Instagram and Youtube generally has a fair crowd chasing things like this. Has for a number of years.
HU Tobacco Coming to the States
- Thread starter filmguerilla
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Forum membership is just a drop in the bucket. Not enough smokers to keep businesses open. The majority of pipe smokers aren't affiliated with social media concerning it.
With all due respect to Jim, what difference does his opinion make to your perception of these blends? Either you like them, or you don’t. The only thing I’d be interested in is if the products sold here are same as what’s sold in Germany. After that, it’s personal taste.Oooh I see these have arrived, now the question is HU Director’s Cut still good…
I mean ouch $31 it better be…
We gots to get the Master over here sampling this stuff…
Oh @JimInks I hope you’ll be sampling some of these in the near future, pretty please…
Back in the day ..... The HU blends of 5 years ago and older were mostly something special. Unfortunately, most blends have gotten watered down so much, they aren't all that much. Granted, many are unique. By all means, try them out. But don't go crazy until you've sampled blends you think you might like and smoke enough to form your own opinion.
There's still some good stuff on SmokingPipes. The African Line stuff is my favorite by them and they still have Asmara, Fayyum, Indaba, Khoisaan, and Makhuwa. Asmara is particularly good IMO (a good English with a touch of perique and the classic HU flavor). If you favor a strong VaPer, the Makhuwa is a VaBur with perique that packs a punch.
I doubt many are better than some of the glp blends. They are popular in the EU because its the best we have. Some are unique but a lot will double up with what you already know. Try a few and decide
My choice of wording, for using opinion wasn’t correct, I later realized…
I should of just said, I read his reviews to see what he’s experiencing is all. After all, I assume Jim is considered has having the most developed palate for picking out flavors, nuances etc... So I find it helpful to see what he’s detecting, to then later see if I notice the same things.
I also would of thought a lot of people valued his refined palate as a good reference to work from with blends.
If Jim is more of an expert of sorts with a more refined palate than most, I don’t see why people wouldn’t use that expertise, especially when people aren’t getting the same notes out of a blend, and they realize their palates aren’t as refined, and it’s something of a goal you might say, that others are working towards, to eventually reach that point, hopefully in having a palate just as refined.
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Pretty much this. Im sure some people just spammed bought pounds of blends they never smoked before though.
Ive gotten plenty of HU samples from generous members here and proceeded to buy what I like from Estervals. I got a tin of Indaba and Nyala to try since I never had samples of those so we’ll see. Im pretty satisfied from what we get stateside so I doubt my cellar will grow much from HU being more available.
I’ve already got what I currently want of the HU blends that are on offer now in the states so I actually just ordered about 3 pounds of Flanagan Flake from Esterval’’s - it was on sale 40% off.
I can't say for sure about these 100g tins but the ones I've received from Estervals were all sealed.
The fun part is going to be watching people bitch and complain that they run out so fast when they hit the shelves. I've had the older stuff, and I've sampled the newer stuff. People are going to be butt hurt over something that isn't even close to what made the blend good in the first place.
It'll be as much fun as watching an Esoteric drop.
It'll be as much fun as watching an Esoteric drop.
I guess I don’t subscribe to the “refined palate” dogma to the extent that some do. While I find that knowing the blend composition, flavorings and casings to be broadly useful, beyond that is personal and individual for me.
Never had any HU but they seem to have a lot of VA/Burley/Perique blends which is right in my wheelhouse...
Curious how these would compare to the Rattray's blends... which I love.
Curious how these would compare to the Rattray's blends... which I love.
I think HU stands well above Ratrays....not that I dislike Ratrays. HU has something additional. Its hard to put a finger on it. Perhaps more clarity. In comparison Ratrays is a tad two dimensional. A lot of Dan tobaccos are even a step further towards 2d.
I never had the original HU blends but if I had any negative comment it would be that the perique is a bit light in all the blends that contain it. I tend to add a pinch when loading a pipe. Cutting perique is a way a lot of blends cut costs. I guess its expensive.
I never had the original HU blends but if I had any negative comment it would be that the perique is a bit light in all the blends that contain it. I tend to add a pinch when loading a pipe. Cutting perique is a way a lot of blends cut costs. I guess its expensive.
HU has lost a lot since it was sold/licensed. For me, it’s no longer an epiphany. It’s like listening to a really good sound system…from another room, with the door closed.
What K&K, (now just K 'cause the K's can't get along) did was take out half the Perique to save a few cents per tin. Mark up on all tobaccos is considerable. They substituted with the cheap West African dark fired that seemed to invade the tobacco business years ago. It was not a good swap. And, there were substitutions in the rich Virginia base that HU sold. I noticed the presence of some hard stringy Virginia leaf that hadn't been in the mix before, and which I assume was responsible for the loss of overall richness in the blends. It's the same thing that happened with the Esoterica blends in 2020. That same hard stringy leaf started appearing in their blends and the flavor took a dive.
Whether any or all of that has been corrected, I have no idea, since I haven't bought any HU tobacco since 2018. I'll probably buy a tin of Makhuwa and Director's Cut at some point, just to if they're better, or still crap to me.
But for those of you who haven't tried these blends, they come to you as complete unknowns, so take them at face value and decide if you like like what you're smoking or not. You're in the position not to be haunted by ghosts of the past.
Agreed.It'll be as much fun as watching an Esoteric drop.
A couple blends caught my interest, but not enough for me to drop $30 for a sample which would only deviate me from enjoying my regular blends.
Yes, I am even more impressed that everything didn't sell out immediately. The fact that some were still left lets me know that folks are getting better at discerning what to blow their wad on.
Oh well, just another boring tobacco drop. Come on guys, where's your sense of self importance? You're competitive buying? Where's a griping and complaining? Where's you aggressive spirit to obtain exclusivity?