Latakia Reversal?
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Right there with you my friend!
I’ve lost my taste for Latakia too about a year ago. Every once in a while I’ll smoke a bowl of EMP to see if things change. Right after I go back to Virginia, VaPers, & lovely burley. I keep trying as I’ve plenty of Latakia blends just waiting for me to come back to the fold. Maybe the winter?
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I like it all. As with anything, there is great stuff in all genres, you just have to put in the effort to find the “good stuff”. I smoke Lat blends, scented blends/flakes, VA, Burley and aromatics. Latakia is what got me into pipe smoking, it changed the game for me. I started with a blend called, “Black Cauldron” thought the name would reflect the smoke but the opposite was true, it was a sticky sweet aromatic blend, after smoking 2 ounces of that, imagine my excitement when I tried a full bodied English blend, totally blew me away! Latakia still brings back fond memories of a cold winter in Flagstaff, everyone had their fire places going. On a cold December night, there is just nothing like the smell of burning pine, Latakia always brings me back there.
One of my favorite pipe aromas, as a bystander in a pipe lounge is the first few seconds after someone fires up an English. I can immediately identify it as by it's leathery, woodsy, crisp evergreen wood burning on a fire. Of course, as a bystander, a few more minutes into smelling it, it can become like a dumpster fire. But, those first few minutes... heavenly. And, it can be smelled over all of the other blends burning in a lounge.
Now, when I am the smoker, I don't ever get that excellent first few wiffs of heaven from an English. But, depending on the blend, it is a different sort of enjoyment.
Now, when I am the smoker, I don't ever get that excellent first few wiffs of heaven from an English. But, depending on the blend, it is a different sort of enjoyment.
Then I suppose personal subjective taste is the main distinction between my high school ceramics class sculptures and Michelangelo's David, or between a McDonald's burger and a steakhouse ribeye, or a toddler's finger painting and a Picasso, or a bottle of Boone's Farm and an award-winning Bordeaux.
While there are certainly elements of subjectivity involved, there are also objective criteria that are used to critique and analyze art, wine, food, and music.
I'll agree 100% with the "smoke what you like" sentiment, and I enjoy plenty of the cheaper stuff myself, but there is a reason why certain things are almost universally held in higher regard than others.
Snobbery. I'll take the cheeseburger over the steak and Picasso's art looks like the work of a toddler.
Actually, that seems a little snobbish as well. But, hey, I love snobbery. It drives the economy and makes the world a better place.
This sounds more snobby than the reverse. I guess I'd call it a sort of "reverse snobbery." I enjoy a cheeseburger as well, but I'm not gonna pretend its the equivalent of a good steak, same goes for a cheap beer or whatever else.
I’ve only been smoking a pipe for about 6-7 months and I’ve tried a few Lat blends and just couldn’t get into them. Ive tried MM965, Nightcap, and a Barclay Rex house blend and none of them did it for me. Maybe it was another component but I found the blends to be kind of sour and when I taste smoke not tobacco flavor I think I’m smoking to fast and I end up chasing a flavor that isn’t there. Or at least that what it seems like to me lol.
One of Picasso's works as a mere teenager, and he has a pipe. Picasso was painting hyper-realism at 10 years old. His synthetic cubism, which is what people think about when they think of Picasso, is actually much deeper in meaning than realism. But, tastes are subjective. It's ok to hate him. But, I kinda appreciate his masculine del' Torro personality and his aesthetic. YMMV
The Lat heavy Barclay Rex house blend and a tin of Peterson Flake where the first tobaccos I bought and the Peterson Flake stood out as the most flavorful and since then I’ve been mostly a Va or VaPer guy with a little DF now and then lol
I went to the MOMA in new york during the pandemic and it was insane to be in the Picasso room with four other people only because of attendance restrictions. same goes for the van gohs and monets and so many others. there's no smoking allowed there tho.One of Picasso's works as a mere teenager, and he has a pipe. Picasso was painting hyper-realism at 10 years old. His synthetic cubism, which is what people think about when they think of Picasso, is actually much deeper in meaning than realism. But, tastes are subjective. It's ok to hate him. But, I kinda appreciate his masculine del' Torro personality and his aesthetic. YMMV
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I’ve see some child finger painting that resembled Mr. Picasso’s attempts…..lol!
I agree with you totally. You never know what’s in ground beef.
I was on the BOD for the BMA years ago. So, everyone there recognizes me when I visit. In 2010 or 2011, I forgot to remove my pipe as I walked through the entrance of the Museum of Art, but the security guards, friends of mine, told me to just keep smoking. They loved the aroma. I was there to help curate a show, can't remember which one now, but I was concerned about getting smoke on the works, but they assured me that it was after hours and it would be ok. So, I posed with my pipe all over the museum. Tony Bennet was there also. A super cool dude, and he is a huge supporter of museums across the country.
Love me some cargo shorts for hanging art and moving large sculptures, ha ha. Damn, and I still had color in my hair, ha ha.
Picasso and Van Gogh both suck. I was never a fan of heavy latakia blends, but to rule out the flavor it imparts to a good blend smacks of heresy and possible depravity. My optimum tobacco blends have just enough latakia in them to make you wonder if there's actually any in there. Laurel Heights, Revelation clones, Presbyterian clones, etc. Speaking of depravity, I am addicted to raw perique in blends--you know, not aged? Fresh Haddo's Delight delights me till the can is empty, to the exclusion of all else. Weird, huh? Anybody give a shit?
Fillmore is also a good one.
I don't really care much for Picasso, or any of the more abstract art at all for that matter, but with Picasso, I get why people hold it in high regard, especially after seeing his work as a teenager as @cosmicfolklore mentioned.
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