I envy those who can smoke aromatics, honestly. They sound so delicious.
Why Do Aromatics Have a Bad Rap?
- Thread starter mikethompson
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Same. I never had tongue burn or whatever but they just came off as flavored steam not alot of body and not alot of tobacco flavor.
frankly love aromatics. I just love the other varieties more.
I smoke both, but favor Englishes. Sometimes I'm in the mood for an Aromatic in the morning. Just like there are bad Englishes that burn hot and bite, so are there aromatics the same way.
As I sit here having a bowl of The Virginia Cream, it reminds me of what a good aromatic should be, the topping compliments the tobacco not overwhelms it. Now other vanilla offerings and other aromatic offerings for that matter, overpower the tobacco with artifical, chemical flavor, far too many do that.
Covid really did a number on my nose, at least regarding the taste of tobaccos. Almost all the flavor I used to taste from English blends and Virginias is gone, and it’s been a whole year since the dreaded virus. It has improved— no doubt about that. At first there was a salty taste (!) and later a goopy taste in blends which are not that way. That has passed but now the blends that used to taste so good now taste— like nothing at all. I find that there are a few aromatic blends that do now taste good to me, mostly Sutliff Blends.
I hope that my sniffer will improve and that my old blends will taste good again. Until then I'll make do with Eastfarthing and Alexander Bridge. Or maybe somebody will get quite a present from Secret Santa!
I hope that my sniffer will improve and that my old blends will taste good again. Until then I'll make do with Eastfarthing and Alexander Bridge. Or maybe somebody will get quite a present from Secret Santa!
If I smoke an aromatic (which is an extremely rare occasion) I usually seek out a vanilla blend. I've got nothing against them, I just like the taste of tobacco. I suppose I like bold, strong flavors. I drink stout beer and strong whiskey also. I don't care for wine or fruit sodas... I stick to Coke. Perhaps I don't like sweet stuff. I dunno... Taste is so subjective. I just know what I like and I smoke that.
They taste easy on the senses and because there is no nic hit you can easily smoke more than one bowl. The other point is that the aroma creates a positive note for others and makes pipe smoking more appealing. Smokes slowly with a bit of retrohale now and then, the toasted cavendish does indeed have a pleasant taste.
Aromatics account for about 90% of pipe tobaccos sold, so the dislike is not universal, by any means. This forum represents a tiny portion of the pipe smoking population.
It might be a snob thing, as some have suggested. It might be an authentic dislike for flavored tobaccos. It might be a level of ignorance about the diversity of aromatics available, a perception that "aromatic" is synonymous with cherry blends that taste like cough syrup, or "goopers" as some call aromatics. The reality is that many popular blends touted here could be defined as aromatic, like Capstan, which has a noticeable topping, but isn't defined as such because it's not so heavily topped that the tobaccos are subsumed by the topping.
Personally, I quite like some aromatics, like St Bruno, and really don't care what anyone thinks about it. I'm also fond of many of the G&H "scented" blends, with flavorings like rose geranium, or licorice, tonquin bean and other flavorings. And much of the vehemently pursued Esoterica blends are aromatics, or semi aromatics, with various fruit flavorings. Stonehaven has treacle. Other popular blends have maple, chocolate, and other flavorings.
Some of your respondents might be smoking aros without realizing that they're smoking aros because they have a limited definition regarding what an aromatic is. Oh, and to muddy the waters a little more, once upon a time, ALL English blends were referred to as aromatics, because they used Latakia and various oriental leaf.
The only type of blend I do not like is anything that has a flavor reminiscent of cigarettes. Otherwise, Aros, English and everything in between, bring it on.
I admit I like them occasionally. I have found it best to dilute most of them to get some good tobacco taste in with it. I know there are probably blends that are subtle enough to not need that but I have not made an effort to discover them. Mostly, I have some old ones from my trips to spanish tobacs and I mix them to cut the bite. I dry them to get rid of he goo.
I think this is a really good distinction to make, obviously with a lot of caveats and crossover. When I talk about an 'aromatic', I'm generally thinking of a Danish or German style with lots of black cavendish, or a goopy American style. Some of these I like, most I don't, and I rarely smoke them. However, there are a lot of 'scented' blends I smoke daily (St Bruno, G&H blends, Condor). For me, the main difference is the constituent tobaccos.
Other 'aromatic' tobaccos that are comprised mainly of Burley (like a lot of the American codger blends) I really like. I also like some with cavendished leaf (Warped Espresso, for one) that don't seem to quite fit in the 'goopy aromatic' catergory. And to confuse matters even more, there are blends with black/brown cavendish that claim to have no added flavours at all!
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LOL, I emailed Santa with a revision to “no Latakia” just to be on the safe side. I’ve been more into the aros lately but with the occasional Va flake, which I really like. There are some light English and American English I like a lot and other blends that have some Latakia in them but ….. decided to try some Peterson 965 yesterday and, well, not for me at all - couldn’t even get through editing and posting a pic to WAYS after lighting up, lol. Some University Flake cleansed the palate.
Hang in there! Mine took a full year to come back - preparing Thanksgiving and Christmas meals, let alone eating them when done, was the worst part for me but …. it all got back in the end and no changes from what they were like before. Good news was it was easy to keep all the weight off I lost because eating/cooking wasn’t much fun! Hope things keep getting better for the holidays!Covid really did a number on my nose, at least regarding the taste of tobaccos. Almost all the flavor I used to taste from English blends and Virginias is gone, and it’s been a whole year since the dreaded virus. It has improved— no doubt about that. At first there was a salty taste (!) and later a goopy taste in blends which are not that way. That has passed but now the blends that used to taste so good now taste— like nothing at all. I find that there are a few aromatic blends that do now taste good to me, mostly Sutliff Blends.
I hope that my sniffer will improve and that my old blends will taste good again. Until then I'll make do with Eastfarthing and Alexander Bridge. Or maybe somebody will get quite a present from Secret Santa!
I'm here by announcing the formation of the Briar Coalition for Aromatics or BCA for short.
We're here! We're redolent! Be fine with it!
We're here! We're redolent! Be fine with it!
We're here! We're redolent! Be fine with it!
My pipe! My choice!
My pipe! My choice!
My pipe! My choice!
We're banding together to defend or beloved blends against you stinky snobs, tin sniffers, dottle darlings, and all manner of malingers of the odiferous aromatics!
Our mascot...
Who'll join me in standing in unity against the tyranny?!
SEMPER FIDELIS TYRANNOSAURUS!
We're here! We're redolent! Be fine with it!
We're here! We're redolent! Be fine with it!
We're here! We're redolent! Be fine with it!
My pipe! My choice!
My pipe! My choice!
My pipe! My choice!
We're banding together to defend or beloved blends against you stinky snobs, tin sniffers, dottle darlings, and all manner of malingers of the odiferous aromatics!
Our mascot...
Who'll join me in standing in unity against the tyranny?!
SEMPER FIDELIS TYRANNOSAURUS!
