Has Your Palate for Tobacco Changed Over Time?

[admin]

In his September column, G. L. Pease discusses a more mindful way of enjoying a pipe, how your palate might change, and how to detect certain nuances that you may have otherwise missed. It's a quick, yet interesting and enlightening read. Check it out right here.

A Network of Nuance ​

 

[dottlejockey]

Absolutely has. Started with cigars. A couple years later got lured into pipes by the BBQ meaty smell of latakia. Later moved into Vapers and went a little lighter on the lat blends. Then had a long love affair with Burley and pure VAs kind of simultaneously. The most recent love being non-lat orientals. Today i smoke lighter lat blends on occasion and all the rest remain my regular rotation with an ever-evolving list of orientals growing and a newer set of 5 pipes dedicated to that genre alone.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Good read! I really feel sorry for people who have tastes that never change. They like the same tobacco day in and day out, the same foods, the same clothes, the same music; meanwhile their wives are aging out of their interests, because they can't stay 18 years old for forever. Then they look like one of those 40+ burnouts that hangs out with the kids in fast food parking lots.

No, coffee has to fit my mood, wines and tobaccos, even foods. I think that everything about me has been in a state of flux as I get older. Also, with a nod to the changing seasons. Except pumpkin pie spice stuff. That stuff is never in my wheelhouse.

 

[thomasw]

Even after a three decades I do still dabble in various tobacco genres in small ways. That said, I do prefer burleys and VAburs for the most part. It is OK to know what you prefer and that to have developed your preferences is OK I used to wish I was like @JimInks and loved all tobacco genres; but the truth is I am not like @JimInks ... except I do enjoy watching baseball

 

[kcghost]

I used to be a hardcore devotee to English blends and had no interest in aromatics, Virginias, burleys, etc. Then I woke up one morning 40-years later and I had a craving for VaPers. I still smoke an occasional English but instead of it being 100% of my input it is down to 25%. That was 15 years ago.

 

[warren]

I have to believe it has. Everything else has. But my choice of blends hasn't changed at all in the last twenty years or so.

 

[abecox]

This all seems to track, I've always sort of been a kitchen sink smoker so I'll try anything if the mood strikes me. Between my little break of pipe smoking and I think just a bit of patience and maturity that comes with age (well maybe just patience) I definitely get more out of my smokes now than I did back then. I remember first trying Old Joe Krantz almost ten years ago and not getting the hype and now it's one of my favorite blends. I'm sure having better technique in packing and smoking helps too.

 

[crowbait]

Good read!

Agreed, great little article.

I really feel sorry for people who have tastes that never change. They like the same tobacco day in and day out, the same foods, the same clothes, the same music;

While I have a certain penchant for morphing tastes and preferences over time, I have always had an admiration for those whose tastes remain consistent throughout the ages. There's a contentment they have found that, if I'm being honest, is something that I believe most people search for all their lives. Granted, there is a vast difference between expanding your palette for the enrichment of your expereinces and searching for contentment, but I'd be remiss if I didnt at least acknowledge that a part of me is searching everytime I purchase a new tin or pipe: like I'm wondering whats over the next hill or around the next bend.

Maybe it's just me.

 

[olkofri]

No. I still find aromatics the best, latakia overrated, virginias ho-hum, and burley too bitey to bother much with.

 

[bpinkstaff]

No. I still find aromatics the best, latakia overrated, virginias ho-hum, and burley too bitey to bother much with.

Agree for me!

 

[tobakenist]

No, over 50yrs of piping, English, Balkan's and drift to a few other tobaccos occasionally, Lakelands and a few others, I must be a bore

 

[Grangerous]

Ouch Cosmic!

I’ll be the first to admit, that more often than not; I’m mistaken for an adult.. due almost entirely to my age and physical appearance.

But Gentlemen, I assure you

 

[Sig]

My tastes have not changed, but my ability to find nuance has.
Blends that I liked 20 years ago, I still like....but some of the reasons why I like them have changed.
I generally smoke Latakia blends and Virginia based blends, but also smoke all the other genres occasionally.

 

[BingBong]

When I resorted to a pipe (mainly smoking cigarettes), I'd settled on Three Nuns and usually had a bowl in the evening. Then Three Nuns morphed and morphed again and I stopped enjoying it, then got well into latakia and English/Balkan before drifting to virginias and then VaPers - kind of full circle. Not hugely into burleys, though maybe I'll discover that attraction yet, not that I've completely abandoned any of my previous loves.

Aromatics are beyond me, for the most part, although finding the real tobacco taste under the disguise is pleasing.

In parallel, cigarettes gave way to RYO, which is barely a convenient nic sideshow these days, very few.

Oh, has my palate changed? All the time; mostly, revealing new angles on well known smokes.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Ouch Cosmic!

Help me understand, what did I post that prompted this?

 

[username]

I started with heavy latakia blends now I smoke alot more Virginia's and burley mixtures.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Tried about everything and I still prefer English blends.

 

[Grangerous]

Help me understand, what did I post that prompted this?

“ I really feel sorry for people who have tastes that never change. They like the same tobacco day in and day out, the same foods, the same clothes, the same music; meanwhile their wives are aging out of their interests, because they can't stay 18 years old for forever. Then they look like one of those 40+ burnouts that hangs out with the kids in fast food parking lots.”

 

[filmguerilla]

Mine has for sure. Started in the 80's when I was still a teen and only smoked my local Tobacco Lane's aromatic selections, along with the occasional bowl of Velvet. By the end of the 90's I had given up on most aro's and was into McClelland's light English and Oriental blends. I didn't start liking VaPers or straight Virginias until the 2010's and, coincidentally, found that I didn't like burley any more at all. These days I have my favorites in every category, though I mostly buy my tobacco from Peretti's or get Pease/Gawith stuff.

 

[Sigmund]

When I had my first journey with a pipe in 2009 ish I had lots of good blends but not the best advice on how to smoke. I didnt like latakia and honestly, I really couldnt pull that many flavors from a blend. I probably smoked too hot as well. A lot of what I had was flake and didnt know to rub it out or dry it properly. I was smoking a lot of blends close to straight virginias and I didnt get it. Now I get it but I dont tend to smoke them. I like something a bit more eventful. That may change as I feel the slight urge to dabble in some straight virginia blends.

This time I joined this forum and got a lot of great advice. Maybe because I was older and more foused I was able to discover flavors I had no idea were present. Also I love latakia. It was a little bit of an acquired taste but once acquired it was wonderful. I always enjoyed perique but I didnt quite understand it the first go aroudn.

I never liked lakelands. I probably still dont. As those blends are harder to get Im not even going to venture there. I thought I disliked burley but what I hated was crap blends that happened to be burley based. Once I got my hands on quality burley I was pleased.

I dont mind aros but I rarely smoke them. They kind of get on my nerves with the persistent hammering of one flavor. To me its like listening to the One Note Samba repeatedly. I can take them in small doses and I dont knock people for liking them. I know its very possible they are having a different experience. I think we too easily forget that point.

So tastes change becuase we change, context changes and that again changes each of us. Hopefully time does something other than to tear our bodies down.