What Makes Room Note So Evasive To The Smoker

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okiescout

Lifer
Jan 27, 2013
1,530
6
Why is it so difficult for the actual smoker to pick up on the room note of his pipe while he is smoking it?

 

phred

Lifer
Dec 11, 2012
1,754
4
Olfaction. Our senses of taste and smell are strongly linked - to the point that apples and onions taste pretty much the same if your nose is completely plugged. Smokers are both tasting and smelling the smoke as it's produced by the pipe, whereas the observers are only smelling the exhaled smoke (and whatever curls up out of the bowl between breaths). Different experience entirely when one of the two senses is not involved.

 
Jan 8, 2013
7,493
733
I will often take smoke rising out of the bowl through the nose by waving it back toward my face so I can smell it. I like to get a good idea how something smells in case I'm smoking around someone else. Plus, especially if it's an aromatic, I just want to smell it as it adds to the enjoyment.

 

jimbo69

Might Stick Around
Jun 21, 2014
84
2
Hrm... Not smoking either my pipes or cigars inside I haven't really given this any thought beyond how it tastes to me. I do know when my son joins me on the patio to talk while I smoke a Lat forward blend that he tends to sit farther away :puffpipe:

 

JimInks

Sultan of Smoke
Aug 31, 2012
60,863
554,073
I know there are some people like Gus55, but I'm not one of them, unfortunately. I can leave a room for any length of time, and when I come back, I still can't smell the smoke. I envy those who can.

 

mortonbriar

Lifer
Oct 25, 2013
2,653
5,663
New Zealand
What I found interesting the other day was that when i was puffing away on a bowl of rlp-6, and then my brother in law lit up some frog morton, I could totally smell his frog morton while i was smoking my bowl, it was quite surreal puffing on this mild aromatic blend and being able to smell that crisp pine needle thing that frog morton has going on.

isaac

 

seadogontheland

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 4, 2014
599
2
Aside from utilizing both olfaction and gustation while smoking, the intensity of the smoking experience hyper-stimulates the nerves of said senses and by simply trying to smell the room, filled only with a dispersed amount of smoke, you are not as likely to sense the room note.

 

jkrug

Lifer
Jan 23, 2015
2,867
8
Not a scientist here but I beliege it is because we are "immersed" , so to speak, in the smoke. I notice I smell it for brief time right at light up and

then can no longer smell it. I will pick it up sometimes if I leave the room for a few minutes and then return. Like cosmic stated, the same is true with our own cologne. You smell it for a few minutes when first applied but then it goes away as we become desensitized to that particular scent. :puffy:

 

framitz

Can't Leave
Oct 25, 2013
314
0
I used to smoke in enclosed office with colleague (also a pipe smoker) he smoked godawful aromatic and I a pleasant Balkan. I could smell his but not my tobacco I wonder at the stench for a third party. Shel

 

cortezattic

Lifer
Nov 19, 2009
15,147
7,637
Chicago, IL
phred is cool.
As an aside, one night I was smoking in my basement during a thunderstorm. The power went out and I was suddenly thrust into total darkness -- pitch black. Nothing for me to do about that, so I continued to smoke. I noticed that the experience wasn't nearly as enjoyable as when I could see the smoke.

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
Along with the duality of the senses of taste and smell, I think this phenomenon has something to do with where the mind is focussed. The pipe smoker is focussed on the full combined sensation, and the single-channel smell-only signals don't register that much. A non-smoker coming into a pipe smoking room feels like they're hitting a wall of smell; their head reels.

 

okiescout

Lifer
Jan 27, 2013
1,530
6
I noticed that the experience wasn't nearly as enjoyable as when I could see the smoke.
I agree, cortez. I even felt that way when I smoked cigs years ago.
:)On the other side to your aside, when I smoke on the covered patio on Saturday mornings and there is little or no wind, I love to watch my pipe smoke drift into the sunbeams as it reaches the end of the patio.

 
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