To avoid droning on, I feel like I should only comment on the initial room note bit because it was intriguing. Specifically, because I have to assume that part of the problem he was experiencing is psychological.
I was raised pretty anti-tobacco myself. My mom and dad have both historically despised the smell of cigarettes, a disdain they rather successfully passed onto me. Even though I've smoked a pipe for a large portion of my life by now, it was only in the last year or so that I began smoking in my car. While you have to smoke indoors to truly experience a "room note," the effect is amplified when you're essentially hotboxing yourself with tobacco.
I'm also quite a prude. This is exemplified in my overly-pretentious tastes for food, alcohol, and of course, tobacco. In short, I smoke the good shit. Despite my pretentions, I'd be lying if I said that the lingering scent left in my vehicle is substantially different from setting foot in my grandmother's Chrysler Sebring. She chain smokes Marlboros, whereas I smoke a pipe. Still, Virginias (the primary ingredient in most pipe blends) and Carolina Gold (the primary ingredient in most cigarettes) are different in degree, rather than kind. They're grown in similar regions, in similar climates, and they grow from similar seeds.
Cigars, while still tobacco, are different in affectation. They're grown much closer to the equator, in areas where climates can be incredibly harsh and unforgiving. Such climates breed resilient fruits and vegetables which we all know and love, but the plants share that trait too. (Think tequila vs. bourbon.)
If you're a cigar smoker, you're likely to view the aggressive punch in the scent as "real tobacco," a platonic ideal against which cigarettes likely smell like the fakest of shit. This ideal can, in turn, impact anything which hints at the scent of cigs - i.e. pipe tobacco.
I was introduced to pipes a couple years before I ever had my first cigar. But if the reverse were true, I imagine that my predilections would match his. Virginia tobaccos would smell like cigarettes. Burley? Cigarettes. Kentucky? Cigarettes. Cavendish? Cigarettes. Perique? Cigarettes smoked in a cattle barn. Latakia? Cigarettes smoked in a manufacturing plant which turned rubber into shoe soles.
Were it me, aromatics would smell like tobacco that's trying too hard. Kind of like an athlete who runs a few miles, gets all sweaty, then sprays cologne or Axe Body Spray in futile attempts to cover the rampant B.O. Try as he may, the added scents merely mingle with the sweat and they form a sensory substance that's regrettably less than the sum of its parts. Were it me, aromatic tobaccos would likely smell like cigarettes smoked in a Krispy Kreme.
Who knows? I could be wrong by a mile. But if I'm right, I think the key piece of data here is that a new pipe smoker is involved. I believe that the affinity for pipe tobacco simply must precede any love for the smell of such a product. It's like Indian food. If you've never tasted curry, when greeted with its "room note," the natural response is: what the fuck is that smell? But once you're converted, a single whiff of curry makes your tummy grumble.
Anywho, I've dished out my two cents and I apologize once more for the long comment.
