Just tried fvf

[Lesepfeife]

Being pretty new to the hobby I've taken something of a methodical approach. Though I don't limit to only these, I concentrate on blends that have tobaccos that could have been found in the 1860's. I have a list on a spreadsheet that helps me pick out a few every time I am placing an order. As I work through the selections I have open I'm finding that my taste leans toward the VaPers but the straight VA's and blends that may include Lat are up there as well. It's part of the fun of the experience in weeding out the ones to not bother with in the future and the ones to buy to cellar or have on hand.

More to the topic of the OP in this thread, I put FVF on the list but was initially concerned it might be too strong for my tastes so I started with GG. When I decided to find out what the buzz was all about with FVF it was oos everywhere. A couple weeks ago I checked and it was available a few places so I ordered 2 tins along with a few others off my list to spread the shipping cost over a greater number of tins. I've been busy comparing others so have only had one bowl of the FVF so haven't really had enough experience to comment on it.

One of the VA's on my list that I haven't seen mentioned in this thread is Sillem's Mayor 1812 Flake.

 

[jefe1037]

IRC's Virginia Flake is my favorite.... just a bump for the local guys.

 

[Boxerbuddy]

Nah. I'm not dumping on anybody.

Pirate found his groove with FVF, and that's awesome. However, his contentment is only known to you by what he can describe, not by what you know about his experience. Embarcadero is what you know, and I cannot possibly know what joy it brings you even if I try it, because of your own experience with it . . .

Objection, Your Honor.

Everybody's bullshit is unique.

But the Happy Contentment groove in people is hardwired.

When somebody's in it, he's in it.

Anticipation --> experience --> fulfillment.

It's probably a dopamine thing (?)

:face:

Lol I gotta say it's pretty weird to actually make an argument against trying different tobaccos.

Ok...so he likes FVF. How does he know that out of the tobaccos suggested he won't like one better. I'm on a tobacco journey myself....I've found some I love but I'm sure there's some others out there that I might like more than the ones I love.

Maybe before he took up the pipe he liked cigars (not saying this is the case just theoretical). Why even pick up the pipe...u like cigars, just stick with them.

Lol not everything is an "enlightened vs. sheeple" issue Yak. Why even belong to the forum and comment on tobaccos if you're philosiphy is to stop when you've found one you like. How did you find out you liked Embarcadero? Did it just magically show up on your doorstep and never having smoked a pipe before you went out, bought a pipe and found out you liked it?.....lol and then you stopped there?

I think Yak is doing what PB calls "trolling". Or he serious and being ridiculous.

 

[Kyle Weiss]

Nah. I'm not dumping on anybody.

----

Objection, Your Honor.

Everybody's bullshit is unique.

But the Happy Contentment groove in people is hardwired.

When somebody's in it, he's in it.

Anticipation --> experience --> fulfillment.

It's probably a dopamine thing (?)

:face:

Probably. Contentment evades some people, but it's also a great motivator.

What I'm saying is you cannot experience Pirate's contentment. He can tell you. Or you can experience your own. When you get together and have a rap-session about it, it's called empathy. When you get it, you get it, and no one gets it the same way.

 

[Kyle Weiss]

Yak's just being Yak. He stirs the pot in most interesting ways at times. He stands by his points, even if they're disconnected. I'm way good with that. Can't get nothin' if you can't talk about it.

Love ya, Yak... like a Brother, not a lover.

8)

 

[i.keenum]

I have always liked pizza but when my parent's first opened a pizza joint they were strapped from sinking the start up into to the restaurant and I worked at the place, so we ate pizza for what seemed like every meal for 3 months. Well I avoided pizza for a good while after that, there can be too much of a good thing.

 

[Anonymous]

Why even belong to the forum and comment on tobaccos if your philosophy is to stop when you've found one you like ?

Because the goal of seeking is finding.

I'm not saying "Don't look." Looking is how you find stuff.

If you just want to try one tin of everything in the store, go for it.

Maybe you'll even luck into a moment of magic that way.

When you do, it can change the whole complexion of the enterprise.

:face:

 

[Harlock999]

Strangely, I'm with Yak...
I'm in thrall to Nightcap, but I have no desire to look for blends that are just like Nightcap.
The dizzying array of available stuff makes me happy to have found the "one" (for me). If NC stops doing it for me, which could happen, I'll reenter the fray, walk into that lonely singles bar (B&M) of desperation, sign up with some online (tobacco) dating service, and join the ranks of the haunted searchers, trying to recapture that fleeting moment, once, so long ago...

 

[Anonymous]

Then there's the aspect of the pipes involved to consider.

Four here smoke nothing but Embarcadero ; six only smoke FVF. Except for the recent arrival, the time span involved is years -- the oldest favorite, only dark Virginia flakes since 1974. The others are for the occasional Whatever.

You don't have to go about things this way, but it does fine-tune the delivery system.

It just works.

:face:

 

[idbowman]

Four here smoke nothing but Embarcadero .

Lucky them.


I actually envy you, Yak. I wish I'd found the right two or three (or however many) blends that I love enough to say "this is all I need" (allowing for an occasional flight of fancy, of course). I'm not even sure if I'm even looking for a favorite blend right now, searching for the Holy Grail. I've only been at it for a decade or so, so maybe I'm still developing my own sense of taste.

Either way, I think if I tried to come up with the small handful of blends to get me through, it'd end up a bit like this...

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4VbI5zcB8Ac" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" loading="lazy" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Kyle Weiss]

Yak, after hanging out at this place for a while I sometimes forget you have a great perspective on things, but you get it out in an awkward and incomplete way. I get what you're saying now. I agree with what your perspective is at this point, rather than what it seemed you were standing by before.

To seek is to find, but there's the whole "...it's the journey not the destination." Except sometimes the destination is pretty awesome, too. 8)

So, never stop seeking, and only stop when you find what you're looking for until you desire something else.

As far as finding things "like" something else, it's a bit of a misleading notion. I find things "like" other things, but I fully understand they aren't those things. As I typically say for myself, I stand based upon my own merits, so should what I seek. Embarcadero is Embarcadero--Nightcap is Nightcap. The end. If lobster bisque has crab rather than lobster, it's a crab bisque--not lobster bisque-like. *shrug*

Me? I hope I never find that one tobacco. I hope I have about five standouts that I can rotate through, and I hope I have enough of it to last me until the end of my days held within countless jars and tins.

So say we all.

 

[Anonymous]

You're putting me on kind of delicate analogical ground here.

I'm still maintaining that the European true love model is a better MO than the Arabic Four plus the other ones on the side. I can see the appeal of it, but I can see what happens to guys who hit the big time and flame out from unbridled self-indulgeance, too. Always chasing it and finding that what they want is always one step ahead of them.

I'm glad I'm Yak and not Mick Jagger or Ben Roethlisberger or some movie star. Really. That's shaky ground to be standing on.

:face:

 

[billmess]

Revise previous for clarity :

At the risk of sounding (possibly, being) naive, if you've found something you like, why not just (get more of it and) smoke it (?)

When you met a girl you really liked, did you immediately start wondering if she had a sister ?

Same mentality.

:face:

Well... kinda. It is always good to have a back-up plan.

Bill

:bom: :bom: :lol!:

 

[onabullit]

FVF is my ultimate all time favorite VA!

Call me a hoarder but I have around 25 tins and 3 1# boxes, as well as a pound of current and a half pound of 2005 vintage in jars.

There simply is nothing like it, not that other VA's, especially MCc's and Union Square arent incredible in their own right.

Never really got into Orlick's Golden Slices.

Im currently smoking through a tin of 1970's Dunhill Light Flake I snagged at an estate sale for $1.00! It has been in a tube rehydrating in the current production FVF jar. Smells like tea leaves, out of this freaking world.

Try SG St. James flake for a VA/Per that will transplant you to the Bayous of Louisiana

 

[onabullit]

I have always liked pizza but when my parent's first opened a pizza joint they were strapped from sinking the start up into to the restaurant and I worked at the place, so we ate pizza for what seemed like every meal for 3 months. Well I avoided pizza for a good while after that, there can be too much of a good thing.

I never get enough of FVF. I could chop it up and put it on my pizza it's that good.

 

[DustyRoundup]

FVF ! For me , and I dont have aged FVF, is one of my Favorites. But, if I smoke it all day, it just doesnt have that 'Special" feel to it.

Its sorta like, If I ate prime rib every night, it would become normal to me, and no big deal. Like when I was working ranches, and got a beef a year, I had alot of good cuts, and theyd get boring , I guess you could say, because I found that I would crave other lesser cuts, like a slow cooked roast, or an easy to eat Burger, or a chicken fried steak.

I find if I smoke Boswells Virginia slice all day, a flake of FVF that evening really shines through. My tastes are more sensitive to it, so I taste more of it. Therefore I enjoy it more.
Same goes with all of my favorites.

Its like, if you drank beer all day, it'd be no big deal, to pop one in the evenin, but if you drink water all day, then pop a beer in the evenin, you'll think " Damn, That beer tastes good !"