Blends for a new pipe smoker?

[Thelonious monkfish]

Get Sir Walter Raleigh Aromatic and Carter Hall, you should be good from there.

This is really great advice for someone starting. These are easy to pack and smoke. People like the room note.

My wife said that SWRA smells like pancakes with syrup on them. I can't ever smell what I am smoking, so I'll have to take her word for it.

That's what I get from it in tin note and taste, pacake breakfast with maple syrup.

[Longshanks]

I'll +1 the Escudo if you like a flavorful tobacco. Irish Oak is also flavorful, but strong. Honestly, though, after reading your post, it almost sounds like you're looking for some real "old school" sweet smells.
If you are...

I recently tried a sample of Sutliff Bulk - O.T.S. Old Towne Special (Black Cavendish, Burley, Virginia and a nice whiskey topping) and it took me back to my teens. We had a family friend who smoked something that smelled JUST like it, and I'd almost bet you'll like it, too. It looks like they have it available on the Sutliff website (sutliff-tobacco.com) under the aromatic section if you're interested. It smells great, tastes great and I think you'll find it light enough for a pleasant daily smoke.

[Longshanks]

I'll +1 the Escudo if you like a flavorful tobacco. Irish Oak is also flavorful, but strong. Honestly, though, after reading your post, it almost sounds like you're looking for some real "old school" sweet smells.
If you are...

I recently tried a sample of Sutliff Bulk - O.T.S. Old Towne Special (Black Cavendish, Burley, Virginia and a nice whiskey topping) and it took me back to my teens. We had a family friend who smoked something that smelled JUST like it, and I'd almost bet you'll like it, too. It looks like they have it available on the Sutliff website (sutliff-tobacco.com) under the aromatic section if you're interested. It smells great, tastes great and I think you'll find it light enough for a pleasant daily smoke.

Correction... you'll find some Sutliff Old Towne Special available at the TobaccoPipes.com link here: https://www.tobaccopipes.com/sutliff-ol ... e-tobacco/
Looks fairly inexpensive if you just wanted to sample a 1.5 oz bag.

While you're at it, I'd also recommend a Sutliff Private Stock Molto Dolce... it may not be old school aroma, and it may be a little more expensive, but it has a really nice flavor and room note I think you'd like.

[Mr Beardsley]

Judging from your intro post you're not in the states so getting our good old fashioned otc blends could be a bit of a challenge. If it's not then grab some Carter Hall, prince Albert, Sir Walter etc. If those aren't available then there's plenty of great choices from the euro market. Wessex has a lot of fantastic blends. Gawith should be readily available (yes its more challenging to learn on) Hell, get some Germain's rich dark flake (I'd sell a kidney for that stuff) it's a Virginia and burley flake with a treacle topping that adds a mild sweetness and some richness to the blend.

[Dave]

Thanks you all so much for your recommendations! Apologies, I should have mentioned that I'm in the UK. It looks like quite a few of these aren't readily available in the UK unfortunately but I found a couple. I was also able to look for similar sounding blends. Luckily the website I got my Squadron Leader from has four promising sounding options, so I've ordered some samples of them to get me started. Here's what I ordered:

https://www.gqtobaccos.com/tobaccos/jf- ... que-loose/
https://www.gqtobaccos.com/pipe-tobacco ... ack-spice/
https://www.gqtobaccos.com/pipe-tobacco ... ark-flake/
https://www.gqtobaccos.com/pipe-tobacco ... ana-flake/

So a couple of ribbon cuts and a couple of flakes. Three with a little casing/topping, one without. Hopefully they're more style. The flakes will be an interesting challenge also.

Thanks again! I'll report back with my opinions.

[Middle Earth]

Waiting to hear if anything was to your liking.

[Tsal]

I always recommend the basic over the counter blends to those who decide to pick up the pipe. You can always find them locally and there is enough variety to sort of get a handle on what you like. Order tobacco online can end up being expensive if you don't know what you like.

[oldbill]

I think that I would suggest going to a tobacco shoppe near by that can sell by the ounce or gram to sample small offerings of different blends both aromatic and non aromatic, there are sooo many blends to choose from on both ends of the spectrum and it's just going to take a lot of trial and error to find the blends that really do it for you.
I would recommend going for blends that aren't too heavily topped or cased to start with, get your feet wet with lightly topped aromatics or some of the lighter bodied non aromatics that give you a taste of the tobaccos in the blend without a dominating chocolate or vanilla, overly sweet, sticky topping or a non aromatic that isn't too heavy in any one tobacco component that would dominate the taste of the blend. I started with some of the heavily topped American style aromatics and smoked them for a couple of decades before I went out on a limb and tried a light English blend (Dunhill Early Morning Pipe which unfortunately doesn't exist anymore) that altered my pipe smoking universe, now I smoke almost exclusively non aromatic blends. Explore, explore, explore and enjoy the quest for your favorite style and flavor of tobacco without being intimidated or afraid to try the many different choices available to you.

[Mr Beardsley]

Thanks you all so much for your recommendations! Apologies, I should have mentioned that I'm in the UK. It looks like quite a few of these aren't readily available in the UK unfortunately but I found a couple. I was also able to look for similar sounding blends. Luckily the website I got my Squadron Leader from has four promising sounding options, so I've ordered some samples of them to get me started. Here's what I ordered:

https://www.gqtobaccos.com/tobaccos/jf- ... que-loose/
https://www.gqtobaccos.com/pipe-tobacco ... ack-spice/
https://www.gqtobaccos.com/pipe-tobacco ... ark-flake/
https://www.gqtobaccos.com/pipe-tobacco ... ana-flake/

So a couple of ribbon cuts and a couple of flakes. Three with a little casing/topping, one without. Hopefully they're more style. The flakes will be an interesting challenge also.

Thanks again! I'll report back with my opinions.

You got some killer samples there. They will probably need some dry time (though I don't know how GQ keeps their bulks) but should be worth the effort

[Grimpeur]

@Dave , since you're in the UK, in keeping with Tsal's practical wisdom of trying blends readily available, might I recommend something like St.Bruno or Condor ready-rubbed? Mellow Virginia would be another good pick for a UK OTC.

Your memories of tobacco smelling rich and slightly sweet, plus the fact that St.Bruno was the best selling blend over there for a good number of years make it a good place to start.