It’s amazing how there are fads and groupthink in tobacco. When I started in 2019 I made a list of most-recommended and well regarded blends to try, and escudo kept showing up.
And it’s a bit over a year later, and this thread takes a bat to it.
I was one of those asked on another forum to join in compiling a list of gold standard blends of different genres. I included Escudo at that time, though I was still smoking my A & C Petersen stash while letting the STG stuff age. Had I known then what I know now, I would have argued against including Escudo in any list of gold standards.
A number of present day blends are coasting on the reputations they made in earlier times, made by different manufacturers, using different components. Balkan Sobranie would be another example. Take a famous name, stick it on a tin of "whatsis" and milk it for profit.
Groupthink is a good term to use. It's how a lot of us function in a lot of different areas to a greater or lesser extent. Why would pipes and tobacco be any different?
New smokers don't know what old versions, the versions that garnered all that adulation, tasted like. They only have what's available now as a reference. Plus, they're in the process of developing their pallets to the extent they are able.
So people like me, long time smokers who know what these blends were, are going to have a different take than someone with no personal experience of older versions.
Reminds me of the saying "Where ignorance is bliss, tis folly to be wise".