Its been a long road to get to the point I am today.
Started pipes when 11 years old. Just occasional then and looking for the nicotine hit probably. It was a sort lived affair as an 11 year old pipe smoker is an oddity. Started back up at 35 years, but only for a short time as even a 35 year old piper was an oddity where I lived.
Now I started at 60 once again. Its different this time.
Back in June, got pipe and Prince Albert. Had a good 2 weeks. Just a no name briar and one brand.
Then in July, tried aromatics from local store. Had a good few days, but tongue bite starting to become the norm.
August brought several cobs and other briars from Dr. Grabow. Tried more varieties of drug store tobaccos. Tongue bit raging... (aromatics???)
Sept through Oct brought on so much tongue pain that I considered stopping. Started cellaring many brands. Up to 20 or so.
Thanksgiving break. Stopped smoking for a week. When I restarted, I had better luck with the bite. I think I needed to heal.
December. I now can control the burn on any tobacco, have the perfect white ash at end with no dopple. I think I learned on how to enjoy the natural taste and stop looking to taste the topping. Chasing that topping flavor is what was causing the bite all along. Now I can just enjoy the tobacco flavors. I relight instead of forcing the flame continuously. Tried latikia and now have a collection of that in jars as well.
It can be a steep learning curve. I feel I broke out of beginner into intermediate.
PS, many of my improvements came from reading this forum. Thanks all.
Started pipes when 11 years old. Just occasional then and looking for the nicotine hit probably. It was a sort lived affair as an 11 year old pipe smoker is an oddity. Started back up at 35 years, but only for a short time as even a 35 year old piper was an oddity where I lived.
Now I started at 60 once again. Its different this time.
Back in June, got pipe and Prince Albert. Had a good 2 weeks. Just a no name briar and one brand.
Then in July, tried aromatics from local store. Had a good few days, but tongue bite starting to become the norm.
August brought several cobs and other briars from Dr. Grabow. Tried more varieties of drug store tobaccos. Tongue bit raging... (aromatics???)
Sept through Oct brought on so much tongue pain that I considered stopping. Started cellaring many brands. Up to 20 or so.
Thanksgiving break. Stopped smoking for a week. When I restarted, I had better luck with the bite. I think I needed to heal.
December. I now can control the burn on any tobacco, have the perfect white ash at end with no dopple. I think I learned on how to enjoy the natural taste and stop looking to taste the topping. Chasing that topping flavor is what was causing the bite all along. Now I can just enjoy the tobacco flavors. I relight instead of forcing the flame continuously. Tried latikia and now have a collection of that in jars as well.
It can be a steep learning curve. I feel I broke out of beginner into intermediate.
PS, many of my improvements came from reading this forum. Thanks all.
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