Immediate Favorites That Later ... Aren't.

[SBC]

Embers mentioned Pease Stonehenge ( / GH Louisiana Flake) in another thread, and it got me thinking back to tobaccos that struck me as my new all-time favorites upon first smoking ... that later just never quite matched that first experience, or even fell off my list of go-tos altogether.

This arc was stark, for me, as regards these four:

• Stonehenge / Louisiana Flake
• Marlin Flake
• Salty Dogs
• Dunhill Dark Flake

(It fascinates me that these are all in the same sub-genre of Dark VaPer. I smoke many genres, but I've had this experience only with these.)

I don't think that I'll ever forget my first smoke of each of these. Extremely memorable. I was elated. I tasted symphonic flavors with depth and deliciousness that seemed unprecedented. I said, each time, "Oh man, I think that I've found my all-time favorite tobacco!"

But it never happened again. The next smoke wouldn't be the same. Not bad ... just, that epiphany wasn't happening. And in fact, I couldn't seem to hunt down all of the same flavors that I'd tasted the first time.

Sometimes I'd leave that tobacco alone for a month, and then try again. But no, that first smoke could never be reproduced.

I still consider all of these tobaccos very solid. But to be honest, none of them wound up being long-term go-tos for me.

Can anybody else relate?

 

[gervais]

I'm hoping this isn't 100% the case with all my smokes of this to come, but HH old dark fired, when I first remember smoking it, was my favourite blend going. Over time, been smoking other blends and recently pulled ODF back out of the cellar and it's just "Meh" now.... Kind of a let down to be honest.

Maybe aging didn't do this blend any favours. Oh well, maybe something with click with my taste buds and I'll enjoy it more in the future!

 

[FLDRD]

Can anybody else relate?

It happens to me regularly. As well as the other way around, going from meh to pretty good as it changes and I get more experience with it.
So I've actually had concern that some tins I really enjoyed in the past won't be so palatable in the future due to changes in my preference, so I try to have lots of variety, and not come back to something too often.
I'm hoping this keeps things intriguing enough that when I get back around to a preferred blend that it will be delightful all over again.
I'm still gambling though. I've no idea what time will bring with my palate.

 

[AcesAndEights]

Smoking 1-Q in my first month or so of pipe smoking. I thought I had reached the pinnacle of tobacco.
Yeah, about that….

 

[The Benedictine]

I try to rotate tobaccos frequently to avoid this issue.

 

[greatdane]

Common mistake: have a fantastic first bowl of a blend, then immediately buy tons of said blend for cellaring only to realize that subsequent bowls never measure up to that first bowl experience.

 

[khiddy]

Sutliff VooDoo Queen was like this for me. Delicious notes of vanilla, cocoa, and lots of that delicious latakia on first smoke, dang near transcendent. But every smoke since has been hot air or worse, hot bitey air. Glad I didn't go deep for the cellar with it before it disappeared due to the Sutliffocalypse.

 

[Kobold]

Smoking 1-Q in my first month or so of pipe smoking. I thought I had reached the pinnacle of tobacco.
Yeah, about that….

Same for me! I have pounds of that stuff because I was convinced that I had found my favorite. It’s not bad to me now but boring as hell.

 

[JoeW]

With cigars, I'd often smoke a new cigar and immediately become enamored with it, and want to buy a box. Fortunately I was unemployed when I started smoking cigars, and couldn't afford it. I attribute that feeling to the novelty of something new, enhanced by the nicotine: very few were as good the second time, or earned permanent spot in the humidor.

Pipe tobacco has been different for me: I haven't had that Second Bowl Letdown. There have been a few blends where I knew immediately that they'd be favorites (Reserve du Patron, Kendal No.7, HOTW, Tashkent), and they have stayed consistently flavorful and satisfying every time, no disappointments at all.

A few, conversely, immediately fall into the what-am-i-doing-with-my-life? category, and go into the deep cellar, only to emerge when nothing else is left in the world. Most blends are enjoyable in the first bowl, and get better as I learn how to smoke them.

 

[Hillcrest]

Lane 1-Q --- loved it until I had two pounds. Didn't have it for about a year. Now liking it again but less and slower.

 

[elvishrunes]

SunBear, by C/D. It’s a really good tobacco, but I’m not going to leave a nasty review on SP.com if I can’t get any this year, other stuff I’d like to try, and no I’ve never left them a nasty review because I missed a drop.

 

[lukasstrifeson]

Smoking 1-Q in my first month or so of pipe smoking. I thought I had reached the pinnacle of tobacco.
Yeah, about that….

Ya I used to like soppy wet aromatics more than I do now, but I chalk that up to a general change in taste (as well as smoking technique) over the years.

I'll still return to some Panna Cotta but it's a very different experience nowadays. Admittedly like to use them more as a mixer for a strong English or Balkan blend.

 

[dottlejockey]

I'm hoping this isn't 100% the case with all my smokes of this to come, but HH old dark fired, when I first remember smoking it, was my favourite blend going. Over time, been smoking other blends and recently pulled ODF back out of the cellar and it's just "Meh" now.... Kind of a let down to be honest.

Maybe aging didn't do this blend any favours. Oh well, maybe something with click with my taste buds and I'll enjoy it more in the future!

I find the flake version of many tobaccos to be a much better experience than the RR version. For me, this is certainly the case with ODF. If you have the RR, maybe go for the flake.

Not as dramatic a response as the OP, perhaps, but i do notice that blends with obvious toppings -- even if i really like them at first -- lose their luster over time. My palate seems to wear of them and i find myself pushing them back further on the shelves. While i don't grow to dislike them, i just feel weary after a 1/2 tin or so and have to put them away for an occasional change of pace scenario. This has been the case with many blends, such as Freja and Loki, Mad Fiddler, Sixpence, Dreams of Kadath, Haddo's Delight, even Cowboy Coffee, King's Highway and the like.

I had the exact opposite reaction to 5 brothers. The first time i smoked it i was ready to donate the rest of the pouch to garden fertilizer. I'm glad i didn't. I came back to it a while later and it was ok, then later and it was enjoyable. Now i like the stuff well enough, usually in a cob while out and about.

To each his own.

 

[Douglas]

This will be blasphemy but I don’t enjoy MM965 like I once did. It was my first English blend and I thought I was in love. For some reason, and it’s probably me and not the tobacco, but I just can’t seem to enjoy it anymore. It strikes me as almost bland, lifeless. I may order one more tin for old times sake to see if possibly the last few were off the mark. If it continues to disappoint then I will just move on, maybe revisit it much later.
To a lesser extent I am having a similar experience with Balkan Supreme.
Admittedly I have become much, much more of a VaPer smoker and that may have something to do with it but It hasn‘t been that way with other English blends that I still enjoy very much.

 

[BingBong]

Never been a "one bowl and in love" smoker. One tin, maybe, and I might be looking for a couple more if something clicks with me. I do like variety and changes of pace, though that often reminds me why Cabbie's is still my main squeeze.

 

[gervais]

I find the flake version of many tobaccos to be a much better experience than the RR version. For me, this is certainly the case with ODF. If you have the RR, maybe go for the flake.

Yeah actually the ODF I Jane recently revisited was the RR. I do have some of the flake in the cellar as well, so I will indeed hopefully find the blend I remembered within those jars

 

[warren]

Any John Midddleton's back in the mid-60s when I first started the pipe. Then I discovered unflavored blends that weren't insipid to my palate anyway.

 

[The Novice Piper]

Oh yeah, this happens all the time in various ways. Something tastes amazing and three months later it's dead, or it sucks now and later it's fantastic. It can change with the moisture level, the bowl I smoke it in, the amount of time I've been away from it, etc. I think it's just a part of pipe tobacco smoking and it's one of my favorite things about it.

I only cellar blends that have passed the "time test." This is still risky because that test can't account for the future. Sure, this blend held its effect for six months or a year, but will it go five or ten years? There's no way to know. For that reason, I also only cellar blends that I believe will have a good resale value in several years.

If something tastes amazing right now, I allow myself to have as much of it as I want. Never know when the goodness might go away.

I've definitelty had some blends that blew my socks off from the first bowl. As in, "I didn't know this feeling existed."

Tabac Manil comes to mind. War Horse Bar. Capstan Blue. SPC Hogshead Bourbon Barrel.

 

[warren]

One finds a few blends to be very satisfactory. Then wakes up one day in the future to find one's palate has changed. Still, life goes on and one begins the search again. Life's a bitch and then we die.

 

[Sig]

This is why I have advised new smokers to NOT buy 5 pounds of a blend until they KNOW.
I did that 20 years ago. I didn't know tastes may change, so I bought 1 pound bags...or more....of many blends. I still have varying amounts of many of those jarred up in the cellar.
Usually it goes the other way with me. I won't like something very much, but grow to love it.