Trying different styles of tobacco

[fulgentius]

Over the past few years I have acquired a few inexpensive pipes and have smoked off and on. Recently I bought myself a nice peterson, as I wasn't all that happy with the pipes I already had. So far I am very happy with the purchase.
I have tended to gravitate to English blends. I've tried several and liked most of them; my favorite by far is Nightcap. I realize that many smokers find that they like a particular style and largely stick to it, but I haven't given other styles a fair chance and I'd like to remedy that. But after a few hours browsing various sites, the variety is overwhelming.
So I'd like to get recommendations: what would you consider to be the one or two best (and/or most representative) tobaccos in various categories? I suppose that would include aromatics (at the very least they are nice to have when company is over -- my preference would be something that smells really good but isn't too cloying in flavor), virgnia blends, and any other styles or sub-styles I might be missing. My goal is to find 3-4 new tobaccos to try.
Thank you!

 

[petes03]

Here are my recommendations,
Virginias,

McClelland, Deep Hollow

Mac Baren, Navy Flake
Aromatics,

Lane, 1Q

Sutliff, Molto Dolce
Full English/Balkan,
McClelland, Blue Mountain

Hearth & Home, Black House
English Crossoovers,
McClelland, All of the Frog Morton blends

Hearth & Home, Mazatec
Burleys,
Scotty's, Butternut Burley

Boswell, Premium Burley
Codger blends,
Carter Hall

Sugar Barrel (both Middletons)
Welcome to the forum, by the way!
Dan

 

[jah76]

Welcome!
Here's just a few of my favorites.
Virginia & Perique

Escudo- Lightly sweet, honeyish and spicy

PS Luxury Navy Flake- Lightly sweet, citrus with a bit of black pepper
Virginia, Perique, & Cavendish

PS Luxury Bullseye Flake- Dry sweet, haylike with a bit of black pepper

Rattray's Marlin Flake- Raisens, white pepper
Virginia, Orientals, Perique or Latakia

Tudor Castle- Hand's down my favorite. Tangy, citrus-like, cedar, incense, spice

McCelland's Oriental #6- A bit lighter then Tudor Flake, but with a touchy of smokey Latakia. More refined.
Englishes

Lane's Leo- A light soft English, that seems more Oriental forward then it smells. Herbs, creamy, wonderful.
Aromatics

Mac Baren Vanilla Cream Flake- A wonderful soft, vanilla flavor without tasting like chemicals.

Captain Black: Dark- A nice sweet tasting tobacco with just a touch of spice somewhere in it. Almost licorice-like sometimes.

 

[papipeguy]

In the past year or 2 I've started to include more "cross-over" blends in my rotation. I smoke mostly Latakia blends and now include lat blends with some flavorings:

Two Friends English Chocolate

Two Friends Valle Crucis- Oriental with a slight ginger topping

C&D USS Mason- Lat with brandy
On the aromatic side:

Rattray's Bagpiper's Dream- Virginias with cognac. Incredible smoke that many here have tried.

C&D Gentleman Caller- Burley with deer tongue. Reminds me of the original Half & Half.
Enjoy your journey.

 

[cortezattic]

Oriental:

• H&H Sierra Nevada,
  
  McClelland Classic Samsun

VaPer:

• 4noggins' Prairie Wind,
  
  H&H Louisiana Red

Burley/Va:

• Mac Baren Old Dark Fired,
  
  4noggins' Weybridge

Va (2 must-tries out of scores of good blends):

• Gawith Medium Virginia Flake,
  
  Fribourg & Treyer Cut Virginia Plug

Crumble Cake:

• Captain Earle's Honor Blend,
  
  H&H Marble Kake

Aromatic: (Actually, just high quality "flavored" blends)

• Peterson University Flake,
  
  GL Pease Haddo's Delight

Lakeland: (There's only one I can handle!)

• Peterson Hyde Park

 

[rmbittner]

Fulgentius:
Welcome!
Here are my personal recommendations (minus nearly anything with perique, since that's not in my rotation).
Virginia

Samuel Gawith's Full Virginia Flake

Rattray's Old Gowrie
Virginia (Matured/Stoved)

McClelland's Dark Star

Butera's Royal Vintage: Matured Ribbon
Virginia/Burley Flakes

Esoterica's Stonehaven

Samuel Gawith's Best Brown Flake
Virginia/Cavendish Blends

Rattray's Jocks Mixture

McClelland's Anniversary



Balkan Blends (Latakia/Orientals/Virginias)

G.L. Pease Caravan

McClelland's Grand Orientals: Yenidje Highlander
English (Virginia/Orientals/Latakia)

Esoterica's Penzance

Dan Tobacco Gordon Pym
English with Syrian Latakia

Brebbia's Preludio Mixture No. 60

MacBaren's HH Vintage Syrian
Oriental Blends

Presbyterian

Rattray's Red Rapparee
English with a Difference

Frog Morton on the Town

Esoterica's And So to Bed
Have fun on the journey!
Bob

 

[judcole]

Welcome aboard. I don't smoke VaPers, aros, or crossovers. so I will leave those aside,and just make a couple of notes.
Va Flakes

Sam Gawith Best Brown

Ben Hartwell Signature
I noticed that someone mentioned MacBaren Navy Flake above as a Virginia. According to MacB, that's got a lot of burley, which seems, to me, to be the predominant influence.
Virginias

Rattray Hal o' th' Wynd (yes, yes, I know it allegedly has perique, but is so light on it that is not an influence)

McCranie Red Ribbon (only available from them)
Both Signature and RR are heavy on red Virginias, which some folks have problems with.
Happy exploring!

 

[mso489]

Wow, it will take you a few years to catch up with the recommendations. So many blends, so little time.

Let me recommend one less expensive bulk tobacco that I find consistently enjoyable, Altadis

"Queen Anne's Revenge," which is a burley, Virginia, Cavendish blend flavored with rum. Queen Anne's

Revenge was the pirate Blackbeard's flagship, so the name plays on the rum connection. In case you

aren't aware, they have discovered what is almost certainly the remains of Queen Anne's revenge in

sheltered water at the North Carolina coast and are carefully salvaging various parts of the ship.

The tobacco is a pleasant, mild but flavorful aromatic, with a good room note. (I was going to say

the room note will help your domestic partner find the pirate in you, but that is a little smarmy.)

 

[petes03]

@mso489. Interesting note about the QAR! I'll have to look that up!

 

[fulgentius]

Just thought I'd check in and let people know how it's going.
The range of blends offered here alone is dizzying, so I chose more-or-less at random based on several factors. I got Frog Morton because it seems everyone has tried it and it's very popular. I got H&H Anniversary Kake because I was ordering from that house anyway and it is a bit cheaper than other blends. I got Deep Hollow for a virginia because I thought the description sounded good. And, finally, I got C&D Reverie just on a hunch and partially because it sounded like a blend that didn't really fit any of the usual styles.
This little experiment has changed my mind. I apparently had a bad experience with some virginia blend or other long ago, but I love Deep Hollow and the H&H is a close second. It's nice to have a mellow virginia when you want it and something with a nice perique hit when you want more spice. Both are a real pleasure to smoke.
The Frog Morton at first was a disappointment, but I think that's because I was so enamored of my newfound virginias. But after a week of smoking mostly the virgianias coming back to something more English was a real pleasure. I think it's true what people say that FM is a very nice mellow type of English and as someone with a taste for very strong English blends I can appreciate that.
The C&D I am undecided on so far. It seems an odd amalgam of different styles where neither really shines. But I have only smoked a few bowls of it so far. I could very well end up loving it later on.
Oh, and finally I tried 1-Q. The aroma is lovely but taste-wise I found it rather hollow and unsatisfying. Nice to have around as incense I suppose, but not something I'll be buying in large quantities. If anyone can recommend an aromatic with more flavor I'd be curious to try it.
I have just re-ordered large amounts of Deep Hollow and Anniversary Kake, and a tin of Frog Morton's Cellar because it sounds good. If anyone has further recommendations based on the above, I'd very much like to hear them.
Thanks all.

 

[rmbittner]

Thanks for the update!
I'm not primarily an aromatic smoker, but I don't think I'm too off-base in saying that the majority of aromatics will have fairly mild flavor -- assuming they aren't bitey! -- while they focus more on the aroma.
That said, I've gotten lots of flavor from Sutfliff's Great Outdoors and Man's Best Friend. When I'm in the mood for an aro, these are two I turn to, along with Stokkebye's Nougat.
But you also might enjoy a so-called English aromatic. (Frog Morton nudges this line a bit, I think.) These are essentially English or non-aromatic blends to which either a light flavoring or, in some cases, scent is added. In the "flavor" category, I enjoy Gawith and Hoggarth's Bob's Chocolate Flake as well as Samuel Gawith's Navy Flake. Both have rich tobacco flavor with just a whisper of their additional flavorings (cocoa and rum, respectively). You might also want to try Samuel Gawith's Perfection, which contains vanilla and feels like a slightly stronger version of Frog Morton on the Town to me.
As for the "scented" category, it's been a long time since I was in those waters -- they're blends I need to revisit as a much more experienced smoker -- but anything that is identified as a "Lakeland" blend would qualify. Samuel Gawith and Gawith and Hoggarth are the primary suppliers of these blends, which are typically scented with tonquin, which people seem to either love or absolutely hate. (It can taste quite perfumey.) These blends, though, can seriously "ghost" a pipe. I believe Erinmore would fit in this category as well.
You might also enjoy trying Dunhill's Royal Yacht. I'm not sure it fits neatly into either of the above categories, but it definitely has added flavorings/scents -- and has as many detractors as it has fans. Even so, everyone should try it at some point.
Bob

 

[shutterbugg]

Like you fulgentius, I like Nightcap. Sutliff's Bosphorus Cruise is my second choice in the Lat-heavy category.
For a Va (I'm not a huge Perique fan, the little bit in Nightcap is as much as I can take) I like Royal Yacht, another Dunhill blend.
For Aros, I've recently tried Sutliff's Top Shelf and Barbados Plantation, but won't be buying them again. My go-to aro is a blend called No 40 Erebus, from Bennington's Tobacco.
I'm satisfied with those, although I have had a hankering to give Three Nuns a try. I have a friend who smokes it exclusively and has for years, so I'm curious to try it. Although I prefer ready-rubbed tobacco.

 

[hakchuma]

I too have been trying to find my favorite tobacco for the past two months. That means I have spent hundreds of dollars literally on 1oz samples purchased from pipesandcigars. I have found that Lane 1Q is a solid no brainer for me as an everyday aromatic. It's cheap, smells wonderful and if I like, I can mix a bit more Lane BCA to it. Heck if you buy 2 pounds at a time it only costs $1.62 an ounce! It is just incredible to me that 1-Q is so cheap. Lane RLP-6 is nearly the same just 1-Q is made from virginas and RLP-6 is made from burley.
Every other aromatic I tried is just not cheap enough and not flavorful enough (although I wish I could find mystery fruit from my local blender online at a cheaper price in pound bags)
Still trying to find a good heavy latakia Balken blend that is cheap. By that I mean every Balken I have tried I have enjoyed it very much but I want to find a cheaper version of a balken blend I can have for an every day smoke and stock up on it like 1-2 pounds. So far I really like Yule log from pipesandcigars but it is too expensive. I don't mean to high jack this thread but if anyone knows of a really good cheap Balkan blend that is cheap, I would really appreciate it.

 

[rmbittner]

hakchuma:
Wow. I just checked the price of Yule Log: It's under $38 for a pound. I don't mean to sound unsympathetic -- I have no idea what your situation is -- but that's incredibly cheap (to me) for a pound of quality tobacco.
You might want to check out Stokkebye's Proper English. It's not a Balkan, but it's a standard bulk English made from Virginias, orientals, and latakia. (Many budget "English" blends include what I consider "filler" leaf that doesn't belong in a true English mixture.) Proper English is available from SmokingPipes.com for less than $30 a pound. (I've never smoked this, so please don't consider this a personal endorsement.)
Obviously, I don't know your financial situation or how much you're smoking. But I'll just mention this: If you were to buy a high-quality 2oz. tinned Balkan such as G.L. Pease's Caravan, your cost would be between .50-.60 per bowl. If you were to buy a half-pound for $32, your cost would be about .40/bowl. Yes, that's more than you're spending -- or wanting to spend -- now. But you may find that the extra .20/bowl is more than paid back in the pleasure you'll get.
Bob

 

[hakchuma]

Right rmbittner. I apologize. I see it is on sale and was originally 4 dollars an ounce. 2.50 an ounce is a good price actually. Not sure if that is a sale or just the normal asking price. I also wonder if Russ monthly blends will always be available or I wonder if they are just temporary blends.
Thanks for the suggestion on the Pease's Caravan I will certainly give that a try

 

[rmbittner]

hakchuma:
I had thought there was a note on the Pipes and Cigars site stating that the "monthly" blends were limited-release blends and are not part of the regular Hearth & Home line. I don't know anything about their long-term availability in the past, but I wouldn't count on them sticking around more than a month or two.
Of course, Russ is a member here, so he might be able to give you some real specifics. (Although I'm not sure he'd be able to get too detailed about this.)
Bob

 

[piper50]

How do I learn the tastes and smell of different types of tobacco? Burley, perique, virginia, cavendish, latakia etc...