Pipe Tobacco Genres and Phases

[GCW]

@sablebrush52 suggested I post this as a stand-alone thread so here goes:

On more than several occasions I've read veteran members post of their migration away from latakia blends. From what I can discern this tends to be toward the latter part of their respective smoking journeys. @chasingembers comes to mind - being skipper of the latakia-laden black frigate at one time but now preferring non-latakia fare. My question to the experienced pipers out there is what genre you started off with and how long you stuck with that blend or genre prior to moving on? What the reasons were and where and why you are at now?

 

[kcghost]

I started out as a Latakia man and remained so for 30 years. But when I got to about 65 I noticed my taste buds demanding a switch to Va/Pers. I don't know exactly what happened but somehow my body demanded a change.

 

[JOHN72]

The virginia, besides ageing well, is a sweet bite of smoke. Latakia and her mixes have that feeling of having a steel ball in her mouth. I like rhythm change. But I'm growing the virginia cellar above all..........Just two years and I'm more attracted to virginia. And when you're a rookie, you always go than a orgasmic fantasies loaded train.........I like latakia for a moment........But.....you know, the figs and the baked bread is very pleasant. You just have to ask the wife. Summarising, prove and spit............@chasingembers It's a good example of wisdom, among many other great masters at this forum, of course.............

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Early on, I transitioned from aros to latakia to taste the tobacco. I switched around, trying out what the pipe shops all had for a while. It was maybe for a year or two, I never kept up with dates and such. But, eventually when I came to the forum, I was looking to try other blends to broaden my understanding of pipe tobaccos. It was about this time that I was getting mouth fatigue really badly from all of the latakia. All I could taste was salt and it made me smell like I had been to a bonfire.
I then got turned onto Virginias from suggestions of members here. And, I was switching between blends, and after smoking a latakia, I noticed that I couldn't taste Virginias, because my taste buds were taxed out. I just fell in love with Virginias and went kinda perique nutso.

I still enjoy a latakia blend, more so in the winter. But, now I enjoy cigar blends with Virginia a lot also.
I just make sure to start my day with lighter tobaccos and work my way up to more burley based and latakia last in my day, unless I smoke a twist or heavy hitter last to ease myself to sleep.

I still have a lot of latakia in the cellar, but I just don't smoke them as often for reasons above. I don't run into many all day smokers that smoke exclusively latakias. Most of the die hard latakia guys I know, maybe smoke once or twice a day.

 

[sablebrush52]

I've been all over the tobacco map during my years of smoking. Like a lot of beginners I gravitated toward English blends, finding them delicious and effortless to smoke. I really loved Sobranie 759 and also Original Smoking Mixture (the real stuff, not today's horseshit) as well as Ardath State Express London Mixture. In addition to these fabled blends I smoked a lot of house made English blends from the Original Tinder Box, Copley's and other fine tobacconists that dotted Los Angeles. At the same time, I became a fan of Captain Black and tried out some house made aros as well.

I was looking for flavors and these gave me flavors though I still had crap technique. That's the thing about English/Oriental/Balkan blends. They're very forgiving, flavor bombs, and don't require good technique.
As the years went on I pretty much stuck to English blends, sometimes enjoying Lat bombs and other times preferring lighter English blends. I tried the Frogs at one point and was so put off by them that I didn't look at McClelland for years afterward, which is a real shame.

Eventually I began to tire of Latakia and began trying out blends where it was condimental at most. I started trying out other genres and liked the VaPer Three Nuns.

About 10 years ago, mas o menos, I hit a wall with Latakia. It was like a switch turned on and even the thought of the scent of it left me feeling like vomiting.

This was a problem since much of what I had "cellared", even on a minor level, was English. I turned to aros and settled on a blend called Danish Delight that was sold by the Cigar Warehouse in Sherman Oaks. It was a typical Vanilla topped Virginia/Cavendish of no particular character, but I enjoyed it. That became my main smoke. I kept things simple.

When MacBaren brought back Three Nuns I gave it a try and decided it wasn't worth smoking. It wasn't the VaPer, it was the cheaper Va/Ky version and it stank like fungal sweat socks.

I knew I needed to change it up in a serious way or just quit the pipe. I decided to try Virginias and their variants, starting with HOTW.

Virginias require good technique or they taste of nothing but hot air. The flavors are more delicate than English blends and it takes practice to draw them out to their fullest. Also, Virginias can heat up quite quickly and turn your pipe into a branding iron.

As I've said before, Virginias will school you. Once I started to understand how to coax Virginia flavors I explored other blends and ended up pretty much exclusively a Virginia smoker. I've also been able to incorporate back Orientals and a bit of Latakia every now and then. That said, I'm 95% a smoker of Virginias and their variants, with an occasional OTC, or English blend.

 

[karam]

Smoked just Nightcap for 10 years, then 3 years ago I had my first VaPer (DNLRs) and became a devotee to the genre. Then branched out to DFK and Perique bombs, and now gravitating towards Va-forward + condiments. I haven't smoked Latakia in months, definitely not regularly for 6 months or more, can't even smell it sadly.

 

[Chasing Embers]

latakia-laden black frigate

Barely any latakia in that one. If I'm not looking for it, BF and Yenidje Highlander's latakia content barely register. Both are still favorites for their Virginia/Oriental content.

 

[Alex.Jr]

When I first started I smoked aros like the majority, but that didn’t last long. I smoked cigars before pipes so something was missing there.

Trying Virginias and English blends felt like a hole new world had just opened. I ventured through all kinds of Latakia blends from Presbyterian to nightcap and kept smoking it for a long time.

Sometimes I enjoyed a bowl of orlik DSK, HH ODF and bold Kentucky but it was just a change of pace, nothing that would rock my world.

One day I tried epiphany, liked it. Tried Barbary coast. Liked it. Not a love affair but ok.

I’ve always loved cocoa, 90 or 100% chocolate, nutty notes and anything on that side.

That’s when it started to happen. After a unpretentious bowl of Carter hall and Prince Albert I suddenly realized well there’s something there, not specifically with those blends, but there.

And then bam! Came my first order of macbaren Golden Extra. That was it! Those flavors, that aroma, it was all there.

From that point on it was a burley freak show and I never looked back.

From butternut burley to Haunted Bookshop, from Prince Albert to solani ABF, from EGR to HH burley.

Burley is always on my radar, being the major leaf or not, pure or mildly aromatic.

And what about Latakia? Well that’s the thing, I have a lot cellared and still enjoy it, but it quickly became a once in a while thing, when the mood strikes.

My Latakia % nowadays is on the seasoning side. Epiphany for example, Painter Hills, which is also a revelation “match”, bald headed teacher and the list goes on.

Not that I don’t like the leaf itself, but I feel it dominates the blend.

Anything more than a pinch suddenly became overwhelming.

That’s where I am now.

 

[GCW]

Barely any latakia in that one. If I'm not looking for it, BF and Yenidje Highlander's latakia content barely register. Both are still favorites for their Virginia/Oriental content.

Haven't tried it yet but I read Jim's review on TR and he wrote that it plays a supporting and at times lead role in the blend?

 

[GCW]

When I first started I smoked aros like the majority, but that didn’t last long. I smoked cigars before pipes so something was missing there.

Trying Virginias and English blends felt like a hole new world had just opened. I ventured through all kinds of Latakia blends from Presbyterian to nightcap and kept smoking it for a long time.

Sometimes I enjoyed a bowl of orlik DSK, HH ODF and bold Kentucky but it was just a change of pace, nothing that would rock my world.

One day I tried epiphany, liked it. Tried Barbary coast. Liked it. Not a love affair but ok.

I’ve always loved cocoa, 90 or 100% chocolate, nutty notes and anything on that side.

That’s when it started to happen. After a unpretentious bowl of Carter hall and Prince Albert I suddenly realized well there’s something there, not specifically with those blends, but there.

And then bam! Came my first order of macbaren Golden Extra. That was it! Those flavors, that aroma, it was all there.

From that point on it was a burley freak show and I never looked back.

From butternut burley to Haunted Bookshop, from Prince Albert to solani ABF, from EGR to HH burley.

Burley is always on my radar, being the major leaf or not, pure or mildly aromatic.

And what about Latakia? Well that’s the thing, I have a lot cellared and still enjoy it, but it quickly became a once in a while thing, when the mood strikes.

My Latakia % nowadays is on the seasoning side. Epiphany for example, Painter Hills, which is also a revelation “match”, bald headed teacher and the list goes on.

Not that I don’t like the leaf itself, but I feel it dominates the blend.

Anything more than a pinch suddenly became overwhelming.

That’s where I am now.

I hear Peretti does great Burley blends. You have a favorite from the famed Boston firm?

 

[Chasing Embers]

Haven't tried it yet but I read Jim's review on TR and he wrote that it plays a supporting and at times lead role in the blend?

Reviews from myself, former forum member Deniz, and pipestud. It's been a regular since 1999, and it's where I started drifting away from heavy English blends.

 

[mingc]

Latakia was what made me a pipe smoker in the early 2000s. And then Lakeland florals. I was indifferent to un-topped or lightly topped Va and VaPers and by and large still am today, though I smoke them for a change of pace.

I think of latakia blends as good Indian curries and Lakeland florals as, say, Thai curries. Va and Vapers are like well made mac and cheese and fresh corn or buttered green beans; i.e., they can be nice but are not for me reasons for living, like Asian spicy foods.

I note that when I smoke, it's no more than a bowl a day. And I while I might smoke everyday in the winter, in the summer, I go weeks without smoking. So, when I do smoke. I want good strong flavors.

 

[Chasing Embers]

My question to the experienced pipers out there is what genre you started off with and how long you stuck with that blend or genre prior to moving on? What the reasons were and where and why you are at now?

I started primarily with English and Burley blends for the first decade but enjoyed the annual Christmas Cheer release starting in the early '90s. It got to a point that all I could taste in the English blends was their latakia and they all started to taste exactly the same. I found Black Frigate's low latakia percentage agreeable and that led me to trying more Virginia blends. Now I primarily smoke Virginia/Orientals, Orientals, and aromatics.

 

[warren]

I have three blends always on hand, two are Latakia heavy. It's been that way for nearly 60 years. This is not to say I do not enjoy other than English.

 

[mingc]

I have three blends always on hand, two are Latakia heavy. It's been that way for nearly 60 years. This is not to say I do not enjoy other than English.

The same three blends over 60 years? May I ask what they are? I'm intrigued!

 

[Alex.Jr]

H

I hear Peretti does great Burley blends. You have a favorite from the famed Boston firm?

Have some on my radar but have never tried them.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I have three blends always on hand, two are Latakia heavy. It's been that way for nearly 60 years. This is not to say I do not enjoy other than English.

Bengal Slices, Three Star Blue, and Balkan Supreme?

 

[mso489]

I'm another pinball pipe smoker, bouncing hither and yon, though never dropping into any one particular spot. Burleys and burley blends are definitely my home base, but not without English, Balkan, Va., Va/Per, and aromatics that let the tobacco prevail. Mild, medium and strong; most every cut except cubed not so much; flake/coin/plug/rope; codger tub blends to some pretty fussy premium tinned leaf. D&R Two Timer, OHM Red/Turkish, Granger, etc.

 

[ray47]

Started out with burley OTC blends in 1967 and stayed that way until the dawn of the internet and online purchasing. I have pretty much stayed with burley as my main smoke, but have within the past 2 years dabbled into Virginias and Va/Per. Anything Latakia hasn't been all that great with me, but I haven't given up on that leaf just yet.

 

[dcon]

I have been smoking a pipe since I was 16 and now am 60. I did a couple of stints managing tobacco shops. I always seemed to have a variety of tobaccos available. I now have well over 400 blends and I can definitely state that, the way to avoid Latakia, or other, burn-out, is to smoke a variety. I try to avoid being a “tobacco hater”. Like many older, long term smokers, I probably enjoy a larger percentage of VAs and Burley flakes than I did in my younger days. I firmly adhere to “variety is the spice of life” when it comes to pipe smoking. @Jiminks and I are the same age and have been smoking the same number of years. I suggest younger (or newer) smokers follow Jim’s “What are you smoking” posts. There you will find true variety