How Biased Are Pipe Tobacco Reviews

[BPatrick]

Greetings!
Before you comment with all pipe tobacco reviews are personal and biased; I think there's a huge difference between biased and subjective. I agree every review is subjective but also feel a lot of reviews are biased.
I love reading and watching tobacco reviews and learn a lot from them, but also notice many reviewers regurgitating the same descriptions. I can't help but wonder if their mind is made up on a blend, even before they smoke it.
When I read reviews on Tobacco Reviews site, I won't read any of the 1 and 2 star reviews. My reason is in almost every case, it starts with the guy saying how he doesn't like English blends or Lat blends, or Virginia blends ext...and then proceeds to give it a lame or negative review.
I'm to the point in my life where I know what I like and what I don't like. I also take my tobacco and tobacco purchases very seriously and don't want to hear an opinion about an English blend from someone who doesn't like an English blend. Or another example, I don't want to hear someone who doesn't like Virginias rate A VaPer.
I know it might seem odd but it'd be like asking for an Italian restaurant recommendation from someone who hates Italian food lol.
It's to the point that when I see the tobacco ratings, I eliminate all the 1 and 2 star reviews and reconfigure the ratings. This has never steered me wrong and it gives me the most accurate rating on a new blend I'm going to try.
Since I know I like certain types of tobacco, I have enough experience to know whether a blend is going to be in my ballpark or not.
I would encourage you to check out a blend you really like that doesn't have a high rating. Go through and read all the 1 and 2 star reviews and see how irrelevant most are, meaning they have a biased against the blend or the type of blend it is. Or you'll see a lot of guys that are aromatic smokers giving a low rating to an English. What you'll find is by weeding them out and reconfiguring, you'll get a more accurate score.
I do the exact same thing for my aromatics as I smoke those too. I don't want a biased rating on an aromatic from a guy who smoked them when he first started then has only smoked English blends for the last decade.
I enjoy my aromatics for exactly what they are, and don't knock them for what they aren't. The same for my favorite English blends.
I'm all for and completely understand that blend ratings are subjective but I don't want to waste time watching or reading biased reviews.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Tobacco review are mostly useless as you mentioned taste is subjective. I find the only helpful part of them is that they list a blend's contents.

 

[BPatrick]

Tobacco review are mostly useless as you mentioned taste is subjective. I find the only helpful part of them is that they list a blend's contents.

Completely agree with this. I like the tobacco contents listed as well.

 

[spike]

The contents are all I need. Taste is subjective. After 50 years, I know what I like.

 

[AJL67]

Reviews should be taken with a grain of perique.

 

[ThomasS]

Heathen! It must be Dark Fired or you can't truly appreciate the flavor!

 

[BPatrick]

Reviews should be taken with a grain of perique.

I love Perique.

 

[burleybreath]

Most reviews tell more about the reviewer than about the tobacco. I'll take those of, say, Jim Inks, which stick to telling what's in the blend more than whether he likes it or not. The rest I read for amusement, and some are quite entertaining, I will admit. It's all good tobacco talk, and everything has its place, etc.

 

[warren]

Find a serious, as opposed to a "dabbler", reviewer with a palate similar to yours and you've found someone useful. A personal review is simply that, what the reviewer experienced. For you to expect otherwise is simply naive.

 

[ThomasS]

I love JimInks' reviews for the reason someone else here said so very well: he is rock solid consistent. Once you know what JimInks means by his terms, then you can correllate that to your own preference and you will know with absolute certainty what you will like.
-- not my original words I've just taken it to heart!

 

[Chasing Embers]

or you can't truly appreciate the flavor!

That's why it's primarily grown for chewing tobacco.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

Find a serious, as opposed to a "dabbler", reviewer with a palate similar to yours and you've found someone useful. A personal review is simply that, what the reviewer experienced. For you to expect otherwise is simply naive.

I agree with this. I see a few guys who have a palate similar to mine. I pay attention to them. Their reviews are biased as well but are more likely to lean towards my biases.

 

[Peterson314]

I'm mostly with @burleybreath on this one. I haven't been to TR since the switchover, but I used to use the site to log my notes on a blend, thinking I would probably be the only person revisiting my own review.

I like @JimInks reviews because they are a work of art. I can't say I taste the same things he does, though.

Some reviews are solid comedic gold. Most are crap. Sometimes, I don't even agree with my own reviews from years prior.

Still fun. But the only thing that counts is your bowl and your back porch.

 

[JOHN72]

Although I am also in line with our fellow veteran smoker, burleybreath. I remember reviewing reviews of mac baren virginia flake, among many other examples. With one or two stars, in the sum total of ratings. It was as simple as buying a tin, consuming the tin in its entirety, and now I have a few hundred tins of this magnificent tobacco in cellar. Which I was able to buy at only 6,30 euros, years ago. Now the tin is here in Spain, at 9,50 euros. Don't trust opinions, smoke and see for yourself.

 

[BPatrick]

I remember reviewing reviews of mac baren virginia flake, among many other examples. With one or two stars, in the sum total of ratings. It was as simple as buying a tin, consuming the tin in its entirety, and now I have a few hundred tins of this magnificent tobacco in cellar. Which I was able to buy at only 6,30 euros, years ago. Now the tin is here in Spain, at 9,50 euros. Don't trust opinions, smoke and see for yourself.

Agreed. Nice cellar full of Virginia flake

 

[captainsousie]

All reviews are personal and flawed. I love @JimInks reviews but he and I have different tastes. Let me paraphrase Yukon Cornelius. "You smoke what you like and I'll smoke what I like....waaaa!

In other words, openness to new blends and trying to be neutral are good ideals but not practical in the long run. We are all only capable of our own opinion, others will differ.

 

[kcghost]

Don't read the "stars", just read the content and over time you will learn what the reviewer like and doesn't like.

 

[JOHN72]

For example. I smoke a tobacco that I love. English type. Latakia, perique and Orientals. Its aroma is like dirty socks, wet, moldy, mule manure, dried vomit, dried rotten fish, sea salt. All this, roasted on a barbecue, abandoned on a cliff, in the middle of a storm, three pairs of eggs. Damn it. I've got a few kilos of this shit in my cellar too.

 

[BPatrick]

All reviews are personal and flawed. I love @JimInks reviews but he and I have different tastes. Let me paraphrase Yukon Cornelius. "You smoke what you like and I'll smoke what I like....waaaa!

In other words, openness to new blends and trying to be neutral are good ideals but not practical in the long run. We are all only capable of our own opinion, others will differ.

I agree with most of this, however, I don't want to hear a jaded opinion on a blend that the reviewer doesn't like anyway. I'm always surprised when a dude says he doesn't like English blends and then proceeds to rate an English blend. Lol

 

[BPatrick]

For example. I smoke a tobacco that I love. English type. Latakia, perique and Orientals. Its aroma is like dirty socks, wet, moldy, mule manure, dried vomit, dried rotten fish, sea salt. All this, roasted on a barbecue, abandoned on a cliff, in the middle of a storm, three pairs of eggs. Damn it. I've got a few kilos of this shit in my cellar too.

The mule manure is driving the bus lol.