Newer Piper... Where Do I Go from Here (Blend-Wise)??

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unclemax

Lurker
Nov 23, 2017
45
76
Hi folks.. I'm trying to step outside of my Father Dempsey, Quiet Nights, and Holiday blend comfort zone, but am kinda overwhelmed as where to start. There is soooo much great tobacco out there. I was a daily cigar smoker for years. Tried picking up the pipe 12 yrs ago, but the cigars ruled. I rarely smoke cigars anymore, but am really loving my pipes. I'm reading all the reviews, but they just make me wanna buy everything lol! Anyway, I'm pretty open. Except for sour (I mean, reallly sour. I can handle a tad). I like Lats, but I'm also interested in finding an all day smoke. Not sure what else to add other than thank-you, folks!

 

unclemax

Lurker
Nov 23, 2017
45
76
<p>Thank-you for the reply, and suggestion. What gives some tabacs a "cigarette-like taste"? I want to stay away from those, along w/the "sour-tasting" stuff.
 

mikethompson

Lifer
Jun 26, 2016
11,289
23,320
Near Toronto, Ontario, Canada
I will second the Virginia suggestion. That being said I started with English blends and still really enjoy them. I think smokingpipes.com has a good selector tool that can help narrow down your search based on what your preferences are. That might be worth a shot.
We are spoiled for choice now, especially if you live in the US. The pickings are a little more scarce in Canada.

 

bluto

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 24, 2018
737
8
Kinda went thru the same iteration , I had my stash built up with blends mostly
When I started searching not by type but by cut , I used flake and plug as a filter , i found some interesting tobacco .

 

workman

Lifer
Jan 5, 2018
2,793
4,219
The Faroe Islands
I can't think of any pipe tobacco that tastes like cigarettes. I once thought that about Royal Yacht, but I must have been overpuffing or something.

You should try something with latakia. Everyone should. It really started the flavor experience for me.

 

jacks6

Lifer
May 9, 2016
1,005
3
If you'd like me to put together a sampler for you to give you an idea of different types of tobacco you may like shoot me a PM. I've got a pretty good variety.

 

techie

Part of the Furniture Now
Jul 20, 2018
589
10
I'm reading all the reviews, but they just make me wanna buy everything
I started the pipe just 3 months ago, and I felt the same way as you - just wanted to try it all. What I did was pick from the best reviewed tobaccos from each of the main categories: English, viginias, VaPers, Burley-based, aromatics, to begin figuring out what I like. I would then purchase others in whatever categories appealed to me the most. It takes time, especially since your taste will probably change over time.
I found it important to hold onto ones I didn't care for at first, such as virginias and aromatics. The first aromatic I opened smelled unappealing to me, so I jarred it. Two months later it was very different, and now I enjoy it quite a bit.
It's a really enjoyable journey of discovery. Just peruse tobaccos at places like smokingpipes, read descriptions and reviews, get samples and tins of the ones that appeal to you. I read reviews but don't rely strictly on them. Sometimes I buy something that for some reason or another just seems interesting.

 

erhardt85

Starting to Get Obsessed
Apr 14, 2017
200
61
39
If you enjoyed those blends I would try Mac Baren's Old Dark Fired or Bold Kentucky, or even Gawith Hoggarth Dark Birdseye to enjoy one of the most delightful dark fired tobacco experiences. Alternatively, Dreams of Kadath packs a solid dark fired punch while adding unique and exotic flavors of Orientals and what I assume is a special casing. From there I would pick up some Ennerdale Flake or Grasmere Flake to get a taste of Lakeland excellence. Once you have your technique down to second nature I would try some Old Gowrie/half of the Wynd, Sunday Picnic, and Luxury Bullseye Flake/Escudo for a wonderful vacation/per experience. Those are my benchmarks in their class. Maybe not the absolute best but the tried and true that never let me down and leave me satisfied. For other English I would recommend Dan Tobacco Old Ironsides, Seattle Pipe Club Plum Pudding Special Reserve (heaven), Black Frigate, Tsuge Ryujin, and Westminster/Odyssey. Yes, that probably hurts instead of helps because there are nine million blends there, but if you like full and consistent flavor and strength, that's precisely where I personally would start in each class if I could start over. Not listed in order of importance. I would try PP special reserve as soon as possible because I don't know how long it will be out. Dunhill Dark Flake and Elizabethan are also amazing va/peers, especially after six months in a jar (like most), but they may be harder to find now.

 

grumpybear

Lurker
Dec 30, 2017
28
0
38
West Columbia, S.C.
I am a new pipe smoker as well. At first anything with Virginia had that "cigarette taste" to me. I had gotten some PS Luxury Twist Flake and found it awful. So I jarred it and forgot about it. I tried GLP Quite Nights it did not taste bad but I didn't like it. It was when I tried Warhorse Bar and others containing Dark Fired Kentucky that my tastes began to have an awakening. I learned more about packing and not puffing to hard or too often everything started to become enjoyable. PS Luxury Twist Flake is now one of my favorites to smoke in the morning, I no longer taste "cigarettes" .Quiet Nights is also a go to for me now. I have recently added some Orlik Golden Sliced to my rotation which I enjoy. Everytime I have cash to spare I buy as many 1 ounce bags of bulk tobacco's that I can, plus one or two tins. Doing this has helped me branch out and discover new tobacco's more than anything else.

 
Jan 8, 2013
7,493
733
With questions like this, you're going to get a thousand different answers :rofl: If you like latakia, I'd try Hearth & Home's Black House. It was the first blend with latakia I ever tried, and it blew my mind. If you're looking for something you can smoke all day and still has latakia, but won't make other people run away from you, try Kramer's Blend for Cary Grant. It's a fantastic English/Aromatic originally blended by Kramer's for Cary Grant himself.... the guy had great taste.

 
Jan 28, 2018
12,952
134,597
66
Sarasota, FL
Over time, you'll get as many recommendations as there are blends. People have different tastes. You should try some representative blends from each genre. I see TobaccoPipes has some Samuel Gawith Full Virginia Flake. I would personally recommend you try that as well as GL Pease Union Square as two fine representatives of Virginia tobacco. You could purchase a few of the aged Escudo tins from Salted Plug to get your VaPer blend sample. I've already started smoking one of those tins and it is superb. If he still has them, I'd highly recommend the aged GL Peach JackKnife Plug. I've smoked a number of bowls of that I already received from him, absolutely awesome.
I'm also a fan of Quiet Nights. Perhaps you should try Gaslight as well. Since you like Orlike Golden Sliced, you may wish to try Orlik Dark Strong Kentucky. I'm not a fan of most Latakia forward blends so I don't have much to offer in the way of recommendations.

 

chilipalmer

Starting to Get Obsessed
Aug 24, 2017
219
342
Hi, Max!
Based upon your remarks, here are some suggestions for you for an all day smoke:
To expand in the arena of burley blends like Holiday(An excellent and underrated blend) try:
Sutliff Revelation match

C&D Epiphany (This blend contains a pleasantly noticeable nose tickling dose of perique)

Sutliff Walnut match

Hearth and Home Midtown Chestnut

Sutliff Barking Dog match

Sutliff Briggs Mixture match

C&D Junkyard Dog

C&D Americana
To go further with the Father Dempsey experience:
Stokkebye Proper English, a great all day English

Stokkebye English Oriental Supreme - an all day oriental forward English

Boswell's Countryside

Sutliff Fox & Hound
If you want to go towards the slightly aromatic side of the English genre, try:
C&D Snug Harbor

Sutliff Aromatic English

Sutliff Count Pulaski

Lane HGL
Hope that helps and enjoy your journey!
Cheers,
Chili

 

unclemax

Lurker
Nov 23, 2017
45
76
Thank-you, ALL. Some great names and advice. I'm looking forward to diving in, but it's hard to stray from what you know/love. That being said, there's a LOTof really kickass tobacco out there, and the more I read, the more my mouth waters (and my wishlist grows) lol!!
Ok, so I've recently received the following tins:

C&D

Autumn Evening

Gentleman Caller- it's ok. too much deer tongue for my liking.

Morley's Best

Opening Night

Pirate Kake- 10/8/18 tin date too new

Professor

Sunday Picnic
GLP

Gaslight

Stonehenge

Triple Play

Quiet Nights- love, love, love!
Kramer's Father Dempsey- love, love, love!!!

Bengal Slice

several diff Holiday blends/ 2015 Holiday Spirit the fave
So a nice little start, I guess. Any faves on that list?? I have no idea where to begin.. lol. But it's just tabacky!!
 

newbroom

Lifer
Jul 11, 2014
6,087
6,394
Florida
With regard to what (we) are calling cigarette taste; I would suggest that that means that you are not properly savoring your pipe.

I remember good tasting cigarettes. One thing about the taste of tobacco is to do with how hot it gets, I think, and a cigarette typically gets its contents much hotter than one can manage more easily in a pipe with what (we) call technique.

A new piper will see more dramatic swings in tastes than a (codger) more experienced one.

 

blackadderlxx

Can't Leave
Jun 17, 2018
369
10
What I did was this...I went to TR and looked at all of their blends rated Highly Recommended AND with more than 100 reviews. I started reading reviews and trying things that sounded interesting. I would also compare the search results with blends recommended on lists like the ones given in response to your OP. Then I would just add them to my SP shopping card and push "checkout". Here's the TR search link:

http://www.tobaccoreviews.com/search?Rating=Highly+Recommended&ReviewCount=100

 

bluto

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 24, 2018
737
8
Yes , take your time , it's a bit of back and forth between searches and online retail , but after awhile you get a feel for what's in the tin or bag . TR is excellent and with your shopping list , get on this forum for checks and balances , good first hand advice.
Think long term , I haven't smoked much so my stash is aging.

 

chilllucky

Lifer
Jul 15, 2018
1,091
2,715
Chicago, IL, USA
scoosa.com
I'm not new to pipes, but I did recently get a yen to open up my tobacco choices after smoking one blend pretty exclusively for nearly a decade.
For me, the three most helpful things I've done to counter the intimidating/overwhelming choices out there and lack of certainty about which reviewers tastes align with mine are:
First, I joined the Tin Society. I get four half ounce samples of normally tinned blends to try per month, plus some trinkets. The randomness has forced me to try some things I otherwise wouldn't have. Plus, I like having a package to look forward to.
Second, I went to SP and ordered some base tobacco's from C&D's blender's series. This has really helped me to learn my own preferences at this moment in my journey. For instance, now I know that between two English blends that are equally well reviewed, I am more likely to enjoy the one with less Izmir orientals in it.
Lastly, I started hanging out with the local pipe club. People are very generous with their tobaccos and their opinions, so you will get to try a lot of things and hear about why they became favorites. Be warned, however, that some people like to bring aged or discontinued tobo to these things and if you really fall for one, you could wind up with very expensive tastes.

 

unclemax

Lurker
Nov 23, 2017
45
76
You guys are awesome... thank-you so much for all of the great advice. I started my shopping list by reading a ton of reviews on TR. And yes, I get it. You really need to try a little of everything (like I did w/premium cigars). I've seen reviews of classic tobaccos that either praised or knocked some wonderful blends. As far as aging goes, well, I have some classics that are 12-13 yrs old. They were new when I first tried cutting back on cigars. The cigars won lol, but I now rarely smoke stogies. I would love to bust some of these tins (Penzance, London Mixture, EMP, BlackwoodsFlake, Nightcap, Squadron Leader, Choc Flake, Sweet Killarney, Sunset Breeze, and a few more), but I'm gonna wait until I'm able to fully appreciate them. The Tin Society sounds like a great idea. Chili.. I added your suggested blends to my pipe journal. Thank-you for putting that together. I'm gonna go watch some football, smoke a few bowls, and read some more reviews. Thank-you again, everybody.

Max

 

alexnc

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 25, 2015
953
804
Southeast US
You might also go to tobaccoreviews.com and read the reviews for the things you already know you like the most. Spot and remember a few reviewers that think like you do about the things you like, then sort to their reviews and see what else they liked. I've found 2 or 3 that I can fairly reliably count on for recommendations. I just have to remember - that one doesn't like perique as much as me - or that one likes aros more than me, etc

 
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