2 questions.
First, about how many blends have you sampled?
Second, which one is your all-time favorite?
Thanks
First, about how many blends have you sampled?
Second, which one is your all-time favorite?
Thanks
JimInks, I've Gotta Ask.
- Thread starter Cappy
- Start date
I bet he's lost count it's so many - LOL
Over 3,200.
The old VaPer Three Nuns is my all time favorite. I don't know that I have a favorite currently produced blend. There are too many that I like, including the ones I created and/or co-created.
I always look to your reviews over any others before I buy tobacco. You sir are a juggernaut of wealth of tobacco knowledge.
I thank you for the kind words, and I am pleased that my reviews help you.
M'lady sez I'm a juggernaut when it comes to baby back ribs.
The reviews are most helpful whether they are for something I would like or not. Very helpful stuff.
So here is a question. Did you find your palate got stronger after creating and/or co-creating a blend. I ask because with snuff I've done the same thing and found that playing and tuning in process combined with specifically knowing what's gone into the blend, ended up sharpening my ability to pick apart other snuffs.
That is the kind of observation I respect greatly, because you understand that it's up to the readers to make their own decisions.
This is crucial for people to understand when it comes to any kind of review. Tastes are so subjective that unless you luck into finding a reviewer who matches you 100% you as a reader can't just take someone else's tastes as your own.
The most important aspect to reviews is consistency. I may have different tastes from Jim but he's so critically consistent that the parts we don't align in are easy to spot and I can get a good idea of how I'll like a blend based on those differences and past reviews.
Anyone getting into reading Jim's reviews I'd recommend comparing his thoughts and your own on a blend you really like and know well and then the same with a blend you didn't like.
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A man of many talents.I thank you for the kind words, and I am pleased that my reviews help you.
M'lady sez I'm a juggernaut when it comes to baby back ribs.
That is a very objective analysis, and I agree with it. I don't let my personal opinions interfere with my analysis. What I do is provide guides to my experiences with blends as objectively as possible, and nothing else.
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And they are very objective and descriptive. I decided to try Hearth and Home First Snow because of your review. It did remind me of a spring morning with the grassy and earthy flavor instead of my first thoughts that it was a warm and cozy blend that would be best in the winter.
Laterally, teachings students in university and then later guiding junior colleagues made me learn more about the stuff I meant to have known already.
case in point. The few times one of your reviews grabbed my attention I actually got a pretty solid idea of how much I needed to get or ignore a blend. Thanks for the whole EGR thing again. Continues to be a huge favorite.
it is amazing how perspective shifts can change things. I've had revelations trying to explain something to another person before. Things I'd have never thought all by myself.
And that is why I as well appreciate the effort. Your objectivity combined with your consistency have allowed me learn more about profiles, genres, and of course specific blends.
Coupling your consistent delivery with your tasting/blending experience has led me personally to narrow in on what I like or don’t like way ahead of the curve as opposed to sampling randomly.
Your rating carries weight, but is more at a condimental level to the review (see what I did there?
) because forced rating, even as knowledgeable and careful as you are still has some subjectivity.Thanks for all you do, it’s helped (and still helps) my journey, education, and wallet.
I very much appreciate you taking the time to give us your take. Yours is always a review that I consider when I check up on prospective blends. 
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I have never been crazy about rating blends at all. But, since I had to, I devised a way to be as less subjective as I could. I rate blends against those similar to it in their respective genres. That is how, for example, you'd know my rating for a mild English would have nothing to do with a heavier English. Same goes for different flavored aromatics, etc., etc.And that is why I as well appreciate the effort. Your objectivity combined with your consistency have allowed me learn more about profiles, genres, and of course specific blends.
Coupling your consistent delivery with your tasting/blending experience has led me personally to narrow in on what I like or don’t like way ahead of the curve as opposed to sampling randomly.
Your rating carries weight, but is more at a condimental level to the review (see what I did there?
Thanks for all you do, it’s helped (and still helps) my journey, education, and wallet.
Granted, I don't take his reviews as absolute gospel (he gave Mountain Camp 2 stars for Christ sake!) but I do appreciate his breadth of palate and does give an accurate assessment of the wealth of blends that come out. Appreciated! #adjectives
Thanks. I gave the reason it got two stars (rounded down from two and a half) in the review: the after taste was too cloying, which I found distracting. Without that, I would have likely given it three stars. Compared to other blends in that genre that didn't have that drawback, that is what it was when I reviewed it back in 2016.