Immediate Favorites That Later ... Aren't.

[WerewolfOfLondon]

Used to love McB Navy Flake. When I began five or so years ago, that was my blend. Now I find it to be a rather boring burley blend with fag overtones. Still not bad, but it isn't in my regular rotation.

More shockingly, I am starting to have this problem with Germains Brown Flake. There was a time I loved its complexity, the balance between virginia and kentucky absolutely perfect. The last few bowls I've had have been hot air smokes. I won't take this lying down though. By hook or by crook, I'll find a way to squeeze those old flavours out. Even if I have to take a flamethrower to the bastard.

 

[smudgersmissingleg]

Germain's Rich Dark Flake was one that I loved at first but then suddenly went off of. I haven't smoked any in about 5 years and I've got a few pouches in the cellar so maybe i'll give it a try again.

Tastes can change over time

 

[username]

Loved nightcap and now I can't remember the last time I smoked it.

 

[stoopidbaits]

PS bullseye flake. Never truly loved it, just thought I did and loved the presentation. I've got a decent jar of it but haven't touched it in sometime and no desire to return.

 

[Sobrbiker]

Are there any forum type pipe smokers that haven’t had the experience?

 

[Meerschaum Maestro]

Borkum Riff Whiskey was at one point a revelation to me and still is to some degree...a time where I could get my favorite blend without overpaying on tinbids...remarkable era

 

[Richmond B. Funkenhouser]

I can't think of a blend like that.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Sometimes I just have to put a blend away for a few months and come back later.

I usually find that I missed it.

 

[Brad H]

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.

been there, done that.... welcome to having a nice cellar though...age it or trade it off =[]

 

[shikano53]

Similar with Bulls eye flake. I fell in love with it but over time not so much. I let it sit in a mason jar for several months but I think the Black cavendish centre and the Virginia's instead of staying married got divorced.

 

[FLDRD]

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.

This is something I have NOT done, and wonder if I should. My excuse for not doing so is that I've got so many blends purchased to still try, and I'm concerned about "ruining" the "special" that I get from one if I over-do it. I've presumed that constant variety prevents the burnout of a favorite blend.
But maybe going full blast and loving it until I don't is the better way to go.......
I guess I won't know until I try.

 

[krizzose]

This hasn’t happened to me. While there are a few blends that didn’t stay at the top of my rankings, I have yet to stop liking, or even grow bored of, a blend that I ranked highly when I first tried it.

 

[The Novice Piper]

I've presumed that constant variety prevents the burnout of a favorite blend.

I was thinking the same thing until I went back to a few favorites I had been carefully rationing out and found their magic was gone.

It gutted me knowing that I could have been smoking it all along and wouldn't have been any worse for the gluttony. Hell, probably would have had more great sessions with it.

A lot of stuff is just crowding the cabinet because I feel guilty about wasting it or I'm paranoid I'll miss out later on something that aged well.

It's just tobacco. And there's still enough variety out there to stockpile for even the pickiest smoker.

This approach is moving into all my tobacco use: Have a sample that's not great? Give it away. This bowl isn't scratching the itch like I thought it would? Chuck it out, grab something else.

I work hard for my little luxuries. I've blown way too much time and money on this shit not to be enjoying it to the fullest every time. I'm all for delayed gratification with each individual bowl, but it's silly forcing myself to push through a lackluster smoke like it's bad leftovers.

At this point I'm not opening new tins I really want to because all my jar space is taken up by blends that taste great right now.

Smoking is fun and relaxing again.

 

[Contrarian_King]

Are there any forum type pipe smokers that haven’t had the experience?

Hasn't happened to me. Pipe smoking isn't a hobby to me, its something that serves as an accompaniment to something else I'm doing, so I'm never concerned with having some tastebud shattering experience every time I light up, thus I'm constantly content and satisfied purely by the act itself and not any particular aspect of the act.

 

[Skippy Piper]

This has been an extremely common experience for me, and happened often enough that I now don't even try to make up my mind about whether or not I like a blend until I've smoked it every day for a week; and wait until I've smoked through at least 2 tins worth of any blend before stocking up on it.

The most recent example for me was Squadron Leader. The first pipe it was the most perfectly balanced and flawless English blend I had ever smoked, and then in every subsequent pipe of it I've been finding the Orientals too tame and under-spiced for my liking and the Latakia starts developing an unpleasant burnt coffee and road tar sort of flavor at around the halfway point of every bowl.

I've had the same sort experience with Cult Blood Red Moon, Haunted Bookshop, Pegasus, 507C Virginia Slices, 1792 Flake, Coniston Cut Plug, and many others where at first you think you've found a new all time favorite blend but as you spend more time with it and get to know it better the cracks in the proverbial paint begin to reveal themselves and you discover that maybe it wasn't quite as perfect as you thought it was.

Conversely, there are some blends like Presbyterian Mixture, Captain Black Original, and Kendal Dark that I wasn't quite sure what to make of them at first and even outright disliked them in some cases but they later went on to become firm favorites. In either case I think the lesson here is that it takes time and many smokes to really get to know a blend.

 

[Gerald Boone]

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.

Adding the word Sutliffocalypse to my lectionary; applies to tobacco but could also apply to other things loved and lost.

 

[Lumbridge]

Sail Aromatic. The first pouch I got several years back was delicious, and the second one was flat and boring. It could be great if it weren't so inconsistent.

 

[Montag]

This is how I felt about Edward G. Robinson's Pipe Blend. I loved it initially but with time I liked it less and less. It ended up tasting mostly like pg at the end of the last tin.

 

[PipePic]

what most are discussing is most likely going to fall into the "erratic mixing column of unfun".

YOu know what I mean, the recipe has you mix the cinnamon in the yogurt for 5 minutes with a whisk. And every time you take the first bite... you get 90% of all the cinnamon you mixed in.

Even back in the dark days of 2003, i noticed each container of prince albert tasted slightly different. Even the big plastic can had odd taste changes until i started shaking it around before loading the pipe.

Your precious blend of dried leaves contains 8% latakia. Do you reeeeally believe every pipe full will be 8% latakia?

Naturally some will have NONE, and most will have a single strand or two mixed in for fun.