As a newbie and looking at tobacco either in tins or bulk and their prices. Is there any tobacco that you would advise new people to just steer clear from.
Bad Tobacco ?
- Thread starter Medy
- Start date
It really just depends. If you have experience with cigars, you may want to start off with one of the many latakia blends or Virginia/periques (VaPers). If you are/were a cigarette smoker, you may want to start with a straight Virginia.
The tradition is to start with an aromatic, but these can cause problems with newbies, because they expect flavor on the tongue, and they are really more of a smell based category. But, many say that the experience is on the tongue for them, but smell is directly linked to taste, so... YMMV. But, I would suggest waiting till you had cadence and all of the other variables of smoking down before venturing too heavily into aromatics.
Good all around starters are codger blends. These are lightly topped or cased blends of burley and Virginias, usually seen behind cash registers in grocers or pharmacies. Prince Albert, Sir Walter, or Carter Hall, might be good ones to get started with.
The tradition is to start with an aromatic, but these can cause problems with newbies, because they expect flavor on the tongue, and they are really more of a smell based category. But, many say that the experience is on the tongue for them, but smell is directly linked to taste, so... YMMV. But, I would suggest waiting till you had cadence and all of the other variables of smoking down before venturing too heavily into aromatics.
Good all around starters are codger blends. These are lightly topped or cased blends of burley and Virginias, usually seen behind cash registers in grocers or pharmacies. Prince Albert, Sir Walter, or Carter Hall, might be good ones to get started with.
I agree with the not aormatic advice. Its hard to get the dryness right when you are new and the stuff loves to bite. Im gonna have to disagree with codger blends being the place to start. The OP is in the US. He can get almost everything. A lot of those blends are not so hot. Yes they work but why not smoking something that is good? Life is short.
Now I do agree with the suggestion for type of tobacco (mild burley, lightly topped...virginia blends etc...But I think life is short and tobacco is cheap so smoke something likely to be good and representative of what good tobacco can be. Otherwise you end up with folks posting if they dislike burley becuase they had it in drug store blends. I was smoking such blends and until I had decent tobacco I thought I hated burley. Every cheap blend that had burley in it tasted like shreded cardboard.
New pipe smokers are probably better off steering away from flakes and plugs until they do some research and have some practice but a broken flake or other ribbon cut is not hard to manage. Id try an easy to burn lat, vaper, and burley blend. Grab a couple of ounces of bulk in several categories and smoke those a while and see what floats your boat.
Now I do agree with the suggestion for type of tobacco (mild burley, lightly topped...virginia blends etc...But I think life is short and tobacco is cheap so smoke something likely to be good and representative of what good tobacco can be. Otherwise you end up with folks posting if they dislike burley becuase they had it in drug store blends. I was smoking such blends and until I had decent tobacco I thought I hated burley. Every cheap blend that had burley in it tasted like shreded cardboard.
New pipe smokers are probably better off steering away from flakes and plugs until they do some research and have some practice but a broken flake or other ribbon cut is not hard to manage. Id try an easy to burn lat, vaper, and burley blend. Grab a couple of ounces of bulk in several categories and smoke those a while and see what floats your boat.
Russ’ candy cane cocoa was the most foul thing I have ever experienced.
I started on Virginias and aromatics, assuming that would be the genres I liked. They were, and still ate my favorite. Think of what you like, then go into it.
I started on Virginias and aromatics, assuming that would be the genres I liked. They were, and still ate my favorite. Think of what you like, then go into it.
Just sticking to the OP... are there any "bad" tobaccos to avoid... Tastes, like anything, depends on your own aesthetics. I would normally have just posted a few that I thought were so terrible that no one would smoke them, but we have a few on here that will like anything and take offence at slighting their beloved terrible blends. So... when someone lists one that they think no one would like, there will be bickering. And, as we see on another current thread, some people eat oysters and others think that is disgusting.
:::Cough cough::: Middleton's cherry will scorch your tongue and Mixture 79 is disgusting :::cough cough:::
:::Cough cough::: Middleton's cherry will scorch your tongue and Mixture 79 is disgusting :::cough cough:::
I would learn the categories. Buy some pure tobacco such as from CD their Burley Ribbon Cut, Izmir Turkish, Latakia, Granulated Perique ( 2oz tin only) and CD Low Country Natural Virginia. If you get an ounce of each you'll have spent less than 30 plus shipping. An ounce is about 7 bowls. Then smoke each and you'll get to understand them.
As far as format you can make ribbon cut out of anything. Plugs you slice like a ham on a deli slicer. Plugs are just leaves stacked and pressed so you have to slice through all the layers to get the flavors right. Those slices are just called flakes. Then take the flake and just run it between your hands until you get ribbons. If the flake is long you might cut in half first. Rope is same thing you just get round "coins" when you slice. Rub the same way. Later you can experiment with fold and stuff and other techniques.
As far as format you can make ribbon cut out of anything. Plugs you slice like a ham on a deli slicer. Plugs are just leaves stacked and pressed so you have to slice through all the layers to get the flavors right. Those slices are just called flakes. Then take the flake and just run it between your hands until you get ribbons. If the flake is long you might cut in half first. Rope is same thing you just get round "coins" when you slice. Rub the same way. Later you can experiment with fold and stuff and other techniques.
Actually, no. Maybe choose only a ribbon cut, to start. No idea what your tastes are. Grab a pouch of Carter Hall and tell what you dislike about it, if anything. A cacophony of expert advice will then ensue. Some of it might even be useful.
I'd steer clear of aromatics; they can be difficult to prepare and moreso to smoke. Try a variety of virginias/burley/light english blends is what I would recommend.
I think you ought to try everything you can get your hands on (samples, preferably) and develop your own opinions.
If you want to understand what makes champagne better than babycham, you've got to be familiar with both of them.
If you want to understand what makes champagne better than babycham, you've got to be familiar with both of them.
I’m thinking that maybe my question was a little confusing to some. I’m talking about brands of tobacco to stay away from. Like Smoker Friendly, or Finsbury being like less than 20$ for 12oz. On Payless pipes And cigars. As a newbie I don’t know if these are good tobaccos or not.
There are plenty of blends that I dislike, far far more than I do like.
Taste is subjective and shifts over time.
About the only tobacco I would avoid, unless it was the only tobacco available as a final smoke before execution, and maybe not even then, would be Borkum Riff. I not convinced that it’s even tobacco, more like dyed grass clippings scented with hobo scrapings.
As for Codger blends, they’re popular because they provide an easy pleasurable smoke. I’ll take Sir Walter Raleigh Aromatic over Balkan Sobranie hands down and I’ll tell you why. SWRA is a pleasant, well made, well balanced smoke with no pretense attached. The current BS is indeed bs. I smoked Balkan Sobranie and 759 when it was made by Sobranie Ltd, the real stuff, not this crap that smells and tastes like gasoline infused puppy farts. I smoked Dunhill blends made by Dunhill, not Sven, Ogden’s St Bruno, real St Bruno made by Brits, not Sven. I’ve smoked REAL Three Nuns, Real Capstan Blue, Garfield, Elephant & Castle, Craven Mixture, Escudo etc, the best of the best when it really was the best of the best, instead of what it is today, a name glued to a tin of “Whatsis”.
At least SWRA makes no such pretense, it’s just easy to smoke and tastes good.
I would also recommend checking out the Sutliff bulk offerings, good value, good quality. Nothing that’s going to be nirvana, but not much in current production is likely to offer that anyway. Also check out Sam Gawith and Gawith Hoggarth & Co for more interesting traditional British blends.
This is time to try out a wide variety to discover what you like.
Taste is subjective and shifts over time.
About the only tobacco I would avoid, unless it was the only tobacco available as a final smoke before execution, and maybe not even then, would be Borkum Riff. I not convinced that it’s even tobacco, more like dyed grass clippings scented with hobo scrapings.
As for Codger blends, they’re popular because they provide an easy pleasurable smoke. I’ll take Sir Walter Raleigh Aromatic over Balkan Sobranie hands down and I’ll tell you why. SWRA is a pleasant, well made, well balanced smoke with no pretense attached. The current BS is indeed bs. I smoked Balkan Sobranie and 759 when it was made by Sobranie Ltd, the real stuff, not this crap that smells and tastes like gasoline infused puppy farts. I smoked Dunhill blends made by Dunhill, not Sven, Ogden’s St Bruno, real St Bruno made by Brits, not Sven. I’ve smoked REAL Three Nuns, Real Capstan Blue, Garfield, Elephant & Castle, Craven Mixture, Escudo etc, the best of the best when it really was the best of the best, instead of what it is today, a name glued to a tin of “Whatsis”.
At least SWRA makes no such pretense, it’s just easy to smoke and tastes good.
I would also recommend checking out the Sutliff bulk offerings, good value, good quality. Nothing that’s going to be nirvana, but not much in current production is likely to offer that anyway. Also check out Sam Gawith and Gawith Hoggarth & Co for more interesting traditional British blends.
This is time to try out a wide variety to discover what you like.
Is there any place to get samples other than buying a whole tin of something?
I have hundreds of open tins and plenty of baggies. What you need is a handful of forum members to send you a "welcome to pipes" sampler selection.
I'm sorry, you are getting talked over. The one thing we love more than talking about what we like is talking about what we hate, haha.
@woodsroad may have some insight on those you mentioned. He recently did a taste test with his pipe club, of which I am anxious to see the results.
When I started, I bought a tin of Early Morning Pipe, C&D Bayou Morning and MacBaren Pure Virginia. That was a good intro to English, VaPer and Virginia. I later decided I wanted to try burley and took down a full bowl of Old Joe Krantz out of a Savinelli 616KS and had to lie down on the floor for about an hour and a half watching the ceiling spin. I now enjoy it in a much smaller straight apple and it is absolutely delicious, but not for the beginner. I would suggest going to the C&D page and filtering by strength. Otherwise, Early Morning Pipe is a great starting place. I never got into aromatics as I do not like artificial chemical flavoring, and they seem to burn very hot and create more steam and bite. Just my take and perhaps the opposite of others. I would rather have the real thing and detect natural flavors. If you want samples, Peretti sells by the ounce. I got 1 oz. of a bunch of their blends once, tried them all and then later bought the 8 oz. cans of my top 3-4.
Wrong venue for that, I'm thinkin'...no, wait--there's a lawyer from Missouri here that indulges in similar. (Poor guy. He can't afford no better none. Tsk, tsk.)