How Biased Are Pipe Tobacco Reviews

[JOHN72]

Then there are those reviews, where it is said that there is a touch of woody bitterness, yes, you just have to separate the tobacco, from some small pieces of wood. Yes, little wood chips, that come stirred into the tobacco. And then you will have a fantastic aroma of baked bread, raisins, figs, cooked dark fruit...........

 

[jerry]

I appreciate reviews that I can learn something from. I’m a long time pipe smoker and I’ve smoked hundreds of blends, and I have a pretty good idea of what I like and what I avoid. But I’ve not had the language to express some of the nuances before I started reading reviews. I also appreciate a well-written anything

 

[captpat]

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

Oh, but the stars are useful. The usefulness of the average star rating is directly proportional to the number of reviews. A single 4-star review is not helpful but an average of 3.5 stars with 20 reviewers suggests a quality blend. Star ratings aren't the final story but they often add valuable information.

 

[Sigmund]

Jims are really helpful as he does try to be as objective as possible. Some others I read that will compare blend A to Blend B can be helpful if I have had one of them.

Luckily some people go beyond "I like it so its great".

 

[sablebrush52]

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

It’s not a site for professionals. Any simian with fingers and a keyboard can post to it.
So there will be utterly senseless people posting utterly senseless content to it.
There are a few reviewers who I find useful, but for the most part I don’t bother as I prefer to make up my own mind about a blend.

 

[pappymac]

With the exception of reviews written by Jiminks, I read reviews to see what a blend contains.

This is mostly because I find other peoples thoughts on a blend to be different than what I may think. Another thing is that I have seen a lot of aromatic reviews with one or two stars written by pipe smokers who state, "I don't normally smoke aromatics..." If you don't "normally" smoke aromatics then why are you bashing an aromatic?

Sometimes these reviews leave me wondering, "What the hell were you guys smoking" because the blend is not nearly as bad (or good) as what I have smoked.

I like Jim's reviews because they are straightforward and gives me a base of what to expect in a blend. I may not agree with every review he has done, but that's usually a matter of my taste being different than his.

 

[LotusEater]

I generally read tobacco reviews passively for entertainment. As others have said, when contemplating a purchase I usually just want to know the blends components. The reviews I find most helpful are those that let you know how those components come across- if the Perique is spicy or fruity or if the orientals are buttery and/or incense like. A blend may contain Latakia but does the lat overpower everything else?

 

[PaulRVA]

Give me the contents of the blend and what is forward in the blend.
Tell me what the prominent flavor you pick up on is and the general room note.
No opinions, no memories and no thoughts!
Now if you’ve been doing it for 50 years tell me all this and what you really think because if you’ve been doing it that long then your opinion actually matters to me.
If you haven’t then bugger off because your probably wasting everyone’s time and should focus on tik tok or video games instead.

 

[RookieGuy80]

I'll use them as the others do. What components and how far forward are they? I do read JimInks's reviews because I've figured out how to apply his terminology towards my tastes. There's a couple other reviewers I've found with tastes similar to mine that I'll read if they review a blend I'm interested in.

Sometimes the reviews are helpful. Sometimes those reviews say things like "I wasn't expecting an aromatic" or something like that. Sometimes I'll get information from everyone. War Horse Green is a good example. Everyone there called it a "licorice Lakeland". That let me know what to expect.

I have reviewed I think 2 blends here. I have tried to be as objective as possible, this is what I found for flavor/taste, burn characteristics, etc. But it's impossible for me to divorce my review from my feelings towards it. I will highlight what I like because it stood out to me.

 

[ThermionicScott]

Isn't weeding out all of the 1 and 2 star reviews a bias in and of itself? You might get the impression that every blend is good if you're not careful.

It's definitely annoying when someone is way out of their element in reviewing a blend (and this seems even more prevalent on vendor sites like SP or TP or P&C), but when Jim or one of the handful of veteran tobacco-tasters gives a blend a thumbs-down, I take notice.

 

[makhorkasmoker]

As a burley smoker I get frustrated with many reviews. To list components is not enough with burley forward blends. I need to know what has been done to the burley, and as this info is rarely given by the producer (c&d is a wonderful exception), the reviewer needs a deep knowledge of burley. If the burley has been toasted, or cased, it will create a completely different experience . What’s the proportion of white to dark? Has the dark been piled? How much? I’d like to know. It makes a big difference.

A parallel problem is that reviewers who are not true burley aficionados have a hard time with burley’s subtlety. So many reviewers, for example, claim that five brothers is pure unadulterated burley when it has an obvious topping. Again there are exceptions. an ex member here, death metal something, has written some excellent burley reviews

 

[greeneyes]

Reviews are like data points. If fifty reviewers say it's sweet and bites, it's probably sweet and bites. Individual reviews are meaningless except for motives of aesthetics of prose.

 

[BPatrick]

Oh, but the stars are useful. The usefulness of the average star rating is directly proportional to the number of reviews. A single 4-star review is not helpful but an average of 3.5 stars with 20 reviewers suggests a quality blend. Star ratings aren't the final story but they often add valuable information.

This is true only if it's someone who likes the types of blends their rating. For example, if the guy doesn't like aromatics, then I could care less to hear his negative opinion about something he doesn't like anyway. Same goes for English blends. I could care less to hear an opinion about a guy who doesn't like English blends.

 

[WVOldFart]

The trouble with some of the reviews is that they got their pipe and tobacco on Monday, smoked a bowl or two on Tuesday and are experts by Wednesday. You can tell which ones these are because they rewrite jimInks reviews but in a different way. Some of my favorites smokes are two star smokes. Let your mouth make the decision and the best way to do that is buy 1 oz. samples and try them for yourself. You aren't going to go broke by buying a small sample, but then you will know if you like it or not.

 

[captpat]

This is true only if it's someone who likes the types of blends their rating. For example, if the guy doesn't like aromatics, then I could care less to hear his negative opinion about something he doesn't like anyway. Same goes for English blends. I could care less to hear an opinion about a guy who doesn't like English blends.

I wonder how many folks smoke a blend they don't like just to post a bad review?

 

[BPatrick]

There's a YouTube pipe tobacco review with this guy and his 3 sons. First , I like the idea of them getting together and smoking and I do like the interaction. Not all of them are on every episode. One of the things that bugs me is they'll have the young kid on an episode where they rate an English blend and the kid hates English blends. Worse is it's a really good blend that I've had before and enjoy and the kid goes, I don't like English blends so I give it a 2. Lol. Then the other son will say I like it but it doesn't taste as good as this other blend. Well the problem is one blend was created over 100 years ago and it was one of many blends. Over 100 years ago light English blends were smoked in the morning and the blends got progressively stronger as the day wore on. Now, apparently the blend sucks because a custom blender made a new blend in 2010 lol. Just stuff like that. Overall they do a nice job and I'm sure they're good guys.

 

[BPatrick]

I wonder how many folks smoke a blend they don't like just to post a bad review?

Agreed. Or never smoked it just read someone else's and copied it

 

[BPatrick]

It’s not a site for professionals. Any simian with fingers and a keyboard can post to it.
So there will be utterly senseless people posting utterly senseless content to it.
There are a few reviewers who I find useful, but for the most part I don’t bother as I prefer to make up my own mind about a blend.

Great point

 

[BPatrick]

With the exception of reviews written by Jiminks, I read reviews to see what a blend contains.

This is mostly because I find other peoples thoughts on a blend to be different than what I may think. Another thing is that I have seen a lot of aromatic reviews with one or two stars written by pipe smokers who state, "I don't normally smoke aromatics..." If you don't "normally" smoke aromatics then why are you bashing an aromatic?

Sometimes these reviews leave me wondering, "What the hell were you guys smoking" because the blend is not nearly as bad (or good) as what I have smoked.

I like Jim's reviews because they are straightforward and gives me a base of what to expect in a blend. I may not agree with every review he has done, but that's usually a matter of my taste being different than his.

Exactly

 

[BPatrick]

Isn't weeding out all of the 1 and 2 star reviews a bias in and of itself? You might get the impression that every blend is good if you're not careful.

It's definitely annoying when someone is way out of their element in reviewing a blend (and this seems even more prevalent on vendor sites like SP or TP or P&C), but when Jim or one of the handful of veteran tobacco-tasters gives a blend a thumbs-down, I take notice.

Well you'd think. But my safe guard is. I'm a veteran pipe smoker that's smoked long enough to know what types of blends I like and what I don't.
I smoke quality blends so I rarely get a thumbs down opinion. This is true mostly of Englishes which is what I smoke. The aromatics I do smoke are quality so I don't get that fake topping taste.
The majority of times I read a tobacco review on a good quality tobacco, I see the 1 and 2 star reviews. They're...just...stupid. Clueless people who don't know what they're talking about.
Usually starts with I'm new to pipe smoking and Quiet Nights sucks lol. ECT. Very rarely does a really good, quality, in depth review have a 1 or 2 star rating, BUT, I will read those as I really am curious about how they came to that conclusion and I do value that opinion.
The super brief vague reviews are utterly worthless. I feel not filtering them out actually unfairly biases the rating.