Mike:
No harm done on my account.
As for the subject of your original post, I don't find much of a dilemma in seasoning a pipe...well, except in deciding what tobacco I'm going to smoke in a
new pipe.
It's true that many of my pipes are dedicated to a single tobacco, and have been from the first time I smoked them. (I think we've hashed out the reasons for dedication elsewhere...probably ad nauseum.) But many are simply dedicated to a
type of tobacco — VaPers, traditional English, imperial English, matured Virginia, Euro-style Ginnyflakeweed, Syrian Latweed, Cyprilat with Perique, straight Burley,...etc.
I treat each smoking experience as unique. I do have expectations about a certain amount of repeatability, which of course is one of the reasons for dedication. But I don't consider a review to be much more than a snapshot of a moment in time — one in which my perceptions of a blend have as much (or even more) to do with my mood or what I've eaten or my body chemistry or the ambient air quality as they do with the pipe I've chosen. I'm just looking to make the smoking experience as enjoyable as possible. If I happen to have time to write a review...well, that's nice; but for me, the review is incidental. And it's just my opinion, right then, right there.
As for the crossover effect (lingering effects of a previously smoked tobacco in a pipe that now contains a different one), it's minimal if you make your pipe selection carefully so as to minimize it. I can name any number of tobaccos I could smoke in a given pipe with no significant crossover effect interference. With experience, it is entirely possible to select a well seasoned pipe that is perfectly compatible with a similar tobacco I've never smoked in it before, and write a review that does justice to the blend.
Of course, then there are those occasions wherein I deliberately choose a pipe and weed combination
because of the crossover effect. It can be quite remarkable, and really can produce wonderful smokes that can be achieved in no other way.
In any case, I think there are many different approaches to tobacco reviews. The approach I take is not one in which I expect the reader to trust my review as anything like a complete or "objective" evaluation of any given tobacco. I trust my reviews to be accurate representations of my experiences
at the time, but I do not (and cannot) offer them as absolutes. They simply record my subjective experiences. I already know that for every person who can relate to something I write about a Syrian Latweed blend there might be two or three who immediately tune out and flush it as irrelevant because they
know that French Vanilla Walnut Creme Delight is better than any other tobacco in the known universe, and if anyone sez otherwise, them's fightin' words. I yield to superior intelligence in such cases.
Nevertheless, it's a truth that there are no absolutes in matters of taste, and there are damned few absolutes that apply to the rest of pipe smoking. Case in point: Your 3-day rest rule for pipes. I presume you have excellent reasons for sticking to it. I have no such rule. If a pipe is dry and smells OK and never gets hot when I smoke it and I want another bowl of the same stuff, I'll just refill and go for it. The only criteria are that I enjoy it, and that I don't harm the pipe. By the same criteria, if a pipe is burning hot, or it's just not in the "zone", I'll set that puppy down. If a pipe I smoked yesterday is OK and I want to smoke it today, it's fair game. Sometimes a pipe smokes much better when it's smoked more often.
Anyhow, all reviews are opinion. Some opinions are interesting, some are not, and some are even useful. But the only opinion that really counts when it comes to your smokes is
your opinion. :mrgreen:
Vito