Help. Be my taste buds! What should I be tasting in my Newminster #17?

For what it's worth:

Don't take that article as gospel. There are a few fact-like things there that I believe are wrong, and many subjective things that are inconsistent with general consensus elsewhere (including articles by trusted industry experts, and my own experience). Basically as I read it I was like "WTF?" a few times. I wonder if maybe some of it might have been from a book he read that was written 100 years ago or something.

Allow me to point out a few things...

  • I question if Virginia is "About 60% of the American tobacco crop" or as popular as it says; I think Burley has that position.

  • Not an inaccuracy, but in listing classic Burley examples, a few were conspicuously absent: Prince Albert, Sir Walter Raleigh, Carter Hall.

  • Latakia is no longer from Syria at all, unfortunately. There is an existing stock of Syrian Latakia in warehouses slowly being used up (or, in one case, a warehouse full of it was lost to fire).

  • False statement about Latakia: "burns and tends to dry out your mouth and throat". That statement applies to Virginia. Latakia is one of the most gentle types; a noob puffing like a freight train on a heavily Latakia blend backed up by Orientals is likely to survive with his tongue intact, whereas a straight Virginia requires care even for the experienced smoker.

  • Potentially confusing bit about Latakia: While it may be possible that the peasant farmers used camel dung for cooking/heating, camel dung is not used in the production of Latakia. It is not said there but possibly implied and should have been clarified.

  • Conspicuously absent from Perique description: Has a taste/feel similar to black table pepper. Also like black pepper, in very small amounts you'll never notice it, instead it contributes to a general flavor; but in larger amounts you definitely notice it on its own.

  • "Havana" -- I have not seen that word used in descriptions of blends; they say "cigar leaf" when cigar tobacco is included. (Side note: I find it weird that so much specificity is used in naming other component tobaccos in pipe blends, but "cigar leaf" could mean many different varieties.)

  • Cavendish, AFAIK, is almost always made from Burley (though the Cavendish in Newminster #17 is indeed made from Virginia)

/r/PipeTobacco Thread