I rotate only because I just enjoy looking and using all my pipes one at a time
Thoughts On Rotation
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A newbie pipe-smoker this year, at one point I had 12 blends open but have narrowed that down to 7 (of which probably 2 will go away). Rotation-wise, the first morning smoke is usually a straight Virginia with black coffee. If I do not smoke until the afternoon, I usually just jump to an English/balkan blend.
How have you all decided what all of the blends out there are your favorites to narrow it down to so few? I've tried maybe 7 different blends since I started and I like them all for different reasons.
I have the opposite problem in that I dislike most blends In try! For every 10 blends I try I'll maybe find one that I enjoy and doesn't have something about it that puts me off. Thankfully at this point in my pipe journey I've got a pretty good handle on what attributes I like and don't like in blends, so I'm starting to have more successes than failures when picking out new blends to try.
For example I have all these various frog mortons that I will have to fill a gap with current production blends once these are all smoked out. I hope these don't become my favorite blends, or I'm in for a sad future... Although I heard Boswell Northwoods is similar to FMC at least?
I smoke 2 or 3 blends regularly and rotate my morning smoke typically with KBV aros. All this using 4 pipes. 2 get used daily. Like many others, I tried a bunch and ended up with a lot of stuff I dont smoke. I used to save them and come back, but it was so rare that I liked it later that now I just get rid of it if I don't dig it after 2 smokes or so. Feel better with just sticking with just a couple most of the time. Tmi?
For me it was easy. Most blends I absolutely hate, and or it burns like mad.
So if I can finish a tin/pouch, it stays.
Hence why I only smoke a handful of blends.
G
Gimlet
Guest
Most I tried I liked at first when I was starting out. But some I've grown tired of - usually the very sweet ones - and some become stayers. Your palete develops over time and you start to identify those aspects you really like.
Saying that, a change is often as good as a rest. I try something new with every few consignments. Once you've worked out which tobaccos and notes are for you and which aren't (I don't like heavy latakia, artificial sweetness and berry tastes, vanilla or the very bright and hot virginias so much, but I do like tonquin, earthy flavours, cavendish, burleys, red virginias etc) you rarely pick an outright dud. Some have become stayers for me (1792 flake, which a supplier sent by mistake) and expanded my range of staples, others a pleasant busman's holiday blend that I'll buy now and then for a break (the Ashton Rainy Days I've just bought is likely to fall into that category), and some will be stand-ins if a high street outlets has run out of what I really want (Sharrows Inspirarion is a good substitute for GH Coffee and Caramel. They both Ghost but it's complimentary ghosting so I can switch between the two in the same pipe).
I’m like Mikey in the old commercials, in that I can smoke anything in any pipe, and like it.
In the office I’ll smoke candy scented aromatics to please clients and staff.
I don’t smoke Latakia blends except outside. They smell like Lucky 7 catfish bait even to me.
I can’t count all my different blends and don’t want to. There are candy sweet aromatics, regular aromatics, Virginia blends, Burley blends, Latakia blends, and those lovely dark straight tobacco nicotine rich Five Brothers and Brown Boogie type nirvana kick ass antique smokes that only an addict can enjoy.
As for rotating pipes, yes.
After break in, a little, wee, minuscule, tiny bit of goodie leaves a pipe with each smoke.
The old timers who bought a Grabow and smoked it up and bought another probably got never more than two thousand and more likely only a thousand smokes before the pipe got so sour it was time to Re Grabow.
I’ve had some of those guys give me their worn out pipes.
I don’t smoke them, except as an experiment.
There is a life to briar pipes.
In the office I’ll smoke candy scented aromatics to please clients and staff.
I don’t smoke Latakia blends except outside. They smell like Lucky 7 catfish bait even to me.
I can’t count all my different blends and don’t want to. There are candy sweet aromatics, regular aromatics, Virginia blends, Burley blends, Latakia blends, and those lovely dark straight tobacco nicotine rich Five Brothers and Brown Boogie type nirvana kick ass antique smokes that only an addict can enjoy.
As for rotating pipes, yes.
After break in, a little, wee, minuscule, tiny bit of goodie leaves a pipe with each smoke.
The old timers who bought a Grabow and smoked it up and bought another probably got never more than two thousand and more likely only a thousand smokes before the pipe got so sour it was time to Re Grabow.
I’ve had some of those guys give me their worn out pipes.
I don’t smoke them, except as an experiment.
There is a life to briar pipes.
Variety used to be the spice of life for me, but I got fed up with having a lot of open tins. These days I open a tin and just smoke it over the course of a week or two. Once in a while I'll have a couple of tins open at the same time, but that's it. No fuss, no muss. No mess 'o open tins shitting up the place.
I rotate pipes and occasionally tobacco if I have a tin. I usually buy 1lbs bulk and smoke that until I need a new bag.
I recently bought one of those really cheap turntable platters so that my whole pipe rack could rotate. Now I just turn it and smoke the next pipe in line, using whatever genre of tobacco to which I've dedicated that pipe.
Sometimes it's nice to externalize/automate these things to avoid analysis paralysis.
Sometimes it's nice to externalize/automate these things to avoid analysis paralysis.
Like many here after discovering the wonders of online tobacconists Ive been on a real tasting spree trying out all different kinds of pipe tobaccos.
It's weird but when I smoked cigarettes I never had any interest in trying every brand of cigs I could get ahold of, I just smoked Player's filters, and when those got a bit $$ I switched to Canadian Classics only because they tasted close to Player's and were a couple of bucks cheaper a pack. When I was down in the US I would just buy Marlboro or occasionally Winston. I smoked cigs for 20 years.
Same for many things for me, dip=Skoal straight, nasal snuff= McChrystals original, Whisky= Jim Beam etc. I'm usually really a simple guy but with pipe tobacco I've had this serious TAD problem I really can't explain haha.
It's weird but when I smoked cigarettes I never had any interest in trying every brand of cigs I could get ahold of, I just smoked Player's filters, and when those got a bit $$ I switched to Canadian Classics only because they tasted close to Player's and were a couple of bucks cheaper a pack. When I was down in the US I would just buy Marlboro or occasionally Winston. I smoked cigs for 20 years.
Same for many things for me, dip=Skoal straight, nasal snuff= McChrystals original, Whisky= Jim Beam etc. I'm usually really a simple guy but with pipe tobacco I've had this serious TAD problem I really can't explain haha.
I’ve just started smoking again after a long lay off. Many years ago I started off on Lane RLP-6. Then my taste changed and I switched to Dunbar and then ultimately to Dorchester. Mind you, this was when they were available in bulk. And yes I’m cheap. (Ish) So, now I’m looking for a good bulk blend that is readily avaliable and hits the spot on my taste buds. So far, Escudo is the best thing I’ve tried and I’ve stocked up. But I’d like to age that and find an every day bulk blend. I have hopes for PS Bullseye but it’s out of stock everywhere. I’ve got a bit of 4th gen Evening Flake that I like ok and am going to age to see if it gets even better. But overall I’m a one blend for everyday kind of guy.
I do about what you do. I find it makes blends more interesting and fun to space them out. Like, when I smoke them , I'll remember the little nuances and why I enjoyed them before. It just depends on my mood. However, I am quite partial to a couple of blends and smoke those a little more frequently. It's all fun and enjoyable to me.
I'm usually smoking Dark Flake or Rustica most bowls, most of the time, but I also smoke Night Cap, Quiet Nights, Ennerdale, Conniston Cut Plug, Black Twist and Brown #4 on occasion.
I think "rotation" and resting pipes are worn out/meaningless terms that exist in pipe boards by those who find value in them more than having any real value to describe what you should do with your tobacco and your pipes.
Pipes don't need rest. Smoke any of them at will. What blend should you be smoking right now? Any of them. What about the 50 other blends you have open? What does open mean anyway? Are any of them at risk? No, all are sealed. Does it matter that they are in a different container than that in which they came? Not really. Do men or gods care? Not really, but you do, and if so, stop it! Smoke whatever you want when you want.
I think "rotation" and resting pipes are worn out/meaningless terms that exist in pipe boards by those who find value in them more than having any real value to describe what you should do with your tobacco and your pipes.
Pipes don't need rest. Smoke any of them at will. What blend should you be smoking right now? Any of them. What about the 50 other blends you have open? What does open mean anyway? Are any of them at risk? No, all are sealed. Does it matter that they are in a different container than that in which they came? Not really. Do men or gods care? Not really, but you do, and if so, stop it! Smoke whatever you want when you want.
Three decades of smoking and finding blends in the same genre too similar.
This is an interesting question for me because I have smoked 3 years and developed my own process. First you try everything which is costly. But step one is get the tobacco, step 2 is initially try and decide immediately if it’s either No, Maybe, or Yes? You will want to say Yes to all but you must ask yourself can you live without it. If a No set aside for 3-5 years, or trade, or sell. I hear your taste can change and later you may like a No. If a Maybe keep in a box for another try. Keep Yes in separate box.
Then separate the Yes into same categories. Straight Virginias, VaPers, etc. I use letter codes such as VLO = Virginia, Latakia, Oriental.
Now compare 2 of the same blends such as VaPers, but I find it best to compare them side by side in 2 cob pipes at same time. Smoke a little of each at same sitting, sometimes I puff one them the other, switch sides of mouth repeat, etc Both can be good but you can determine which one your palate prefers when comparing head to head.
For the lifers hear they will scoff or laugh but it’s the only way I can determine which of the Yes of same blend I prefer.
The loser goes into the Maybe box for more head to head. It’s fun for me and I have narrowed my 150 blends down to 30 and still working on it. I still buy more blends and compare them to my Yes blends.