The One Smoke Gentlemen

[damacene]

I often hear of the old masters who only smoked one blend. Tolkien is famous for Capstan blue, C.S. Lewis for Three Nuns etc. I've found the blend hopping and TAD a tad obnoxious within myself. I've loved English tobaccos with buttery sour orientals, had an affair with the nutty rich goodness of burleys, but found myself consistantly reaching for the sweet bready vaper with a little kick. I want to simplify things and just smoke Peter Stokkebye Navy Flake and forget about everything else. Is there anyone who consistently enjoys one blend and sod off to the rest? I want to simplify my life and amass a decent horde of vapers so I can focus on artisan pipes and poetry. However I am always seeking that great new thing. Any advice lads?

 

[Steddy]

Haha I can relate. Sometimes I wish we didn’t have so many choices. I have this urge to try them all.
However this will lead to finding favorites that I always have cellared.

I wouldn’t want to smoke just one blend all the time. I love steak but not every night. I would rather have a smallish rotation of familiar blends.
It’s also fun to pop a tin of something unfamiliar.

 

[The Amish Tyrant]

This forum is a small niche in the pipe smoking community, so the answers will be skewed. Think of it like a drinker who only has Budweiser.

Personally, I also smoke cigarettes and have one poison of choice. Even the style of cigarette must be the same (shorts/kings) as the 100's just taste different despite my pedestrian palate.

With pipes, I have a few go to blends for everyday enjoyment (Half and Half, Arrowhead), but a wide cellar since my mood changes. Unlike with cigarettes, it seems my smoking experience differs even with the same blend based on mood, weather, and possibly diet. Now it's time to cellar deep on the select few blends that rarely disappoint with an occasional tin or bulk blend here and there.

The fear of missing out rings true, but I'm having a harder time justifying further exploration when I think I know what I like (until my palate changes again, I suppose).

 

[Chasing Embers]

There's a deertongue blend that I go through pounds of at a time while tins remain unopened. If it's all I had, I'd be more than happy.

 

[TheWhale13]

Well, that is the difference between a hobby and just something you do, or a habit.

 

[DanWil84]

I agree with @The Amish Tyrant, this forum is a small part of the pipe smokers, I think the majority or at least a large part of pipesmokers smoke one blend and doesnt have a cellar or buys occasionally a bulk blend and puts it in a jar. When I was a cigarette smoker I switched brands or strengths by the pack occasionally, I wasn't fixed on smoking just one brand.

In general I like the change of tastes in almost everything, the only thing I'm steady on is the coffee and pilsener (beer in generall I vary in, but just a straight pilsener one brand) I drink. Some have a tobacco cellar narrow and deep, I like more broad and shallow so I can vary as much as I can. I have 2 blends I have more than 5 tins of.

So in short: like what you smoke, smoke what you like, but smoking one blend is definatly easier if that is what you can do. Also no FOMO on a special limited small batch reserva buy now else it's gone release.

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

In terms of smoking pipes, a few famous authors don't make preferring one blend unique, they were great writers but just ordinary guys when it came to smoking a pipe, no different than what long johns they wore - my experience with the few pipe smokers I've encountered since my youth (prior to exposure to so many on here) has been that most of them smoked pretty much one blend and just like (or maybe not just like) almost all cigarette smokers smoked pretty much one brand back in the day. One of my grandpas only bought one kind of whiskey that he hid out in the barn, plenty of folks drank only Budweiser or nothing for beer. I assume there have always been others who tried different things and enjoyed different things like many on here or didn't care what it was as long as it was tobacco, or beer, etc.

I'm still trying different things because I'm relatively new, but I could right now (if I absolutely had to) make a short list of a few blends I'd be happy with and stop buying any others (I could hardly type that last part, lol).

Do what you like!

 

[judcole]

If you want to smoke one blend, and you have found one you like, knock yourself out.
I couldn't do it that way, but to each his ever-lovin' blue-eyed own.

 

[fireground_piper]

Start with just going through a month or two of just that. See how you like it and go from there.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

I am guessing they exist but I've never heard of anyone who eats the same food all day,every day. If I eat the same thing for breakfast for a week or two, I start to get tired of it. I suppose if you only see pipe tobacco as a vehicle for nicotine, one blend makes sense.

I also no longer see the need for 30 to 40 or more blends. I could easily be satisfied with a dozen or less.

 

[eljimmy]

I also no longer see the need for 30 to 40 or more blends. I could easily be satisfied with a dozen or less.

I strongly agree with this. 60+ blends later. lol

 

[Hillcrest]

I don't have a tobacco cellar like others here. I have a box of ziploc bags of the last order I placed of tobaccos I wanted to try and a drying tray. I pick what I want to try and dry it some. I tried to smoke just one blend and bought a pound of Old Toby, my favorite so far. After two days I had to switch to something else for variety. The three main tobaccos I smoke most often are Old Toby, Newminster 400 Navy Flake, and Lane 1-Q. Occasionally I will, for variety try Green Dragon (just finished last bowl, Country Squire PS Blend, Hunter's Creek, Whatever?????, Rivendell (sans burley), and others. So ... I wish I could smoke one blend all the time but I get sick of the same taste. I could smoke three blends all the time though if that makes sense. My pipes have large chambers (20mm x 45-55mm) so one bowl can go 1-2 hours or all day off and on.
Same with pipes ... I'm down to 5 in rotation, can't do one but If I could I already own that one I I just wish it was filtered.

 

[workman]

There is no reason to assume that Tolkien and Lewis only smoked one blend all the time. On the contrary there is a picture of Lewis on another thread in which a tin of tobacco is clearly visible. It isn't Three Nuns.
I see no point in forcing myself to smoke only one blend. I also have lost the urge to try everything all the time. I try to have a stock of about 8-10 blends that I like. That's simple enough for me.

 

[ChonkyTonks]

In pursuit of finding my top ten blends, I have a myriad of blends in my collection. Part of the pursuit is what I enjoy most. Will I find that next amazing blend that will unseat another blend that I covet so much? At some point, I am sure I will slow down once I have figured out what blends I truly enjoy enough to smoke for the long run. But, I don't know that I will ever lose the passion (or itch) to find that next blend. There is so much out there I find to be interesting and just beyond my reach. That also benefits people here since I have an ever-growing stash of blends that I will sell soon.

 

[TheWhale13]

Why would you want to smoke the same cheap tobacco while buying different artisan pipes? I guess that's alright if you want the least noticable variation for the most amount of money.

 

[K.E. Powell]

Nothing wrong following Thoreau's maxim to simplify one's life. Far from it, in fact. But how much simpler would your life really be if you just smoked navy flake and nothing else? You'd save some time on shopping and maybe some space and a little money from not having to cellar as much tobacco, but that would be about it. You'd still be smoking a pipe, still smoke roughly the same amount of times in the day, etc. Part of your reasoning to simplify your tastes is because you think it will make the pursuit of artisan pipes easier. I'm not sure how that would be so, but even if it were, artisan pipes are a very expensive and complicated hobby. I'm not seeing where the simplifying happens.

Also, a lot of these old-timers that pipe smokers venerate as being one-blend smokers are 1. not one-blend smokers, and 2. they lived in a time with far fewer options. The number of blends available now are immense, and any one of them can be shipped to your door within a week. That's pretty amazing, and I imagine if that were available to the people you mentioned, they'd be more inclined to branch out.

I think, if I may presume, you are attaching a certain romanticism to this whole one-blend style of pipe smoking. You see a utilitarianism to it that is charming in its simplicity. I can respect that, and if pipe smoking is a mostly just a means to an end for you, then yea, being a one-blend guy can make things a little simpler, much in the same way having the same breakfast every day can simplify your life (and I am the kind of person who does more or less eat the same thing for breakfast every day, so I get it). But whether or not this simplicity actually improves your life will depend on what you are actually try to seek out, from life generally and from pipe smoking particularly.

 

[ray47]

Many years ago I was a one blend smoker, that blend was Prince Albert, but along came the World Wide Web and the advent of the pipe smoker forums. There was no looking back from then on. Now I smoke somewhere around 30 blends and that's being conservative. I also have accumulated 160 pipes. We are an enabling group of guys and gals.

 

[PA Piper Mike]

With the amount of amazing tobacco blends out there, I can't imagine marrying myself to only 1 blend. It would be like only eating 1 cereal for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the rest of your life. Some days I may want Raisin Bran Crunch, a hoagie, and a 24 oz prime rib...others, I may want shit on a shingle, tacos and pizza. So, it's virtually impossible for me to keep to 1 or even 5 tobaccos, lol.

Don't get me wrong, sometimes it's overkill with the choices out there, but it's awesome to have those choices too.

 

[cigrmaster]

I have found that 40 different blends gives me the variety I enjoy. I normally have around 25 tins open at the same time and I store the closed tin in plastic tupperware like containers that will beep my flakes fresh for at least a couple of years. I have half a dozen or so bulks and a few plugs and I haven't bought any new tobacco (except a few old tins) since 2018. I have plenty to keep track of and don't have any desire to buy anymore.

 

[anotherbob]

what do they say about square pegs and triangular holes? Or something like that. I think trying to force it is well frankly a fools errand. Let you be you. Let you do what you desire. That's the simplest route that's the least interfering. Trying to smoke just one blend when you still pine for others is well, not simple. Reminds me of this parable. Two monks who have taken an extreme vow of Chasity they've promised to never touch a woman. Well the monks are traveling back to their monastery and they come to a river it's a slightly tricky crossing but nothing for either of them. As they're getting ready to cross a young woman asks them if they could help here safely cross the river. The younger monk insists he can't. The older monk agrees and carries her across the river. shortly after the incident the younger monk chides the older "you broke our vow by having contact with that lady". The older monk shrugged and said "yes but you're the one that is still carrying her in your head".
Lastly it's just as off to me when a person says that they're making themselves try all these new blends when they really just keep wanting to smoke one blend. You can either fight your nature or go with it, but your nature will always win either way.