Going Back to Blends You Didn't Like

[mso489]

I am currently puffing a blend I didn't like much the first time around. This is a new batch done under a different blender, but it certainly illustrates that a second try is often a new experience. I often advise new pipe smokers to save the blends they try and don't like because their tastes will change. Sometimes the blends change too, in the case of a second order. In my case, I tried C&D Night on the Bayou years ago when it was being blended in Morganton, N.C., before C&D was sold and moved to smokingpipes.com. About six years ago, it arrived fairly dry, and I don't find that a bad thing, but it had an edge that distracted from the otherwise pleasing strength and complexity. I'm not sure I finished the ounce or two. Lately, I included Night on the Bayou in a two ounce order from PC for three bulk blends. It was moist and fluffy, and still big and bold, but the saw blade edge was gone, a much more pleasing experience. What have you tried and liked better at a later time? Did you age it or order a new batch? I'm liking this a lot this time around.

 

[midwestpipesmoker70]

The most recent for me is Sixpence. I really am not a fan...yet...of dark fired. I smoked probably half the tin but just wasn't getting it. I let it sit in the jar for a couple of years and smoked a bowl the other day. The dark fired taste had receded a bit and it wasn't bad. Mid bowl to the bottom was wonderful. I will be interested to see what I think with say five years age on the last tin I have of the blend.

 

[mso489]

For me, this also happened with Iwan Ries Three Star Blue, but with the same pouch of tobacco. It just tasted kind of raw when it arrived and I set it aside, for a long time. Months later, I tried again, not expecting much, and found it had mellowed and the leaf had dried a little and the flavors seemed better joined, and it was a whole new day with Three Star Blue, now one of my aromatics to smoke as a change of pace from the non-aros.

 

[jaytex1969]

I have several bags of Daughters & Ryan tobaccos where I've jarred about 2/3 and have the remaining 1/3 in the one pound bags in a box under my desk.
They've sustained just fine over the several months they've been there.
The Picayune, a perique heavy blend, singed my nose hairs with peppery vengeance when I first tried it. Now, just months later, it's begun mellowing, still sassy, but more into the tangy fruit arena with a minor touch of the "figginess".
The other possibility is that I have, by now, simply singed off all of my nose hairs and deadened the pain receptors in the region...
To keep more in line with the OP question, I wouldn't say that I didn't like it at first, only that I limited it to the times I was up for that level of intensity.

 

[akfilm]

This is going to sound like heresy to some, but I didn't like Frog Morton's at first, I thought they were a one dimensional smoke with little to no body, and just not worth the price. I still feel that way a little, but I do enjoy it now as a day time smoke when I'm really not thinking about the smoke. I didn't like Mac Baren Navy Flake or Samuel Gawith 1792 Flake because of the strong topping, but now I just mellow them out in the cellar for a year before smoking and I love them, though I'll have to revisit them soon as fresh tobacco since I am enjoying Black Frigate and I find them similar.

 

[balkisobrains]

Well, I'm going to find out if I still don't really like Perique this spring-time, if that counts. I have some special stuff that someone sent me for this go-round, so I'm not going back to the specific stuff that I had tried originally years ago. (McC bulk blending Perique and some of their bulk blends with it in there.)
I'd probably first say Odyssey for the blend that I liked fresh, but thought would get better with age in the jar, and it did! And I ordered more!
::

 

[mso489]

I think Perique as a condiment, most of us like a little, a few of us like a lot, or to even smoke it neat. I'll go with a little. Kind of like "heat" in Thai food.

 

[dottiewarden]

I tend to give most blends I don't initially like the benefit of the doubt, and frequently this has caused me to battle through a tin in order to find how it can be enjoyed. Letting a blend sit in a jar for a few months may be a major contributing factor as often nearing the last few bowls of the tin I manage to find some redeeming qualities. The only case I can remember that precisely complies with this topic is the recently discussed Peterson Irish Oak. I was completely put off by the cigarette taste and was happy to have finally got through the tin, however today I'll smoke through an entire tin and enjoy each and every bowl. Just thinking about it gives me a hankering for a fresh tin.

 

[jaytex1969]

I didn't like Frog Morton's at first......I am enjoying Black Frigate

Why would ye sit in a slimy bog with frogs and lizards when ye can sail the open sea aboard the Frigate? Arrgh!!

 

[cigrmaster]

When I first tried Mac Baren Old Dark Fired I didn't like it. I put the tin away for about 6-8 months, tried it again and absolutely loved it. I guess it needed to dry some and settle down as it was like a totally different tobacco. I ended up ordering a whole bunch and have been smoking it ever since on a consistent basis. Sometimes you just never know, which is why I always go back and try things again before I decide I don't like something.

 

[cigrmaster]

double post.

 

[briarbuda48]

The most surprising tobacco recently was GLP Abington. If I don't like a blend, I jar it and set it aside for a future date. Abington I forgot/misplaced in my cellar and when rediscovered had several years on it. Turned out wonderfully. I would say Balkan Sobranie-esk.

 

[thomasw]

C&D Burley Flake #1; I bought it and it was just too fresh -- the components initially seemed a bit unbalanced. After aging for a year it is harmonious and delicious and smoooooth. So any BF1 tin I open is at least a year old; love the stuff. Clearly VAs smooth out with age; yet it has been my experience that VaBurs and even straight Burleys get more soothing with a bit of age, too.

 

[philobeddoe]

The reissued Balkan Sobranie, I got several tins from the first batch, opened one and was unimpressed, I didn’t dislike it per se, but I was expecting much much more. So, I jarred the rest of the tin up. Three years later, the blend had melded, the Oriental component was much spicier, the Virginias were sweeter and most importantly, the Latakia had muted somewhat. I burned through the rest of the jar in a couple of days. I then opened another of the tins from the original haul and the magic had occurred in there as well. If any of you were just meh with this one, I would advise you to try some with a couple of years on it, yummy! :P

 

[madox07]

jaytex969 I keep hearing about the Black Frigate, it is driving me crazy that I cannot find any around.
There are a lot of aromatics I had a bad experience with on a first smoke, that I wouldn't revisit. On the other hand there is this Dunhill blend, a va/per called Elisabethan Mixture, that I had a bad experience on the first tin. I think I am going to get me another tin and give it a second chance with my next order from Germany.

 

[pipesticks]

I hated Half & Half at first. Tried again after sitting in a jar a year. STILL hate it. Threw it away. Blech. Only tobacco I've ever had to toss out.

 

[thomasw]

Another blend that I have seen grow on me after some time is the Pease/GH collaboration of Stonehenge Flake. The old issue I liked a lot when I tried a tin back in 2005ish; that would have been ~3 or 4 years old at the time. With a little more than half a year, the re-issued tins are starting to come to form. Given another year the flakes will be even more deliciously melded.

 

[mso489]

pipesticks, I'm glad it isn't just me with Half-and-Half. With all the pleasing burley/Virginia blends around, smooth and elegant, how did that snaggy bitey aspect get into what should be a good old codger blend? Many like it, but it just irritates me, and I like most of the codger blends. I had a tub, but I gave it away before I opened it, after I sampled a pouch. People do like it, or it wouldn't still be around. Question mark.

 

[krizzose]

Low Country Waccamaw. The first bowl I tried was awful, harsh as hell with all sorts of rough edges. I put it away and forgot about it for a year and a half. I tried it again and it still had a good pop of strength, but rich and completely smoothed out.

 

[mawnansmiff]

My first experience with Low Country Waccamaw was pretty much the same as yours Krizzose, I found it rather harsh though still enjoyable. I kind of solved that with blending it 80/20 with some rubbed out FVF which was an improvement.
I have however just received a couple more tins that will be stashed away for a couple of years as I hear it improves massively with age.
Regards,
Jay.