Latakia Plus Topping Equals?

[natibo]

So I tried 2 different "sweet" latakia blends. (I typically perfer Virginia blends) MacB Plumcake and Iwan Ries Dr. Bradley. Both of these blends give me tongue bite. Therefore, I came to the temporary conclusion that:
Latakia + Topping = Tongue Bite
But hold on. I then took some GLP Odyssey and mixed it 50/50 with Lane's TK 6. No Bite. Hmmmm. So it occurs to me that the above needs to slightly change:
Latakia + (Topping Placed Directly onto the Latakia Leaf) = Tongue Bite

Was wondering if anyone else had similar experiences.

 

[escioe]

I wonder whether GLP's Sextant would blow this theory apart. I'm not much for toppings in general, and something like Maltese Falcon is about as sweet a latakia blend as I can handle, so I wouldn't know. But I suspect your theory is, well, suspect.

 

[natibo]

I agree. It's an initial theory based upon very little experimentation and probably is wrong for everyone. It coule be true for my tongue.

 

[pipebow88]

Did you try to dry the tobacco a little first? Generally toppings can tend toward a slightly overly moist tobacco. I personally swore off anything with a topping. Too much to mess with, and for me not enough reward for the battle.

 

[pipeinhand]

In a couple of my early blends when starting mixing years ago I did a topped Lat. Yup, bad idea. It is better to top a VA or Burley than to mess with topping Latakia, get it just right and then mix it up. Mixing Lat and something makes for some very interesting flavor, and you get to control the sweetness or flavor additive in small doses.

 

[aristokles]

I do not do Latakia blends which are cased or topped. Now I know someone is going to tell me all pipe tobaccos are treated for flavoring to some degree, but in my world I consider a bit of sugar as seasoning (like salt in food) and not flavoring (as in spices and herbs).
Tongue bite from these? Sometimes. Unpleasant in any case? Yes, for me, always.

 

[doctorthoss]

I would suggest that the blends you mentioned are two small a samples to drawn conclusions on. Both of those bite the piss out of me, yet I smoke latakia mixtures with toppings all the time.

I would try some other exemplars in the crossover English territory. Shortcut to Mushrooms, From Morton's Cellar, Epiphany, Sextant, and Silem's Black are just a few of the good ones, and I'd be surprised if they bit you.

Other people might recommend Northwoods or the rest of the Frog Morton, but I'd avoid them because I don't believe they are topped with anything (perhaps they are, but I suspect that it's the processing that lends them their unique flavors rather than a topping).

Anyhow, don't give up -- the crossover English genre is a sizable one, and there are some very pleasant surprises in it.

 

[Perique]

I love a sweet Latakia blend. Pipeworks & Wilke has a number of them, with No.5 and No.13 leading the pack. I also like Two Friends English Chocolate.

 

[andrew]

I don't know, I tried to smoke this aro that was heavily topped with maple and vanilla, even after letting it dry, I just couldn't not bite my tongue, and I was puffing slow. It's not all toppings or casings though as C&D's milk and honey is topped and I have no problem with it as well as other blends, I think it's more a matter of humidification chemicals being used as this aro I had was close to a year old and still not crispy. It really is almost like a chemical burn, there's something I just don't agree with in them.