Leather tongued tobacco reviews

[Briarbabe]

I'm often curious when reading reviews over at TR.com, when you come across a reviewer who says the blend is flavorless or lacking, how long they have been smoking? I often ignore these reviews when they are bunched in with other glowing reviews of a blend. I have to wonder if your taste buds aren't slowly deadened over the years so that you need stronger and stronger blends to satisfy.

 

[Brewdude]

I don't live and die by the review forum BB, and there are plenty of reviews that are often suspect!

I like to identify with a reviewer who's palate is something like my own (based on reading many reviews). Also have much respect for those who post here (such as Jiminks) who tell it like it is.

Read them long enough, and you'll get tuned in to someone with a palate you can go forward with.


HTH


Cheers,

RR

 

[monbla256]

I don't live and die by the review forum BB, and there are plenty of reviews that are often suspect!

I like to identify with a reviewer who's palate is something like my own (based on reading many reviews). Also have much respect for those who post here (such as Jiminks) who tell it like it is.

Read them long enough, and you'll get tuned in to someone with a palate you can go forward with.


HTH


Cheers,

RR

THIS and be suspect of anyone who seems to know what leather tastes like !! Folks with strange diets need to be looked at as suspect !! :twisted: :twisted:

 

[DrumsAndBeer]

I review tobaccos over there, and I too try to tell it like it is. Simple things like sweetness, earthiness, bitterness, harshness, savory, spicy, bitey, etc. I try to keep away from the this stuff tastes like cheddar cheese, etc. Although sometimes a tobacco will have a remarkable likeness to food or drink and I will mention it.

All said though, the most important thing is that you experience a tobacco for yourself. Period.

Guys like Jim are invaluable because they smoke a lot and have a ton of experience with a multitude of tobaccos from various genres. Now I don't always agree with his reviews but he's a great example of the fact that nothing develops your taste for a pipe better than smoking a pipe. Experience is key. Smoke enough and you'll start to find that some of the blends that confound newer pipers might taste more interesting and present more compelling nuances to the initiated. That said, I don't think it's a matter of deadened senses as much as it is a matter of developing a palate for the deeper flavors that tobacco can present.

Same rules apply to tasting beer, wine, bourbon, scotch, brandy, cheese, etc. Smoke, smoke, smoke.. Drink, drink, drink.. Eat, eat, eat.. :drunken:

 

[DrT999]

Same rules apply to tasting beer, wine, bourbon, scotch, brandy, cheese, etc. Smoke, smoke, smoke.. Drink, drink, drink.. Eat, eat, eat.. :drunken:

What he said. of course, some people get a lot more out of any given type of tasting -- inc. things that aren't there. Taste, review, compare, and you'll get a skill set that suits you

 

[user 2031]

Same rules apply to tasting beer, wine, bourbon, scotch, brandy, cheese, etc. Smoke, smoke, smoke.. Drink, drink, drink.. Eat, eat, eat.. :drunken:

What he said.  of course, some people get a lot more out of any given type of tasting -- inc. things that aren't there.    Taste, review, compare, and you'll get a skill set that suits you

Ha! The other day I was smoking some Hiatus and there was a taste that I couldn't put my finger on and the only thing I could come up with was burnt peanut. :lol: Glad I wasn't writing a review, the funny thing is I have never had burnt peanut that I am aware of and, I was sort of enjoying it and enjoyed the blend overall. I am pretty new to the Latakia thing.

BTW, I'm pretty sure burnt peanut is not a flavor in Hiatus. :roll:

 

[DrumsAndBeer]

Ha! The other day I was smoking some Hiatus and there was a taste that I couldn't put my finger on and the only thing I could come up with was burnt peanut. :lol: Glad I wasn't writing a review, the funny thing is I have never had burnt peanut that I am aware of and, I was sort of enjoying it and enjoyed the blend overall. I am pretty new to the Latakia thing.

BTW, I'm pretty sure burnt peanut is not a flavor in Hiatus. :roll:

Burnt peanut is a great descriptor! I eat unshelled peanuts all the time. Every now and then you'll get one that entirely overdone and it has a very distinct flavor.

 

[puros_bran]

Simple, it's what your nose imagines burnt peanut taste like. We oft forget the majority of our taste sensation actually comes from our sense of smell.

Monbla, leather taste like chicken... Lol.. I actually get what they are saying there but it is exceedingly rare to pick it up in a smoke. I know what they mean when they say metallic. I even kinda get 'grassy'.... What I don't get is "the violin crashing into crescendo as the bass note ripple like a waterfall".. WTF, I've never once tasted Beetovans 5th. People say shit in tobacco reviews to sound like they have a clue WTF they are talking about, most (including me) don't.

 

[Kyle Weiss]

Reviews are all crap. Especially mine... I mean, have you read those things? :lol:

Smoke ropes, all the time--all problems solved.

8)

 

[puros_bran]

Quite the contrary to your inference rope tobaccos are eminently varied and tasty. Even the black ropes offered by the twin Gawiths, with a once common recipe, are discernible as differing when tasted side by side. Also the amount of tobacco that is first processed into ropes before later becoming ribbons,shags, or coins might shock you.

In other words take your supposed quick witted remark elsewhere Cretan it appears rather dull amongst your betters.

 

[user 2031]

Ah heck, so maybe I'm not half as crazy as I imagined, good news! I can't wait to tell my shrink that. :lol:

 

[Kyle Weiss]

In other words take your supposed quick witted remark elsewhere Cretan it appears rather dull amongst your betters.

Does pissing up rope tobacco matter? :mrgreen:

8)

 

[Fr_Tom]

I know I don't get the nuance of a blend that others do sometimes. It may also be that I am not so imaginative or poetic. I think some of the reviewers read what is there and generate a "me-too" review.

I do know I have a couple of blends where I like them and think they are very good - but not flavor bombs. These sometimes get "cardboard" from other reviewers. Who knows?

 

[monbla256]

To sum all this up, years ago I heard a B&M owner tell a customer "... I sell nothing but EXCELLENT tobacco, it just depends on which excellent YOU like ! " :twisted: :twisted:

 

[puros_bran]

Fr Tom. Start with the oldest reviews, then follow the me too +1 stuff... Then someone will post a negative and watch the me too -1 reviews roll in.. Lol I hate tr.com but spend an inordinate amount of time there just looking.

Monbla. You just won the internet. In a most excellent manner.

 

[idbowman]

I just recently started posting my reviews over there.

Honestly, I don't care who (if anyone) reads 'em. I'm writing for myself so that I can have my own personal reference to go back to. Considering that I'm writing for me, there's really no motivation to be anything but frank and honest (for better or for worse).


Like some others have said, there are a few reviewers whose opinions carry a bit of weight with me. These are either folks that I "know" through BoB so I have a feeling for how there tastes line up with my own, folks who have something of a reputation for reliable reviews (PipeStud comes to mind), or both (JimInks, for example). If I'm considering picking up a new blend, I might pull it up on TR to see if any of those favorites have commented on it just to establish a point of reference; otherwise, I don't but any stock in what most people have to say.

 

[JimInks]

Drums and Beer and I agree more than we disagree in regard to tobacco blends, but I know he'll agree that's because personal tastes vary from person to person, you just can't always see a mixture the way another does. I always read his reviews (along with a few others like Father Tom, DK, etc.) because he writes honestly about his experience with the blend. I've even upvoted a few of his reviews that were different than mine because of the time he took to discuss what he thought of them, and how he wrote about them. And he's right about experience being an important factor is understanding tobacco. As with everything else in life, experience is often the best teacher. Btw, according to Tobacco Reviews, we agree 70% of the time. I think that's a pretty high percentage.

Idbowman makes the important point in that it's best to find those whose tastes are much like yours, and pay those reviewers the most attention. Of course, the only way you'll ever really know about a blend is to smoke it. That, most of us are pretty good at!!!

 

[Kyle Weiss]

TR-dot-com is the Yelp of pipe tobacco. Marginally helpful, sometimes amusing, many people writing for ego, joining the bandwagon, contrarianism or infamy more so than to be a source of wisdom. I'm glad its there, nonetheless.

The concern was leather-tongued guys who can't taste stuff...solution to them, still, smoke ropes. Or straight Perique. Stuff a pipe with dried ghost chiles and red Chinese peppercorns. But actually pay attention to them?

The only troll I feed is PeeB. :heart:

8)

 

[SpeedyPete]

Ha! The other day I was smoking some Hiatus and there was a taste that I couldn't put my finger on and the only thing I could come up with was burnt peanut. :lol: Glad I wasn't writing a review, the funny thing is I have never had burnt peanut that I am aware of and, I was sort of enjoying it and enjoyed the blend overall. I am pretty new to the Latakia thing.

BTW, I'm pretty sure burnt peanut is not a flavor in Hiatus. :roll:

Burnt peanut is a great descriptor! I eat unshelled peanuts all the time. Every now and then you'll get one that entirely overdone and it has a very distinct flavor.

Can one eat shelled peanuts too :twisted:

 

[KevinM]

Tastes do change over time, which isn't a bad thing. But the older I get the more I like mild to moderate blends, moving away from Vitamin N heavy rockers. Might be because it took me a decade or three to fully get the hang of s l o o o o w sipping, controlled breathing and the benefits of small- to medium-size bowls. But re: TR -- I don't go much for the lyrical narratives or the wiseguy hatchet jobs. To ID a new tobak to try, I look at the numbers -- i.e., pipeweed that has a critical mass of reviews plus a high average score. Then I look at what the reviewers say, watching for phrases that I consider "good" -- nutty, slightly sweet, but natural tasting, dry, low maintenance . . . Just reading a few reviews of the same blend demonstrates how subjective the senses of taste and smell are, but paying attention to the numbers has been generally very helpful to me.