Credit/blame for this post goes to my tweeps @dpatrick1a and @BOTSryan
Bacon is one of the three tastiest items available for oral pleasure (one of the other two being pipe tobacco, of course). Most everyone loves bacon, a decadent, sinful slice of savory pleasure.
This lust for the king of pork products has led some inventive pipe smokers to pine for a bacon-flavored aromatic pipe tobacco. Like relaxing with a bowl of, say, whiskey cavendish at the end of a long day, wouldn't it rock to have a bacon blend available as an option?
Yes, it would. But I don't think it's gonna happen.
Most pipe tobacco blends are aromatic, and these have, as a vast rule, a sweet flavor. Aromatic pipe tobaccos are in one of three broad flavor groups: fruit (cherry, apple, raspberry), liquor (above-mentioned whiskey, rum, bourbon) or "dessert" flavors like vanilla, chocolate and cookie dough.
You may say that English blends can be called savory; I agree somewhat, but components of non-aromatic blends have their very own "pipe-tobaccoy" flavor--Latakia is smoky, Perique has its sour tang, and Virginias have their own woodsy glide. But they don't taste like something else; a solid English blend can be as full as a steak, but there is no "steaky," meaty flavor.
Given these facts, I think creating a good bacon blend is almost impossible. The best option would be to just take a bacon-flavored liquid topping and sprinkle it over Burley, but there is no such topping (no, liquid smoke stuff isn't bacon-flavored). Barring that, as Ryan from Black Ops Tobacco has postulated, a mix of Latakia and maple cavendish (smoky, maple bacon) may come close...but the pork, alas, would not be in evidence.
I might try to make a Bloody Mary-flavored blend, with a bacon as an accent flavor. Or a bacon-lettuce-tomato sandwich blend, something...but now we're getting a bit silly.
In the end, certain items are their own "thing." Pipe tobacco is pipe tobacco, and bacon is bacon, irreducible, delicious and unique.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm hungry.
Twitter: @thepipebit
