Making the switch from Virginia to English/Balkan blends..

[isaac]

I am breaking in a new pipe. Ill usually start off with burley blends or virginias. I try various blends to see if the pipe brings out the qualities I enjoy about that tobacco. This lead me to wonder, how many blends will youu put through a pipe before you decide to move onto english blends?

Obviously you cant really go back and forth, as the latakia will probably impart its presence on the viriginas. So, I have always stuck to once you go english you dont go back. That is of course without salting/tort treatments.

So far I have smoked about 5 viriginias in the pipe, which was an estate, and none of them are really shining. So im thinking i may make the switch to english.

 

[SBC]

The only genre I'm hugely concerned to keep separate is aromatics.
I keep 20-something pipes in personal, regular rotation; of those, two are aromatic pipes. The others I don't mind using for either VA or English. But then I smoke VA at least 75% of the time, these days, so a pipe gets several bowls of VA between any bowl of English.
If I sometimes detect a faint suggestion of latakia behind the VA, I like it.
(Obviously, if I'm breaking out something special like Christmas Cheer, I'll select a pipe which hasn't seen English in a long time.)
But I'm probably the exception on this topic.

 

[mso489]

I don't designate pipes, nor do I feel it necessary to stick to one genre. I have quite a few pipes, for one thing, about 92, so they all get long rests. I do not build cake, so there is less medium to retain flavors. If I get ghosting that I am not discerning enough to notice, it doesn't matter, or perhaps I enjoy it.

The only point at which I would designate a pipe or pipes would be if I smoked Lakeland aromatics, but I don't, so that isn't an issue.

 

[FLDRD]

You can go back and forth, I often do, and sometimes I like that slight carryover from English back to VA, or even a little extra sweet getting into the English/Balkan blend. But that is for pipes that haven't found a solid home base yet, and for blends that I'm still exploring and don't mind if something slight "happens" to them. And some pipes never really do.

If you're searching for the right blend for the pipe, keep on keepin' on. If you're convinced that it "should" belong to a particular blend type based on chamber dimensions or something similar that has proven to be generally true for you - keep searching in that arena.

I've found that a few of my pipes don't seem to shine exceptionally bright with one or the other in my searches, but they are often good daily all-'round workhorses; and they get utilized when I'm sort of busy moving about or doing some activity, as opposed to when I sit in calm reverie and work toward that nirvana experience...