When I bought my first pipe at Tinderbox, I think I just had one blend, a Tinderbox bulk blend that was named something like North Star, or another name, almost certainly a Lane or Sutliff re-named by Tinderbox to keep customers coming back. I think I may have had that and maybe one other for a long time. Not until I came back after a hiatus of several years did I get used to a wider variety of blends. Aftertaste from the aromatic flavoring had become a downside of pipe smoking. Then I had some trouble with bite and burn, also from flavoring. When I tried non-aromatic blends, it was a whole new day on both aftertastes and bite. Now I smoke a wider range of non-aro, some aro, and milder as well as full-strength blends. I went through the usual course of being lured by extra strong blends, which I still like, but I range around more. Sometimes I'll stick with one blend every other smoke and find that enjoyable as well. I've also found extremely mild blends like Spillman Mixture an interesting change of pace.