First Blend You "Got" (or: The Art of Opening Doors)

[moses]

Query: What was the first blend that stopped you in your tracks and made you realize that piping was for you?
Mine was Davidoff's Royalty. I don't remember what my rationale was for my first order, and lacking a good pipe-forward B&M, I was kind of winging it. It consisted of Davidoff Danish Mixture, Scottish Mixture, Flake Medallions, Royalty, and Orlik Golden Sliced.
I enjoyed the OGS, was ambivalent about the Medallions, and hated the Scottish and Danish mixtures (and have since given the two not-so-great blends away). I was a bit put off by the tin note of the Royalty, so I didn't even TRY smoking that for a while. I finally got to the point where I figured, "Hey, I spent money on this, I should at least give it a shot".
Life changing.
I don't really smoke the Royalty anymore, as I've found things that (to my taste) are far better, but notable in this experience is that this was my first interaction with Latakia. There are still a number of tins of Royalty sitting in the ol' cellar, and they'll get smoked up in the fullness of time.
I've come to appreciate the Flake Medallions more than any other offering I've tried from Davidoff, but Royalty will always have a place in my heart as the first blend containing Latakia that I got my hands on. It set me down a path that is WAY less appreciated by my girlfriend than it is me, but I wouldn't trade it.
What was YOUR eye opening blend? ::

 

[blueeyedogre]

I'd have to go with Peterson University Flake. I'd tried other before it but that was the one that got me on the road to trying different pipe shapes and tobaccos.

 

[kcghost]

Escudo is probably the one the really sang to me.

 

[anglesey]

Presbyterian. First proper tin I ever bought. Still smoke the same thing most of the time today.

 

[jah76]

Haddos Delight. It made me realize how a tobacco can develop and change based on HOW you smoke it. I haven't even smoked it since that first tin but it really taught me how a tobacco's taste and aroma can be layered

 

[sallow]

Escudo, in this WDC. It is nice to find the blend a pipe was made for.

Moses - I watched the entire Twin Peaks run on Netflix a while back, and breakfast is a really good idea.

 

[ravkesef]

Actually, in my case it was the first pipe I ever smoked, in September, 1959. It was a cheap bent bulldog with a stinger, and a pouch of Edgeworth that I liberated from my father's desk. I took one path and I said to myself: "you know, this stuff really isn't bad." By the end of the bowl, I realize the type smoking was for me, and I haven't looked back since. I smoked a variety of drugstore blends, being neither please Nordisk pleased with them, since I really didn't know what I should be looking for. One day I walked into the shop of Fred Diebel in the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, and everything changed. He introduced me to serious pipe smoking and tobaccos. The first tobacco I acquired from him was something called Aromatic 9A--very pleasant, as I recall. Over time, he guided me along the path until finally I was smoking English blinds. It is only in the last year or so that I have begun to sample aromatics after a hiatus of some 50 years – and to tell the truth, I find the aromatics quite pleasant.

But returning to the matter at hand, my first aha moment in pipe smoking was with that very first bowl, but my very first aha tobacco was Fred Diebel's aromatic 9A.

 

[shaintiques]

Great thread, interesting question. I think the first blend that did it for me was an aro made by the Tinderbox called Chartwell. It is a nice smooth Cavendish with a creamy aftertaste. I still smoke it on occasion, but I smoke flakes more now than anything. Interestingly One of my favorite flakes is Full Virginia Flake which actually has a similar aftertaste to Chartwell.

 

[mso489]

I wish I could name an exalted blend that would impress others. I started smoking a pipe in a low key way,

a young married guy at my nearby mall at Tinder Box (about two or three locations ago). I bought a nice

bent pot smooth sitter, a St. Ives which was a house pipe probably made by Chapuis-Comoy in Saint Claude,

France. I think North Sea was my easygoing first tobacco, which is Peter Stokkebye's Nougat, I believe. It

was a pleasing way to settle my supper and re-start an evening of literary work after working hard at my

day job. I still have the pipe, and I still have a pouch of Northsea, though it is an occasional choice and not

a steady part of my rotation. (No, no, the tobacco isn't left over from those ancient days.)

 

[jah76]

When I was a kid, we had a Tinderbox close to us and my dad used to smoke North Sea. Whenever my Mom went by it in the mall she always used to get him 4 oz. It always smelled fantastic.

 

[homeatsea]

Orlik Golden Sliced. I fell in love the minute I got scent of that tin note and the smoke followed through on its promise. OGS was my first flake and my first Virginia, and those have become mostly what I now smoke.

 

[cobguy]

When I was a kid my Uncle Frank and I would walk around the farm together doing chores and feeding animals.

He always had a pouch loaded with a pipe and Prince Albert. I don't remember what kind of pipes he had but they were nice briars and sat on a circular stand with the sealed jar in the center. Around the age of 14 I decided to ask him for a puff. At that point I had already been around cigarettes my whole life as both my parents smoked. This smoke was different. Smooth, sweet and nutty. Uncle Frank's house always smelled better and smoking meant quiet, relaxing and contemplative time, not just getting the next fix ... and I "got" it.

 

[andrew]

First blend I tried I'm pretty positive was McClelland's Full dark english #5150 only at the B&M they call it regimental standard, and from reading the reviews for full dark english it sounds pretty much the same. Problem is I got a half pound of it and it doesn't seem like the blend I tried, this was about 3 years ago when I first tried it, so I don't know if it was the fact it had aged in the store, or if my tastes have just changed but now I'll only get a bit of the flavour that I loved in it once in a while. I think it may be just my tastes have changed and now I like more robust english blends and this one is just too mild, plus after trying English made blends, McClellend english blends i don't really care for anymore, just their Va's I love.

 

[rolldog]

It was six plus months into my journey, a few aros and English had been better than others along the way, then I had a bowl of "Arrowhead Pipe Club" in a straight (basket) briar. The clouds opened and angels sang. I knew as clear as summer sky, I had unlocked a pipe and blend that were meant for each other. I also knew I was hooked and my patience had paid off.
RD

 

[tuold]

I don't know exactly what got me started with pipe smoking, but back in the mid '70's my future wife and I stopped into a Tinderbox at the mall and walked out with a pipe and some "Crown Royale" tobacco. The proprietor recommended it due to its mild aromatic properties suitable for a new smoker. He was right. I loved the stuff and enjoyed it for many years. I still have the pipe he sold back then. It's a Tinderbox "Verona", probably a basket pipe. Even then, I think it was pretty expensive at around $60 bucks. That was a lot of money for a new high school graduate back then!
Here it is today:

 

[lostandfound]

It's unclear. The first tobacco I "got" as you say, was either MacBaren's Navy Flake, or Peter Stokkebye's Luxury Navy Flake. The reason for my uncertainty? I bought a couple different tobacco's from a nearby B&M- one of them - a flake, labeled... "Navy Flake". I still smoke both on a regular basis to try to remember which one was my first, but I just don't know.
And, I'll always remember when and where, in which pipe, and whom I was with when I smoked an "English" blend for the first time. It was the middle of Fall, mid-afternoon, with my girlfriend and some friends of ours, at our friends' house, in their backyard. Sitting upon a plastic rocking horse, I stuffed my grandpa's old 4.5 inch, rusticated Trapwell straight billiard, with Peter Stokkebye's English Oriental Supreme, and fired up that seventy-five year old(ish) briar. That's one of my better piping memories.

 

[sfsteves]

Moses asked:

What was the first blend that stopped you in your

tracks and made you realize that piping was for you?

No hesitation, no pondering, no doubt about it ... I remember it as clearly as if it happened yesterday ... back n 1973, I wandered into Mr. Hugo's Pipe Shop in Ports O' Call, San Pedro, CA ... got talking with the fellow there who I assumed was the owner, though he might not have been ... when he asked what I liked to smoke, I told him about a custom blend that had been done for me by a shop in Orange, CA ... his response was that he had a tinned blend in stock that he was confident I'd like, reached into the rack behind him and pulled out a can of Three Nuns ... when he offered to open it and give me a sample, I was reluctant but before I could say 'no thanks' more than once, he'd opened the can and let me smell the aroma ... I KNEW, right then, that he was right and that I would love it if it smoked anywhere near as well as the pre-light aroma promised ...
Long story short (if it's not already too late for that) I smoked nothing else for as long as Three Nuns existed in that form and would be smoking nothing else today if it hadn't gone away ... I was so bummed out after the demise of Three Nuns that I went for years without smoking my pipes and focused strictly on cigars ... even now, I don't go more than a few days without thinking of how good Three Nuns was and wishing I could find something that would serve as a true replacement ... for me, it remains the Holy Grail of pipe tobacco ...

 

[spartan]

The first blend I tried in my pipe smoking career was Blue Note from a local b&m I think by Altadis. It was sweet and had a strange sort of plastic taste but in a good way. Totally caught me off guard and I instantly fell in love. I couldn't help but think to Myself that "this is what blue tastes like". It was an overwhelming experience so I don't think I was thinking straight. I haven't had any since. Got caught up in the ocean of options we have.
My most recent revelation would be Peter Stokkebyes Luxury Navy Flake. It's magically delicious.
Edit: @sfsteves
Have you tried this revamped version of three nuns? And if so how does it hold up? There are also a few blends that have tried to get close... three friars, and I forget the names of the others. Smoked any of them? Thoughts?

 

[sfsteves]

Spartan asked:

Have you tried this revamped version of

three nuns? And if so how does it hold up?

Yes, I have ... the name is the same and the tin looks just the same and even the cut is quite close to being the same, but any and all similarity ends there. To be fair, it's not a bad smoke, it just isn't Three Nuns - largely, I'm sure, because the blend isn't comprised of the same ingredients ... Three Nuns was a mixture of full, mature Virginias blended with Perique ... the new three nuns has no Perique and quite possibly not the same blend of Virginias ... in place of Perique, it now contains dark-fired Kentucky, which has become a popular component in a number of blends ... the pre-light aroma is quite different and the smokeability isn't even close to THE Three Nuns ...
One of the biggest differences I've found in many VA/Pers is what might be termed a 'spiciness' ... Three Nuns wasn't spicy, it did not have a sharp edge to it ... and none that I have tried to date (and I've tried quite a few) come close to duplicating the balance that Three Nuns had ... there are a lot of very good VA/Pers on the market, some are, IMO, VERY good, but none are what Three Nuns was ... of the many alternatives I've tried, GLPease Telegraph Hill probably comes closest in my mind, to having the same pre-light aroma ... and it's a very good blend, but it has an 'edge' to it (that I don't quite know how to describe in other terms) that is quickly evident ... 4noggins offers a blend called Prairie Wind that smells different, but is EXTREMELY smooth and smokeable in the way Three Nuns was and the same can be said of Cornell and Diehl's Bayou Morning, both of which rank high among my current favorites ...
In addition to a continued exploration of the VA/Per universe, I'm also doing a bit of experimenting with creating my own blend ... a bit of mix and match, if you will, in hopes of stumbling into something that might come close ... I have no illusions, however, that I can hope to duplicate that wonderful and elusive Holy Grail ... I can only hope to approximate it ...

 

[mikenac]

Being a new piper, I would have to say the tin of Escudo I picked up last week. About half way through the first bowl, I was thinking "What have I been smoking before this?"