Tasting your tobacco

One of the key components to my tobacco taste enjoyment has to do with what I am drinking while I am smoking. My personal preference is, and has been for a very long time, tea. Usually hot, sometimes iced, and often with just a bit of sugar. Evidently, the pH of my mouth along with the pH of many tobaccos I smoke works very well with the complimentary & cleansing attributes of most black teas. Having a sip of tea every few puffs really increases my ability to taste the blend and even to separate out the component tobaccos.
I've heard other pipe & cigar smokers share similar thoughts about wine, beer, water, soda water and even diet coke! None of these seem to increase my enjoyment at near the level tea does.
After the above, I also notice that what I have eaten prior to smoking can really have an effect on which taste spectrum seems to dominate. (Sweet, bittier, tangy, rich, leathery etc.)
Third, I would say smoking tempo (puffing fast or sipping slowly) can really change the taste characteristics of a blend. Experimentation will begin to teach you some patterns or tobacco/tempo combinations.
Hope this helps!

I exhale through my nose. You don't have to inhale the smoke to do it and it really brings out subtle flavors that typically go unnoticed. You'll be amazed, especially with aeros!

If you've never done it before though, it can burn the first few times and be very unpleasant. Just a word of warning. ::

Try retrohaling where you exhale through your nose, it brings out the flavours. This does not require inhaling to the lungs, just pushing the smoke back a bit in your mouth.

Also good to have a nice drink at hand. Usually it is just iced water for me, but at night time nothing pairs better with a pipe than a glass of tawny port. Peppermint or green tea is also refreshing if you want a hot drink.

PipesMagazine had an article by GL Pease a while back that you may find informative: Don't Think Of A Purple Giraffe.

G L Pease also posted an article by Paul Szabady on Breath Smoking, which may be helpful.

Thanks for those articles Cortez! Very useful information!

I was recently invited to participate in the throw down at the Chicago pipe show. Trying to recreate John Cotton taught me more about tasting the nuances of tobacco than 20 years of pipe smoking. Number one for me : Focus. Not talking, not thinking about anything other than the flavor. So that would be my advice: sit alone, smoke two very similar blends, switching the order you smoke them, for an hour or so, and focus keenly on the subtle differences between the initial light, half way through the bowl and the bottom of the bowl

One of the key components to my tobacco taste enjoyment has to do with what I am drinking while I am smoking.

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+1, I prefer Iced Tea. Clears the palette

Focus

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Distractions from your other four senses can diminish your attention on taste.

Couldn't agree more with the above posters, exhaling through the nose will bring out nuances you neve knew existed. I personally prefer cool water with my pipes, however nothing is better than coffee and a pipe full of burley to start the day.

Number one for me : Focus. Not talking, not thinking about anything other than the flavor. So that would be my advice: sit alone, smoke two very similar blends, switching the order you smoke them, for an hour or so, and focus keenly on the subtle differences between the initial light, half way through the bowl and the bottom of the bowl

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I'm gonna have to do this more with new blends. ::

One of the key components to my tobacco taste enjoyment has to do with what I am drinking while I am smoking.

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I agree with Stogie37. I enjoy both hot and cold drinks with my pipe. Iced water, or bourbon, or coffee, etc.

What I want to drink (for me) will push my choice of tobaccos in one direction or another.

Sometimes it's the other way around.

Can't go wrong with a nice bowl of G.L. Pease Haddo's Delight and a cup of strong coffee.

It will wind your watch and send you out the door in the morning.

And, a bowl of 1Q and a strait up Ezra Brooks will shut down the evening, quite nicely.