BigRed, +1 on Beast recommendation of opening one or two tins at a time, and smoke through a tin, preferably a bowl or two every day. The idea is to get to know a blend in-depth and you can't do that by flitting from one bowl to another to another, like a bee flying over a sea of tulips. As a cigar smoker, you would know the maxim about not judging a cigar until you've smoked several sticks. Weather, company, mood, booze - it all can affect how you experience a cigar in different circumstances. Same goes for cigar blends.
When I discovered tinned tobaccos, I went a bit nuts and ordered hundreds of dollars worth in the first couple of months. I would order more tobaccos when I would read of a new release or someone would post a rave endorsement of their favorite blend or I would read repeatedly of legendary of blends like Escudo, or Penzance or 3 nuns or PS Luxury Bullseye, etc.
It wasn't long before I had a couple of dozen tins opened, and some jars that I neglected to label, some of it over-drying. I was embarrassed when one old timer asked me if I had ever finished a tin and I had to stop and think about.
I really didn't start to learn tobaccos until we started the Tobacco Crawl and I focused on one tobacco a weak, smoking a tin everyday until it was gone.
Regarding notes, I would suggest that you pick a tin or two and lookup the reviews here or tobaccoreviews.com. Pay attention to the ingredients, cuts, casings, etc. Light up a bowl and read the reviews. See if you can identify the ingredients, look for the profile (which is present but not as obvious as in better cigars). Look for tin notes, start, finish, volume of smoke, flavors, burn characteristics, bite or lack of bite, etc. Try the tobacco in cobs, briars, stacks and pots, big bowls and small. Note how much the bowl will affect the flavor. Sometimes it is almost as you are smoking a different blend entirely.
Go back to the same reviews about midway through your tin and then again when you're about to finish the tin. You'll be amazed at how different you perception is on the last bowl.
If you don't like a blend on the first bowl, persist, if can, through the entire tin. If you can't like it, then jar it and come back to it later...
Speaking of later, I have to get back to work.
If my suggestion sames like to much of a bother, no worries. It is your pipe and your baccies. Just stuff the pipes the way you want, smoke what interests you at the moment, and enjoy.
I smoked one pipe and one tobacco for years, and got as much pleasure from it that way as I do now with dozens of pipes and tobaccos. It was a different pleasure, more about comfort and familiarity, than the variety I now enjoy.
From what I can tell, the one truism that everyone in the community agrees on is, "Smoke what you want and like what you smoke." Anything else is pretty much opinion and taste.
Pax
