I have two blends that I enjoy on a regular basis: Presbyterian and Ashton Consummate Gentleman. I've smoked many other blends, but these two seem to be the one's I'm most happy with on a regular basis.
Question For Everyone New And Old.
- Thread starter anotherbob
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i have an 11 jar set up because sometimes work is almost over and you been like , you know today i feel like a so and so blend. i like to have options depending on the mood of the day and because i smoke meerschaums i dont need to dedicate a certain pipe to what ever. once i smoke one of the dedicated jars down and i have a bowl or 2 left i have a big jar i call THE MISFIT JAR. ill chuck it in there almong with other brands i sampled but wasnt bad enough to throw away. Then i fill the now empty designated jar with a blend thats been sitting on my standby pile to try.
That doesn't necessarily translate to more satisfaction.
When I started smoking a pipe in the early '70's there were far fewer blends available. There was no McClelland, C&D, nor GL Pease, and a lot of foreign made blends did not get distributed here. There were plenty of great options and pipe smokers weren't walking around saying, "If only I have a few thousand more blends from which to choose!"
I didn't become tobacco promiscuous until I landed in this place. I was quite content with a handful, literally, of choices. I have become faithless, running from one blend to another, but I am no more satisfied than when I stuck with my few blends.
Fact is, if 90% of the available blends went kaput I'd be satisfied with the remaining options. I've stocked up on what I like most, and have a variety of fellow travelers in small amounts, for those occasions when I fancy a bit of strange.
Yes, I would be ok with just a handful of really good blends. I have lots of blends in my hoard, but they are mostly variations on about 5 themes. If those styles (VA, VaPer, oriental, burley, aro) were to be limited to one good representation of the style, I’d be a happy camper.
Honestly, I think it gets a bit distracting to have so many different varieties with only slight nuance between them, so I find myself chasing a unicorn while a perfectly serviceable steed is already in my stable.
Honestly, I think it gets a bit distracting to have so many different varieties with only slight nuance between them, so I find myself chasing a unicorn while a perfectly serviceable steed is already in my stable.
This part of the thread topic is essentially the "choice overload" economic theory in practice. Some marketing theories show that too many choices of a product, such as breakfast cereals, restaurant menu items, and pipe tobacco, hinders our ability to decide and leaves us unsatisfied with whatever we end up choosing.
I would like to settle to about 3 blends that I smoke all the time. All the other ones I've smoked were really just looking for those 3 (or so). I may have found 1 of them. Those 3 would be the ones I hang my hat on and reach for without thinking. I just haven't gotten there yet.
Depends on the mood. Sometime it's consistently one type or blend, and then other times, it's whatever catches my attention. A fair representation leads to variety.
Though as far as types of snuff variety goes the Golden age was during some royal courts. So I guess those of us who already snuff know what it means to live in the shadow of such a "tragedy". Though we're lucky that the Golden age of variety in pipes isn't happening when mercury was considered a fine additive.
Thanks. I really dig Consummate Gentleman. That tin went to half almost like it's all I had. In other words a really tasty smoke. And I got a tin of Presbyterian waiting to open, and if you like them both near exclusively that gives me a good feeling about the Presbyterian.
As a new piper, I don’t know yet if I can tell the subtile differences between some blends in the same genre. I kind of doubt I ever will because unless there is a big difference, I can’t easily pick up and describe the subtile differences in other products like coffee or wine. I don’t seem to have a high powered taster like some of the amazing reviewers have on here!
Part of this is also personality in that if I find something I like, I tend to stick with it and only on rare occasion splash out to try something new.
Part of it is also practical in that I don’t smoke very much (currently on average three times a week), so there’s a danger that I could spread myself over too many tobaccos and not ever settle in to really enjoy a few fully. At present rate I can buy and open tins much faster than I will smoke them.
Yet as I smoke some samples and splash out on buying a tin or a few ounces here and there, I think I will settle in and be content on a few in a small rotation. If I were to call it now on based on my noob experiences to date, I could very well be content with something like a solid aromatic like Sorensen Mixture, a solid vaper like Luxury Bullseye Flake and a solid Burley like Pegasus.
Check back with me in another year or two! Time will tell!
Part of this is also personality in that if I find something I like, I tend to stick with it and only on rare occasion splash out to try something new.
Part of it is also practical in that I don’t smoke very much (currently on average three times a week), so there’s a danger that I could spread myself over too many tobaccos and not ever settle in to really enjoy a few fully. At present rate I can buy and open tins much faster than I will smoke them.
Yet as I smoke some samples and splash out on buying a tin or a few ounces here and there, I think I will settle in and be content on a few in a small rotation. If I were to call it now on based on my noob experiences to date, I could very well be content with something like a solid aromatic like Sorensen Mixture, a solid vaper like Luxury Bullseye Flake and a solid Burley like Pegasus.
Check back with me in another year or two! Time will tell!
"so I find myself chasing a unicorn while a perfectly serviceable steed is already in my stable." -glad I'm not the only one...
Right now i would be happy enough if there were only a few good burley blends available, but back when i smoked pretty much exclusively english blends i would have been happy if there were only english blends available.
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