Ok I have tried several different tobaccos that I have seen recomended on here and other places. Here is what I have tried.
Blue Note
TG Irish Cream
TG Midnight Smoke
McClelland Black Woods Flake
Night Cap
Capt Black White
Capt Black Cherrie
Out of all of these I can't tell a difference in the way the smoke from any of them taste. Furthermore, I really can't smell those nice aromas from the secondary smoke that I smell when other guys smoke aromatics. I can smell it when I pass other guys in town smoking aromatics but all I smell from my own pipe is smoke.
I do tend to be a barbarian when it comes to the more cultural things in life but at this point I am thinking I have to be doing something wrong. Is it because I don't have my pipes completely broke in yet? My tobaccos are new so I doubt it is that they have gone bad.
Help
Ray
Am I doing somethign wrong?
Am I doing somethign wrong?
Ray Cover
School of Fine Art Engraving
School of Fine Art Engraving
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pierredekat
I think I touched on this in another post, but get your hands on a pipe that you can almost fit your thumb inside. At least 7/8 inch diameter bore, though 15/16 is better.
And you need to be able to almost breath through that thing. At least 1/8 inch draft hole, but 5/32 is a lot better. Unrestricted. No metal gismos in the stem, IOW.
Now then, assuming that you're a relative newcomer to pipes, the key to smoking a pipe is smoking it at just the right speed to keep the pipe lit and release all of those wonderful flavors without smoking it so hot that your pipe bowl becomes a catalytic converter, breaking down the flavors into their rawer components.
Follow?
Now try this: light that big, fat, honkin' pipe, puff it up to the point where you get that first really solid puff -- it'll almost taste like car exhaust. Now count one-thousand-one, one-thousand-two, one-thousand-three, one-thousand-four, one-thousand-five.
Take your next puff.
Count again: one-thousand-one, one-thousand-two, one-thousand-three, one-thousand-four, one-thousand-five.
Take another puff.
Work on that rhythm, until you reach the point where you no longer need to count. You'll just automatically know when to take your next puff.
If it's hot that day and/or the air is particularly dry, count to six or seven between puffs.
If it's cooler and/or more humid that day, you might get by only counting to three or four.
But five seconds between puffs, for me anyway, seems to be ideal, at room temperature and with a moderate humidity level.
Your mileage may vary.
Seems like a royal pain, but trust me, it should help you considerably to see what you've apparently been missing out on.
Later, once you "get the rhythm", you won't need to count it off anymore. But sometimes I still find myself reverting back to that counting method on days where I'm really preoccupied to the point where my rhythm flies out the window.
Cheers.
And you need to be able to almost breath through that thing. At least 1/8 inch draft hole, but 5/32 is a lot better. Unrestricted. No metal gismos in the stem, IOW.
Now then, assuming that you're a relative newcomer to pipes, the key to smoking a pipe is smoking it at just the right speed to keep the pipe lit and release all of those wonderful flavors without smoking it so hot that your pipe bowl becomes a catalytic converter, breaking down the flavors into their rawer components.
Follow?
Now try this: light that big, fat, honkin' pipe, puff it up to the point where you get that first really solid puff -- it'll almost taste like car exhaust. Now count one-thousand-one, one-thousand-two, one-thousand-three, one-thousand-four, one-thousand-five.
Take your next puff.
Count again: one-thousand-one, one-thousand-two, one-thousand-three, one-thousand-four, one-thousand-five.
Take another puff.
Work on that rhythm, until you reach the point where you no longer need to count. You'll just automatically know when to take your next puff.
If it's hot that day and/or the air is particularly dry, count to six or seven between puffs.
If it's cooler and/or more humid that day, you might get by only counting to three or four.
But five seconds between puffs, for me anyway, seems to be ideal, at room temperature and with a moderate humidity level.
Your mileage may vary.
Seems like a royal pain, but trust me, it should help you considerably to see what you've apparently been missing out on.
Later, once you "get the rhythm", you won't need to count it off anymore. But sometimes I still find myself reverting back to that counting method on days where I'm really preoccupied to the point where my rhythm flies out the window.
Cheers.
Thanks for that.
An excuse to buy/make another pipe or two.
I measured all my bowls and every pipe I have has a 3/4" chamber. I have a meershaum, three Jobeys, a Danish freehand and a churchwarden they all are 3/4".
I will have to go shopping for a bigger pipe and I will try to slow down, When I smoke the outside of the bowl gets warm. Not really hot but warm so I may be smoking them too hot. Most of them are just now starting to build cake too so I am fairly new to this.
Is there a tobacco that would work well in the smaller 3/4" chambers on my current pipes?
Again thanks for the help.
Ray
An excuse to buy/make another pipe or two.
I measured all my bowls and every pipe I have has a 3/4" chamber. I have a meershaum, three Jobeys, a Danish freehand and a churchwarden they all are 3/4".
I will have to go shopping for a bigger pipe and I will try to slow down, When I smoke the outside of the bowl gets warm. Not really hot but warm so I may be smoking them too hot. Most of them are just now starting to build cake too so I am fairly new to this.
Is there a tobacco that would work well in the smaller 3/4" chambers on my current pipes?
Again thanks for the help.
Ray
Ray Cover
School of Fine Art Engraving
School of Fine Art Engraving
You probably already know this, but it bears mentioning.
You want to "reserve" particular pipes for aromatics and smoke only those type blends in
them. Likewise, English blends in pipes dedicated to only English mixtures.
This eliminates the difficulties that arise from the "cross contamination" of these very
different family of flavors.
Pipes pick up a flavor or "coloration" from a particular type of tobacco.
If you taste no difference between Irish Cream and Night Cap, then something rather
extreme is going on. That is, assuming your sense of taste and smell is pretty normal.
I ran across a guy @ my local cigar shop that couldn't taste the difference between a
Macanudo and a very strong Comacho. That guy just had no ability to taste tobaccos.
HTH and good luck.
Best,
Steven Magruder Morrisette
You want to "reserve" particular pipes for aromatics and smoke only those type blends in
them. Likewise, English blends in pipes dedicated to only English mixtures.
This eliminates the difficulties that arise from the "cross contamination" of these very
different family of flavors.
Pipes pick up a flavor or "coloration" from a particular type of tobacco.
If you taste no difference between Irish Cream and Night Cap, then something rather
extreme is going on. That is, assuming your sense of taste and smell is pretty normal.
I ran across a guy @ my local cigar shop that couldn't taste the difference between a
Macanudo and a very strong Comacho. That guy just had no ability to taste tobaccos.
HTH and good luck.
Best,
Steven Magruder Morrisette
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pierredekat
Steven makes a good point about dedicating particular pipes for particular tobaccos.
I just tried Dunhill Nightcap yesterday, and it's taken me three bowls of my regular tobacco to get rid of the stank.
No it was really nice tobacco, very exotic to my taste buds. I found myself transported back to Palm Sunday mass in the Catholic Church with the smell of frankincense in the air.
Either that or the herb Rosemary. I was getting that, as well.
Exotic to my taste buds, but yeah, it will totally take, like, three bowls of one kind of tobacco to drive out the taste of another tobacco.
As far as which tobaccos to smoke in a 3/4 inch bowl, I would definitely stick to finer cut tobaccos. Maybe some of your moister tobacco so it burns cooler.
Just keep experimenting, I guess, till you find some combinations of pipes and tobacco that work well together.
But definitely get your hands on at least one big honkin' pipe and give it a try.
I just tried Dunhill Nightcap yesterday, and it's taken me three bowls of my regular tobacco to get rid of the stank.
No it was really nice tobacco, very exotic to my taste buds. I found myself transported back to Palm Sunday mass in the Catholic Church with the smell of frankincense in the air.
Either that or the herb Rosemary. I was getting that, as well.
Exotic to my taste buds, but yeah, it will totally take, like, three bowls of one kind of tobacco to drive out the taste of another tobacco.
As far as which tobaccos to smoke in a 3/4 inch bowl, I would definitely stick to finer cut tobaccos. Maybe some of your moister tobacco so it burns cooler.
Just keep experimenting, I guess, till you find some combinations of pipes and tobacco that work well together.
But definitely get your hands on at least one big honkin' pipe and give it a try.