First Try, Revisited

[jbfrady]

Is there a blend you wish you could wipe from your memory so that you could go back and try it for the first time all over again? Maybe you cracked an advanced tin too soon - before your tastes were developed properly - and that spoiled it, or perhaps you tried a blend in the wrong moment and it was associated with a bad memory, or maybe you're fond of a blend that's just so f@cking good that you wish you could forget it entirely if only to blow your mind all over again.

What would be your revisited first try, and why?

 

[wolflarsen]

so f@cking good that you wish you could forget it entirely if only to blow your mind all over again.

McClelland #24
First bowl was a very memorable one.

 

[yanoJL]

Silem's Black.
I don't know what happened there. I have to think it's the way Kohlhase packages blends these days. Big beautiful 100g tins, tobacco loosely wrapped inside. Not at all sealed or air-tight. My Solani 633 came the same way.
But the Silem's was, in the words of Pink Floyd, dry as a funeral drum. I tried to enjoy it anyway; smoked a few bowls, rehydrated some and smoked that too. I did not enjoy it. One of the most revered aro Englishes on the market... but not for me.
Lesson learned. When the Solani 633 arrived it went straight to a jar.
I hope Kohlhase gets that figured out, because I do want a genuine Silem's Black experience. I like aro Englishes. Boswell's Northwoods is fabulous.
I'll try it again one day.

 

[kcghost]

Escudo from Cope's was the most magical smoke I ever had. I think I'd have to go back to the 80's to get some of that stuff.

 

[Sigmund]

I think my choices would have to be second trys. Im rarely blown away by the first bowl. On the second its still new but I know the lay of the land a little better and can appreciate it more.

 

[mortonbriar]

Oh no, I have life lessons I regret, but none concerning pipe smoking!!!

 

[jbfrady]

For me it's the Peter Stokkebye Bullseye. For the first several years I smoked, I systematically sampled every blend that Boda Pipes had in glass jars on the counter. They've got a neat little setup where for a quarter to can try whatever you want.

At that time, my taste buds weren't truly developed. I was in my early 20's and gobbled down terrible and unhealthy food non-stop. I was north of 300lbs and guzzled sweet tea (the official drink of South Carolina) like Hunter S Thompson did liquor.

One day, David - Boda's owner - told me that he kept "the good stuff" in the humidor with the cigars. Intrigued, I followed him in there and he whipped out some Bullseye and Luxury Flake. I took to them at once, but I did so largely because he called them "the good stuff."

Nowadays, I don't know what I think of either, but particularly Bullseye. When I try it, I don't taste the tobacco... Instead, I taste the year 2009. Because I'm not good of who I was back then, regardless of the tobacco's inherent flavor, all I taste is a bittersweet memory.

 

[yanoJL]

For me it's the Peter Stokkebye Bullseye. For the first several years I smoked, I systematically sampled every blend that Boda Pipes had in glass jars on the counter. They've got a neat little setup where for a quarter to can try whatever you want.

At that time, my taste buds weren't truly developed. I was in my early 20's and gobbled down terrible and unhealthy food non-stop. I was north of 300lbs and guzzled sweet tea (the official drink of South Carolina) like Hunter S Thompson did liquor.

One day, David - Boda's owner - told me that he kept "the good stuff" in the humidor with the cigars. Intrigued, I followed him in there and he whipped out some Bullseye and Luxury Flake. I took to them at once, but I did so largely because he called them "the good stuff."

Nowadays, I don't know what I think of either, but particularly Bullseye. When I try it, I don't taste the tobacco... Instead, I taste the year 2009. Because I'm not good of who I was back then, regardless of the tobacco's inherent flavor, all I taste is a bittersweet memory.

Great comment, man.

Isn't it interesting how a smell or taste, in this case pipe tobacco, can take you back.
I grew up in Miami, and we had a tobacco shop in the local mall. I would poke my nose in there as a kid, just to smell the smells.
Fast forward to last year, on a whim, I bought a tin of MacBaren 7 Seas Regular. I cracked the tin, took a sniff and WHAM! I'm right back there at the mall in the 80s.

 

[jbfrady]

Great comment, man.

Isn't it interesting how a smell or taste, in this case pipe tobacco, can take you back.
I grew up in Miami, and we had a tobacco shop in the local mall. I would poke my nose in there as a kid, just to smell the smells.
Fast forward to last year, on a whim, I bought a tin of MacBaren 7 Seas Regular. I cracked the tin, took a sniff and WHAM! I'm right back there at the mall in the 80s.

Thank you!

And agreed! Before I ever smoked (when I was a kid, maybe up to teen years), on trips to Gatlinburg I had staunchly fundamentalist uncle who'd pop into the Gatlinburlier in the Mountain Mall for the smells, despite his belief that smoking punched one's ticket on the one-way train to Hell.

 

[ThermionicScott]

If we're going all "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", I'd probably wipe my memories of the McClelland #5100 and #2015 I sampled about 10-15 years ago. They were actually somewhat frustrating experiences for me as a newer pipe smoker (tongue bite every damned time!), but my remaining taste memories still make it hard to enjoy current red Virginias, knowing what they could be.

 

[jbfrady]

If we're going all "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind..."

Eternal Sunshine was my exact thought in making this post.

 

[Brewfan]

Nightcap for me. I threw the tin away because it was so off putting to me. I have a bit of an appreciation for latakia in small doses now, so it may be worth another go, especially with all of the raves it gets, but it's pinned in my head as ridiculously terrible.

 

[K.E. Powell]

That is an interesting question! I'm not entirely sure what blend I'd wipe from my memory, but the closest would be MacBaren Vanilla Cake. It, along with a tin of Cult's Blood Red Moon, were my very first pipe tobacco blends. I enjoyed BRM well enough, but the MacBaren tasted dry and gave me a fairly nasty bite. I read later somewhere that MacBaren blends can be notorious for burning hotly, so at the time, I blamed the tobacco for the experience. Clearly, I was wrong, and my own lack of technique and proper storage of the tobacco was to blame. It took me almost a solid year before I would even try another MacBaren blend, but I ended up enjoying it for the most part.

I don't know if I'd go as far as to say I want this memory wiped, as it did eventually force me to correct some mistakes I was making and give MB's blends another go.