Try More Blends or Cellar What I Know?

[Mr_houston]

Buy all you can whenever you can. You should buy what you like but you always have to be careful that your tastes might change.

There is a high probability that your tastes will change and/or you will find better blends than you love now. I suggest you not cellar deep, but try many blends this first year.

 

[username]

You can always use what you cellar as trade bait if your tastes do change.

 

[Hovannes]

I'm two years deep and still in the try phase, basically anything I taste now that impressed with from the first bowl goes on a list. There's only been a few blends, less than 5 maybe, where I've tried and been like "damn I'm ordering more of this right now". I probably have over 120 different blends at the moment and most of those are just one timers, things I have 2oz or less of because I bought them to try.

This brings me back to my rant about not being able to purchase tobacco in grams to try in the USA, like they have in the UK (not sure if EU gets this as well) where they can get 10g samples. Honestly I weighed it out and I'd be fine anywhere between 5-7g for samples. I don't need an ounce (in some case minimum two ounces! kbv and wcc I'm looking at you!!) of something to tell if I'm gonna like it or not.

Tough call to make since you're new I'd say keep trying new things but you could end up strung out like me trying to figure it out after two years still. It's annoying to be like "yeah id be good with this xyz blend i just tried" only to find something you like more a week later and now we're starting all over again.

Good luck.

Consider that at any B&M they'll encourage you to sample a bowl or two of any of their bulk blends gratis, and if there's a pipe club meeting there, they'll often leave an open tin or two of whatever they were passing around at the last meeting for sampling.
Or at least that's the way things roll in my town.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Consider that at any B&M they'll encourage you to sample a bowl or two of any of their bulk blends gratis, and if there's a pipe club meeting there, they'll often leave an open tin or two of whatever they were passing around at the last meeting for sampling.
Or at least that's the way things roll in my town.

That's now pretty rare. Some states and cities have prohibitions against samples. (Shades of The Old Dope Peddler —Tom Lehrer) ??

I'd say you are fortunate to have such at hand!

 

[trouttimes]

Good advice here. Know that taste change, tobacco changes with age and it will never be cheaper or more available. So both. I cellar things that as basic like 965 and Pembroke but I’m always up for new things. I just discovered Sillems and now on a cellaring journey for it.

 

[ClenchedBilliard]

It’s funny, I see so many people on here talk about how they started out with a love of English blends and Latakia only to lose their taste for it in favor of Va/pers, burley etc. My story is the exact opposite. I started out with Va/pers many years ago, then got really into burley for a few years, and have settled comfortably into heavy English blends for the past few years. I would say cellar judiciously, tastes can and will change.

 

[jpmcwjr]

I think you see a handful of vociferous smokers who say that often. Though a few are soft spoken!

 

[jyrreb]

Wanted to stop in on this and give you my recent revelation. I started smoking in 2017, and cellaring ~late 2018 after trying a lot of different stuff. One I liked a lot at first and bough 1.5 lbs of is Luxury Bullseye Flake. I quickly moved in to other things and didn’t even realize how much of it I had. Last week I pulled out a now 4 year old jar and tried another sample. I’m blown away and can’t stop smoking it. I’m now very happy I bought that box 4 years ago so I can have as much as I want of this wonderfully aged blend. I’m glad that 2018 me cellared what I knew. And I’m happy to have tried so many new blends and found many new favorites along the way. I just bought another 1.5LB box of LBF. it cost nearly 40% more than it did 4 years ago if memory serves.