Words of wisdom indeed. This may ruffle a few feathers, but rookies such as myself have almost no business cellaring pounds of anything. I found this out back in 2003 when I first started pipe smoking, and I'm reminded of it now after picking the hobby up again after a 15 year hiatus.
Back in '03 it was Squadron Leader. I thought it was the bees knees and bought a couple pounds for the closet, only to find out a month or two later that I much preferred VaPers and VA flakes. Fast forward to now, and I made a similar mistake (on a smaller scale) by diving head first into a whole slew of latakia-forward blends that I don't want anything to do with since I quickly found my way back into VaPer/VA obsession.
And even now, after confirming the genre(s) that I'm into, there are so many great blends to try before stashing pounds in the "cellar". I'm honestly beginning to wonder if, for me personally, if it even makes sense to ever load heavy on one particular blend. Tastes change, and considering I only smoke 1-2 bowls per day, I'm not comfortable buying much more than 250g of any one blend.
I was burned once when Dunhill stopped so I don't want that to happen again. I agree in principle with trying before buying (a lot), but here's my concern: I smoke 1 bowl a day on weekdays and 3-4 on weekends.
Currently I am sitting on about 1 kg of tobacco, mainly English, VaPers and VaBurs. I know that at my rate it'd take me a year to finish all that. My worry, intensified by the annoyance I felt when Dunhill stopped producing, is that in a year from now it will either be more expensive, harder to get, or both, so I feel the need to buy now, and buy deep from anything that has made me happy to smoke it from opening the tin to finishing.
The other experience I've had that is colouring my approach to pipe tobaccos and stocking is vaping: when I started I used a handful of juices and they all worked for me very well. Then after a year or so I started branching out, going mental really and spending a ton of money on juices and gear. Now I've come back to the handful that I always enjoy.
I don't want to go through this annoying and costly journey will pipe tobaccos as well. For example I find Solani 633 and DLNRs as very similar, with the Dunhill being a bit sweeter than 633, with SG SJF tasting somewhat spicier/heavier. I love all three, I could get a load of any and be very happy for a long long time. With my limited experience after branching out from English blends I found I reach towards VaPers 60% of the time, 20% for English, and 20% for burley. So my strategy is to avoid trying to understood the nuances of so many excellent blends because I know I'll get burnt out and end up favouring one over all the rest, and then miss that one and need to buy it again, and having to finish the others will be a chore (that's my mindmess - I can't not use something I've paid for...).
