"Why do you smoke what you don't enjoy?"
- Thread starter winton
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I think there are several reasons people tolerate bad smokes.
1. They don't know any better. How many fantastic smokes did you have when you were first starting to smoke a pipe? How did you know what a really good smoke was?
2. You believe the hype about a particular tobacco too much and think that you "should" like it. Like your palette will adjust like it does with some beers. This was me with 965. I tried it 20 times, both newer tins and "aged". Still don't "get it". Also me with IPA beers or really peaty scotches. If it's based on a dare, some people will like it just because of that and think that everyone else should too.
3. You don't realize that you only smoke so many bowls a week, for me maybe 5-7, and it's not worth it to have a lot of bad smokes. This is especially true when you're trying to break in a new pipe. This is what led me to love estate pipes. If a pipe has been well broken in, yet properly cleaned and restored then, most of the time, it will smoke great.
1. They don't know any better. How many fantastic smokes did you have when you were first starting to smoke a pipe? How did you know what a really good smoke was?
2. You believe the hype about a particular tobacco too much and think that you "should" like it. Like your palette will adjust like it does with some beers. This was me with 965. I tried it 20 times, both newer tins and "aged". Still don't "get it". Also me with IPA beers or really peaty scotches. If it's based on a dare, some people will like it just because of that and think that everyone else should too.
3. You don't realize that you only smoke so many bowls a week, for me maybe 5-7, and it's not worth it to have a lot of bad smokes. This is especially true when you're trying to break in a new pipe. This is what led me to love estate pipes. If a pipe has been well broken in, yet properly cleaned and restored then, most of the time, it will smoke great.
I primarily smoke 1Q; first because I enjoy it, and second because I can smoke it while concentrating on something else.
I enjoy smoking "boutique" blends when I'm sitting in "Daddy's chair" in the smokin' hole and am concentrating on the smoke.
I paid, and bought too damn much of this highly touted blend, and I'm going to make myself enjoy it dammit.
8O
8O
I had no problem with English blends right from the start.
I enjoy the occasional aro (moreso this time of year) but the English blends always seem to keep me most interested.
I do have a few jars of some local B&M blends that I'm not a big fan of that I go back to every now and then. I guess I do it to see if my tastes have changed. That, and they seem to look so lonely when all the ones I love are getting so much attention
I enjoy the occasional aro (moreso this time of year) but the English blends always seem to keep me most interested.
I do have a few jars of some local B&M blends that I'm not a big fan of that I go back to every now and then. I guess I do it to see if my tastes have changed. That, and they seem to look so lonely when all the ones I love are getting so much attention
My Grandpa used to say to us when we were kids "If you don't like olives, eat 7 of them and by the 7th one, you will like them"
This can be true for tobaccos sometimes. I think your palette matures the more you smoke and you develop a better sense of what you like the more you try it.
This can be true for tobaccos sometimes. I think your palette matures the more you smoke and you develop a better sense of what you like the more you try it.
Had to chuckle about this. I grew up disliking both tomatoes and cantaloupes (intensely so), and that stayed with me long after I grew up. I knew that I *should* like both of them, especially tomatoes, so I started growing both of them in my garden every year. I grew dozens of varieties of both of them over the years, hoping that I'd grow to like them. And every year I still detested both of them.
But then one year I was in my garden, and I ate a little tomato that I really liked (it was a Purple Calabash). And that same year, I stood in the garden and tasted one of my melon varieties - and I really liked it.
That was about a dozen years ago, and now I'm a total tomato and cantaloupe junkie. I grow a dozen or more varieties of each every summer, and I can't wait to try my next new varieties each year.
Who knows, one afternoon you might find that one right English tobacco for your taste, and you'll end up being the forum's leading English tobacco expert.
But then one year I was in my garden, and I ate a little tomato that I really liked (it was a Purple Calabash). And that same year, I stood in the garden and tasted one of my melon varieties - and I really liked it.
That was about a dozen years ago, and now I'm a total tomato and cantaloupe junkie. I grow a dozen or more varieties of each every summer, and I can't wait to try my next new varieties each year.
Who knows, one afternoon you might find that one right English tobacco for your taste, and you'll end up being the forum's leading English tobacco expert.
I smoked the first baccy I didn't enjoy the other day. It was one which recently caused a fracas which included swearing, nudity and eventually Kevin wielding the hammer of justice. WTF? I didn't like it either. I threw it in a jar. will I ever pick it up again? Only the Shadow knows.
I can only add my voice to those who have gone before. When I first started smoking a pipe, over 50 years ago, I started with aromatics because back then everybody did. I eventually gravitated to non-aromatics, both with and without latakia, in large part thinking that “real men don't smoke aromatics.” I eventually settled upon Balkan Sobranie as my tobacco of choice, and we had a great relationship for quite a few decades.
Lately I find myself smoking aromatics more and more, and have really fallen in love with the Mac Baren 7 Seas blends. They are truly quality tobaccos, blended with real expertise. If there is one thing that I have learned in over half a century of pipe smoking, it is this: we smoke for our own pleasure, not to impress anyone else, nor to curry the favor of someone who may or may not like the tobacco we smoke. It is an entirely selfish matter, and therefore I have only this advice to offer: smoke the tobacco you like. Never look down upon any other smoker who chooses a different blend than the one most congenial to you. Enjoy your smoke (that's really the only reason why we do it,) and accept that the other chap is doing similarly. Respect the other fellow's choice of tobacco as you would wish them to respect yours, and above all respect your own choice of tobacco.
Lately I find myself smoking aromatics more and more, and have really fallen in love with the Mac Baren 7 Seas blends. They are truly quality tobaccos, blended with real expertise. If there is one thing that I have learned in over half a century of pipe smoking, it is this: we smoke for our own pleasure, not to impress anyone else, nor to curry the favor of someone who may or may not like the tobacco we smoke. It is an entirely selfish matter, and therefore I have only this advice to offer: smoke the tobacco you like. Never look down upon any other smoker who chooses a different blend than the one most congenial to you. Enjoy your smoke (that's really the only reason why we do it,) and accept that the other chap is doing similarly. Respect the other fellow's choice of tobacco as you would wish them to respect yours, and above all respect your own choice of tobacco.
If there is a blend i dislike i will give it around 8 bowls. I will try packing changes, drying or a different pipe combination. Then it gets to sit on the shelf of shame until i am ready to give it and myself another chance.
I really like to feel i have given myself a real chance to like something before i give up.
I really like to feel i have given myself a real chance to like something before i give up.
If I don't like it, tin and all goes directly into the garbage. I use to trade it but the $4.50 cost of shipping it off to a trade doesn't justify it.
I'm still relatively new with my pipe. But, I can say that of the fifteen or so smokes that I've tried, I still have a very limited taste. I have three mains that I stick with.
If I don't like something I get rid of it either buy trading it or giving it away. I would never smoke something I really didn't enjoy.
In nine months this thread has been around ... we've been dancing around the possibility that we don't particularly want to admit:
Although I totally agree with gecko13 ... I'm the same way.
the nicotine!
Although I totally agree with gecko13 ... I'm the same way.
I usually give a certain tobacco a few tries in a couple of different pipes before I toss it...I've had blends that I really disliked and when I smoked it later, or in a different pipe, it grew on me.
Maple Street s a great blend, but it's not like the Rum & Maple blen that I bought...the 14oz tub of R&M had NO maple taste, but the Sutliff has a nice Maple taste...
Maple Street s a great blend, but it's not like the Rum & Maple blen that I bought...the 14oz tub of R&M had NO maple taste, but the Sutliff has a nice Maple taste...
I mostly smoke several bowls of Carter Hall in a cob throughout the day when tinkering around on things. Then in the evening when i can relax & read a book it's a nice English, Va, or Latakia tin tobacco in a briar.
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