The Most Disappointing Tobacco

[bluegrassbrian]

Gawith Medium flake (Golden Glow) was a disappointment for me. I've always loved their other Virginia flakes for their flavor and smoothness - never bites and never tires my palette.

Medium on the other hand - bites me immediately and never lets up. I powered through an entire bowl once and it wrecked my mouth for the rest of the day.

Similarly, C&D Opening Night - people seem to really like this bright Virginia flake. For me it always tastes cloyingly citric and monotone. It doesn't bite me like Golden Glow, but I detect some roughness.
I figured some age would perhaps make an improvement, so I opened a 9 year old tin. It was older for certain, slightly darker and the tin note had a richness that newer production lacked. The flavor though was still largely the same. It had gained some bready nuance, but I still found the citric nature overbearing and unwavering.
Just doesn't jive with my taste buds.

 

[simong]

Gawith Medium flake (Golden Glow) was a disappointment for me. I've always loved their other Virginia flakes for their flavor and smoothness - never bites and never tires my palette.

Medium on the other hand - bites me immediately and never lets up. I powered through an entire bowl once and it wrecked my mouth for the rest of the day.

Similarly, C&D Opening Night - people seem to really like this bright Virginia flake. For me it always tastes cloyingly citric and monotone. It doesn't bite me like Golden Glow, but I detect some roughness.
I figured some age would perhaps make an improvement, so I opened a 9 year old tin. It was older for certain, slightly darker and the tin note had a richness that newer production lacked. The flavor though was still largely the same. It had gained some bready nuance, but I still found the citric nature overbearing and unwavering.
Just doesn't jive with my taste buds.

Are you sure you’ve not just smoked Golden Glow?
Medium Virginia Flake was made with a different (now defunct) source of Virginia.

 

[bluegrassbrian]

Are you sure you’ve not just smoked Golden Glow?
Medium Virginia Flake was made with a different (now defunct) source of Virginia.

The Medium Flake I've had came from a 250g box. Don't know the exact age of it, but the box was shared between two other gentlemen and myself. It was bought at the Columbus pipe show in.. 2018 I believe.
Seemed more or less the same as what I've smoked from Golden Glow tins.

 

[simong]

The Medium Flake I've had came from a 250g box. Don't know the exact age of it, but the box was shared between two other gentlemen and myself. It was bought at the Columbus pipe show in.. 2018 I believe.
Seemed more or less the same as what I've smoked from Golden Glow tins.

They’re both similar style virginias but I favoured the Medium.
Golden Glow I like as well but it tastes sweeter & a bit sharper to me.
I think 2015/16 was when they stopped producing the Medium Flake. Like with Bracken, they stopped because they couldn’t source that specific leaf anymore.

 

[bluegrassbrian]

They’re both similar style virginias but I favoured the Medium.
Golden Glow I like as well but it tastes sweeter & a bit sharper to me.
I think 2015/16 was when they stopped producing the Medium Flake. Like with Bracken, they stopped because they couldn’t source that specific leaf anymore.

It's such a bitch when that happens. In an ideal world, brands would make note of these changes on the label.
Not every change leads to a diminished product and transparency fosters a trusting relationship with the consumer.
Pipe tobacco is such a niche industry anymore, you'd think companies would embrace our idiosyncratic tendencies.
Although, it's possible we (the type of pipe smoker that cares enough to explore forums like this) are just a small percentage of that already small niche.

 

[orvet]

My nickname for this blend is Orlik Golden Showers.

I haven't smoked any Orlik tobacco since the 1980's. They had a beautiful looking Virginia flake that smell nice and look like it should be a good tobacco. However when I lit it up it felt like a rodent crawled through the stem of my pipe and sunk his teeth onto my tongue and started chewing. One of the worst cases of tongue bite I've ever had!
I haven't purchased or smoked any Orlik since then.

 

[sablebrush52]

Penzance (along with Chelsea Morning/Quiet Nights) have a distinct flavor and "texture" profile that's really not subjective.

Liking it or hating it is an opinion. But describing it as 'run of the mill' is just wrong.

Well, it's all opinions here. When I first tried out Penzance in 2006 it wasn't the legendary blend it now is because of illogical quirks in human nature. It was just a blend that a lot of people liked. I could walk into my tobacconist and see it sitting on a shelf. The following year, when Germain's missed a few shipments, then the mania began and it's been a perpetual delusion ever since.
I'm really fussy about English/Balkan blends. I've been lucky to have enjoyed some of the very best of them. Penznace was OK, but pretty run of the mill for me, and missing flavor notes that I like. I gave it a fair try over time and it did not grow on me. Instead, it shrank.
Point is, people's takes are different. What's wonderful for me may be Pfffffft for you, and vice versa.

 

[orvet]

This thread may be a good place to ask this question, or perhaps it should be a topic by itself.
My question is: has anyone besides me noticed differences between batches of certain tinned tobaccos?

In the 1980s, when we received a new shipment of tobacco, I would open a tin, usually Captain medium, and see how it smelled and then how it smoked. I could tell a definite difference between batches, sometimes in color sometimes in tin note, texture was sometimes different as well as the way it smoked.

I have noticed a difference between some tins of Capstan medium dated 2021 and some I received dated September 2022. The September 2022 tins had a much coarser tobacco, it seems to have more stems in it and less leaf. To me there seems to be a little less flavor and perhaps a little more heat when I smoke it. Has anyone else noticed this with Capstan or with any other blends?

 

[sablebrush52]

With just as many that are ready to condemn others for not agreeing with them.

Yep, all too true.
Just because I find someone else's favorite smoke to be a thoroughly disgusting pile of crap, doesn't mean that I generalize it to the person who likes to smoke that thoroughly disgusting pile of crap as being a thoroughly disgusting pile of crap. They might very well be a thoroughly disgusting etc, etc, just because they ARE a thoroughly disgusting etc, etc., which has nothing to do with what they smoke.

 

[sablebrush52]

This thread may be a good place to ask this question, or perhaps it should be a topic by itself.
My question is: has anyone besides me noticed differences between batches of certain tinned tobaccos?

In the 1980s, when we received a new shipment of tobacco, I would open a tin, usually Captain medium, and see how it smelled and then how it smoked. I could tell a definite difference between batches, sometimes in color sometimes in tin note, texture was sometimes different as well as the way it smoked.

I have noticed a difference between some tins of Capstan medium dated 2021 and some I received dated September 2022. The September 2022 tins had a much coarser tobacco, it seems to have more stems in it and less leaf. To me there seems to be a little less flavor and perhaps a little more heat when I smoke it. Has anyone else noticed this with Capstan or with any other blends?

Absolutely. Quite a number here write about batch differences, and more recently, component substitutions that change the blend.

 

[Steddy]

Half and Half is good in a curry but not in my pipe. It is also good to keep moths out of my sock drawer.

 

[woodsroad]

Yep, all too true.
Just because I find someone else's favorite smoke to be a thoroughly disgusting pile of crap, doesn't mean that I generalize it to the person who likes to smoke that thoroughly disgusting pile of crap as being a thoroughly disgusting pile of crap. They might very well be a thoroughly disgusting etc, etc, just because they ARE a thoroughly disgusting etc, etc., which has nothing to do with what they smoke.

You beat me to it.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Half and Half is good in a curry but not in my pipe. It is also good to keep moths out of my sock drawer.

H&H tobacco, or the dairy combo for the curry? Pretty clear you're not pouring milk and cream into your sock drawer, though....

 

[huntertrw]

I would really like to like Five Brothers Pipe Smoking Tobacco! but to my palate it just always tastes like cheap cigarettes.

 

[Bassman65]

In Canada we have Mr. B’s Mark Twain. Was supposed to be the best seller. Could not stomach it one bit.

 

[jpmcwjr]

From earlier posts, the point I apparently didn't make is why dump on the same tobacco, the same pipe brand for years on end?

 

[smudgersmissingleg]

I didn't like the Gawith Black Twist. Tasted like burnt steak, to me. I love their various flavoured brown twists, tho.

 

[John_B]

Holger Dansk Royal Navy Flake was a sublime smoke, and then MacBaren took over production and it became unrecognisable. It suddenly bit me mercilessly. Same with MacBaren's take on Players Whiskey, the original of which I loved, as it was the first real blend I bought 45 years ago. Gold Block is another where the name is still alive, but there is not a thread of the original DNA left from the Ogdens product. Very sad.

 

[AcesAndEights]

Blood Red Moon. I like an aro now and then, but this was too much. Bought two tins, gave the second away.

 

[Steddy]

H&H tobacco, or the dairy combo for the curry? Pretty clear you're not pouring milk and cream into your sock drawer, though....

Haha, I’m poking fun at the spices in Half and Half tobacco.