What's Wrong With Me (I Don't Like Esoterica)

[spartan99]

If everyone liked scotch and redheads, there wouldn't be enough to go around. We're already at that point with Esoterica, so you're just improving others' odds ever so slightly.

@elvergun, for a couple of decades after it was made available in the US, Esoterica gathered dust on the shelves of the relatively few B&M's that stocked it.

That sounds about right. I found three old tins of Germain's Royal Jersey blends at a B&M in Cleveland this summer. They had $10 price tags on them and the tin metal was noticeably different from the current manufacture.

 

[oldgeezersmoker]

@spartan99, around 2000, a shop near me went out of business. The owner had 8 ounce bags and a tray (Peacehaven) of ET left with $25 price stickers affixed. We did a deal for several things, principally pipes, but he made me take the ET as part of the deal. I got them for $12.50 each. I quit pipes in 2001. (A long story) In the summer of 2016, I decided to get back into pipes and to clear out some things I didn't want. I sent some pipes that were worth more, I thought, as collectors items than smokers and some Dunhill leather goods to Pipestud. At the last minute, I was rummaging around the storage room in my garage and there was a box with 8 or 10 of the ET bags/tray. They still, miraculously, felt pliable, so I threw them in. No Penzance or Stonehaven. Things like Woodbridge, Cardiff, etc. I think I netted more from the cheapest single bag Steve sold than all of the bags cost me back then. And the bags had been on a shelf in that store for at least two years.

 

[tschiraldi]

Uperepik, PM me and I'll send you some, if you like.

 

[sablebrush52]

I've never understood the obsession with any blend, whether it be Esoterica's Penzance or Stonehaven, Germain's Balkan Sobrainie, F&T Cut Virginia Plug, or whatever. I keep coming back to the Psychology Of Scarcity (proclaimed with an echo effect). When something is hard to find it becomes imbued with legendary qualities and consequently becomes the object of obsessive desire. This in turn results in hoarding, some of which is caused by a fear of not having it when one wants it, or speculative stockpiling to cash in on the obsession.

There's nothing magical about Germain's, or any other brand. The all have blends that are wildly popular and blends that aren't. BTW, Esoterica is licensed for manufacture by Germain's, but is not a Germain's blend. They're made for the American market

 

[virginialover]

Personally, I don't like Esoterica at all but I haven't smoked a Germain's I didn't like. J. F. Germain & Son - Royal Jersey Perique Mixture is great, it has enough strength and flavor. Germain's Special Latakia Flake is a classy smoke and King Charles Smoking Mixture represents the classic English mixture for me.

 

[renfield]

Everyone’s tastes are different. Most people’s tastes and preferences change over time. There is nothing magical about Esoterica’s blends and if they were readily available they’d probably not be as highly rated, just my opinion. They’re good but there are many good blends available. Don’t sweat the fact that they didn’t blow you away.
If you’d like something vaguely Penzance-like but stronger give GL Pease Gaslight a whirl. Nice full mouthfeel and complex and robust.
If someone enjoys the thrill of the hunt that can be part of the fun and can make the tobacco taste better to them. It’s all good.

 

[jravenwood]

So there you to Elvergun! People said it but also just read these opinions and you’ll see what I and others already said - everyone has different tastes. Sable says nothing special about Germaine’s and Virginialover says he likes ALL of the Germains. I dislike the Germains but love Dunbar, Penzance, and so to Bed and Stonehaven. I have some peacehaven on the way and I’m looking forward to it. And no one is wrong! ::

 

[oldgeezersmoker]

BTW, Esoterica is licensed for manufacture by Germain's, but is not a Germain's blend. They're made for the American market

My understanding was that Steve Richman, who had been a Drucquers customer and started a shop called The Piedmont Tobacconist in Oakland, approached Germain through the British Consulate in San Francisco and asked their trade person to help provide samples of blends that Germain could make available on a white label (generic) basis. They did so, and Steve and other area pipe tobacco afficianados sampled the blends, chose which ones to make part of the line, came up with the names, and developed the style of the tin art/labeling. (I believe Greg Pease did the art.) These were blends from Germains catalog, and their was nothing done, based on what Steve told me at the time, to modify or change these blends in any respect for the American market. My memory is that there were other blends available that Steve chose not to take, but I can't recall him specifically telling me that, so I could be wrong. I am uncertain as to how these are not "Germain blends." The names are not Germains property, the recipes are.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I like Pembroke, and And So To Bed, but ASTB is a near match for Mac Baren's Plumcake which is much less expensive. I'm not a huge fan of their "top" names either.

 

[sablebrush52]

My understanding was that Steve Richman, who had been a Drucquers customer and started a shop called The Piedmont Tobacconist in Oakland, approached Germain through the British Consulate in San Francisco and asked their trade person to help provide samples of blends that Germain could make available on a white label (generic) basis. They did so, and Steve and other area pipe tobacco afficianados sampled the blends, chose which ones to make part of the line, came up with the names, and developed the style of the tin art/labeling. (I believe Greg Pease did the art.) These were blends from Germains catalog, and their was nothing done, based on what Steve told me at the time, to modify or change these blends in any respect for the American market. My memory is that there were other blends available that Steve chose not to take, but I can't recall him specifically telling me that, so I could be wrong. I am uncertain as to how these are not "Germain blends." The names are not Germains property, the recipes are.

You may be correct. My understanding was that there was some back and forth between Richman and Germain's in the making of these blends and that these were not Germain's catalog blends. Pease would probably know.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Here's an interesting passage from misterlowercase.
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/esoterica-tobacciana-a-history

 

[lasttango]

I've never understood the obsession with any blend
I agree because I keep finding too many blends that I do like or that I want to try. There are only a couple tobaccos I've tried so far that I'd really miss if they became unattainable. These include the Semois tobaccos and perfumed lakelands because they are kind of unique.
If push came to shove, I could smoke one-dimensional burley blends all day and enjoy my pipe.

 

[philobeddoe]

I like variety in pipes and tobaccos, that being said, I could smoke only Margate and be a happy puffer till the end of my days.

 

[admiral]

Slightly off topic - the best way to make a blend "legendary" is either to stop it or to make it randomly available and in limited quantities

Woody Allen famously said (quoting loosely): "The only reason I am still not part from the pantheon of classical authors/artists is because I am still alive"
Have a look at reviews over Renaissance, Bohemian Scandal, Penzance from 15 years ago when still largely available

 

[cortezattic]

Amazingly, G.L. Pease could weigh-in here, as I recall him contrasting the husky tobaccos of the northern UK with those of the "effete" south. Here's an informative link:

http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/esoterica-tobacciana-a-history#post-373028

 

[oldgeezersmoker]

The misterlowercase article is informative but wrong in its equation of SH blends with later ET blends. Penzance is not equivalent to Krumble Kake. All Steve ever claimed to me was that it was similar. I do not recall that we ever discussed Margate, Pembroke, etc., but I imagine the answer would have been the same.

 

[hawky454]

If it's not your wheel house then move on.

But don’t write them off for good! I don’t think I would have been too fond of Dunbar when I first started out smoking a pipe but now everytime I retrohale it, my eyes roll back into my head in total euphoria.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Everyone’s tastes are different. Most people’s tastes and preferences change over time. There is nothing magical about Esoterica’s blends and if they were readily available they’d probably not be as highly rated, just my opinion. They’re good but there are many good blends available.

Right for sure on the last point, one I hope those pissing and moaning over the potential disappearance of Dunhill tobaccos will take to heart. Lots of great American blends out there, many better than anything Dunhill puts out currently. But there's nothing I've had that's quite the taste of Margate or Penzance.

 

[kola]

ET blends? The only one I like is Penzance. Stovehaven is foul tasting to me (in fact I still have a bunch still jarred and aging from years ago). And all the other ET blends seem just bland. Years ago I bought a bunch of Margate thinking I'd like it. Nope, I dislike it very much just like all the other ones. Except Penzy.

 

[sablebrush52]

So I emailed Greg, who was a taster on the Esoterica project and his response confirms oldgeezersmoker's post. The blends were made by Germain's. But the assertion that the Esoterica blends bear no relationship to the Smoker's Haven Blends isn't a fact either.
Greg writes:
"The Esoterica line was created, as far as I know, from mostly dormant blends in the Germain range, though some of them are a little sketchy in my head - Penzance, for instance. There were two versions offered, one with a higher percentage of Latakia, the other was more than likely the same as Krumble Kake. Steve chose the heavier one. With some of the others, I'm not convinced they're not the same as blends from the Germain line, or Smoker's Haven blends, for that matter."
Greg was a taster, along with others, trying out the various samples and providing notes, and Steve made the choices based on his own notes as well as Greg's and the other tasters.