Tastes...

[Whalehead King]

Learning what a tobacco will be like from a review is like learning what a date will be like from a classified ad.



Note the cigar in that photo and love the one you're with.

[Whistlebritches]

I have much better luck pulling flavors out of cigars than baccy.Now whiskey.......I get flavors out the ying yang.I'm a much more experienced whisky drinker than smoker.

[Whalehead King]

I have much better luck pulling flavors out of cigars than baccy.Now whiskey.......I get flavors out the ying yang.I'm a much more experienced whisky drinker than smoker.

I find it curious all the attention put on teasing out distinct flavors and nuance out of anything. If I like something, I just like it. I don't feel an inclination to parse it down. I know this occupies some honorable people's free time. I have other things to think about when I'm smoking (or drinking) (or eating), though.

Unlike a professional tea taster, I have no training in what I'm talking about even if I were inclined to talk about flavor.



I'm gonna go out on a limb here and suggest that most people who write reviews about the taste of tobacco blends don't have professional training, either. And----most of the people who read the reviews don't have an understanding of the terms the untrained people are assigning to the flavors they are describing. There is no standard. It is all subjective. And it is all described and read in a mishmash haze of terms cribbed from wine reviews.

I'm not knocking the people who value tobacco reviews, either writing them or reading them. For those who enjoy writing reviews, I am sure it gives them pleasure to pay close attention to what they are experiencing as the bowl burns down and taking notes the whole way through. For those who enjoy reading these reviews, I agree that a certain kind of poetry attaches itself to the best ones. The review preview gives people something to look forward to, as they are on the hunt to detect what was described by the master reviewer. There are too many variables from bowl-to-bowl, to make these reviews relevant to me.

I am smoking in New Orleans where the humidity hovers around 100% and I rely on a trusted arsenal of ghosted pipes and I pay little attention to technique except to keep the bowl lit as I type this blog entry. https://www.labelleesplanade.com/blog/l ... w-orleans/

How does my experience compare to someone who has a dedicated VaPers pipe in Arizona smoking indoors and diligently using his tamper to keep the burn even, and he's video recording his every reaction? It doesn't compare. Two different people. Two different intentions. Two different smokes. Neither is better nor worse than the other. They are just different. They are what they are, the way every smoke is what it is, nothing more and nothing less. It is.

I have blends that I like but I like just about anything. Don't ask me for a recommendation. When I buy a new tobacco and I don't like it, I still smoke it. I work with it, one bowl after another until I smoke it in a way that works for me so that I like it. Like people, I've never met a tobacco I couldn't find something good in and work with. Then, like people, once I get to know and appreciate initially disagreeable tobaccos, they're gone. Fond memories follow.

Pipe smoking isn't in the reading about it or in the describing of it. Talking about pipe smoking is not like enjoying a good pipe. Pipe smoking should be all about the smoke. Nothing more and nothing less. The reward a packed pipe brings is in its smoking. A good tobacco should be a respite in the course of a harried day, a source of solace, a moment of time suspended on wisps of ether that drift and scatter before they dissipate to invisibility leaving only a lingering scent of something good that transpired and then expired in a hard bit of expended dottle. Such, my friends, is life. The sum of a good tobacco isn't earthy, it isn't hay, it isn't "baking bread" or cumin, "barn" or leather, top note, bottom note, undercurrent, tin note. Citrus, anise, pumice, horse; hickory, chicory, trickery---words, words, words.

Smoke. Enjoy the smoke. Don't analyze it. Enjoy it. Come back for more. The next bowl won't be the same as the last. That is what keeps us coming back.

[Whistlebritches]

I usually just sit and ponder the flavors I get while drinking or smoking........rarely do I share them in type.I enjoy smoking it different ways to add or reduce complexity........but it's all about me.I do enjoy reading other people's reviews.My thoughts on their reviews range from ,yea I get that to.......that sumbitch is more full of shit than a Christmas turkey.

[Fr_Tom]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and suggest that most people who write reviews about the taste of tobacco blends don't have professional training, either.

I have a lot of professional training, but none of it has anything to do with taste. I don't think I even have much of a palate really. I don't taste a lot of what seemingly reasonable people seem to find. Maybe years of hot sauce and Black Jack cigars have taken their toll.

[slowroll]

I'm probably in the camp of Fr_Tom. One of the reasons why I don't smoke subtle tobacco is that I need the flavors to hit me in the face.

[Wooda]

My taste buds are a mid-level ripoff of Mr. Kerry's. I taste what he tastes.

A lifetime ago I ate everything from rotten bananas to fresh dirt to be able to accurately grok my growing craft beer collection.

Young and stupid.

[Ruffinogold]

I have much better luck pulling flavors out of cigars than baccy.Now whiskey.......I get flavors out the ying yang.I'm a much more experienced whisky drinker than smoker.

I find it curious all the attention put on teasing out distinct flavors and nuance out of anything. If I like something, I just like it. I don't feel an inclination to parse it down. I know this occupies some honorable people's free time. I have other things to think about when I'm smoking (or drinking) (or eating), though.

Unlike a professional tea taster, I have no training in what I'm talking about even if I were inclined to talk about flavor.




If I may .................................
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and suggest that most people who write reviews about the taste of tobacco blends don't have professional training, either. And----most of the people who read the reviews don't have an understanding of the terms the untrained people are assigning to the flavors they are describing. There is no standard. It is all subjective. And it is all described and read in a mishmash haze of terms cribbed from wine reviews.

I'm not knocking the people who value tobacco reviews, either writing them or reading them. For those who enjoy writing reviews, I am sure it gives them pleasure to pay close attention to what they are experiencing as the bowl burns down and taking notes the whole way through. For those who enjoy reading these reviews, I agree that a certain kind of poetry attaches itself to the best ones. The review preview gives people something to look forward to, as they are on the hunt to detect what was described by the master reviewer. There are too many variables from bowl-to-bowl, to make these reviews relevant to me.

I am smoking in New Orleans where the humidity hovers around 100% and I rely on a trusted arsenal of ghosted pipes and I pay little attention to technique except to keep the bowl lit as I type this blog entry. https://www.labelleesplanade.com/blog/l ... w-orleans/

How does my experience compare to someone who has a dedicated VaPers pipe in Arizona smoking indoors and diligently using his tamper to keep the burn even, and he's video recording his every reaction? It doesn't compare. Two different people. Two different intentions. Two different smokes. Neither is better nor worse than the other. They are just different. They are what they are, the way every smoke is what it is, nothing more and nothing less. It is.

I have blends that I like but I like just about anything. Don't ask me for a recommendation. When I buy a new tobacco and I don't like it, I still smoke it. I work with it, one bowl after another until I smoke it in a way that works for me so that I like it. Like people, I've never met a tobacco I couldn't find something good in and work with. Then, like people, once I get to know and appreciate initially disagreeable tobaccos, they're gone. Fond memories follow.

Pipe smoking isn't in the reading about it or in the describing of it. Talking about pipe smoking is not like enjoying a good pipe. Pipe smoking should be all about the smoke. Nothing more and nothing less. The reward a packed pipe brings is in its smoking. A good tobacco should be a respite in the course of a harried day, a source of solace, a moment of time suspended on wisps of ether that drift and scatter before they dissipate to invisibility leaving only a lingering scent of something good that transpired and then expired in a hard bit of expended dottle. Such, my friends, is life. The sum of a good tobacco isn't earthy, it isn't hay, it isn't "baking bread" or cumin, "barn" or leather, top note, bottom note, undercurrent, tin note. Citrus, anise, pumice, horse; hickory, chicory, trickery---words, words, words.

Smoke. Enjoy the smoke. Don't analyze it. Enjoy it. Come back for more. The next bowl won't be the same as the last. That is what keeps us coming back.

[Whalehead King]

If I may .................................
[/quote]

Thanks, Ruff.