How Many Blends are There *Really*

[Briar Lee]

Somebody earned their pay writing this description!

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Only the best pipe tobaccos are used by Rouseco Inc to make Buoy Pipe Tobacco. Top-notch All-American tobaccos are blended to make this high-quality flavorful blend. No matter what your preference, you are sure to find a Buoy to lead you to just the right combination of flavor. Look for the Red Buoy if you want the full flavor tobacco has to offer. If you’re looking for something a bit more mellow, the Blue Buoy is where you want to go. For those looking to drop anchor on the calmest waters, the Silver Buoy is where you will want to set your heading. The Green Buoy Pipe Tobacco marks the place where you will find a menthol flavor as cool as an ocean breeze. The Yellow Buoy pipe tobacco marks where you will find tobacco with the pure unrefined taste of natural tobacco. Buoy Pipe Tobacco is sure to have a blend that is just the right place for you to be, regardless of your preference.

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The first truly national smoking tobacco brand was Bull Durham.

Our brave and noble boys in blue had cornered the victors of the Battle of Fort Sumter near Durham North Carolina, and during the surrender negotiations paid the local tobacco merchant there with real money instead of worthless Rebel paper script.

My Buoy Gold has to be close to what Bull Durham was.

Later on, white sun cured and dark fired burley, Perique, orientals, Latakia, Maryland and flavorings were blended with Old Belt flue cured Virginias to establish brand identity seperate from Bull Durham.

Make mine a Marxman full of Buoy Gold.

It’s the closest thing to perfect I’ve found, yet.

The other blends, are all doctored up.

 

[sablebrush52]

From my brief stint on the periphery of pipe tobacco marketing, I can tell you, unequivocally, that there are many duplicate blends out there, the same product in different packaging. But how many people have actually (correctly) call them out? What that shows is that most people don’t notice it. Even a blend as distinctive as Fusiliers Ration went unnoticed when STG rebranded is as Bengal Slices, but continued selling it under both labels. So, what difference does it make when pipe smokers are so easily fooled and completely distracted by a name or label? My answer is that it matters not a bit. Smoke what you like, enjoy the label.

Boy, is this ever gospel. Not too many years ago people held the irrational belief that the tinned and bulk version of any blend were different, either using "lesser" quality ingredients or some other reason. Why irrational? For one thing, setting up two completely separate manufacturing pipelines one for bulk, the other for tinning, to produce the same blend, is a huge waste of money, and these companies don't waste money. But, one being tinned and the other packed in large plastic bags sitting in a tobacconist's backroom would introduce some difference in moisture, etc, over time.

I was once informed by a reliable source that there are something like 26 renamings of 1Q. Whatever extends profits is OK. Taking a blend that's doing well, but has been around and simply retinning and renaming it as something new, why not if it expands sales? Customers will accept the emperor's new clothes without question and be happy to try something "new".

 

[sablebrush52]

fda.gov/tobacco lists 1,599 pipe tobacco blends. These also may include RYO/Pipe tobacco hybrid blends that people use for cigarettes.

That's quite a drop from 10 years ago, when we were close to 7,000, which was ridiculous.

 

[craig61a]

9,835

 

[Egg Shen]

Its your problem that you cant taste the difference between the exquisite orientals fertilized with Istanbulian stray cat poo from the left side of plot 123456 and the ones not fertilized with same cat poo, dang it!

All jokes aside, from the limited experience I have with smoking in general and englishes in specific, I can tell the difference. Admittingly, one is Presbyterian where the sour notes of the orientals (either with or without cat poo) is prominent to me and Latakia is on the background, another one is a SG Shag blend with a vanilla aroma (forgot the name) where the vanilla is offsetting the Latakia very well. Yet another is C&D Star of the East Flake which is 50% Latakia and the other components are much more in the background. I like them all for their differences. Would I be able to tell one or another from all of them, offcourse not. And like said, some blends in a portfolio might be the same in another can, but thats happening all over the board with marketing.

I could call myself a beer geek and im convinced for a lot of beers, especially with IPA and barrel aged beers, its common to brew the same base beer and when fermenting make minor tweaks in hop profile which are not noticeable as most are brewing a high Beta acid hops on the cold side for them fruity flavors. But hey I can still market it as the next best thing as it has a different recipe. Or when putting a fermented beer in a barrel you in some cases wont be able to detect if it is casked in bourbon barrel A or B from distillery X or Y, its about the same. But it sounds interesting that the beer was barrel aged in a barrel from some non obtanium distillery.

You must be speaking about Long Trail

 

[sablebrush52]

9,835

Bottles of beer?

 

[Zamora]

So do I, but I sometimes get tired of the same same most brewers want a IPA to be. I have had about 800 unique beers ans sometimes I just want to drink beer. I wouldnt be surprised I come to a point that I drink readily available belgian dubbel, tripel or quad and be content with it. Same with tabacco, I wouldnt be surprised when Im further in my "voyage" after a few more years I would smoke 3 or 4 blends in under total 10 pipes and be happy.

I pretty much only drink stouts / porters and as much as I enjoy trying different brands as I get the chance I'd honestly be happy with just Guinness. I just haven't come across any other style that really clicks with me but I'll occasionally have a Corona with tacos or a Tsingtao with hot pot

 

[Zamora]

Boy, is this ever gospel. Not too many years ago people held the irrational belief that the tinned and bulk version of any blend were different, either using "lesser" quality ingredients or some other reason. Why irrational? For one thing, setting up two completely separate manufacturing pipelines one for bulk, the other for tinning, to produce the same blend, is a huge waste of money, and these companies don't waste money. But, one being tinned and the other packed in large plastic bags sitting in a tobacconist's backroom would introduce some difference in moisture, etc, over time.

I was once informed by a reliable source that there are something like 26 renamings of 1Q. Whatever extends profits is OK. Taking a blend that's doing well, but has been around and simply retinning and renaming it as something new, why not if it expands sales? Customers will accept the emperor's new clothes without question and be happy to try something "new".

To me it always seemed obvious that bulk was simply cheaper because tinning is more expensive than bagging so stands to reason the savings are passed to retailer and customer.

That's quite a drop from 10 years ago, when we were close to 7,000, which was ridiculous.

I'm not sure if this is true but I've heard a few of the Dunhill blends that didn't make it to the Peterson rebrand technically still live under different names, notably Ye Sign as Robert McConnel Shakespeare.

 

[sablebrush52]

I'm not sure if this is true but I've heard a few of the Dunhill blends that didn't make it to the Peterson rebrand technically still live under different names, notably Ye Sign as Robert McConnel Shakespeare.

During the time that BAT ended STD’s production of the “Dunhill” branded clones, K&K issued their own copies under their McConnell brand. There were a couple of other copies floating around as well.

 

[JackOrion]

There’s a variant to the question and that’s, How many different blends are there that make tobacco not taste like tobacco.

 

[DanWil84]

I pretty much only drink stouts / porters and as much as I enjoy trying different brands as I get the chance I'd honestly be happy with just Guinness. I just haven't come across any other style that really clicks with me but I'll occasionally have a Corona with tacos or a Tsingtao with hot pot

How many people hate on "big beer", which you can consider Guinness on the stout market, its as consistent as can be and to me is good every time for what it is.

Its like Westmalle for the Belgian ale market, people like to talk shit about it being "big beer" (especially the "afficionados"), but in the meantime some of the higher regarded ale makers these "afficionados" like to praise are using a Westmalle yeast strain. And belgian ale is all about the yeast.

 

[Zamora]

How many people hate on "big beer", which you can consider Guinness on the stout market, its as consistent as can be and to me is good every time for what it is.

Its like Westmalle for the Belgian ale market, people like to talk shit about it being "big beer" (especially the "afficionados"), but in the meantime some of the higher regarded ale makers these "afficionados" like to praise are using a Westmalle yeast strain. And belgian ale is all about the yeast.

I've seen Guinness get a lot of hate, especially from Irish people. It's not my favorite by any means but exactly you know what you're gonna get, I've had a few craft stouts I didn't care for and made me wish I would've just gotten a Guinness.