In Search of the "WOW" factor

[WVOldFart]

Many will attest to being addicted to tobacco or nicotine, but most of us are addicted to the hobby of pipe smoking. We are constantly searching for that blend that will make us stand up and yell "Sell my clothes I'm going to Heaven, that's a great smoke". We buy countless amounts of 1 ounce packages to try to find that "Wow" factor. We have our daily usual smoke, but we like to try new ones to find the perfect blend for the rotation. Then one day we notice that we have massive amounts of 1 ounce bags of tobacco and we are determined to smoke them all up before we purchase any more tobacco, but he next month we are still making a purchase for more. We are addicted to our tobacco hobby. Let us not forget also our addiction to pipes. You can only smoke one pipe at a time, but we see all those beautiful pipes listed online or in catalogs and damn they look nice. I could really use that pipe. So the credit card comes out and low and behold here comes another pipe for the collection. There is a "Wow" factor for pipes. The next one will definitely be the last one I'll need to buy, but ha ha will do say the funniest things. It is such a wonderful hobby that has kept us busy for years and out of our wives way. Thank heavens for the "Wow" factor.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I have smoked some pretty great pipe tobaccos, but none that just blew my mind. Well... I take that back. When I returned to some leaf that I had grown myself, and tried it after having let it set in the barn for a few years, i was blown away. But, mostly it was because I didn't realize how great uncased homegrown tobacco could be, and there is always that "I GREW THIS!! factor.

Pipes, I have never told myself that any pipe would be my last. I am planning to just keep acquiring pipes till I die. There is no such nonsense as "too many" for me. I don't even fathom what that could mean. That's like saying, "too much sex, or too much money" WTF?

 

[WVOldFart]

I have smoked some pretty great pipe tobaccos, but none that just blew my mind. Well... I take that back. When I returned to some leaf that I had grown myself, and tried it after having let it set in the barn for a few years, i was blown away. But, mostly it was because I didn't realize how great uncased homegrown tobacco could be, and there is always that "I GREW THIS!! factor.

Pipes, I have never told myself that any pipe would be my last. I am planning to just keep acquiring pipes till I die. There is no such nonsense as "too many" for me. I don't even fathom what that could mean. That's like saying, "too much sex, or too much money" WTF?

When you grew your own leaf, the taste was probably really super, but did it knock you on your ass? I imagine you thought "This is how it all started with a single tobacco leaf."

 

[cosmicfolklore]

When you grew your own leaf, the taste was probably really super, but did it knock you on your ass? I imagine you thought "This is how it all started with a single tobacco leaf."

Actually, my uncased Virginias, I prefer way more than commercial pipe tobaccos. I actually can't even smoke European Virginia flakes any more. All I taste is the casing now.
I had a Ukrainian that came out with actual lemony flavors, and a variety of flue cured called Cherry Red that actually had some cherry notes, slight, but they're there. Most of the varieties I can grow are not available commercially at all.
To me, it's like the difference between homemade and opening a can. It can really change your perspective.

 

[Sweet Home Alabama]

If you eat apple pie and vanilla ice cream all day every day, don’t expect “wow”!! The taste buds can only handle so much…lol!!

 

[mso489]

I've never expected a new blend to make me ascend to heaven. A comfortable and interesting smoke is the limit of my expectations, but when circumstances, my own mood and imagination, and the right blend converge, I do get transported to the heights. But it's not a particular pipe or blend that make it happen, more like a convergence of he stars.

 

[gervais]

Actually, my uncased Virginias, I prefer way more than commercial pipe tobaccos. I actually can't even smoke European Virginia flakes any more. All I taste is the casing now.
I had a Ukrainian that came out with actual lemony flavors, and a variety of flue cured called Cherry Red that actually had some cherry notes, slight, but they're there. Most of the varieties I can grow are not available commercially at all.
To me, it's like the difference between homemade and opening a can. It can really change your perspective.

What?! Im smoking some Old Gowrie right now and it's European Virginia heaven! Whatever Euro Va's are cased with adds a nice touch, imo. I love uncased too, don't get me wrong, but I won't turn up my nose to 99% of the pipe tobacco market that uses casing

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

I thought Eight States Burley and Sun Bear both had some Wow factor. Every time I break open a tin of McClelland 40th there's some wow factor. Been smoking 2013 SG SJF and 2015 Old Gowrie, definitely some wow factor there. Now I don't up out of my chair and start dancing but I'll lift my pipe or of my mouth and think "wow, that's really good".

 

[cosmicfolklore]

What?! Im smoking some Old Gowrie right now and it's European Virginia heaven! Whatever Euro Va's are cased with adds a nice touch, imo. I love uncased too, don't get me wrong, but I won't turn up my nose to 99% of the pipe tobacco market that uses casing

Hey, I'm not knocking them, just saying that I appreciate my own much more. Know what I mean?
I have plenty of European flakes in the cellar, which I might come back to in ten or more years. I'm in no hurry, since I am enjoying my own.

 

[lawdawg]

I'll echo a similar sentiment to the other guys. Instead of constantly being on the search for the HOLY GRAIL OF PIPE TOBACCO , I've found a few blends that I really enjoy and have stuck with them. I still like trying new blends, whether new to me or actually new, but it's really just out of curiosity more than anything else at this point. The vast majority of the tobacco that I buy consists of maybe 10 blends that I really like and have come to favor most over the years.

 

[gervais]

Hey, I'm not knocking them, just saying that I appreciate my own much more. Know what I mean?
I have plenty of European flakes in the cellar, which I might come back to in ten or more years. I'm in no hurry, since I am enjoying my own.

I hear ya! Someday I hope I can grow and smoke my own. Thats gotta be a great feeling.

 

[kcghost]

I once bought a four once tin of Cope's Escudo. Roughly forty years old. My goodness, that tin must have been made by the gods themselves. Shared it with about six other guys who all declared it was the finest tobacco they had ever smoked. My god it was glorious. I've tried some Cope's Excudo out of other tins and they are as bland as the day is long. One tin and that flavor was gone.

 

[gervais]

I once bought a four once tin of Cope's Escudo. Roughly forty years old. My goodness, that tin must have been made by the gods themselves. Shared it with about six other guys who all declared it was the finest tobacco they had ever smoked. My god it was glorious. I've tried some Cope's Excudo out of other tins and they are as bland as the day is long. One tin and that flavor was gone.

Were all the tins the same age?

 

[kcghost]

I have no idea, but it's Cope's Escudo which been out of production for 40 years.

 

[Worknman]

The wow moments are usually just that, moments. Sometimes the stars align and you have a smoke of the perfect blend, at the perfect moisture level, packed perfectly in the perfect pipe for that moment. But then a few weeks later you have the same blend again in the same pipe and its good but not as great as it was that time before.

 

[AroEnglish]

I’ve had this "wow" moment with Boswell's Northwoods but only in the first month or so. After that, the flavor disappears and it’s just an average smoke.

 

[Grangerous]

I’d received an estate Stanwell from the 1989 Pipe Smoking Competition and my first bowl of Granger within it had some wow factor. The flavor just popped. —- It wasn’t the pipe. Like MSO said, sometimes the planets simply align.

I also agree wholeheartedly with @LawDog’s comment. Today I’m happy to revisit a handful of favorites.

These always satisfy me:

Peterson University Flake
Pegasus
Prince Albert
Granger
Carter Hall - but not as often.

If these blends were all that existed I’d be fine. But I still sample this and that like we all do. Most of the time, based upon halo rated reviews, I’m disappointed. I have 60 plus blends in the cellar.

Solani ABF — Bland
Haunted Bookshop - Bland
Escudo - Bland
Etc. Etc. Etc.

After years and years of sampling, I’ve identified some personal favorites. I’m happy to be off the TAD hamster wheel.

 

[krizzose]

These are the blends that get me excited when I open a new tin (some of these are in fact old tins, which is part of the fun):

McClelland Christmas Cheer
McClelland Navy Cavendish
McClelland Classic Samsun
Mac Baren Vanilla Cream Flake
Fribourg & Treyer Special Brown Flake
GLP Windjammer
Rattray’s Marlin Flake

Also contributing to the fun is that I don’t smoke that much and I have a ton of open tins, so opening a sealed tin of one of my favorites is actually a fairly rare occurrence.

 

[SBC]

The modern pipe smoking phenomenon -- the phenomenon which most of us represent -- is largely driven by this hunt for the holy grail. We want to identify with other eras of pipe smokers, but forget that what drives us could not possibly have driven them, for the simple reason that they did not have the smorgasbord of tobaccos available to them that we have to us.

Few of us are sufficiently self-aware to admit that it's a destination we'd be sad to arrive at, because the pilgrimage would be over.

We're consumers, and we take our consuming habits to pipe smoking -- a hobby which ideally represents the opposite of consumption -- contentment.

This is not to say that our Grand Tour through the tobacco universe is necessarily wrong. I'm on that tour myself. But if it distracts us from gratitude for the tobacco we have -- from contentment with the same old liturgy, which with repetition should grow more deep, not more shallow, in its significance -- then it is probably fair to say that that is at least too bad.

Boredom with the good things a man has, and a growing itch for "Wow", has led to many a heartache.

Samwise longed all his life to see the elves. But having seen them, he wanted to settle back into the Shire.

(BTW, I'm a hypocrite: I am literally leaving right now to buy some tobaccos I've never tried, in hopes that I will be wowed. Mea culpa!)

 

[AroEnglish]

The modern pipe smoking phenomenon -- the phenomenon which most of us represent -- is largely driven by this hunt for the holy grail. We want to identify with other eras of pipe smokers, but forget that what drives us could not possibly have driven them, for the simple reason that they did not have the smorgasbord of tobaccos available to them that we have to us.

Few of us are sufficiently self-aware to admit that it's a destination we'd be sad to arrive at, because the pilgrimage would be over.

We're consumers, and we take our consuming habits to pipe smoking -- a hobby which ideally represents the opposite of consumption -- contentment.

This is not to say that our Grand Tour through the tobacco universe is necessarily wrong. I'm on that tour myself. But if it distracts us from gratitude for the tobacco we have -- from contentment with the same old liturgy, which with repetition should grow more deep, not more shallow, in its significance -- then it is probably fair to say that that is at least too bad.

Boredom with the good things a man has, and a growing itch for "Wow", has led to many a heartache.

Samwise longed all his life to see the elves. But having seen them, he wanted to settle back into the Shire.

(BTW, I'm a hypocrite: I am literally leaving right now to buy some tobaccos I've never tried, in hopes that I will be wowed. Mea culpa!)

Very well said. I think I’m grappling with this now and starting to taper both my expectations and my spending.