Popular Blends That Hit Your Blind Spot?

[sardonicus87]

There's a huge list for me, it's like I am diametrically opposed to all [online] pipe smokers in almost every way (not just in taste... I prefer my tobacco wetter/fresher, I loathe the "ritual", etc).

Some extraordinarily popular blends I absolutely hate while others, they're just kind of "meh" (don't come at me about "iT wOuLd Be BeTtEr If YoU aGeD/dRiEd It MoRe").

Solani ABF, not sure what it used to be like but I had it for the first time a tin from 2024 and it was just bleh. Tasted like straight up like a chocolate bomb (and I hate chocolate). Pegasus goes on the list of blends I hate too, along with Haunted Bookshop. Add to that other C&D like Black Frigate and Blockade Runner and Autumn Evening (and I love maple flavor and have a fondness for all kinds of aros, which also seem to be the type most shit-on, they're my second favorite type of blend behind burley, meanwhile my least favorite is what seems everyone's golden boy of va-based blends).

OJK is not as popular as those blends at least by recommendations online, but it's still in the fairly popular camp and I like that one. I think on SP's list of top selling C&D, it's the only one I like (though I have yet to try Briar Fox).

But pretty much anything va/per that's not WWC Rouxgaroux goes on that list, anything with DFK that tastes mesquite-y goes on that list. And many of them (va/per) are lauded specifically for being peppery and I just hate that peppery taste just like I hate the smokey taste that some of the popular DFK are lauded for having.

Then there's contentious blends that I love and people love to hate them, and they hate them for the specific quality that I love about them. Though it's been bizarre to me to see threads pop up about Ennerdale "loosing its sauce" when that previously was the thing everyone said made it gross, though I wouldn't exactly put Ennerdale in the unpopular camp.

Or like LJP's burley, the one I think I've seen most lauded is 333, and that was one of my least favorites of the 8 I tried (DD and I think 102 but I can't remember exactly, get far less recommendations and they're my most favorite).

It's why I don't post much. I hate everything everyone loves, and I love everything everyone hates, so I never have much of anything to add.

 

[anotherbob]

There are a few much-loved blends that I have expected to enjoy, but no. Either cannot abide or think them "meh" and it gives me a concern, what's wrong with me?

While I can scarf up SG FVF all day long, Best Brown? Awa wi ye! No no no.

Rattray's Marlin Flake, dreadful cloying articial sweetness. Finished a tin, stubbornly, three years after opening.

Dunhill Elizabethan, aged. Meh. That lasted a year.

While there are surely others I give a bodyswerve, these three came to mind immediately. Makes no sense to me. Who else's palate has rejected popular blends?

Two come to mind. Bob's Chocolate Flake which while I enjoyed it I just expected more. And then Capstan which I found to be the saltine cracker of the pipe world. Not bad but just not enjoyable. Again didn't find either of them bad, just kind of boring and unstimulating.
If I am being perfectly honest, I think I've smoked one or two bad pipe tobaccos and generally enjoy almost any I've tried. However when I compare them to the ones I like the difference in my enjoyment means why would I bother with the others. In other words I'll finish any tin of pipe tobacco I get however if I ever buy more of it's the question.
Presbyterian is a good example I enjoyed it but really prefer other super similar blends and haven't touched more then one tin of the stuff.

 

[Lumbridge]

I'll never understand the floral lakelands, flavored with geranium and whatever else. That scent just turns my stomach.

 

[tartanphantom]

Two come to mind. Bob's Chocolate Flake which while I enjoyed it I just expected more. And then Capstan which I found to be the saltine cracker of the pipe world. Not bad but just not enjoyable. Again didn't find either of them bad, just kind of boring and unstimulating.
If I am being perfectly honest, I think I've smoked one or two bad pipe tobaccos and generally enjoy almost any I've tried. However when I compare them to the ones I like the difference in my enjoyment means why would I bother with the others. In other words I'll finish any tin of pipe tobacco I get however if I ever buy more of it's the question.
Presbyterian is a good example I enjoyed it but really prefer other super similar blends and haven't touched more then one tin of the stuff.

I can't get along with Bob's, mainly because I'm one of those that tends to get the Lakeland "soapy" flavor note on most Gawith aromatics and semi-aromatics. However, I generally don't have that problem with their English, Balkan or rope style tobaccos.

It's a pity, because I'd like to see why everyone else seems to like Bob's, but I just can't get there. I might as well be smoking Ivory Snow.

 

[username]

I just don't like haunted bookshop which is weird because i love old joe krantz/

 

[BingBong]

I'll never understand the floral lakelands, flavored with geranium and whatever else. That scent just turns my stomach.

Have you tried St Bruno?

 

[BriaronBoerum]

I just don't like haunted bookshop which is weird because i love old joe krantz/

I think for me it's the perique ratio -- not enough in HB, so I'm left with a fairly bland VaBur, but nicely balanced in OJK, though neither is my top blend.

 

[krizzose]

My subjective opinion only, not throwing shade or trying to tell anyone they don’t know what they like.

SG FVF. I don’t dislike it, and I’ll happily smoke the tins I have (a couple of them quite well aged). However, for my palate it doesn’t live up to the hype.

F&T CVP:




On the flip side from the OP, I love Marlin Flake. Rich, sweet, malty, and smooth. I’m still smoking stock that predates the blend changes that JimInks, Sable, and others have discussed, so maybe that opinion will change when I catch up.

 

[krizzose]

I'll never understand the floral lakelands, flavored with geranium and whatever else. That scent just turns my stomach.

Ditto

 

[Lumbridge]

Have you tried St Bruno?

No, I avoid anything with any kind of perfumed or floral flavor. I'd love to try it without that flavor added, were that possible.

 

[Lumbridge]

I just don't like haunted bookshop which is weird because i love old joe krantz/

Haunted Bookshop seems to be a love it or hate it blend. I personally love it, but I've found that it tastes bland and ashy if smoked too hot and fast.

 

[Simmerdown☕️]

So glad to hear that many of you can’t stand Haunted Bookshop…more for me. ️

 

[OzPiper]

I like almost every blend I’ve tried.

Two I disliked immensely were Boswell’s Pipers Pleasure and Sutliff Barbados Plantation

Chocolate and rum are two of my favourite things.
Go figure.

 

[BingBong]

No, I avoid anything with any kind of perfumed or floral flavor. I'd love to try it without that flavor added, were that possible.

Ah, that would be Ogden's Walnut Flake, now called Original Flake. An STG product for some years, I hope it escaped the axe recently.

 

[elvishrunes]

No, I avoid anything with any kind of perfumed or floral flavor. I'd love to try it without that flavor added, were that possible.

Try the green eggs and ham, Sam! Ennerdale a popular Lakeland doesn’t taste soapy imo, it tastes like a Virginia with maybe an incense and fruit side note, tasty. One of the Gawiths is Ennerdale unscented, maybe Conniston plug? If you ask around someone may know, but I’ve heard that.

 

[Eireprof]

I think Regent’s Flake is the only tobacco I’ve ever smoked that I couldn’t even finish the first bowl. I quickly gave the tin away and have no plans of trying it again.

 

[Hutch Piper]

At first I did not care for Haunted Bookshop but a few months in the jar does it wonders.

 

[BingBong]

I think Regent’s Flake is the only tobacco I’ve ever smoked that I couldn’t even finish the first bowl. I quickly gave the tin away and have no plans of trying it again.

Oh, that's GH Mahogany for me - I did smoke a full bowl and then quietly cellared the tin, along with an unopened one, to be gifted at some point. The stuff was soaked in hair tonic or something slithery, very odd blend.

 

[K.E. Powell]

There are some legacy blends, such as Three Nuns and Presbyterian, that I don't enjoy much. They aren't terrible, but they did not rock my world either. But, at the same time, there is a good chance these blends were better in the past than as they are now.

Beyond that, if there is one popular blend that I do not like at all, it is Autumn Evening. I like a "tobacco-forward" aro every now and then, and even a sugar-bomb like Guilty Pleasure or some of Boswell's blends can really hit the spot, but AE just has no body and is cloying.

 

[Blackrock612]

Wilke 191 is good stuff.
It is topped with Vermont honey and real vanilla bean. I think it is Wilke’s number one seller. To me, it does taste like it smells.

Have you tried their Peanut Butter? It is a tad weird but i find it enjoyable.