Aromatic Smokers ... When You Finally Find The Specific Blend That Meets Your Flavor Profile

ghostsofpompeii

If I were to tell you there were well over one hundred pipe tobacco blends with the word vanilla as part of the product name you might think me mad. But I assure you it's true. And even more when you include those blends with vanilla as the predominant casing. Some claim to be heavily cased and flavorful appealing to the aromatic smoker, while other blends marketed for the more sophisticated palate of the Va-Per or English smoker looking for a little change-up might temper the packaging description suggesting the vanilla was applied with a light hand.

You could spent several months salary trying out all the blends in your quest for the ultimate vanilla. 

Same applies to aromatic flavors like chocolate, peach, cherry, rum, caramel, honey, maple, and other popular flavored tobaccos. But at some point in time that quest must come to an end otherwise you'll find yourself stocked with a cellar full of nearly indistinguishable vanilla blends, with scarcely any difference other than price. If a sweet heavily cased aromatic is your preference then an expensive tinned product isn't always the best choice. Try a cheaper bulk blend. After having gone through so many vanilla blends I finally settled on Sutliff "Vanilla Custard". Now if I want the rich sweet taste of a heavily cased vanilla blend it's my 'go to' tobacco and I've quit buying other vanilla blends. The same with chocolate. My quest for the ultimate chocolate blend has come to an end now that I've found Sutliff "Chocolate Mousse". Yet there are blends I'll try that tout the flavor of hot cocoa, which is quite different from the dark chocolate flavor of "Chocolate Mousse". I've also marked off my quest for a rum flavored tobacco once I discovered India Trading Company "Officer's Club". It's hand's down the best flavored rum blend I've smoked. So even if there may be a more flavorful blend out there which I haven't tried yet, I'm completely satisfied with "Officer's Club" and will look no further. I've narrowed my choice of maple flavored tobacco to Sutliff "Maple Walnut" and Sutliff "Rum And Maple" - but this one is still open for experimentation. I've yet to pin down the perfect fruit flavored tobaccos like Apple, Peach, Cherry or Berry. Although I've made a friend in Panama Jack's "Key Lime". And I've yet to find a suitable brandy, wine, or whiskey liquor flavored blend. So my quest for new blends is far from over, and fully expect to throw good money after bad buying new blends to add to my cellar in the future. But by marking off predominantly flavored vanilla, chocolate and rum blends has narrowed my search and should save me money in the process.  

By marking off vanilla, chocolate and rum doesn't mean I'll discontinue trying blends with varying combinations of those flavors in consort with other flavors. Many of my favorite Russ' Monthly blends like "Warm Up", "Candy Corn", and "Spring Break" include vanilla, honey, caramel, nougat, rum, and dark fruits for an altogether different flavor experience than a straight vanilla based blend. Vanilla and chocolate in combination with other flavors can mimic anything from marshmallow Smores, Caramel Corn, Snickerdoodle, Peppermint Paddy, and Almond Joy. So finding blends with a multi-layered flavor profile is much more appealing to me at this point than buying just another straight vanilla, chocolate, or rum blend.

By using my checklist approach and paring down your aromatic blends to a more manageable level you can continue to experiment with other flavor combinations without having a cellar full of similar tasting tobacco under a different name.     

motie2

@ghostsofpompeii -- You have been most helpful in having me focus on what I really wanted in a pipe tobacco. I had found Sutliff tinned Private Stock blends on my own, but you widened my vista, and introduced me to their bulk blends. (To say nothing of your creation of the Mrs. Hudson's Blend, for which act, alone, you get into heaven.) 

Thank you, sensei.

ghostsofpompeii

@motie2 I wonder if Saint Peter smokes a pipe?

motie2

@ghostsofpompeii -- YES!!!!! (proof follows)

ghostsofpompeii

Then I'm looking forward to eventually meeting everyone here at The Pipeline in person one day.

motie2

From your mouth to God's ear.

jim102864

@ghostsofpompeii

"I've narrowed my choice of maple flavored tobacco to Sutliff "Maple Walnut" and Sutliff "Rum And Maple" - but this one is still open for experimentation."

Wondering if you've tried Cornell & Diehl's Autumn Evening which is very much a cased maple auro and now part of my regular rotation.  So smooth.  So good.  Not overly cloying, but a pleasure.  Just a thought.

ghostsofpompeii

@Jim102864 Since I haven't pinned down my maple flavor I'll have to give it a try. I plan on making one more big order to P&C (provided what I want is in stock) so I'll probably add a tin of "Autumn Evening". If nothing else it has a great name.

motie2

I look forward to trying both the Maple Walnut and Rum and Maple from Sutliff. I tried the Sutliff Private Stock Maple Street at the end of last summer and was disappointed by the lack of flavor. I also rejected Autumn Evening; too much tobacco flavor / not enough maple, if that's what it's supposed to be.....

xDutchx

When I smoked my first few bowls of MacBaren HH Vintage Syrian, it became apparent to me that it had more flavor and complexity than any Latakia blend I had ever sampled. However, with the deeming regulations still a threat, in the long run I may have to settle for something different, created prior to 2007. I do agree that there are many bulk blends that are very close in flavor profile to tinned varieties by the same company, the tinned versions in some cases have several years of age on them. If you're planning on cellaring them in mason jars anyhow, a lot of money can be saved buying in bulk.

ghostsofpompeii

I'm still looking for the ultimate apple and peach flavored blend. Something that really screams APPLE and doesn't simply hint at it ... or in the case of most apple blends - doesn't even bother to give the illusion of apple. My MATCH blend of John Rolfe Peach brandy taste more like the wooden basket the pickers put the peaches in as they plucked them from the trees. As for the actual taste of peaches ... not a hint. And as for cherry blends ... well I'm almost afraid to continue my search. Everything taste like cough syrup.

motie2

@ghostsofpompeii -- So have you dismissed Sutliff's Apple as advertised in the new P&C catalog? And wasn't someone recommending a Peach Cobbler blend in one of these discussions?

ghostsofpompeii

I smoke Sutliff Apple - it's part of my normal rotation - and wrote a tobacco review on our review page. And although I enjoyed the smoke - found not a hint of apple flavor in the blend.

motie2

@ghostsofpompeii -- You wrote: <<And although I enjoyed the smoke - found not a hint of apple flavor in the blend.>>

I'm amazed. That's the first Sutliff failure of flavor I've heard of.... of course, you have had a wider experience of the brand. Anything else Sutliff that fails that I should know about?

ghostsofpompeii

@mote2 So far my only two complaints are with Apple ... not the flavor of the tobacco blends ... it's very flavorful like brown sugar and pie crust ... just not apple. And the other blend that disappointed me was Coconut Almond which have me a bad case of tongue bite. I still managed to use it as part of a blend with Chocolate Mousse for something tasting like an Almond Joy candy bar. So it didn't go to waste. But when smoking it by itself ... tongue bite city. 

motie2

@ghostsofpompeii -- Thanks for the heads up.

motie2

@ghostsofpompeii -- July 2017 you wrote: <<So far my only two complaints are with [Sutliff's] Apple ... not the flavor of the tobacco blends ... it's very flavorful like brown sugar and pie crust ... just not apple. >>

https://pappyjoesblog.com/apple-tobacco-eye-taste/

Woodsman

@ghostsofpompeii Nice article.

motie2

@ghostsofpompeii -- Going back to your post of July 2017 where you are looking for a strong peach flavor, if John Rolfe still around, it's an OTC with a  very strongl peach brandy flavor, but it bites like a piranha. It was the first pipe tobacco I ever smoked, because our organist/choirmaster smoked it.

http://www.tobaccoreviews.com/blend/671/lane-limited-john-rolfe
https://www.pipesandcigars.com/p/match-john-rolfe-blend-pipe-tobacco/1473327/

ghostsofpompeii

@motoe2 I found a Match version of John Rolfe Peach Brandy and can't get much of a peach flavor from it. But then again, it's a MATCH version. And although they couldn't get the peach flavor I remember ... they did manage to duplicate the vicious tongue burn.  

Kmhartle

@ghostsofpompeii  I'm not sure if you've tried the Brigadier Gettysburg, but it's a peach aro I keep in my rotation.

http://www.tobaccoreviews.com/blend/6783/brigadier-black-gettysburg

motie2

@ghostsofpompeii
What about Sutliff Taste of Summer blend?

motie2

@ghostsofpompeii -- There are also several companies' peach flavored blends in the most recent P&C catalog.

DavidR002

Does anyone have any  idea about how many different pipe tobaco blends there are. Just curious 

Kmhartle

@DavidR002 ~ There are over 7,000 tobacco blends reviewed on http://www.tobaccoreviews.com

So many blends, so little time. 

buflosab

Best Peach flavored blend I've had is Sutiff Taste Of Summer in the tin.

buflosab

I took one of the members suggestions about mixing Rum & Maple with some Autumn Evening and it turned out really good. I like Autumn Evening by itself ,the Rum&Maple added to the taste. Thank you the member that suggested this mixture.

jim102864

I've sort of "rediscovered" aro's as of late, and have been enjoying three of them in particular:  The Country Squire Parson's Blend; Cult Blood Red Moon and the one that got me back on the aro trail, CAO's Eileen's Dream.  Each one of them has the flavor, smokiness, and "thick" body/mouthfeel that I so enjoy.  It's a tough call, but Cult Blood Red Moon may be "the one", but I honestly need more time with it (and another round of Eileen's Dream which is very difficult to find these days) before I can make that call.

pwkarch

@ghostsofpompeii @motie2

I am amazed at how similar our choices in pipe tobacco (and music ghost) are similar. I thinks part of the overall joy in piping, in spite of the eventual overall cost, is the adventure in tobacco research. I have accumulated so many smaller Mason jars of various blends that I ordered to take for a taste drive. The result is many, many quart size jars of blends that passed my muster and are resting for future enjoyment (I hope and pray). Meanwhile, I will still go back and smoke some of the multiple small jarred tobaccos when I feel like something different.

I STILL love to get the P&C catalog to browse looking for something "new and different". I also cruise the tobacco vendors online to look for the same. I have a list of probably 50 or more tobaccos that "look and sound" interesting that I might take a couple of ounce investment at some point.

My problem is that I have so many cellared favorite blends I have a delemna everytime I want to pick something out to smoke. Some problem huh?

DavidR002

I have tried about 20 different aromatic blends. I found that grape is one the blends that truly taste like what is said, Grape. I will keep it in my rotation 

motie2

@DavidR002

C&D’s Captain Bob’s Blend, the ultimate grape blend.