Breaking in a Pipe with Orientals?

lincolnsbark · Jan 15, 2014

Hello all, I will be breaking in a new pipe in the next week or so and am thinking about dedicating this pipe to orientals. I have a new tin of Black House that I have been saving for this pipe but in some recent research I stumbled on how it may ghost a pipe. My question is therefore is it stupid to break a pipe in with Black House if I plan to use this pipe for orientals? I already have a few pipes dedicated to English, VA, and Aro based blends and want to venture more into orientals.

jgriff · Jan 15, 2014

Latakia has a pretty strong ghost. While it compliments orientals well, it will bring its own flavor into the mix. I would suggest that if you plan on smoking something specific in the pipe, then you should just break it in with it.

rmbittner · Jan 15, 2014

"My question is therefore is it stupid to break a pipe in with Black House if I plan to use this pipe for orientals?"
I would say yes. Not "stupid," exactly; after all, you can burn away the Black House remnants over time. But I think you'd be better off leaning toward a blend that is much more oriental-forward or more traditionally Balkan in character.
I'd suggest Presbyterian Mixture, Rattray's Red Rapparee, McConnell's Oriental, and Pease's Charing Cross as better alternatives.
Bob

northernneil · Jan 15, 2014

Some people are more sensitive to ghosting than others. If you are concerned about ghosting, a strong latakia blend might not be the best choice to break in a new pipe. Personally, I try to break new pipes in using lighter ribbon cut tobaccos like straight VA, VA/BUR's and Oriental Mixtures. I find that if these tobacco's don't work well in a pipe, a stronger tobacco, like a Lat forward English Blend, will cover any ghost much easier than the reverse.

lochinvar · Jan 17, 2014

If you plan on dedicating to Orientals, break it in with them. The Grand Oriental line would be great for this. Pipes that you have broken in as Virginia or Burley pipes will make the switch to Oriental no problem, but I'm not as sure about a pipe that had been a VaPer pipe (some of my friends have some downright funkadelic perique pipes tat I think would make burning hay taste like perique). IF it doesn't perform to expectation with the Orientals, move it up the line to English, Scottish or Balkan.
When I'm breaking in a new pipe, even if I think I want it to be an English dedicated pipe, I usually start out with Virginia to see if it likes them better. If I started out with English and it fell flat, its harder to move down to Virginia...or at least more cleaning and longer to ghost bust.

mso489 · Jan 17, 2014

If you plan to smoke Orientals in the pipe, break it in with Orientals. If for some reason

you don't want to do that -- and I can't think why not -- break it in with something neutral

like Carter Hall.

zekest · Jan 17, 2014

I would be inclined to take mso489's sage advice.

weezell · Jan 17, 2014

I would be inclined to take mso489's sage advice.

For Gods sake do not break it in with sage, or any other herb! That is crazy talk :crazy: :rofl: ...

mirain · Jan 18, 2014

I'd suggest McClelland's 2045. It's a delicious bulk blend. In addition, #2040 (Cyprian Mixture) is a blend I'm liking a lot right now. The latakia content is relatively low giving the blend a broad base while allowing the Orientals to shine.

mirain · Jan 18, 2014

+1 lochinvar - Excellent series to explore.

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