After a year or so of smoking, I am thinking of trying some blends that I didn't like in the beginning, hoping I can now appreciate them. I have found this to be the case with Presbyterian Mixture, which I am smoking now. I am enjoying it MUCH more than I did a year ago. Not sure it gets stocked up just yet, but I'm sure I'll enjoy the whole tin. Next would be Escudo Navy Deluxe, which I couldn't understand before, but now maybe ill give it another try. What about you? What blends have you gone back to over time and found a new love for?
Returning to Beginning Blends
- Thread starter dcicero
- Start date
MacBaren Navy Flake. Stored in a jar for 2.5 years. I really like it now. Probably in large part to better technique and understanding of how to enjoy tobacco/ pipe better.
I’ve enjoyed every genre more, going back after a year.
That is, every genre except VaPers. I find Virginias a bit easier to handle but still not as enjoyable as I’d hoped. And since I retrohale a lot, I find Perique too tingly.
That is, every genre except VaPers. I find Virginias a bit easier to handle but still not as enjoyable as I’d hoped. And since I retrohale a lot, I find Perique too tingly.
I guess I’m an oddball. I know everyone says your likes and dislikes will change a lot over the first year or two at it, but mine haven’t. I will say though, that I think I am far more capable of sussing out details and flavors in a blend that I wouldn’t have been able to pick out when I first came to pipe tobacco.
When I first started pipe smoking my first choice was Middleton's Cherry Blend. After a few bowls I didn't come back to the pipe for about a year. It seems it took that long to get rid of the tongue bite. Probably was technique that caused that. I bought some in 2008 and tried again, when my technique was better. Same results as when I first started. I still have some jarred up from 2008 and may get the nerve someday to try again.
I've noticed that in my first 4 weeks. My very first bowl was Presbyterian and it was quite revolting taste-wise. Out of interest, I tried a second bowl of it yesterday or the day before and while it still tastes a bit odd to me, it was nowhere near as bad as I thought it was before. I can see myself finishing it at some point even if, like you, I'm not making plans to buy any more just yet.
When I first started I thought Navy Flakes were head spinners. Now they’re an all day smoke. Tastes change bigtime it’s just like drinking coffee. When I started it was like all creamer. Now if you put a grain of creamer or sugar in my coffee I can taste it and it’s horrible.
This is more than chance; it's a pretty set pattern. If you don't like a blend, jar it and try it again in a year. Sometimes the age or drying improves the tobacco, but mostly you just develop a wider range of taste and come back ready for the experience. For me, more blends than not have developed and evolved, usually for the better. Planta's 2012 marula fruit aromatic has taken me several years to figure out; it was never awful, but it was never exactly appealing ... and then it was.
I hated my first few smokes of PS LTF.
I've had some in a tin for almost a year now. It's dry, the topping is minimal and it's going well in my ghosted Lakeland pipe.
I've had some in a tin for almost a year now. It's dry, the topping is minimal and it's going well in my ghosted Lakeland pipe.
Some aromatic blends have proven much much better once the flavoring ages out. This sounds a little snarky, but I mean it in a flat-footed that's how it was for me way.
Blends after the first year also improve due to one’s technique. Slowing down and sipping brings out flavors that you don’t experience when puffing like a locomotive. Or at least that was the case for me. Like so many things, we learn & improve w/ experience.
I now get a lot more flavour and flavours out of the aromatics I have. I liked most of the English blends I bought right away but Dunhill MM 965 and Solani ELM 779 weren’t immediate hits, okay, but not great. After about a year I found myself enjoying them as much as other English blends.
I had a similar experience i tried mixing half of the middlenton and prince albert soft vanilla and it was alot better for me
I still have not opened same blend twice. There are so many blends out there, I keep trying new blends. I want to go back to few choice blends, but they will have to wait.
The first blend that made me really like pipe smoking was Escudo. It is still a favorite 20 years later.
My first straight Virginia was either Dan Tobacco Hamborger Veermaster or Astleys no 109. I can't remember that far back but I still have one tin each from back then dated 2001. I still celllar and smoke them today.
My favorite from that era is Fribourg & Treyer Cut Virginia Plug and it is still a favorite.
I cracked my last 2001 tin of CVP when my good buddy hoosierpipeguy came to the house. I hadn't seen Mark in years so it was a special occasion. It was Mark who first got me into pipes and I am damn glad he did. We were both cigar junkies at the time. I am pretty sure Planta made it back then and then maybe a decade ago K&K took over and I didn't taste a difference.
Another favorite from back then was Orlik Dark Strong Kentucky. It was my first Virginia/Kentucky blend and I fell in love.When it got discontinued years ago I was pissed. Everyone said that Peter Heinrichs Dark Strong was the same thing but they were full of it. The Heinrich version had a bunch of red Virginia's in it and I cannot smoke them, so I knew they weren't the same. Finally Orlik DSK came back and the first thing I did was get one tin to check it out, It tasted like I remembered and I knew it aged great so I bought 100 tins as I worked someone for 10% off. I refuse to run out of blends I love through discontinuation.
You never know when a mfg will pull the plug on something and don't make the same mistake I did believing that one of the worlds most known and most loved blend like Three Nuns could get discontinued
Back in the beginning I used to smoke a number of English blends. Penzance was one Two Friends Deacons Downfall was very tasty. Frog on the Bayou, a few of the Dunhill English like Standard, London Mixture can't remember the third but I know it wasn't 965 or Nightcap. I did used to smoke a lot of Elizabethan. I stopped smoking these over a decade ago and don't miss them.
I really liked a number of GL Pease bends Ravens Wing, Odyssey, Cumberland and maybe a couple others. Now the only Pease blend I smoke and cellar which is really tasty with some age is Navigator. A very nice Virginia/Kentucky. It has some rough edges fresh but man it gets good later. I have been smoking 2012 which is the year it came out and I have gone through a few tins in the last year or so.
It is interesting looking back at what I used to smoke and don't anymore and it is interesting to see blends I loved in the beginning and still love today.
My first straight Virginia was either Dan Tobacco Hamborger Veermaster or Astleys no 109. I can't remember that far back but I still have one tin each from back then dated 2001. I still celllar and smoke them today.
My favorite from that era is Fribourg & Treyer Cut Virginia Plug and it is still a favorite.
I cracked my last 2001 tin of CVP when my good buddy hoosierpipeguy came to the house. I hadn't seen Mark in years so it was a special occasion. It was Mark who first got me into pipes and I am damn glad he did. We were both cigar junkies at the time. I am pretty sure Planta made it back then and then maybe a decade ago K&K took over and I didn't taste a difference.
Another favorite from back then was Orlik Dark Strong Kentucky. It was my first Virginia/Kentucky blend and I fell in love.When it got discontinued years ago I was pissed. Everyone said that Peter Heinrichs Dark Strong was the same thing but they were full of it. The Heinrich version had a bunch of red Virginia's in it and I cannot smoke them, so I knew they weren't the same. Finally Orlik DSK came back and the first thing I did was get one tin to check it out, It tasted like I remembered and I knew it aged great so I bought 100 tins as I worked someone for 10% off. I refuse to run out of blends I love through discontinuation.
You never know when a mfg will pull the plug on something and don't make the same mistake I did believing that one of the worlds most known and most loved blend like Three Nuns could get discontinued
Back in the beginning I used to smoke a number of English blends. Penzance was one Two Friends Deacons Downfall was very tasty. Frog on the Bayou, a few of the Dunhill English like Standard, London Mixture can't remember the third but I know it wasn't 965 or Nightcap. I did used to smoke a lot of Elizabethan. I stopped smoking these over a decade ago and don't miss them.
I really liked a number of GL Pease bends Ravens Wing, Odyssey, Cumberland and maybe a couple others. Now the only Pease blend I smoke and cellar which is really tasty with some age is Navigator. A very nice Virginia/Kentucky. It has some rough edges fresh but man it gets good later. I have been smoking 2012 which is the year it came out and I have gone through a few tins in the last year or so.
It is interesting looking back at what I used to smoke and don't anymore and it is interesting to see blends I loved in the beginning and still love today.
Some blends I could not manage at the time because of the lack of thecnique such as flakes and plugs.
Coming from a solid cigar background, I gravitated towards blends in the beginning with latakia. I felt like the transition from cigars to pipes was better that way. I actually found My Mixture 965 pretty early and stuck with it exclusively for literally years before I tried other blends.
Now, I am much more apt to reach for a VA or VAPer because I've slowed down and appreciate the nuance. I still very much enjoy latakia, but in much smaller doses now
I never really acquired the patience or cadence for aromatics. I might try some CB Copper just to see if that's changed
Now, I am much more apt to reach for a VA or VAPer because I've slowed down and appreciate the nuance. I still very much enjoy latakia, but in much smaller doses now
I never really acquired the patience or cadence for aromatics. I might try some CB Copper just to see if that's changed
Dark fired Kentucky was my stepping stone from cigars to pipe tobacco. I found Latakia later.
HH Old Dark Fired was an absolute revelation when I found it
