Warning: Your Tastes May Change

[mso489]

I've come back around to aromatics as a change of pace, for mild tobaccos to set up the stronger non-aromatic blends so I don't become unable to taste them. I like the aromatics with bourbon, Irish whiskey, rum, and liqueurs, as long as the tobacco flavors prevail. Vanilla and anisette work for me too, as long as the blend is tobacco forward. Aros are still a back-up for me, with non-aromatic blends my go-to blends. A member or two has pointed out that Latakia is a flavoring, but it is still tobacco, so I don't think of it as aromatic. Granger is an aromatic, with molasses, but I think that one, and probably others, is a fence sitter. Nomenclature.

 

[chopper]

Interesting about Latakia blends.

I've been favoring them and find them more enjoyable than straight VAs, Va/Pers and aros. Dunhill dunbar and Baby's bottom, squadron leader, Nat sherman 536, kramer's father dempsey, and plum pudding are all in my rotation. Have some london mixture, standard mixture, gaslight, quiet nights, nightcap, maltese falcon, boswell's northwoods and a few others all waiting to be jarred when i get through my current jarred stock.

In other words -- plenty of English blends.

So how to avoid burnout? Don't smoke them exclusively or excessively and just keep them as part of a rotation of other types?

From what I've read from others experiences, those who smoke Latakia heavy blends and/or English/American blends exclusively seem to be the most prone to Lat-burnout.
Latakia has the tendency to dominate.

So yes, it makes sense to smoke a range of genres to avoid Lat-burnout.

Personally I don't like Lat-bombs, preferring blends where Latakia is used as a condiment. Count Pulaski is a favourite.

When I first tried an English blend [Becks ol' Limey Bastard] the Latakia was too much so I simply blended in a straight Virginia or Burley [Or a bit of both]
Blending an English/American blend with a light aromatic is also a nice change of pace.

 

[logs]

You don't hear about it as often but the same thing can happen with perique. You can get damn well sick of strong VaPers if you smoke enough of them.

I've given up on trying to predict what I'm going to feel like smoking a year or two from now. Whatever I buy in quantity now will almost certainly be the wrong thing. The only good news is that my taste can sometimes cycle around and a blend I used to be sick of suddenly becomes palatable again.