Differences Between Pipes. Eye Opener!

rdavid · Sep 29, 2018

Well, in my quest to continue learning and experimenting, I’ve learned a valuable lesson today.
Yesterday, I recived a tin of the famed Black Frigate. I was very excited to try it and loaded it up into one of my well broken in Stanwells used only for English blends.
Tin note was very pleasant and very rummy as you all know. Unfortunately my first bowl was a huge disappointment... Definitely a stronger tasting blend but it was very ashy and biting like crazy. I slowed way down to tiny sips and was able to start getting a feel for the different components. Guessing it’s mostly Virginia up front as I could barely make out the Latakia. Rum topping was definitely present and in just the right amount but the rest was just a mess. Anyway, overall I was really disappointed. I did finish the bowl... barely.
Then tonight. I was really bothered by the first bowl experience so I gave it another try but this time in a lightly used MM cob. WOW! What the heck? This was a completely different experience and it was a beautiful thing. I just can’t fathom what a difference it made from one pipe to another. It was a much cooler and smoother experience and the flavors were all there. Now I understand why this blend is so popular. Consider me hooked.
Guess I need to try Escudo again in a different pipe as my first bowl was terrible also.
P.S. I’m very meticulous about cleaning and rotating my briars. I keep aromatic pipes separate from the English pipes also. Anyway, the learning continues. Thanks for reading.

techie · Sep 29, 2018

Interesting! I'm going to try this too with several blends, starting with Black Frigate, which I had a good experience with but don't remember which pipe I used. But now I have to see if I experience the difference as you did.

redone · Sep 29, 2018

I’m a newb and one of my experiences a couple of weeks ago was smoking one of my favorites, Marlin Flake, and not enjoying any flavor. Figured out it was not the pipe but that I had eaten spicy food for dinner and couldn’t “taste” the tobacco flavors. Lesson learned.

rdavid · Sep 29, 2018

Tomorrow I’ll go back to that same briar to see if this is actually the case but the difference with the cob was astounding.

thehappypiper · Sep 30, 2018

EMP tastes totally different in the three pipes I have smoked it in. It really doesn't taste like the same blend at all.

saltedplug · Sep 30, 2018

Although I found differences between the same blend in cob vs. briar, it was never enough to make me feel that the similarities were not far greater. Thus I am a proponent of the "all pipes smoke the same," which claim is a vast irritant to some.
How unfortunate.

thehappypiper · Sep 30, 2018

Not disputing your claim, neither am I in the least irritated. But I am wondering if something about your smoking habits makes this the case?

mikefu · Sep 30, 2018

There are also differing palates to take into account. Some smokers taste more than others, and the subtle nuances that are brought out by a specific pipe may simply go unnoticed by some. It’s really nothing to debate, but rather to experience, or not, as the case may be. In my experience, Black Frigate is definitely a pipe-preferential blend.

bluto · Sep 30, 2018

Then tonight

Consider it is not always a 1 to 1 experiment when switching pipes , also you have different times of day , location , packing , drying etc all variables to influence the smoke .

Chasing Embers · Sep 30, 2018

"all pipes smoke the same"

Same here.

saltedplug · Sep 30, 2018

My habit has become not smoking for almost six months, this not withstanding that when I smoked technique and palate become habits, as they do for everyone, that swallowed up the tie between practice and result. But as the differences between pipes would seem glaring or at least readily apparent, I'm not confident that any unconsciousness could produce the estimation that pipes more or less smoke the same, which nonetheless remains a subjective and thus unprovable assertion.
One's idiosyncratic mood produces the desire to smoke, which colors the multiple conditionings of pipe preference/selection through tobacco selection and packing into technique, and ending in the palate, tastebuds to semantic memory to final taste. I don't believe there is a way to untangle all of this to say "oh, your packing or your pipe or your wrongly stored semantic memories occluded your palate, because of course there is a critical difference between a cob and a Castello," which is no more provable than the converse that they don't.
Thus this discussion is haunted by the inability to be brought to a meaningful, agreeable close, searching for certainty in what remains opinions, some of which can be stated by scientific laws. But as I can't taste what you taste, and as I can't untangle the web of your conditioning, though those laws are withstanding, I cannot speak to your experience.

bluto · Sep 30, 2018

I can't taste what you taste

Sure you can , we can all identify salty , sweet , sour , bitter..
I think you miss something in general , pipe smokers can usually gravitate towards a good quality tobacco or a pipe with a fine draw , hence the discussion on these here forums most of which is advice on what stinkers to avoid . So , yah , subjectivity is about individual tastes and it's not open to argument because there is no reference point . However in general and relative terms we can assimilate , the result is refining each other's experience in the collective ..
Beam me up Scotty

Chasing Embers · Sep 30, 2018

You forgot umami.

warren · Sep 30, 2018

Thus I am a proponent of the "all pipes smoke the same," which claim is a vast irritant to some.

One again I find myself in agreement.

Sure you can , we can all identify salty , sweet , sour , bitter..

And, once again I disagree. Not all of us, especially those of us with a bit of age, are blessed with fully functioning senses. Nasal operations, aged taste buds, etc. all effect our abilities. Just as many have imperfect seeing, hearing, sense of touch, etc. not all are created equal, physically. I know must wear reading glasses at times.
As to the OP, I have worked many years to have a bunch of pipes which smoke similarly if ... my packing is correct, the blend is optimal, and my mind in the correct place. I sense a difference between meers and briar but, not between corn and briar if the pipes are broken in and again, I packed them correctly with a properly prepared blend. But, again I iterate, my palate is not what it was seventy years ago. None of me is!

peckinpahhombre · Sep 30, 2018

One other factor - I find that how moist or dry the tobacco is can fairly dramatically alter the taste profil of the blend. Not sure if that explains the difference here, but thought I would mention it.
I also do firmly believe that the bowl shape and size can impact how the blend tastes, At least that has been my experience.

bluto · Sep 30, 2018

not all are created equal, physically

Exactly .
Salted plug points this out , hence individual tastes are always unique .
We also have an opportunity to collect all those experiences and process them in an expert system , namely the individual. Collecting all the data points between anomalous , outliers to those with acute senses and tastes, the result is the white noise , a full spectrum .

bluto · Sep 30, 2018

Hey peck , there is a scene in a movie I'm thinking of , where the main character is eating rolls in a high end restaurant .
He explains how the bread does not bake the same out west since the water is too alkaline , the softer water supply in the east , makes for better bread.
Similarly , brewing beer in high altitude , Denver for example , makes for a different brew than sea level .
My point is , there are tons of variables , maybe too many.

unkleyoda · Sep 30, 2018

I’ve experienced this phenomenon too. When I had this happen to me, I deep cleaned the pipe with Everclear®. After a deep clean, the flavor came back in line with other pipes.

saltedplug · Sep 30, 2018

My point is , there are tons of variables , maybe too many.

Yes!
To refocus, I'm not posting about difference but about sufficient difference to constitute "better" or "worse."
For example, many cobs have that hideous wood insert into the bowl that moves the chamber draft point somewhere near the chamber's bottom middle. Briar pipes of course draft from the bottom edge. This has to affect taste, I would think, but I never tasted a difference large enough to affect tastes or form a thought of better or worse.

bluto · Sep 30, 2018

As an aside , this discussion reminds me of those pipe tobacco reviews that read something like ... ‘ I found a twig in the tin , I’m giving this tobacco a 1 star rating ‘
So , out of 1000s of tins produced in that batch ! One lucky reviewer finds a twig ?
Hmmm..
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