slartie":wusjs39y said:
I could make a long winded review of my number 1 tobacco of all time, Orlik Golden Sliced, but it would just be fandom speaking for me. I would much rather just say this:
If you like VAs .. If you like bright VAs .. If you like top quality leaf .. If you like flakes .. Try Orlik Golden Sliced and tell me what _you_ think. So far, the people I have nudged towards OGS, haven't looked back.
I simply love it.
This is one tobacco I enjoy talking about, but not for the reasons you might think. I've smoked it several times, and have never liked it. I've found the flavour a little flat, overly sweet, and have experienced often dramatic "bite" from it. However...
When I was in Denmark, I found myself out of tobacco whilst visiting a friend, who smokes almost nothing but OGS. He had just given me a pipe, and I felt inclined to smoke it, so I cajoled a bowl from him, and lit up, preparing myself for a not very satisfying smoke, but sometimes, we make sacrifices for friendship.
I was almost instantly surprised by how much differently that bowl smoked. Was it the pipe? Not likely - though the first smoke in a new pipe is, in some ways, my favourite experience, it's never the best smoke the pipe will deliver. Was there some difference between the OGS that was exported to the US, and what I was able to obtain in Denmark? A later discussion with the folks at Orlik revealed that this theory had no merit. Was it just a "good batch?"
I bought a couple tins, and smoked almost nothing else during the rest of my stay in Denmark. It wasn't my favourite tobacco, but it was certainly a consistently good smoke.
When I returned home, I brought the rest of my tin with me, hoping to have a few more pleasant smokes from it, and rekindle some memories of my trip. One morning, I pulled out the pipe my friend had given me, filled it with the OGS that I'd brought back, and settled in for a terrible smoke! I tried it in several other pipes over the course of a fortnight, and every time, my earlier, unpleasant experience with the blend was revisited.
I've experienced the difference that climate and conditions can make on a given tobacco before, but never quite so extremely. For instance, I prefer fuller Latakia mixtures in the cooler seasons, and lighter blends in the heat of summer. But, this was different. In one country, I could enjoy this tobacco, and in another, I found it distintly unpleasant.
Once more, the mysteries of tobacco emerged as an impenetrable veil to obscure true understanding. Once more, the complexity of the SYSTEM came fully to my attention. These things, to me, are endlessly fascinating. After 28 years of pipe smoking, many of those years spent in fairly serious study of the various aspects of tobaccos, I feel as though I've only just begun to scratch the surface of something that SEEMS so simple, yet that simplicity often obscures some pretty amazing complexity.
Yet another reason that reviews are entertaining, but rarely enlightening.