I love flakes. I have to grab most of my daily smokes on the move - flakes are easy to transport, easy and quick to use, unmessy, and come in a variety of great blends that taste really good. What's not to like? Tongue bite, that's what.
I shared in a recent thread that I struggle with tongue bite with flakes and that got me thinking. Others don't seem to have this issue, so what was I doing wrong? Most of the time I used flakes my bowl ended up extremely hot and that heat overcooked the sugars in the tobacco, producing acid that bit me hard. I tried different packing methods, cadences, and pipes but no joy. Then I realised! I frequently smoke outdoors and I'd got into the habit of applying a lot of flame on the false and especially true lights. All of my efforts to avoid the acid through different packing and smoking techniques failed because I was falling at the first hurdle; I was not lighting the tobacco so much as incinerating it. The bowl is supposed to smoulder, not rage.
I've toned down the intensity of my lighting and now I enjoy my flakes again, with a totally different smoking experience. I had wondered where the depth of taste had gone in flakes like PS LNF, LTF, LBF, Dunhill DNR, and MacBaren ODF. I expected ODF to bite - MacBarens are known for it - but all of these were killing me and were flat. Now they taste superb and I get cool, pleasurable smokes rather than a lot of pain for relatively little gain. Fantastic! Can't wait to try the 'new' method with my non-flake blends to rediscover some of those, as well.
Bleeding obvious I know, but will hopefully help others with the same issue.
Andy
I shared in a recent thread that I struggle with tongue bite with flakes and that got me thinking. Others don't seem to have this issue, so what was I doing wrong? Most of the time I used flakes my bowl ended up extremely hot and that heat overcooked the sugars in the tobacco, producing acid that bit me hard. I tried different packing methods, cadences, and pipes but no joy. Then I realised! I frequently smoke outdoors and I'd got into the habit of applying a lot of flame on the false and especially true lights. All of my efforts to avoid the acid through different packing and smoking techniques failed because I was falling at the first hurdle; I was not lighting the tobacco so much as incinerating it. The bowl is supposed to smoulder, not rage.
I've toned down the intensity of my lighting and now I enjoy my flakes again, with a totally different smoking experience. I had wondered where the depth of taste had gone in flakes like PS LNF, LTF, LBF, Dunhill DNR, and MacBaren ODF. I expected ODF to bite - MacBarens are known for it - but all of these were killing me and were flat. Now they taste superb and I get cool, pleasurable smokes rather than a lot of pain for relatively little gain. Fantastic! Can't wait to try the 'new' method with my non-flake blends to rediscover some of those, as well.
Bleeding obvious I know, but will hopefully help others with the same issue.
Andy
