I like PA and Carter Hall. The latter took a few bowls to grow on me, while I took to the former immediately. Protip: the stuff in tubs is better. Not sure why, but it is, and I’ve seen the same with cans of rolling tobacco versus the pouches.
PA by itself is fairly unassuming and you could even say boring. That’s part of its appeal for me, and part of the appeal is that as someone who started out smoking cigarettes, the sometimes cigarettey aspect that PA has is comforting. It’s the same reason I like Stokkebye Norwegian, Amsterdam, and Turkish—I never quite “outgrew” my taste for that sort of flavor, but now I get to pair that with a less obnoxious room note.
I’ve taken to using PA as a blending tobacco lately as well. I like how it burns, and it sits well with aromatics like 1Q/Wilshire and Chartwell. It tones down the aromatics a bit, bumps up the overall nic level a bit, helps them burn a little drier and more consistently, and it greatly mitigates the weird sensation that I’m smoking a Little Debbie snack cake.
