To Sable’s point, I’ve cellared lots of different blends, tons of which I haven’t tried, just to have a wide variety and good stock of things, should the pipe tobacco industry suddenly collapse or what have you. The few that I smoke constantly, I’m trying to buy pounds of because I don’t want to be without it for a long time.

 

[musicman]

Variety is the spice of my tobacco life. I have probably over 100 jars that I rotate through. Part of it is that when I explore a blend type, I tend to order a number of different examples, often in bulk (value!), and here in the Sonoran Desert it's necessary for anything that is in bulk or in an opened tin to go in a jar relatively quickly, or else it will dry to a crisp within days.
I rotate through at least 20-30 blends per month, generally with no rhyme or reason other than sticking with similar themes for a few days at a time.

I told myself a couple of months ago that I wouldn't open any new tins until I finish some jars, and other than my SS gifts, which I HAD to try, I'm doing pretty well with that.