Good Va-Per Tobacco

[pantsBoots]

My description of BS is based on how it tastes to me. Germain's BS not a recreation, it's something different and people are paying quite a premium just to buy the tin art, but that's about it.

Tobacco is a business and like any business seeks to maximize profit. A number of factors are at play. The end of subsidies have caused a lot of growers to grow something different that's more profitable. This reduces the choices manufacturers have in making their blends. Changes in the way that tobacco is sold by growers to manufacturers have cut into returns on their crops as well. Growers are trying to cut costs, which among other things means reducing the amount of labor involved in harvesting, which in turn affects the quality of the harvest. Manufacturers are holding the line on costs, some of which involves buying cheaper substitute components for some of their blends. None of this is sudden. It's been going on for years in one fashion or another, And it doesn't mean that it's all going to hell, just some of it.

Pipe smokers who have been at it for a while are aware of the changes going on in the favored blends they have smoked year after year. I've gotten an earful of it in the last few years. Newer smokers who haven't experienced earlier iterations of available blends have no experiential basis for gauging the changes.

I guess I should consider myself lucky for being late to the table? I don't know what I've missed, which I suppose is a blessing?

All I know is I'm trying my hand at a number of tobacco varietals over the next couple seasons. Here's hoping.

 

[mingc]

I guess I should consider myself lucky for being late to the table? I don't know what I've missed, which I suppose is a blessing?

It's neither a blessing or a curse. You missed it, so you just don't know if you would have liked it or hated it. @philobeddoe and @sablebrush52 liked the old Escudo and miss it. I didn't care for it and don't miss it at all. There are a bazillion other blends out there and a bazillion others that anyone alive today have never had. Why sweat it? I've been at this 15 years or more and have an incomplete list of over 100 blends that I've tried. Some I like enough to squirrel a bunch away. Then I've got a shelf of at at least 50 tins/blends that 's new to me and which I've not tried. That's where the fun is!

 

[sablebrush52]

@philobeddoe and @sablebrush52 liked the old Escudo and miss it. I didn't care for it and don't miss it at all. There are a bazillion other blends out there and a bazillion others that anyone alive today have never had. Why sweat it?

Exactly. One person's coq au vin is another person's rubber chicken.

That said, there are a handful of blends whose names have earned them iconic status among smokers. When a legendary name is on the tin, but the contents aren't that blend it demeans the work that the original blender put into creating that iconic blend. It's why McClelland refused to sell the rights to their brand. They didn't want their name on any blend they did not create or attached to what they considered inferior versions.

Bottom line, smoke what you like, like what you smoke. Don't give a thought about what anyone else thinks of it.

 

[saltedplug]

There is no conflict between the estimation of the more experienced and those with less. Both are legitimate and both true.

 

[wyfbane]

It's not super strong, but I just really like Dan, Treasures of Ireland: Limerick.

And +1 to 633
PS LNF
Rimboche AP (and SJ)
Navy Rolls
And even that shit in a box Escudo!

 

[saltedplug]

Tobacco is a business and like any business seeks to maximize profit.

Profit relegating quality obviates the manufacture. Trumpian.

 

[chopper]

Here I am reading all these VaPer suggestions, many of which sound so exotic, that I'll never get to taste here in Nanny State Australia [Where a 50g tin of baccy is over $120] unless I win lotto that is.

So I was feeling a bit deprived until I noticed that PS Bulls-Eye Flake is on many of your lists.
That made me feel a bit better since I have several ounces jarred.
It's a nice smoke for sure but it made me realise that most VaPers are probably too strong for my requirements anyhow [Since switching from my 40-a-day cig addiction to a pipe I choose blends with mild nicotine]
PSLBF has a touch more nicotine than I prefer [Not that that will stop me from smoking it ]

I really liked PSLNF but now with over a couple of years age not as much as when it was fresh [Yeah I dunno, go figure?]

After reading a heap of positive reviews I bought a pound of AJ's VaPer. Nice but a touch too tangy [Nothing that a bit of straight Virginia can't 'fix']

The only other VaPer I've tried is Orliks Golden Sliced, which is something I could smoke all day. Lovely stuff. But, is it really a VaPer? Technically yes but I can't say that I actually tasted any perique.

So what am I really missing? Probably not much. Well at least that's what I'll be telling myself.

 

[weezell]

Savinelli Doblone d'Oro is the closest thing there is to what Three Nuns was.

Great stuff...

 

[GlassMan]

My favorites are Rattray's Hal o' The Wynd and Samuel Gawith Cabbies Mixture.

Just got my hands on two tins of cabbies. Opened one, cellaring the other. It’s SO good. Escudo is the gold standard for me otherwise. Just finished a bowl of it.

 

[workman]

Just got my hands on two tins of cabbies. Opened one, cellaring the other. It’s SO good. Escudo is the gold standard for me otherwise. Just finished a bowl of it.

McConnell's Scottish Cake is another favorite.
I was very surprised by the tin note of Cabbies. It smells exactly like sheep shit. After some drying it becomes more like fermented hay.
But it sure is tasty!