Why the big love with English blends? Smell is terrible

[reverendsasquatch]

I try to be aware of room note, as my wife is gracious enough to put up with me smoking inside. Over the years as I've gotten away from aros and into more "natural" tasting tobaccos, a few things surprised me. Concerning the smell, my wife does not like the smell of VAs and thinks it smells like cigs. Unfortunately, VAs are my favorite, but they're relegated to outside. Furthermore, there are some English/Lat blends that my wife actually likes more than the aros I still smoke! It's exactly because it smells like a campfire that my wife enjoys it. We're both woody type folk, and while we live in a downtown section of a small/medium size town, our favorite place on God's green goodness is our family cabin, where there is no cell service, phone, or internet, and lots of wood burning to keep warm. I think the lats remind her of that smell.

 

[pipeman84]

Ok, so an update after smoking several bowls of Dunhill standard mixture and Peterson's old Dublin

The smell of Latakia is growing on me - I don't find it so offensive anymore like after the first bowl, which led me to start this topic. :roll:

 

[balkisobrains]

I figured you might turn the corner if you smoked some more of it, since you seemed to not hate the taste. Room note is pretty low on my list of taste/odor concerns because you know what? I don't really like it either, at least once it becomes "stale smoke room note". So I basically just smoke outside or sitting in my winter-beater car. Taste while smoking #1, Tongue Lacquer #2, Jacket note #3. That's what I taste/smell for. :: Don't forget to try something with Syrian and Cyprian Latakias combined, or just Syrian Latakia in it also.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

If you try smoking some pure blending Latakia it's easy to understand why many people would be put off at first, Latakia is a very complex subject, I wouldn't recommend anyone stop at sampling any less than a dozen blends. Some are very earthy and that is a flavor many people enjoy, but you can also find Latakia that tastes like you're sipping on some chicken soup by a campfire, both nostalgic and very flavorful.
Also remember that your taste buds may need time to adapt, just like the first bowl of tobacco is generally flavorless for a newcomer, if you've stuck to one variety of tobacco for a while it could take a few weeks to start tasting the subtleties.

 

[ophiuchus]

Lat smokers get shit for smoking stinky boots. Aro smokers get shit for smoking frou-frou amateur shit. I get shit for smoking Prince Albert and Carter Hall because it's cheap-shit floor sweepings and smells like cigarettes. Va and VaPer smokers get shit for being tobacco snobs who shit on everybody else's choices. Seems like everybody gets their turn in the barrel, doesn't it? 8O

:rofl:

:clap:
I've got no wisdom to add. My tastes change with the seasons, living in the midwest. I like fire-cured blends when it's cold out. Latakia, Kentucky ... for me, there's nothing like something Lat-heavy when it's cold and wet and gloomy out. ::

 

[checotah]

After a rocky start with several different blends back in '63, I settled on Sir Walter Raleigh for many years. Then I found English/Balkan blends with....you guessed it: Latakia. They have become my favorite blends. Still like SWR, Carter Hall, or other burley blends as a change-up.
Do not care for aros or most VA's or VA-Pers. Nor do I care what people think of my tastes.
As said several times, to each his/her own. Smoke what you like.

 

[jrenko]

I love latakia and right i only smoke blends with it. Aros and va/vapers just don't do it for me. Not enough taste in my opinion.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I smoke everything, where does that put me? Oh, never mind, I was recently called a tobacco whore. Proceed gentlemen. :rofl:

 

[jpmcwjr]

WELL, I am also in the Lat. Camp, but I keep trying to love VAs and VaPers. I feel I am missing something by not enjoying that group, but am well satisfied with English blends.

 

[woodsroad]

It would be interesting to do a DNA study of pipe tobacco smokers. Divide them up by their tobacco preferences and see where their genetic influences fall. I suspect that those who's ancestors toiled by the fire for warmth and sustenance tend to the Latakia side while those who's ancestors toiled in the fashion district and theater houses prefer aromatics. Perique lovers most likely descend from folks who were swamp-dwellers who knew how to have a f'n good time, no matter what.

 

[mcitinner1]

I hate people who refer to themselves as i.

 

[pagan]

English = Bourbon

Aromatic = appletini

Nail=Head

 

[nukesimi]

I had an aversion to Latakia the first few months. It took some Scotch to make it work.

 

[aldecaker]

Marriage was like that for me.

 

[missionpipe]

While I'm neither an expert nor sophisticated, and if I ever felt exclusive, I'm long past that now, but I find pipe tobacco much like women; all blends have something to offer.

 

[sallow]

for gentlemen only

Right, but that is not the only criteria.

 

[thomasw]

There's no doubt everyone has preferences, as for sure I know mine -- and on the topic of this thread, I do love smoking English and Balkans with latakia. But I've found that in 25 years of trying different pipe tobaccos, I have developed more of an appreciation for blend types toward which I didn't initially gravitate.

 

[thesmokindragon]

+1 on English blends... I can't get enough of them
Some of my Favs

Boswell Northwoods

L.J. Peretti's Omega and Royal

C&D's Billy Budd

C&D's Bow-Legged Bear

C&D's Crooked Lane

C&D's Star of the East

Dunhill Nightcap

G. L. Pease Gaslight

McClelland: Collector: 3 Oaks Syrian

Samuel Gawith: Squadron Leader

Low Country: Cooper

Esoterica: Penzance

 

[jpmcwjr]

That list isn't just English!

 

[thesmokindragon]

true ::