How Many Blends are There *Really*

[JD Buckeye]

I am skeptical but trying to be open minded. From just the obvious count that I know of there are 155 English blends coming from C&D:
14 Captain Earle's
20 Drucquer
41 GLP
2 Two friends
1 Nording
77 C&D

Am I the only one that is skeptical that there is that much variance in these blends or are we, as consumers, so fixated on the perceived difference, that we'll nearly take up arms with each other? Some are obviously different and are observable. But, C&D recently pushed Rivertown maple cask which is nearly identical in appearance and aroma to Low Country rum...buy whichever is on sale, honestly.

Convince me that I should try these blends at ~7USD per ounce, please.

JD

 

[Servant King]

All English blends taste more or less the same to me. Some might call me pragmatic, others might simply write it off as an anatomical malady and declare that I have a goat palate. Whatever the reason, I view it as a good thing, which allows me to just buy the cheapest bulk English blend I can find!

 

[JD Buckeye]

All English blends taste more or less the same to me. Some might call me pragmatic, others might simply assess it as an anatomical malady and declare that I have a goat palate. Whatever the reason, I view it as a good thing, which allows me to just buy the cheapest bulk English blend I can find!

I tend to do similar.

I'm certainly not a super taster but I can taste some differences and I'm really trying to refine my pallette which I find so challenging

 

[AcesAndEights]

All English blends taste more or less the same to me. Some might call me pragmatic, others might simply write it off as an anatomical malady and declare that I have a goat palate. Whatever the reason, I view it as a good thing, which allows me to just buy the cheapest bulk English blend I can find!

I used to think the same thing. Then I participated in the Latakia challenge on here. GLP Renaissance and SG Squadron Leader showed me I was wrong!

 

[JD Buckeye]

I used to think the same thing. Then I participated in the Latakia challenge on here. GLP Renaissance and SG Squadron Leader showed me I was wrong!

Im definitely not shitting on C&D. I love their stuff and want them to do well. I also know there can be great variance blend to blend but I guess I wonder IF there are really THAT many or if some are actually identical but with a different label

 

[Arkansas Paul]

All English blends taste more or less the same to me.

Man, I thought I was the only one.
If it has Latakia in it, it tastes like Latakia. lol

There have been a few exceptions like Presbyterian Mixture and Penzance, which I enjoy more than others. Maybe I just like them Oriental forward.

 

[warren]

Convince me that I should try these blends at ~7USD per ounce, please.

That's the vendor's job not mine. I mean you're skeptical as it is, why waste my time. You could go to IRC's site and count their offerings if you are serious. I suspect you are not.

 

[Servant King]

I wonder IF there are really THAT many or if some are actually identical but with a different label

It's totally fair and reasonable to wonder that, and I myself have done a little bit of that from time to time, though not specific to C&D. Leaving aside English blends for the moment, I've found the most redundancies to be in the aromatic genre. To use Lane as an example, LL-7 and RLP-6 taste precisely the same to me. I won't touch the hardcore goopers anymore, but back when I did, this same pattern kept coming up. Conversely, I do pick up the subtle differences between VA blends. Mac Baren VA flake tastes different than, say, Newminster 400, which also tastes different from Vauen #14 and so on.

When I first started cellaring, I favored wide rather than deep. Now, a couple years later, I am correcting this a bit! I still love the variety, don't get me wrong, but I've picked a dozen or so blends to go quite deep on, while still maintaining the variety through smaller amounts of other holdings. But back to my original point (wait, what was my original point again? ), there's no need to accumulate a lot of variety amongst blends that taste the same to me.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I don't find a world of difference between blends in the same genre. Once the latakia percentage gets into the perceptible range in English blends, they all taste exactly alike to me.

 

[warren]

Once the latakia percentage gets into the perceptible range in English blends, they all taste exactly alike to me.

You nailed it!

 

[metalheadycigarguy]

The obvious things first...
The percentage of different tobaccos in each individual blend, tobacco's coming from different farms, the aging and storing of said tobaccos, the equipment used and processing of said tobacco's, the tobacco blenders themself, the pipes we smoke said blends in, and how we store and age tobacco ourselves, all contribute to the different taste in a tobacco blend compared to another similar tobacco blend.

I would venture to guess that there are very few people out there that could tell the difference between all those blends, but none the less there are some that could do it. For the other 99% of pipe smokers, the majority of all those blends would taste pretty much the same. So while there may be a difference between blends most of us would only be able to tell the difference in a smaller portion of the blends. While most of them are probably a different percentage of tobacco blends, I imagine some are identical; however, blended by different blenders and using a different name.

For me, I can tell the difference between some, but there are a lot that taste very similar, because of that I don't feel the need to try them all. The ones I've tried and enjoyed, I tend to stick with.

 

[9mmpuffer]

I don't care as long as we keep getting tons of amazing tobacco offerings at reasonable prices!

C&D is doing amazing work for our community, pray to God they keep doing it.

I do notice taste differences between English blends, but I haven't tried them all.

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

I am skeptical but trying to be open minded. From just the obvious count that I know of there are 155 English blends coming from C&D:
14 Captain Earle's
20 Drucquer
41 GLP
2 Two friends
1 Nording
77 C&D

Am I the only one that is skeptical that there is that much variance in these blends or are we, as consumers, so fixated on the perceived difference, that we'll nearly take up arms with each other? Some are obviously different and are observable. But, C&D recently pushed Rivertown maple cask which is nearly identical in appearance and aroma to Low Country rum...buy whichever is on sale, honestly.

Convince me that I should try these blends at ~7USD per ounce, please.

JD

Why would anyone try all those blends? Try what you want, trial and error. I never used all 64 colors - (if I type the real word it auto fills a nasty emoji, yikes).

 

[fireground_piper]

There’s like 150 different usda grades of Virginia leaf (a quick search wouldn’t give me a number).

That being said if all blends tasted the same, when someone asked “what’s a replacement of this blend that went out of production” people wouldn’t say “there are none”.

 

[64alex]

I think in tobacco review there are more than 3000 blends. I would guess that even the most experienced pipers if blind testing would not be able to distinguish more than 300 different ones out of them. And for the more regular guy as I consider myself, when you have defined 30 blends you have covered all the spectrum of taste.
This to say that more than thinking to try all the innumerable blends to find the perfect one which will never be found, I limited myself to define the 30 good blends for me and than enjoy them appreciating the subtle taste note on them which can be found only after smoking them repeatedly over a long period of time. This is also why I don't follow the limited edition blends and I prefer instead blends which has been in use for a long period of time. Just my opinion but whatever one likes to do it is good for me.

 

[sablebrush52]

It's a lot of subtle variations, which range over a significant distance. For many people, those subtle differences are not noticeable within a narrow range.

 

[Chasing Embers]

That being said if all blends tasted the same, when someone asked “what’s a replacement of this blend that went out of production” people wouldn’t say “there are none”.

That's how we keep things under the radar.

 

[woodsroad]

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.

 

[Servant King]

Even a blend as distinctive as Fusiliers Ration went unnoticed when STG rebranded is as Bengal Slices, but continued selling it under both labels.

They're both repurposed 507-C anyway...

 

[georged]

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.

My ex was a corporate account manager for Miller Brewing back when it was a standalone company.

They offered 28 brands of beer. Meaning different bottles, different labels, different names, etc., all at different prices.

Guess how many they actually BREWED, though?

Four.

No, I did not fat finger that.

Four.

Marketing to definable customer "types" was everything. Personality, lifestyle, income, age group, etc. And those customer connection categories were then appealed to with advertising. A beer's name, its bottle color, etc. was chosen according to what research said that category of buyer preferred and would reach for in a store. The taste of the beer had nothing to do with it.

PS --- the actual cost of the beer in a six pack? Five cents in 1994 money (meaning eleven cents today).