BoB's Essential Tobaccos for the Beginner Pipe Smoker

[Kyle Weiss]

Pfff, I ain't got no troubles. My crazy-like whimsy, persnickety nature and neurotic organization done me good so far. :lol:

Not sure how good it is for others but...

...all I know is there's some great suggestions in this so far that even I had to add to my list a little. :lol:

Everyone's gotta go their own path eventually, might as well start sooner than later.

 

[dshpipes]

Out of curiosity, why do you have Barbary Coast == an aromatic burley blend with no latakia -- listed as an "English" blend? Also, why is Quiet Night listed as "light English?" It's got a big latakia hit, and I'd be more inclined to describe Penzance as "light" than Quiet Night. Chelsea Morning, on the other hand, is probably as good an example of a light English as I can think of....

For Barbary Coast, that was a bad bit of mistyping. Even though it has a "delicate kiss of brandy," I wouldn't call this an aromatic, just a stellar burley blend.

As far as Quiet Nights, Penzance, and Chelsea Morning go... are you referring to body, nicotine, flavor, or latakia content? I'm referring specifically to the level of nicotine I experience when smoking these blends, the actual strength of them and I would disagree with your categorizations.

I would say Quiet Nights is low in strength whereas I would say Chelsea Morning is medium to strong in strength. Penzance I would place squarely in the medium strength category.

 

[puros_bran]

And hence why I said Catagories are silly...
What are we catagorizing..lol


Traditionally in english mixtures it appears the mild/medium/full was based off of flavor.. not body/strength etc etc

 

[Harlock999]

My cat's breath smells like cat food.

 

[MisterE]

My cat's breath smells like cat food.

I think JFK's exploits on PT109 were largely glamorized as well.

 

[dshpipes]

And hence why I said Catagories are silly...
What are we catagorizing..lol


Traditionally in english mixtures it appears the mild/medium/full was based off of flavor.. not body/strength etc etc

Well then! Guess I'm eating crow tonight!

 

[PipeGeek]

And hence why I said Catagories are silly...
What are we catagorizing..lol


Traditionally in english mixtures it appears the mild/medium/full was based off of flavor.. not body/strength etc etc

Well then! Guess I'm eating crow tonight!

And here I thought it had something to do with weight ratios....

 

[Harlock999]

My cat's breath smells like cat food.

I think JFK's exploits on PT109 were largely glamorized as well.

Oh, and don't even get me started on the inherent criminality and injustice concerning the continuing ignorance of the genius that was Werner Klemperer.

 

[jlong]

Can't we just group Kyle's "I just tried......" posts, make them a sticky, and be done with it?

 

[Zanaspus]

I think this is a great idea!

I used to guide beginners right to aromatics, but I now think that is wrong. Start with light English blends and go from there.

Here is what I recommend new guys start with:

GLP Quiet Nights

It's a light English that doesn't skimp on flavor. You won't be overwhelmed and I think that you may find this blend stays with you well into the hobby.

If you enjoy Quiet Nights, you can start exploring other tasty English blends, such as GLP Barbary Coast or McClelland's Bombay Court which has a magnificent flavor a touch more strength than Quiet Nights.

I also recommend trying a VA blend after you've gone through a few tins of the above mentioned. They're a bit more subtle in flavor (sometimes) and take a bit more care when smoking, but they will reward you with practice.

Readily available VA blends that I personally recommend are:

Orlik Golden Sliced and GLP Union Square. Both are unique in flavor and are very pleasant. OGS has a bit of a nic hit though, so be cautious when loading a bowl with it.

From there, branch out and experiment with what you like the most. If none of the above strikes your fancy, maybe you're a burley man, in which case I suggest you buy pounds of Storm Front. You might also discover that you prefer aromatics. I'm not an aromatic afficionado, so I can't provide a lot of help in that regard.

Them's my 2 cents!

Out of curiosity, why do you have Barbary Coast == an aromatic burley blend with no latakia -- listed as an "English" blend? Also, why is Quiet Night listed as "light English?" It's got a big latakia hit, and I'd be more inclined to describe Penzance as "light" than Quiet Night. Chelsea Morning, on the other hand, is probably as good an example of a light English as I can think of....

Seriously, Quiet Nights is about as heavy as they get! I say keep it simple.

Burley: PA or CH. They've been around forever with reason and they're cheap and easy

Va: McC 5100 and OGS. Same argument.

English Light: Chelsea Morning, Presbyterian.

Medium Squadron Leader, Three Oaks.

Heavy: See if you like the ones above first.

Oriental: Ratray Red Rapparee, GLP Meridian, Wilderness.

Aro: Try non perfumed things first.

I think in threads like these, too many of us list OUR favorites rather than standards.

 

[puros_bran]

In that case. What's a standard???

Exactly.

 

[PipeGeek]

In that case. What's a standard???

Exactly.

We have our own proprietary standard.

 

[jj1015]

Out of curiosity, why do you have Barbary Coast == an aromatic burley blend with no latakia -- listed as an "English" blend? Also, why is Quiet Night listed as "light English?" It's got a big latakia hit, and I'd be more inclined to describe Penzance as "light" than Quiet Night. Chelsea Morning, on the other hand, is probably as good an example of a light English as I can think of....

For Barbary Coast, that was a bad bit of mistyping. Even though it has a "delicate kiss of brandy," I wouldn't call this an aromatic, just a stellar burley blend.

As far as Quiet Nights, Penzance, and Chelsea Morning go... are you referring to body, nicotine, flavor, or latakia content? I'm referring specifically to the level of nicotine I experience when smoking these blends, the actual strength of them and I would disagree with your categorizations.

I would say Quiet Nights is low in strength whereas I would say Chelsea Morning is medium to strong in strength. Penzance I would place squarely in the medium strength category.

That's fair. Most of the time people are referring to latakia strength when they rate them as light or strong, or at least the overall fullness of flavor (not saying that's absolutely how it should be graded, just saying that's kind of how those terms seem to have developed over the years for most smokers). That's why you see blends like Odyssey get routinely labeled as strong or full (it's usually considered a very heavy hitter) yet I've never detected any nicotine in it whatsoever. I wish that TR.com would make a separate category for nicotine strength! When it comes to English blends, that only ones I would categorize as higher than "light" are Abingdon, Nightcap. G&H Balkan Mixture, and Ten Russians. As much as I love English blends, they tend to be sorely lacking in Vitamin N.

 

[jj1015]

It's only as hard as you make it.

That's why I don't 'catagorize' tobacco. Or argue the merits of doing such, or what catagory what belongs in, or even what the categories are.
Smoke, enjoy, leave it alone.

We can easily lapse into all kinds of silliness and hair-splitting on these forums at times (I'm as guilty as the next person). The main reason we categorize is to facilitate communication and impose some kind of order on things-- the same reason we categorize anything else. But the important thing is to smoke what you like. as they say....

 

[dshpipes]

That's fair. Most of the time people are referring to latakia strength when they rate them as light or strong, or at least the overall fullness of flavor (not saying that's absolutely how it should be graded, just saying that's kind of how those terms seem to have developed over the years for most smokers). That's why you see blends like Odyssey get routinely labeled as strong or full (it's usually considered a very heavy hitter) yet I've never detected any nicotine in it whatsoever. I wish that TR.com would make a separate category for nicotine strength! When it comes to English blends, that only ones I would categorize as higher than "light" are Abingdon, Nightcap. G&H Balkan Mixture, and Ten Russians. As much as I love English blends, they tend to be sorely lacking in Vitamin N.

I'm really glad that you and PB mentioned how folks generally rate the strength of an English blend. Having reviewed cigars semi-professionally for about 2 years, I tend to refer to strength exclusively by how much of a nic hit you get. Looks like I need to change my vocabulary!

 

[jj1015]

That's fair. Most of the time people are referring to latakia strength when they rate them as light or strong, or at least the overall fullness of flavor (not saying that's absolutely how it should be graded, just saying that's kind of how those terms seem to have developed over the years for most smokers). That's why you see blends like Odyssey get routinely labeled as strong or full (it's usually considered a very heavy hitter) yet I've never detected any nicotine in it whatsoever. I wish that TR.com would make a separate category for nicotine strength! When it comes to English blends, that only ones I would categorize as higher than "light" are Abingdon, Nightcap. G&H Balkan Mixture, and Ten Russians. As much as I love English blends, they tend to be sorely lacking in Vitamin N.

I'm really glad that you and PB mentioned how folks generally rate the strength of an English blend. Having reviewed cigars semi-professionally for about 2 years, I tend to refer to strength exclusively by how much of a nic hit you get. Looks like I need to change my vocabulary!

Fair enough! I'm not a big cigar guy, but I've gathered from hanging around a few that our vocabularies ARE very different (which is kinda surprising, when you think about it). There are those who think of nicotine first when discussing strength, but usually it's the overall heaviness of the flavor and/or body. That might be because relatively few pipe tobaccos have a lot of nicotine, compared to cigars. It might also be because, in the wotld of pipe tobaccos, a very dark, strong or heavy flavor doesn't necessarily have anything to do with Vitamin N. You'll find that some of the strongest-tasting blends have almost no nicotine at all, while some burley blends with a relatively "light" or bland flavor will actually give you a buzz. I'm not that well-versed in cigars, but in my limited experience a dark, strong-tasting stogie will usually have a correspondingly high level of nicotine (I could be VERY wrong here, of course, and feel free to correct me if I am!) Pipe tobacco is a MUCH wider and more convoluted world than cigars, in my limited experience, and it's why I prefer it. I've never had a cigar where I tasted cinnamon, barbecue, a campfire, orange, and church incense in the same smoke (all without added flavoring)! Plus, the sheer variety of styles is incredible. While there is a lot of variety in cigars, I've never had a cigar that didn't basically taste like... a cigar. In pipe tobaccos, the difference between a Balkan, a VA/Per and an aromatic is as great as the difference between a strong curry, a hamburger and apple pie. What I'm saying is that, given how much variety there is, it's no wonder that there will be some confusion as to how we should describe or categorize blends....

All this isn't really a big deal, of course. It's just that most guys are going to do a double-take if you call, say, Chelsea Morning a medium or heavy English. They will then politely ask if you've ever heard of something called Odyssey LOL!

 

[Kyle Weiss]

No sense in beating off a dead horse, honestly. There's other websites dedicated to this. So I hear.

8)

 

[George Kaplan]

No sense in beating off a dead horse, honestly. There's other websites dedicated to this. So I hear.

8)

Giving up already, Kyle? If this were a Rusty Mouse thread, we'd be on page seven by now. We haven't even brought up apartheid yet. :twisted:

 

[jefe1037]

No sense in beating off a dead horse, honestly. There's other websites dedicated to this. So I hear.

8)

Giving up already, Kyle? If this were a Rusty Mouse thread, we'd be on page seven by now. We haven't even brought up apartheid yet. :twisted:

Or Nazis.

 

[Kyle Weiss]

No sense in beating off a dead horse, honestly. There's other websites dedicated to this. So I hear.

8)

Giving up already, Kyle? If this were a Rusty Mouse thread, we'd be on page seven by now. We haven't even brought up apartheid yet. :twisted:

Or Nazis.

...though Harlock's new avatar seems to be a curious one...

I know, I know, I'm a witless bastard. The forum's been getting pretty off-topicy lately, and while it's kind of a nice surprise once in a while, I've noticed almost a preplanned digression that I'm leery of helping perpetuate. This one got out of hand all on its own, and now it's just kind of mocking itself. Fair game, all-around. 8)