Much more about them.
My point was more along the lines of many-I like what they put out (Gh&Co) so I buy it.
If one doesn’t like (or what they just bought doesn’t match their memory) it, don’t buy it.
Review of GH Coniston Cut Plug – A Tale of Betrayal
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My point was more along the lines of many-I like what they put out (Gh&Co) so I buy it.
If one doesn’t like (or what they just bought doesn’t match their memory) it, don’t buy it.
For whatever reasons, G&H has raised the hackles of a few pipe smokers. I purchase their tobacco because I enjoy something a bit more reflective of a time long past. I accept that change is inevitable, but while there are shadows of times long gone, why not explore them. Another thing that seems a bit curious is the display of ego that is brandished about when discussing this company. Just as Carley Simon wrote, “You know this song is about you.” Some people respond as though what’s written, said, or done is somehow about them personally. It’s not. i agree. Buy it or not. Who cares. Will it even be available in ten years? Maybe not. Then what? One things for sure, whining about the company gets old.
But…but…but…
This is the Pipes Magazine Forum, infamous for the brazenly assumed expertise of a number of its members.
Just listen to the various interviews about the STG business, when this forum gets mentioned. It’s not a reaction of admiration.
So let’s keep the whining going or we will lose what defines us.
Years ago when GH blends were just as ridiculed here as McClelland and Sutliff, a few members declared the excellence of GH and SG blends and supported the brands amidst talk of them tasting like urinal cakes and grandmother's panties. There were only six or seven of us at the time and when we voiced concern and asked questions about possible changes to the blends around six years ago, there was no polite response to our inquiries but condemnation for thinking such a thing from the company representative.
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You mean our ability to taste what we are smoking?
You know, nothing written here affects anything in the real world. Gawith Hoggarth (or anyone else) isn’t going to change a goddamned thing based on the blather posted here. We may think we’re smart, well-informed, perceptive and influential, but we’re not. What we say here does nothing other than to stoke an overinflated sense of self worth. We are the proverbial flea on an elephan’t ass, and I love that about us, man.
I am your humble messenger.
And I am much, much smarter than you.
<earplugs in, brain off>
I am your humble messenger.
And I am much, much smarter than you.
<earplugs in, brain off>
Welp, this was my morning entertainment. 
Why, though, whilst readin' this thread, did this song start jinglin' thematically through me head?
Why, though, whilst readin' this thread, did this song start jinglin' thematically through me head?
Do you all remember the Trauma Surgeon from the hollers of kentucky who was also a goat herder and also a Cuban refugee? This drivel sounds similarly inflammatory.
Oh no, your presumed ability to taste what you’re smoking.
So then, if someone questioned whether your assumption that Balkan Sobranie has changed, you'd just shrug it off?
I mean, most of us join here to become better at tasting tobaccos, and to help and share with other ways we can become better at tasting. The only areas where we agree that everyone is different is on whether we like it or not.
GH has already said that they fired the guy who was adding more sauce to their earlier blends.
Some people prefer the new releases with less sauce.
But, when a tobacco company tells us that we are not tasting what we are tasting, it just goes to show how much they care about their customers. IMO, that argument is over.
If someone prefers and feels less embarrassed on forums where no one trusts what they are tasting, then maybe that forum is best for them. But, I'd be damned proud of being a member here, where people do try to better their sense of taste. If we are to be ridiculed, let it be for us being better at tasting tobaccos.
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answer’d it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest–
For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men–
Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
He hath brought many captives home to Rome
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And, sure, he is an honourable man.
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?
O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answer’d it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest–
For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men–
Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
He hath brought many captives home to Rome
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And, sure, he is an honourable man.
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?
O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.
I actually posted it with you in mind. I had a feeling that with your theater background you might pick up on the subtle context of what I really wanted to say about a few select posters.
And now, I leave this thread, thoroughly bored.
First off, you set yourself up for that reply.
I don’t know about you, but I smoked plenty of Balkan Sobranie in the 70’s and 80’s, and Balkan Sobranie changed with the change in ownership as the red Virginias got cut down.
These days it’s not so much about what I’m tasting as what I’m not tasting, as, for example, blenders cheat on Perique and replace it with cheap DFK.
As jberg put it earlier in this thread, the differences are apparent in a longer view.
But it’s more than tasting. It’s the editorializing that accompanies many of the posts that sets professionals teeth on edge.
Y’all can write anything you want and it will have consequences, like few if any pros participating here.
Betrayal? Nonsense.
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