Palate Changes in Three Years

[Casual]

Here is my progression over the last three years:

Month 1: Why doesn’t this 1-Q taste like cookies?

Month 3: Wow! Englishes are all I need because they don’t taste like cigarettes!

Month 6: Virginias are just Canadian Cigarettes.

Month : This Dark Fired stuff is so incredibly tasty, why isn’t it in every blend?

Month 12: Why is this Dark Fired stuff in almost every blend? Geez.

Month 15: I can finally enjoy the tobacco and the topping in Mac Baren blends like Mixture Scottish.

Month 18: I think I can taste nuts in this toasted burley!

Month 24: OTC burley (with coffee) was always brilliant! The rest of it is all unnecessary nonsense.

Month 27: This Full Virginia Flake doesn’t taste like cigarettes. Hmm.

Month 30: I could just survive on Virginia flakes of different kinds.

Month 36: I had to layer a bowl with two different kinds of Virginia flakes in to finish two jars, and could taste when the ember transitioned from one to the next.

I can taste the “lead component” in a JimInks review, and get some inkling of the “secondary players”, but I figure it’ll take a few more years to detect the stuff that’s listed as a “condiment.”

But I still don’t get Perique. Too tingly for my retrohale.

 

[Ahi Ka]

One of the best posts I’ve seen documenting the change. Chur bro

 

[Servant King]

Yep, I'll second that. Very good and very detailed. I've also been smoking a pipe for exactly three years. My progression is like yours, except exclude everything but months 1, 15 and 18, and add Month 24: Just smoked a sixteenth of a bowl of Sutliff 515 RC-1, and now I want to kill myself. ?

Edit: I still want to kill myself I no longer want to kill myself, but that stuff should be banned by executive order or something.

 

[OzPiper]

My progression in 3 years:

Started off with a Duty Free tin of Peterson's Connoisseur Blend. Still one of my favourite aromatic blends

Given a few generous samples of English and oriental Blends and loving them straight off. Smoked pretty much nothing else for the next 12-18 months

18 months ago decided to "expand my horizon" into Virginias and Vapers.
I found my first forays into straight "bright" Virginias disappointing - too "cigarette like". I am just starting to get the more subtle nuances of straight Virginias and enjoying them more.

I am now trying Burleys and OTC blends eg Amphora Full Aroma, in the hope that my wife will complain less about the smell - even though I only smoke outdoors. ?

 

[Grangerous]

I smoke other blends and can enjoy them only to realize how tasty Granger is for me. All others serve to reset my palette for my beloved Kentucky burley scraps.

 

[brian64]

Only one place left to go:

But I still don’t get Perique. Too tingly for my retrohale.

Then you will have arrived...Perique is the final destination. You gotta clear out those sinuses.

Just don't make the mistake I did and get hooked on it while you still have a lot of Latakia blends laying around. I probably only have a bowl or two a month of those now.

 

[Casual]

Perique is the final destination. You gotta clear out those sinuses.

At least the Virginia lovers made their pitch with nice things like sweetness and subtlety. Perique‘s pitch is … figgy fisherman’s friend? Maybe on a dare someday I’ll try a Perique heavy blend just to see.

Just don't make the mistake I did and get hooked on it while you still have a lot of Latakia blends laying around. I probably only have a bowl or two a month of those now.

Yes, same here. I love all my children, but some spend more time in a bin at the back of the cellar than others.

 

[OzPiper]

Only one place left to go:
..Perique is the final destination. You gotta clear out those sinuses.

I ordered some tobacco online recently including a quantity of Perique (for blending) only to be contacted by the tobacconist within a few minutes of the order going in.

He wanted to be sure I was not intending to smoke the Perique straight.

I quickly thanked him for his concern and assured him that I fully intend to use the Perique (very) judiciously.

 

[brian64]

I ordered some tobacco online recently including a quantity of Perique (for blending) only to be contacted by the tobacconist within a few minutes of the order going in.

He wanted to be sure I was not intending to smoke the Perique straight.

I quickly thanked him for his concern and assured him that I fully intend to use the Perique (very) judiciously.

Now the only thing to do is load a full bowl of that stuff straight as soon as you get it and fire it up.

 

[Ahi Ka]

Now the only thing to do is load a full bowl of that stuff straight as soon as you get it and fire it up.

I was about to say the same thing. C’mon Ray, don’t be a sissy. Besides straight perique may be the only blend to over power your wife’s cod compost on the rose beds

 

[OzPiper]

I was about to say the same thing. C’mon Ray, don’t be a sissy. Besides straight perique may be the only blend to over power your wife’s cod compost on the rose beds

Absolutely no wish to repeat 4hr sinus surgery ?

 

[Chasing Embers]

He wanted to be sure I was not intending to smoke the Perique straight.

It's easier to smoke straight than blended. Much of the spiciness comes from it's interaction with other tobaccos in a blend.

 

[OzPiper]

It's easier to smoke straight than blended. Much of the spiciness comes from it's interaction with other tobaccos in a blend.

I got some C&D red Virginia as well.

Going to try that on its own and then blended with the Perique in different proportions.

I also have quite a light Virginias and intend making several blends to see if I can understand the contribution each makes to the whole.

Always mindful of course that "the whole is often more than the sum of its parts".

But in the meantime I have NO plans to give up my daytime job. ?

 

[Chasing Embers]

I got some C&D red Virginia as well.

Going to try that on its own and then blended with the Perique in different proportions.

I also have quite a light Virginias and intend making several blends to see if I can understand the contribution each makes to the whole.

Always mindful of course that "the whole is often more than the sum of its parts".

But in the meantime I have NO plans to give up my daytime job. ?

I like C&D's granulated perique all by itself but strangely is very good blended with Autumn Evening.

 

[OzPiper]

I like C&D's granulated perique all by itself but strangely is very good blended with Autumn Evening.

@JimInks ability to pick out the nuances of the different components of a blend is most impressive.

In wine tasting one follows a similar approach in analysing the different flavour components.

Being a relative newcomer back to pipe smoking, I thought it's time to take a bit more of an analytical approach. So far it has been "I like this blend or I don't like that one", and not really getting down to the why ?
I suppose subconsciously I didn't want pipe smoking to become too anal an activity. ?

 

[brian64]

It's easier to smoke straight than blended. Much of the spiciness comes from it's interaction with other tobaccos in a blend.

That's interesting, I didn't know that...I've never smoked it straight.

 

[Casual]

That's interesting, I didn't know that...I've never smoked it straight.

And hot sauce loses its bite if you chug the whole bottle. Trust me!

 

[OzPiper]

And hot sauce loses its bite if you chug the whole bottle. Trust me!

That's only because you've nuked all your taste receptors ?

I remember being told that pain was not necessarily a bad thing. It warns you against harmful activities/ behaviour. If you felt pain, it meant that your nerves were still intact. The absence of pain meant that your nerves were no longer functional.

 

[Skapie]

Outstanding summary.

I knew something was changing for me when I had an aro and found it too sweet. Before, I just tasted smoke.

 

[brian64]

And hot sauce loses its bite if you chug the whole bottle. Trust me!

It didn't even occur to me that Embers may have been joking. I guess I'll have to try a bowl of straight perique one of these days and find out.