Fairly new to pipes and would like to develop an appreciation of what the major types of tobacco taste like and be able to diffentiate them in various blends. I welcome any input on which brands/blends best represent the main types of tobacco and components. My plan is to smoke each type exclusively for a while to zero in on the taste.

Which brand/blend would be the best example to get a good idea of what each should taste like-

Straight Virginia:
Perique:
Va/per:
Burley:
Latakia:
English:
Oriental:

Thanks for your help.

Maybe I already have some: the blends I currently have are Dunhill Mixture 965, Nightcap, Frog Morton on the Town, MacBaren Navy Flake, McClelland 5100, Lane 1Q (and some aromatics from an Altadis sampler that I'm staying away from for now).

BS (now there's a moniker for you!!!) you might check out the touchstone tobaccos at http://agingfaq.nocturne.org/touchstones.php He lists what many would agree are some of the "standards" in each category.

Natch

Your best straight pressed Virginia is Samuel Gawith Full Virginia Flake. Others will chime in with this one and that one, but FVF is the industry standard for maximum quality with minimal processing and added flavorings.

Your best, industry standard straight Virginia is SG Best Brown Flake. (NOT Gawith Hoggarth's version). Again, there are a lot of others, but many of these depend on additional processings and flavorings that move them off-center from straight Virginia by itself.

All Burlies are pretty heavily"cased" (flavored) to make them tasty. So which one you like is largely a matter of which flavoring(s) appeal to you.

VaPers are Virginias plus Perique. One excellent example in this genre is GL Pease' Fillmore. Escudo is heavier duty stuff, and there are any number of others. Perique, by itself, is just about un-smokable. It's a "condimental," like black pepper in cooking.

"English" tobaccos (and "Balkans") are comprised of several varieties of tobacco blended together.

Oriental tobaccos are numerous, and rarely (if ever) smoked straight.

Gentlemen, thanks for your response.
Heard a lot of good things about the blends you suggested Yak, I'll give them a try.
Great site Natch, I see I'm going to be buying a lot of presents for myself.