Rose Geranium

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Do you know for sure your granddad was smoking English scented tobaccos? They were never that common in the US and had to be sought out. A more widely available American floral tobacco was Mixture 79. Or Field & Stream which is available only as a Sutliff Match which is not very much like the House of Windsor F&S I knew.
Yeh, when I read that granddad smoked GH&co or SG blends, I have to wonder if they were millionaires back in the day.

To me it doesn't smell anything like roses. Roses are too sweet, Pelargonium is sharper, has hints of citrus and spice, warmth, and can edge towards bitter. Rose oil, candies, and perfumes I find intolerable.
So, when you smoke Kendal Flake you don't smell roses? Hell, I can send you some rose geranium oil and it DOES smell like roses.
 

theloniousmonkfish

Part of the Furniture Now
Jan 1, 2017
943
504
To me it doesn't smell anything like roses. Roses are too sweet, Pelargonium is sharper, has hints of citrus and spice, warmth, and can edge towards bitter. Rose oil, candies, and perfumes I find intolerable.
I associate it with candy. Pakola is my favorite soda though.
 

Donb1972

Can't Leave
Feb 9, 2022
415
1,079
Erie, PA
Do you know for sure your granddad was smoking English scented tobaccos? They were never that common in the US and had to be sought out. A more widely available American floral tobacco was Mixture 79. Or Field & Stream which is available only as a Sutliff Match which is not very much like the House of Windsor F&S I knew.
I'm not certain, no. I know it's not Mixture 79, because my Grandmother, ironically, did not like the smell and would not let him smoke it in the house, so he only smoked it at work in one specific pipe...and I smoke 79 myself(the old and new versions).

I was just going based on smell, and by how other people described the "Lakeland" essence, and I am trying to find a match. It may be a lost cause. His tobacco shop made custom blends, so for all I know it could have been something that no one sold anywhere.
 

karam

Lifer
Feb 2, 2019
2,605
9,930
Basel, Switzerland
So, when you smoke Kendal Flake you don't smell roses? Hell, I can send you some rose geranium oil and it DOES smell like roses.
Never actually had it, when I reviewed Dark Flake Scented I had to pin down what the smell and taste I got was, and it is this plant: Rose geranium (Pelargonium capitatum): growing, planting, caring. - https://www.groww.fr/en/plants/rose-geranium

I get that scent from DFS as main note, about 30% in Bosun, and way in the back in Ennerdale.
 

mingc

Lifer
Jun 20, 2019
4,259
12,604
The Big Rock Candy Mountains
Grasmere was lemongrass, right? It kills me how GH&co used things that smelled like other things, making all of their fragrances to be "almost" the real thing. Rose Geranium, not real roses. Lemongrass, not real lemons. Isoamyl acetate, not real fruit. Just an observation.
It's Grousemoor that some folks who don't know what lemongrass smell or taste like says is in it. I know lemongrass. I cook with lemongrass. There's no lemongrass in Grousemoor.
 
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Hampshire Pipes & Cigars

Might Stick Around
Dec 30, 2021
75
396
Hampshire UK
This is very interesting. When I think of pipe tobacco my brain immediately turns to food flavours - sweet; caramel; vanilla; rum etc. I have never thought about the scents of fauna and flora - although I do with cigars ...
 
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It's Grousemoor that some folks who don't know what lemongrass smell or taste like says is in it. I know lemongrass. I cook with lemongrass. There's no lemongrass in Grousemoor.
I've never actually smoked Grasmoor. The threat of lemongrass keeps me from it. I grow lemongrass, and I never want that in my pipe.

Never actually had it, when I reviewed Dark Flake Scented I had to pin down what the smell and taste I got was, and it is this plant: Rose geranium (Pelargonium capitatum): growing, planting, caring. - https://www.groww.fr/en/plants/rose-geranium

I get that scent from DFS as main note, about 30% in Bosun, and way in the back in Ennerdale.
This just doesn't convince me that I am wrong. I know what geranium oil smells like. Sorry. You would have to convince me that rose geranium doesn't smell like what I know rose geranium oil smells like, and that will be hard. However, I can send someone a small sample of rose geranium oil, if they want to compare. It doesn't smell like anything in Dark Flake scented, but as I said, it may be in there as a small player.
 
This is very interesting. When I think of pipe tobacco my brain immediately turns to food flavours - sweet; caramel; vanilla; rum etc. I have never thought about the scents of fauna and flora - although I do with cigars ...
It is a gender bender for sure. Big burley tobaccos scented with women's fragrances. There are a few that I like a lot. But, most... phhhht. However, if the ones I liked were offered with absolutely none of that lakeland toppings, then I would prefer and buy those in a heartbeat, never looking back to GH&co blends again, ever.

It's hard to envision who would like a strong ass burley scented like that. It is like imagining a big and burley wearing a tutu.
1645032651155.png
 

mingc

Lifer
Jun 20, 2019
4,259
12,604
The Big Rock Candy Mountains
It is a gender bender for sure. Big burley tobaccos scented with women's fragrances. There are a few that I like a lot. But, most... phhhht. However, if the ones I liked were offered with absolutely none of that lakeland toppings, then I would prefer and buy those in a heartbeat, never looking back to GH&co blends again, ever.

It's hard to envision who would like a strong ass burley scented like that. It is like imagining a big and burley wearing a tutu.
View attachment 128948
Where did you get that photo of me?!
 

condorlover1

Lifer
Dec 22, 2013
8,561
30,422
New York
Grasmere was lemongrass, right? It kills me how GH&co used things that smelled like other things, making all of their fragrances to be "almost" the real thing. Rose Geranium, not real roses. Lemongrass, not real lemons. Isoamyl acetate, not real fruit. Just an observation.
Neither Rose Geranium or any of the heliotrope family of flavor ides are made from chemicals. A full description of the plant is given here Pelargonium graveolens - Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelargonium_graveolens along with its source and numerous applications. In the U.S we tend to use Heliotrope otherwise known as the Cherry Pie Plant which gives you the famous Play Dough smell. The plant is fairly common to North America and is used as a decorative edging in gardens. This sort of information will win you a bar bet and is known to me since I had the misfortune to be a part owner of a tobacco company with @woodsroad. Just an observation!
 

Franco Pipenbeans

Part of the Furniture Now
Jan 7, 2021
648
1,699
Yorkshire, England
Grousemoor does have a more citrus scent to it than a floral type scent (imho) which doesn’t translate into the smoke. I wouldn’t say it was lemongrass per se, but something akin to it, maybe something more like a Key Lime Pie or something; not so in your face as a freshly cut citrus can be. It’s a nice, light, spring time type smoke but isn’t floral like Grasmere which, to me, tastes like rose water and Turkish Delight. I don’t recall ever knowingly had rose geranium oil for any purpose so I couldn’t say if Grasmere has Rose Geranium oil in it or not.

I’ve got some Bosun’s Plug on the way which, according to the internet, has rose geranium in it; I’ll let you know if that’s true when it gets here. ?
 
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Neither Rose Geranium or any of the heliotrope family of flavor ides are made from chemicals. A full description of the plant is given here Pelargonium graveolens - Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelargonium_graveolens along with its source and numerous applications. In the U.S we tend to use Heliotrope otherwise known as the Cherry Pie Plant which gives you the famous Play Dough smell. The plant is fairly common to North America and is used as a decorative edging in gardens. This sort of information will win you a bar bet and is known to me since I had the misfortune to be a part owner of a tobacco company with @woodsroad. Just an observation!
But they ARE chemicals, just not inorganic ones. Water is a chemical compound. Rose geranium oil is a chemical. Lemongrass oil is a chemical.

People throw around that word like it’s a bad thing. But, we’d die without chemicals.
 

Donb1972

Can't Leave
Feb 9, 2022
415
1,079
Erie, PA
It is a gender bender for sure. Big burley tobaccos scented with women's fragrances. There are a few that I like a lot. But, most... phhhht. However, if the ones I liked were offered with absolutely none of that lakeland toppings, then I would prefer and buy those in a heartbeat, never looking back to GH&co blends again, ever.

It's hard to envision who would like a strong ass burley scented like that. It is like imagining a big and burley wearing a tutu.
View attachment 128948
Personally, I don't think I would want to smoke it often, I just want to try it and see. I'm not quite ready for the tutu yet!
 
No. They are 'Organic Flavors' derived from plants to give them their correct legal definition. If they were synthesized they would be chemicals. Lol. I can see this thread now going into 100+ pages!
Dude, just google chemicals. Water is one. Hydrogen and oxygen are chemical elements. Duh, Freshman high school science stuff.
 

karam

Lifer
Feb 2, 2019
2,605
9,930
Basel, Switzerland
No. They are 'Organic Flavors' derived from plants to give them their correct legal definition. If they were synthesized they would be chemicals. Lol. I can see this thread now going into 100+ pages!
As a biochemist with a stint in a chemistry lab, I agree.
Hipsters and vegetarians make a fuss about “chemicals” and they miss that we are all chemicals.
@cosmicfolklore I never smelled pure geranium oil, and perception of flavours can be different so you may well be right. It’s also a big plant family so maybe something smells like roses. I hate the rose oil smell, I find it VERY heavy, cloying and disgusting. But I’d put my peepee in a fire that DFS is scented with that plant that if I google the Greek name of it I get results for Pelargonium, the plant which grew and still grows in my mother’s balcony, and always has a leaf thrown in a pot making jam etc.

Fun fact, Greeks claim that other than flavouring sweets Pelargonium is good for warding off mosquitoes. Eucalyptus trees too though that’s likely because they dry the soil around them.