Did I skip something?

[itsKot]

I came to this site only a week or two after I started smoking, so that puts my starting date in September of 2010. Since then I've progressed through various tobaccos more rapidly than expected. I'm not almost purely a VA smoker and can't get enough of my flakes. Time for my question- did I miss anything along the way? I see people saying nearly all the time that they're just now smoking flakes or VA's only to say they've smoked X number of years. After reading this from a number of fellow brother's I can't help but feel I may have missed something, though I cannot recall having done so. I know smoking is all about enjoying one's self, trust me, I have and by that school of though there really is no right and wrong way to do it, thus I'm a but perplexed. Who knows, maybe I'm a piping prodigy! :lol!:

 

[ruta2]

You haven't "skipped" or "missed" anything. If you're just starting out, just about everything lies ahead of you, and that's a good thing. It doesn't matter where you start (and it certainly doesn't matter where you end up). It's all a process, and a very subjective process at that.

As for the idea of "progression," it's a concept that has never really made sense to me -- it seems to imply some sort of tobacco hierarchy, which is something I've never bought into. There are no "more advanced," or "superior" or "more sophisticated" blends or tobacco genres, there are only types of tobacco that you prefer more than others. And what you prefer today will most undoubtedly change in the future; and what you're enjoying today is something you'll probably end up enjoying/rediscovering in the future. All this to say: enjoy, explore, and share. Let us all know what you've discovered and rediscovered over time.

Cheers!

 

[FlimFlammery]

Another thing to consider is not only will your tastes change over time, but the type of pipe you smoke a tobacco in will often change how well that tobacco smokes or even tastes. So until you have a variety of pipes in your rotation you'll not have worked through all the various nuances of many blends.

 

[Buddy Springman]

I know a guy whose first bowl was Haddo's Delight. He pretty much never left it, and I don't think he's missed a thing.

Buddy

 

[Anonymous]

Smoke what you like, like what you smoke.

That said, a whole lot more people seem to go around Robin Hood's barn and end up in Virginia than in England (or in Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory).

Yeah, I know. Burlies and Lakelands. Whatever trips your trigger (above).

But there is a quality issue, when you get down to it, that transcends the ideosyncracies of "taste."

It's not an election. It's a tendency toward consensus.

FWIW

:face:

 

[itsKot]

Everything you all said rings true, but it's that I'm almost afraid that things won't change thought, aside from the pipes themselves, as mentioned. I've always been a bit stubborn in my ways in all aspects of life, I find something I like and I stick to it, kinda like if it ain't broke, don't fix it kinda thing. I hope eventually my tastes bloom, so that I can learn to love all the latakia blends everyone raves about; I enjoy and respect them, but haven't had my socks knocked off yet at least. Maybe I'll learn to be more adventurous in time!

Also welcome aboard Flim, hope you enjoy it here!

 

[puros_bran]

Pffft...

Virginia and England be damned!
You haven't progressed into a true piper until you smoke Lakeland darks almost exclusively like me n LL.. girly man boys smoke the other stuff.


Bro don't get caught up in the progression nonsense.. As a feller a few post back said its nonsense. Smoke what ya like. When people can't even figure out that what they call a Virginia blend IS an English blend and what they call an English blend is a Balkan blend I wouldn't worry to much how people label what I smoke anyway.

 

[ruta2]

Wow Buddy Springer, you nailed it, and in "twenty-five words or less" no less. (You did it in twenty-four words. Yeah, I counted; I just had a hunch it was that perfect!) :cheers:

Cheers!

* If anyone [overly] scrutinizes the above and points out that Buddy used a couple of contractions, meaning that he actually used more than twenty-five words, (twenty-six to be precise) I'll be sorely disappointed :lol!:

 

[ruta2]

"Buddy Springman" (sorry about the typo, Buddy, must have been the rabbit that threw me off)

 

[Buddy Springman]

The rabbit _is_ a distraction.

My personal lessons learned re "missing things" is that I've three times done "epochal" change-outs of my cellar - each time ridding myself of things I no longer had a taste for. So "sow your oats" and make damn sure you really want to be smoking what you're cellaring.

Try the gamut and then set your course.

Buddy

 

[Harlock999]

I decided as a kid that I hated fish. Wouldn't eat it, ever. I was wrong. Thirty years later, I found out that I actually like fish. As a newbie pipe smoker, (and I'm still a card carrying rookie), I decided that I didn't like Lat blends. This time I didn't wait three decades to realize I was wrong. And I was. I really like the Lat.

 

[Blackhorse]

Two things... your comment:

I can't help but feel I may have missed something, though I cannot recall having done so.

So...when you MISSED something, you wouldn't remember it! Right?


And also...you DID miss something...something very important! You missed spending about six thousand dollars going from blend to blend to blend trying to find just the right thing, as your tastes had their merry way with your wallet, always just a hop-skip-and jump ahead of what you just bought! I think it's called cutting to the chase. You done good.

 

[docwatson]

Locate the next and closest pipe show in your vicinity and you will find something you have missed.!!!! A likeminded group of individuals all enjoying what we love. Tables full of pipes, many blends of tobacco to be savored, and camaraderie of the best kind. Hope to see you at a show some day.
Doc

 

[whitebriar]

Two things... your comment:

I can't help but feel I may have missed something, though I cannot recall having done so.

So...when you MISSED something, you wouldn't remember it! Right?


...you DID miss something...something very important! You missed spending about six thousand dollars going from blend to blend to blend trying to find just the right thing, .........I think it's called cutting to the chase. You done good.

a perfect analysis of the situation--if you like it, smoke it--if you get tired of it, try somethin' else--

 

[Anonymous]

You haven't progressed into a true piper until you smoke Lakeland darks almost exclusively like me n LL.. girly man boys smoke the other stuff. :lol:

Bear in mind that the abovementioned Lakeland Darks come from a country where, it seems, half the men find that the jolliest best of all jolly good fun is groveling, naked, at the feet of a dominatrix in leather boots while being flogged with a riding crop.

Never been there or done that but, I imagine, that and smoking some of the stuff he's referring to would be about on a par.

Diff'rent "Strokes" (so to speak) I guess :lol!:

:face:

 

[pipe dreamer]

Sorry to say my lats are ageing. Other than that ,I agree with DOC.

 

[itsKot]

Locate the next and closest pipe show in your vicinity and you will find something you have missed.!!!! A likeminded group of individuals all enjoying what we love. Tables full of pipes, many blends of tobacco to be savored, and camaraderie of the best kind. Hope to see you at a show some day.
Doc

I'd LOVE to make it to the Chicago pipe show some day! As for missing out on spending six thousand bucks (so far at least) I guess that's a good thing, though I'm sure in time I'll rack up quite the tab!

 

[Patrick]

Everything you all said rings true, but it's that I'm almost afraid that things won't change thought, aside from the pipes themselves, as mentioned. I've always been a bit stubborn in my ways in all aspects of life, I find something I like and I stick to it, kinda like if it ain't broke, don't fix it kinda thing. I hope eventually my tastes bloom, so that I can learn to love all the latakia blends everyone raves about; I enjoy and respect them, but haven't had my socks knocked off yet at least. Maybe I'll learn to be more adventurous in time!

Yeah, I'm kinda the same way. I started smoking this June, and so far Va and VaPer flakes have been my absolute favorites as well. Latakia/oriental based tobaccos are a close second for me, but nothing compares to a good Va or VaPer!