Hey friends. I'm certain we've all experienced blends that reject every attempt at combustion, or only ignite for tantalizingly brief intervals, despite drying techniques that might be deemed gratuitous in Death Valley.
Just thought I'd take an informal poll here, to see which blends have frustrated you in this regard, and whether you kept trying regardless.
Some blends, of course, don't feel worth the effort. 'Won't stay lit?" you say to the tobacco. "Well damn your eyes." Others are so obviously delicious that they coax you into coming back, again and again, until you've burned off half your tongue and expended approx. 12 gallons of butane in the futile quest.
Ropes, I think, are a bit notorious for this quality, which always makes me think of sailors (or trappers and voyageurs) in decidedly damp conditions. I imagine them laboring for spark after spark until they weep manly tears. Anyway, I kind of expect this sort of intransigence from ropes.
But other blends! Bygod, they try me. I have a fairly bad track record with dark VAs, such as Wessex Campaign Dark Flake and Rattray's Marlin Flake. But I keep at it, drying until the point at which one sideways glance would reduce the flake to its constituent atoms, because I get these waves of how beautiful they'd be if they would only burn.
The one that really torments me, however, is St. James Flake and/or Plug, because it is damned tasty (and I know how devoted its fans are), and because I've never been stymied by an SG blend before, despite their penchant for initial sogginess. The day that I can finally enjoy a bowl (I'd settle for a small bowl!) of St. James with, say, 3 lights instead of 300, and enjoy it with a proportion somewhat better than 40/60 tobacco/butane, I will perform a dance of joy that will embarrass the cows.
The irrational part of me suggests that these might not be matters of chemistry and willpower, but rather metaphysical incompatibility. Something particular to the coordinates I occupy in time/space that allows me to burn other flakes and plugs with wild abandon, but just not St. James.
Opposite sidenote for discussion: Blends that ignite so fast they might appeal to arsonists, or should be strictly regulated in National Forests and other drought-stricken recreation areas. I'm looking at you, Semois, Embarcadero, Smyrna...
Just thought I'd take an informal poll here, to see which blends have frustrated you in this regard, and whether you kept trying regardless.
Some blends, of course, don't feel worth the effort. 'Won't stay lit?" you say to the tobacco. "Well damn your eyes." Others are so obviously delicious that they coax you into coming back, again and again, until you've burned off half your tongue and expended approx. 12 gallons of butane in the futile quest.
Ropes, I think, are a bit notorious for this quality, which always makes me think of sailors (or trappers and voyageurs) in decidedly damp conditions. I imagine them laboring for spark after spark until they weep manly tears. Anyway, I kind of expect this sort of intransigence from ropes.
But other blends! Bygod, they try me. I have a fairly bad track record with dark VAs, such as Wessex Campaign Dark Flake and Rattray's Marlin Flake. But I keep at it, drying until the point at which one sideways glance would reduce the flake to its constituent atoms, because I get these waves of how beautiful they'd be if they would only burn.
The one that really torments me, however, is St. James Flake and/or Plug, because it is damned tasty (and I know how devoted its fans are), and because I've never been stymied by an SG blend before, despite their penchant for initial sogginess. The day that I can finally enjoy a bowl (I'd settle for a small bowl!) of St. James with, say, 3 lights instead of 300, and enjoy it with a proportion somewhat better than 40/60 tobacco/butane, I will perform a dance of joy that will embarrass the cows.
The irrational part of me suggests that these might not be matters of chemistry and willpower, but rather metaphysical incompatibility. Something particular to the coordinates I occupy in time/space that allows me to burn other flakes and plugs with wild abandon, but just not St. James.
Opposite sidenote for discussion: Blends that ignite so fast they might appeal to arsonists, or should be strictly regulated in National Forests and other drought-stricken recreation areas. I'm looking at you, Semois, Embarcadero, Smyrna...
