Just got my smoking pipes order in for Per Jensen new legacy series. I ordered several tins of brothers and arms and it’s good but not what I was expecting. From the reviews I read, many were touting it as an ODF replacement or having a rich DFK presence but honestly all I’m getting from it is the burley. Sort of that woody, mushroomy, forest floor notes which is delicious but not complex. Anyone else in this boat or am I smoking it wrong?
What Am I Missing With Brothers In Arms?
- Thread starter fishmansf
- Start date
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
Site Sponsors
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
You might just jar it up and give it a couple of months to better marry.
Heck, just letting the blend sit for a week to “breathe” can make a difference.
Of course your own palate and expectations will have a lot to do with things too. Worst case you could blend in some more dark fired on your own to get it to where you want.
Sounds like it’s still tasty, if not what you expected, so at least it’s not a dumper.
Heck, just letting the blend sit for a week to “breathe” can make a difference.
Of course your own palate and expectations will have a lot to do with things too. Worst case you could blend in some more dark fired on your own to get it to where you want.
Sounds like it’s still tasty, if not what you expected, so at least it’s not a dumper.
Dumb question but when people say let sit for a week to “breathe” is that with the lid open? Or just pop the seal and let it breathe with the lid on?
Yes either way it’s good! Honestly tastes just like OJK to be honest but that’s just my palate.
I just think not every blend is for every person. Taste is super subjective. Hope it comes around for you.
Nothing, you just bought into the review hype.
Yes
Exactly
Eugene Falco has this to say of it on the latest Greywoodie podcast:
“It's definitely like it's a good tobacco to smoke if your wife is constantly emasculating you. Because when you smoke your pipe, you're sitting out on a little patio somewhere with your legs crossed way too tight, sipping a mimosa in the morning.”
This material may be protected by copyright.
I’m probably going to crack one of the tins I got, let it breathe, then tighten the tin back up and try it in a week or two.
“It's definitely like it's a good tobacco to smoke if your wife is constantly emasculating you. Because when you smoke your pipe, you're sitting out on a little patio somewhere with your legs crossed way too tight, sipping a mimosa in the morning.”
This material may be protected by copyright.
I’m probably going to crack one of the tins I got, let it breathe, then tighten the tin back up and try it in a week or two.
Yeah I was hoping it would be similar to the HH series since Per was blending it. Still enjoying it but just not what I expected.
You aren’t missing anything. I wrote this elsewhere:
“If there is hype for Brothers in Arms I don’t get it. I smoked it for the first time tonight. I got white burley and a good slug of DFK that didn’t really show itself until about 1/4 of the way down. After that point it was the same to the heel. No complexity, nothing interesting. Perique, red VA, and orientals may be in there but I couldn’t detect them. It was a dirty burley show with a mild to medium strength profile all the way down. I already tossed the tin.”
“If there is hype for Brothers in Arms I don’t get it. I smoked it for the first time tonight. I got white burley and a good slug of DFK that didn’t really show itself until about 1/4 of the way down. After that point it was the same to the heel. No complexity, nothing interesting. Perique, red VA, and orientals may be in there but I couldn’t detect them. It was a dirty burley show with a mild to medium strength profile all the way down. I already tossed the tin.”
When I saw some people talk about it when the details were first released, I think their vision got clouded seeing "Per Jensen" and "Kentucky" in the same sentence and thought "sweet, ODF 2.0" and set their expectations on that and then were disappointed?
The one review on TR and the 3-5 on SP are all top marks (I didn't read them).
I have a tin, haven't tried it yet, but I saw the contents and am excited.
Mac Baren HH ODF: Burley, Kentucky, Virginia (hot pressed)
Brothers in Arms: Burley, Kentucky, Oriental, Perique, Red Virginia (ribbon)
Don't see how, before they got them, that anyone could think it would be anything like HH ODF?
Honestly, when it first was announced and I looked, based on what is in it and who's producing it, that if it would be comparable to anything, it would be OJK.
The one review on TR and the 3-5 on SP are all top marks (I didn't read them).
I have a tin, haven't tried it yet, but I saw the contents and am excited.
Mac Baren HH ODF: Burley, Kentucky, Virginia (hot pressed)
Brothers in Arms: Burley, Kentucky, Oriental, Perique, Red Virginia (ribbon)
Don't see how, before they got them, that anyone could think it would be anything like HH ODF?
Honestly, when it first was announced and I looked, based on what is in it and who's producing it, that if it would be comparable to anything, it would be OJK.
Open the tin, let it get some air for a few minutes, then close it back up for a week or so.
With a more highly aged tin you probably want to open it and smoke it fairly quickly. Some of the fermentation products oxidize pretty quickly. Other fermentation compounds become more flavor active when they’re oxidized but the effect is fleeting. The window on an aged tin can peak and decline in a few days.
Stay tuned on the new Per Jensen blends with C&D. He indicated on the radio show (podcast) that he plans to release more blends with C&D. I’d love to see a Kentucky-forward blend like ODF.
But the Per Jensen blends by C&D are more likely almost too youthful to have even married the blend’s components fully…
Absolutely. I personally have to let C&D stuff mellow for at least 6 months before it seems like what it’s supposed to be. (For the blends not using a bunch of already significantly aged leaf).
C&D blends absolutely get better with even a little time in the tin; especially with brand-new releases, opening and smoking them right away is a crapshoot.
That’s why I don’t get folks literally throwing away a newly-opened tin of a brand-spanking-new release: you haven’t even given the tobacco a chance to marry yet! That’s like eating a bowl of stew right after the last pinch of pepper is stirred into the pot, with zero simmering or overnight rest, and declaring the entire pot inedible because it didn’t instantaneously transport you back to your grandmother’s kitchen like the bite of ratatouille did in the film.
Worse yet, BinA is sold out at many online retailers, making it hard to get for folks without a local B&M, and we got guys here talking about throwing out newly-opened tins after not having a transcendent smoke after just one or two bowls. I just don’t get it.
That’s why I don’t get folks literally throwing away a newly-opened tin of a brand-spanking-new release: you haven’t even given the tobacco a chance to marry yet! That’s like eating a bowl of stew right after the last pinch of pepper is stirred into the pot, with zero simmering or overnight rest, and declaring the entire pot inedible because it didn’t instantaneously transport you back to your grandmother’s kitchen like the bite of ratatouille did in the film.
Worse yet, BinA is sold out at many online retailers, making it hard to get for folks without a local B&M, and we got guys here talking about throwing out newly-opened tins after not having a transcendent smoke after just one or two bowls. I just don’t get it.
I don't personally air them out without the lid, but 90+% of my experience with C&D is that it's better every week until it's "just right"; usually 3+ weeks after opening. And age. They like to age before opening.
Brothers in Arms and Port Guardian are both temporarily sold out on Smoking Pipes. Just fantastic blends, and Harbour Watch will likely be in my “all day smoke” rotation going forward.
The tin art on this entire series is really old school, and the red “liquor bottle” seal tabs are going to help down the road to see if a tin has been opened.
The tin art on this entire series is really old school, and the red “liquor bottle” seal tabs are going to help down the road to see if a tin has been opened.
We live in a self serving, immediate gratification required world. It is accentuated by social media.
Are you trying to get me started on a rant about the broken qualities of modern life and how we're selling our selves short for constant dopamine? How everything is quicker but fundamentally of lower value? And how if we continue on this path we're going to be left not with a decision of changing but if we get ahead of it or do it traumatically and painfully. I think you're trying to do that. Well it's not going to work.
I do that with almost all tins by all brands. Well usually take a smoke right away but then wait a week after cracking the tin open. Haven't met a blend that doesn't just work better that way.
I love it but it’s nothing like ODF, I feel like everything comes through, the perique, Kentucky, and burley. Taste is subjective and I’m sure it would get better over time.