Deep flavor without being strong?

Brothers of Briar

Help Support Brothers of Briar:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
You might try going to the tobacco review site and using the advanced search thing in the upper right corner where you can input variables like strength and component tobaccos as well as other things. I use it all the time and find it very helpful. I really like being able to 'disallow' specific tobaccos like Latakia or whatever. Try it, you'll like it.

The thing I found was that when I put in mild strength and full flavor type ranges the blends that came up, and there were hundreds, were mostly aromatic types...so you sort of need to know about the blends or go through a lot of them to discover more about their nature...which is a good thing.
 
Whew! Lotsa info there, and I thank you all for it. I gotta reread this thread again a few times more and I will definitely try some of the suggestions. I should correct my statement about cigars... it was the double-maduros and oscuros that blew me away. I do like maduros and English/Colorados. I find it interesting that there are pipe 'baccos with cigar bacco in them. (cue Huey Lewis) I wanna new drug. ;)
 
TonyS: Following advice from Blackhorse, and with knowledge that you are a former cigar smoker you might try one of my tricks to add some flavor depth to a mild pipe tobacco. I always keep a jar of ground cigar leaf with my pipe tobaccos and add some to a bowl of a favorite blend to add the depth you are seeking. I take about a one inch cut from a cigar, place it in a coffee grinder I've dedicated for this purpose and hit the button for about two seconds. The result is cigar flake that is perfect to blend with pipe tobacco and smoke in a medium size bowl. My favorite base blend is C&D Engine 99 and my cigar leaf is taken from a Partagas Black label stick. In this way you can add just a pinch of your favorite cigar leaf to create the blend depth most pleasurable to you.
 
I was a cigar smoker for over 25 years and understand where you are coming from. When I first began I was smoking English blends and blends with cigar leaf to try and copy the tastes I was getting from my cigars. Over time my tastes changed and now only smoke Virginia Flakes and Virginia Perique flakes. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with English blends, many people smoke them exclusively, and one of their attractions is they normally don't bite To me though VA and Vaper flakes provide the most intense and full bodied flavors that I have found. Now there is a bit of a learning curve when dealing with flakes. The preparation, drying, cutting and smoking are a bit different than ribbon and course cut blends.

I would recommend using the cube cut method for smoking them, the 3 stage method for filling the bowl, and you will need to smoke slowly. There are many flakes that have no bite and that are the proper humidity right out of the tin. I would recommend trying those first. Here are a few to get you started if you want to delve into the world of flakes. I would stay away from blends that are heavy with red Virginia's because those have a tendency to bite and you need to be experienced to smoke those in my pinion.

Fribourg&Treyer Cut Virginia Plug is a great VA flake, it is one of my favorites.

Solani 633 is a great Virginia/Perique flake that is great right out of the tin and again is no bite.

Wessex Brigade Campaign Dark Flake another great VA flake that has a ton of flavor and some nicotine.

Escudo is a Virginia/Perique flake that has been around forever and is one of the great blends out there. This might need a little drying time, maybe half hour cube cut before smoking, but it is worth the wait.

Now if you want to try some strong VA flakes I would recommend Peterson Irish Flake, Samuel Gawith Full Virginia flake and Mac Baren HH Matured Virginia. Those require a lot of drying time and some experience to smoke those properly.

Read all you can in regards to packing, smoking, and pipe maintenance To appreciate the blends you need a clean pipe. I hope this is helpful to you.
 
Me, beeing a relatively new pipesmoker (smoking for two years less than 2 pipes every week). i had this problem until this spring, nearly every tobacco i tried gave me a nic shock. It actually totally ruined three nuns for me, got super nauseous :/

This spring i conquered my "allergy" to nicotine, not by smoking light blends but smaller bowled pipes and smoking while taking a walk instead of sitting still.
This have made my dog very happy and now i can smoke much larger pipes with whatever blends i want.

Dunno how this works for others but it helped for me!

Good luck and enjoy your pipe!

-Ole
 
Back in May I initiated my collection with 1-2oz of each type of straight samples:

I tried each separately so I can pick out what I like from a blend.

Red Virginia
Yellow Virginia
Stoved Virginia
Burley
Black Cavendish
Turkish (Izmir)

After you've tried the above items separate, sample these in a blend:

Perique - Only get 1oz. A little goes a long way. Only use 10% max with a Virginia or any blend. It will overpower the blend otherwise.
Latakia - Make sure this is double bagged for shipment. Make a 50/50 sample with Virginia and Turkish. Full 100% is not fun.

These will not taste like a quality blend that contains casings, toppings and age but it will give you an idea on what you will like when shopping for your tastes.

 
FWIW, I have always found that McClelland's blends tended to be fairly low (comparatively speaking) in nicotine content.

Just to counter Kyle's point: I, personally, have never felt underwhelmed by a tobacco because of low nic content, but I have be overwhelmed by the stronger ones.
 
Dave_In_Philly":9xi82qc7 said:
FWIW, I have always found that McClelland's blends tended to be fairly low (comparatively speaking) in nicotine content.

Just to counter Kyle's point: I, personally, have never felt underwhelmed by a tobacco because of low nic content, but I have be overwhelmed by the stronger ones.
Click to expand...
This.



Cheers,

RR
 
Dave sez:


I, personally, have never felt underwhelmed by a tobacco because of low nic content, but I have be overwhelmed by the stronger ones.
Click to expand...

As it seems to be the case that most low nic blends with a potent flavor tend to the aromatic side...I guess I tend toward the medium strength blends and higher. I rely on the low end of the nic scale for an 'after smoke' or a 'second bowl before' doing something else, if that makes any sense. Two of the powerhouse blends would be too much...but an extra bowl of something milder often works.

Also, I'm tending to the medium side of the zone for the first smoke of the day, which often happens to be a VA/Per/Turkish or non-Latakia VA/Per/Oriental (which are kinda the same thng, in a way). There, I'm looking for flavor more than a hit...and likely something more subtle that in yer face. Many of Steve Books blends work well here, as do a lot of the C&D and John Patton items. I'm especially liking Patton's Oriental Dusk (which is not carried by anyone, but can be had via request from 4-N's) and the new MadBaron HH Acadia Perique...both of which are stellar blends...cooperative, superb flavors...lovely to sit back with and sip away.

Cases in point: The minimum order of any of Patton's "old" blends is a half pound for $20, which is equivalent to $5 for a 2 oz tin...and I just got in a factory pounder of the HH Acadian Perique from Mars for $35 plus $6 flat rate shipping. So that's essentially the same price range...and right there with what Kyle's beloved Borkum Riff goes for in the tub.

Do yourself a favor and skip the Riff...try the HH Acadian Perique. Nice.

And how they can ship a pounder from Mars for six bucks is beyond me. NASA take note!
 
In my experience, flavor and nicotine have a very limited correlation. To me, a lot of heavy nicotine blends have overwhelming flavor. However, I don't think the reverse (that low nicotine blends have very low flavor) is true. A lot of people mention McClelland - to me they are masters or nuance, but you won't find much from them that smacks you in the face (they leave that for other blenders).

All that said, I think I have a fairly high nicotine tolerance based on my own impressions vs what I've read from others. If such is true, what I find to be medium and nuanced may be overwhelming and strong to someone else... so in the end personal experience is irreplaceable.
 
Keen Smoke - well spoken. If more would realize that we are all on sliding scales re taste, cut, style of blend, etc. then perhaps we would see fewer blend evaluations claiming this one or that one to be 'bad' or in some other way inferior. In the same way, what you tolerate in terms of strength others will find either too strong, too light or perhaps on a rare day... just right. Glad another browser can see the 'cosmic truth' of pipe blends.
 
Lat blends tend to be on the low end of the nicotine scale, and they're big on flavor.
 
I've got to agree with Dave_In_Philly, Brewdude, Keen Smoke, and Sisyphus. I too find that heavy flavor is not at all inherently attached to heavy nicotine. I like thick heavy flavor, and find that often any heavy nicotine makes me dislike a blend.

As Sisyphus suggests, the latakia blends are the way to go and for taste depth and pure delight I'd steer anyone to Old Ironsides, Charles Fairmorn's Lancer's Slices, Penzance, McClelland's British Woods, and McClelland's bulk Coyote Classic. I'd stay away from the Dunhill blends however, because I've found their latakia blends heavy to nicotine, even 965, and thus I regret I disagree with Riff Raff. I might also disagree with RR regarding the Samual Gawith blends Commonwealth and Squadron Leader; I don't remember them being nicotine heavy but it has been a year or two since I've had tins of them so I can't remember my experience of them for certain.

The blends that have made me miserable for their high nicotine content have been C&D's Purple Cow, Dunhill's Nightcap, and, well, Dunhill's 965 which I recently opened a tin of and felt it slow me down and make me feel ugly inside for a quarter of an hour. I smoked it a few years ago and simply loved it, however, and never associated it with nic hit.
 
Top