How Do I Taste?
-
Kevin Godbee - Dec 2, 2013
- 10 min read
E. Roberts
I’m often asked, "How do you taste so good?" to which I reply that in a former life I was a chocolate éclair. Seriously, though, reviewing tobaccos for publication is a bit of work, but perhaps not as trying as one might think. People often tell me they don’t have as refined a palate as I do, or some other such nonsense, like, "I don’t know how to describe the taste; I only know what I like and what I don’t." To this I say poppycock and balderdash. If you can discern the difference between blend A and blend B, or hot dogs and chocolate éclairs for that matter, then your palate is refined enough. If you truly can’t, then stop reading right here and buy the cheapest tobacco available, because it won’t matter what you smoke. For the rest of us, our own rich experience is all the background we need for tasting—that, and a willingness to trust our own judgment.
To borrow a line from PipesMagazine.com’s own Brian Levine, we are all experts of our own opinion. The main qualifications in being such an expert are a confidence in one’s perception and the desire to define it, which I believe all of us are capable of doing when we allow ourselves to be. Whether you’re interested in simply keeping your own journal of tasting notes, chatting about the latest releases with the guys at the pipe club, or learning how to more effectively communicate to others for publication, you’ll find it remarkably easy to equip yourself with the tools and strategies necessary to fully interpret and profile your tobaccos. My own pipe taste-testing regimen is evolved and adapted from what I learned during my time in the specialty coffee industry, as well as a hobbyist’s experience with wine, spirit and food tastings.
1) Clean Palate, Clean Mind
As a painter starts with a blank canvas, so a critical assessment begins with a blank palate. Basic oral hygiene is a must for pipe smokers—brush, floss and especially mouthwash regularly, and additionally an hour or so before you plan to do a taste-testing. Proper hydration while smoking is another must. For smokes in which I’m trying to tease out every nuance of a blend, I limit my accompaniment to water, generally a sparkling mineral water. Other times I’ll pair with a tea, occasionally a spirit, and vary them a bit to accommodate the blend. I don’t burn any candles or incense, I don’t cook, and I request that the woman of the house not try out perfumes while taste-testing—all of which seem rather obvious, but bear stating for the record. I’ll also abstain from smoking anything other than the blend I intend to inspect for the day, and generally will smoke that tobacco to the exclusion of all else for at least a few days to allow my palate (and pipe) to adjust—each tobacco has its own chemistry, and it may take me some time to acclimate to it. Incidentally, I find this is one of the best ways to preclude tongue bite; often when a blend bites it’s a matter of the chemical balance between the tobacco and my body at that moment, and by allowing my palate to remain clear and slowly introducing the blend, I find that equilibrium is achieved in a short time and I can smoke repeated bowls of nearly anything with nary a nip.
2) The Importance of Time
In order to honestly and fully examine a tobacco in a critical manner, it is imperative to clear out any distractions and focus on the task at hand. That is not to say that one must be sequestered in a clean room with a starched white lab coat to enjoy a bowl; rather, when intending to review a tobacco critically, make it a point to do nothing but smoke that blend and focus on that experience at least a couple of times over the course of a tin. I set aside a couple hours of uninterrupted tasting time to get to know a blend—no watching a movie or balancing my checkbook or knitting; just smoking, and taking notes. Try it with an old favorite blend sometime, and you may be surprised at the new flavors you find.
3) Tools of the Trade
Keeping a journal is essential to record your experience with a tobacco. You’ll note that for this month’s review of Maple Street from Sutliff, for example, that I’ve kept tasting notes going back over two and a half years and numerous tins from which to develop my critical evaluation. This is an important point to make: a flavor profile is something that will develop over the course of several bowls, several tins or even several pounds of a given blend. In this way you can also develop a sense of how a blend may change over time, and foster an articulate insight into the effects of aging.
Far be it from me to enable anyone’s PAD, but to profile blends on any regular basis, it will be beneficial to employ a small arsenal of pipes of varying size, chamber, draught, and even material. If you have the means and inclination, a couple of good quality meerschaums and clays can’t be beat for burning your tobacco in as neutral an environment as possible. Pipes should be well broken-in and clean, with minimal cake. Missouri Meerschaum corncob pipes are an unbeatable choice for filling out your stable: affordable, maintainable and available in a range of sizes, they make perfect sampling pipes as well as being particularly suited to aromatic and burley-forward blends. While they will impart some small flavor to a tobacco, this effect can be blunted with the same breaking-in and cleaning regimen you’d employ for briars. Wood pipes too impart the ghosts of their previous contents, so it again becomes essential to both compile notes over time, as well as invest the effort to smoke the same blend from the same pipe for a while once an agreeable pairing has been made.
A tasting wheel (or aroma wheel) is a valuable aid to assist in discerning the nuances of a blend. First developed by a sensory chemist for describing the aromas in wine, the concept of the adjacency diagram to delineate flavors and aromas in foods has led to hundreds of incarnations for everything from coffee to maple syrup and, of course, tobacco. I employ a variety of them garnered from the Interwebs, pinned to the walls around my writing desk and even under my mouse.
Flavor wheel and the arsenal used to taste-test this month’s review tobacco.
4) Address the Tobacco
Wine, coffee, tobacco or chocolate éclairs, the taste-testing protocol is the same: appraise it with the eyes, then with the nose, and finally the palate. When approaching a new blend, take copious notes upon cracking the tin—there is great value in first impressions. There’s nothing comparable to the whooshing burst of aroma as the seal is broken and the tobacco is awakened to air after months or years of anaerobic slumber in the tin, and those first notes are often the clarion call of a blend’s characteristics. Conversely, all the many variables that affect our perception of taste, as well as the tobacco itself, will change over the course of time. Again, don’t expect to completely dissect a blend in a single smoke. Freshly opened tins tend to be boisterous in terms of aroma and flavor, and settle down after they have stabilized to their new environment.
Inspect the tobacco visually at first, from tin art to price point to the cut and color of the leaf itself. This is all part of its presentation, and any good chef knows we eat with our eyes first. I generally stuff my face right down in the tobacco and inhale deeply and repeatedly. I’ll then pull some out, rolling it around in my fingers to get a feel for its moisture and cut. Often I’ll even take a pinch to chew on briefly, in order to get a sense of the presence or lack of additives and the natural flavors of the leaf.
Following this preliminary inspection, we’re ready to engage our other senses in the ritual of the pipe. Pack and light it according to your preferred methods or the demands of the cut, and again, do nothing but smoke and take notes for the duration of a bowl. Note its burning characteristics, whether or not it takes a light easily and its ability to maintain an ember; even listening to it as it burns can tell us something about its moisture and makeup. Often you’ll need to make minor adjustments along the way as you get to know a blend to find the combination of pipe and packing method that brings out the best attributes of a tobacco. Note that there are three distinct portions to a bowl—the top (after the "true" light), the middle, and the heel (or bottom), and that burning temperatures (and thus flavor) will vary during these segments. Pay attention to relights, the body of the smoke and the mouthfeel, and keep your journal ready for those moments of inspiration that bring insight into the flavors at hand. For describing the room note, it helps to leave the smoking area for several minutes before returning in order to reset your sense of smell. Alternatively, you could ask an innocent bystander what they think, though this may not always provide the insight you seek.
5) Say What? Putting It All Together
Preparation is a key ingredient in ensuring success at profiling. When smoking a blend critically, I’m searching for those flavors that stand out on their own without stretching to find them. I’ve had some experience with this professionally in the world of coffee, and part of that training involved simply seeking out a lot of those common tastes on the flavor wheel and coaching my palate to recognize them. Building a tasting vocabulary is something everyone can do. I repeat: THIS IS SOMETHING EVERYONE CAN DO. Don’t be intimidated by "notes of Meyer lemon"—simply educate your own palate by picking up a Meyer lemon and a "regular" (i.e., Eureka or Lisbon) lemon, cutting them up, chewing on them, comparing them, and maybe keeping some notes to refer back to. The point of analogizing the flavors experienced during a smoke with common foods or aromas is to create a reference point to which others (or your own failing memory) can relate as a guide. Also realize that taste, like the perception of color, is highly individual, yet within a general frame of reference—two people may not taste "citrusy" in exactly the same way, but by noting a Meyer lemon rather than a "regular" lemon, both should expect a rounder sweetness that is less tart and more floral. Often with tobacco the nuance is a matter of fractions of a degree, and one should always aim for as much accuracy as is possible. Trips to the grocery store or even your own kitchen are educational for your nose and palate, and should be treated as such. You’ll be surprised at how quickly and accurately you’ll be able to describe different flavors in a very short time.
"What’s up with all those crazy, flowery descriptions? Citrusy this, stewed plum that, Tasmanian honey wrapped in polyphenolic falderal…come on, really?" The subject of purple prose in reviews is as old as the Bulwer-Lytton contest, if not older. I myself am most certainly culpable of it, considering it a writer’s guilty pleasure. At the end of the article, though, I hope to have at least conveyed a sense of what the experience was like for me, and how it may be for you. Remember that even the best-written review is only one person’s opinion. The lesson here is to record what you know, make it relatable to your experience, and make it valid to your own judgments and purposes.
Your own journey might begin simply with, "That’s a good tobacco." After some time it may progress to, "I really like the rich fruity tastes in this blend and it smokes nicely;" then after a time it may become, "This is a great Va/Per blend, richer than most with its higher Perique content, and developing a depth with some aging time that is really carried well by the spun flake cut." It’s not that you taste anything that wasn’t there all along; it’s that you’ve trained yourself to catalogue, compare and contrast all the aspects that are available to your senses. The smoker with more knowledge of what appeals to him certainly shortens his journey to bliss. Always remember that, above all else, tobacco taste-testing should be an enjoyable and educational experience for you; if you find it becoming too much work, ease back a little and remember you’re here to savor your time.
Written by Kevin Godbee
8 Responses
Recent Posts
Soon now, supposedly, our neighborhoods will shift from grinning pumpkins, skeletons in various assortments, and zombies dashing about to pretty reindeer, angels, and flashing lights illuminating homes with sparkling stars and laughing, scurrying Santas. But, lest we forget, there is the turkey season, fancy pie aromas wafting from kitchens, and a national pardon of a big Tom Turkey. Remember, now, that only one of these holiday personalities is a pipe smoker. And that is the hefty, bearded fellow in a bright red suit sitting in a sleigh with a herd of deer hitched up and ready to streak across the globe, bringing tidings of joy and many presents. Ok, the scene is set for the next couple of months, right? So, before we get too far off the beaten path, let’s just take a deep breath of fresh autumn air, shall we? Ahh. That’s better, isn’t it? What’s got the Pundit in a snit is not all the Halloween spooks who came a-jostling for candy. Or the wild turkeys gobbling in the backwoods or all the fuss and feathers over the big one—Christmas. No, it is that we might need to take note of all the little things that mean so much to us. Like a good sunrise (seriously, Pundit has not gone all Pollyanna.) Mayhaps we need to appreciate more of what we have than what we have not. Or something like that. Like, a good pipe in the morning with coffee as the dawn brings us coolish weather now that we have flipped the calendar to autumn. But it also brings beautiful leaves that have become a spectacle of technicolor in the wind. It is the little things. The rereading of an enjoyable book and finding something you did not see or learn in the first go-round. Or a stunning phrase you commit to memory with the re-read, while smoking that favorite pipe. And you notice a superior puff that just seems to be different. It’s in the air and the seasons of meaningful little things. It’s aromatic! Or perhaps it is that sense of satisfaction knowing and appreciating you made it to another day. With the world in a kind of rinse-and-repeat history, reminiscent of a Shakespearean play, it is perhaps a good moment to remember some of Pipedom’s philosophers whose cogent thoughts brought light to clear a path in the mists of confusion and confounding opinions. Ok. No gloom and doom. Just some down-home thoughts. Think of times in the past when history was running off the rails. It took our pipe-smoking thinkers (the mind workers of the world) to speak of better pathways to more light. Think for a moment, with a pipe in hand, these wizards of the world and word: Albert Einstein, J. R.R. Tolkien, Mark Twain, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edwin Hubble, Bertrand Russell, C. S. Lewis, and Jean-Paul Sartre. All learned and enlightened. They offered wisdom instead of storms of meaningless roads to nowhere. All while smoking their pipes! Maybe especially with the help of their pipes in the art of thinking and philosophy. Recall the words of Mr. E=MC2 when he said, “I believe that pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgment in all human affairs.” Amen and amen! Dealing with world-rattling events takes a calm and objective view of things, to the Pundit’s way of summing it up. You just don’t go messing around with quantum physics without a calm and objective approach, methinks. Or as the extraordinary physicist Robert Oppenheimer said after he and a team in the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos Labs developed a way to split atoms into bombs during World War II. “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds,” said Oppenheimer referring to the development of the first nuclear bombs dropped on Japan. It must be pointed out that Oppenheimer was more of a cigarette smoker than a pipe smoker. Nonetheless, pipes were part of his personality. Now, if you have read some of the great authors of the past and present, their pipes were always nearby. Reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle can be a three-pipe problem at times. S. Lewis and Jean-Paul Sartre require time with your pipes to reflect on the existential problems and solutions these authors provide in learned novels and other narratives. Or take Edwin Hubble and Bertrand Russell, philosophers of another world. Pipes are required for reading. The quantum lode of ideas Pundit is attempting to sort out is that our pipes are relaxing and stimulate our thoughts and creativity. Especially in these last months of the year. Many times Pundit has had that light bulb flick on while smoking my beloved pipes. And friends in Pipedom, it ain’t easy to turn on the lights in Pundit’s rock pit head. Now it’s time for a quote from a Pipe Smoker of the Past. Shelby Foote was born Nov. 17, 1916, in Greenville, Miss., and died June 27, 2005, in Memphis, Tenn. A fact is not a truth until you love it—Shelby Foote. A parting thought: It is said that famed Southern author William Faulkner carried a packed pipe in a coat pocket wherever he went. That’s one effective way to deal with workday conflicts and confusion. A calm and objective judgment in our everyday human affairs, as the quantum man said.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 633. Our featured guest tonight is Jon David Cole. JD is the Owner/Tobacconist at The Country Squire in Jackson, MS, and the accompanying online store. We’ll have JD and Brian talking about what’s new at the store and in the business in general. At the top of the show, Brian will discuss tobacco growing, what happens to the leaf, and provide updated information on where tobacco is being gown today. Tobacco production originated in the United States and we were once the #1 producer. It’s quite different now.
Well there’s nothing like a touch of the plague to usher in the changing season. Leaving the airport just when the first advertisements for all things pumpkin spice began to appear—lattes, muffins, shampoos, trash bags, and myriad other concoctions—so, too, my ability to breathe freely disappeared. The unfortunate side effect of losing one’s sense of taste and smell for weeks is the utter inability to enjoy tobacco. Not that I consider myself an expert on anything but my own tastes, but be forewarned that this review was made with mildly impugned sensory equipment. Just when a comforting pipe was most needed, its comfort was denied. Be that as it may, the road to recovery found me limping along on one lung this past month, trying to wrest the particulars of two blends on offer from Sutliff: the latest 175th Anniversary blend, Silver Quarter, as well as their spooky seasonal Maple Shadows II. Silver Quarter is a new style on offer from Sutliff, their first coin-cut blend. Naturally a Virginia-Perique, it is enhanced with a traditional core of black Cavendish. In the tin it holds much promise, with a lightly bready and very woody, if ever-so-slightly sour, aroma. After some time acclimating to air, the bouquet softens further and offers hints of the burley with some chocolaty notes wafting through the more dominant dry grassy aspect. The tin art is of a coin-style bas-relief bust, presumably of a founding Sutliff brother, à la The Old Boss On the reverse of the tin we find the blend’s description: Reflecting on Sutliffs 175 years of tobacco excellence, we came across a brand that embodies true value, SILVER QUARTER. This name pays homage to Sutliffs roots, the legacy of two brothers who popularized pipe smoking in the burgeoning mining society of San Francisco. We celebrate this heritage with a coin cut composed of the finest African Virginias, complemented by a core of Perique and Black Cavendish. The tin notes are, forgive the pun, on the nose for a good VaPer blend: mild tart sweetness peeking out from behind dried hay and slight chocolate undertones, with a lightly tannic finish of weathered oak. It is always a joy to prepare a coin cut, my preference being to put a few in my palm and vigorously warm my hands together to fully break them apart. These well-formed discs pack and light easily, and smoke with little prodding to the end of the bowl. For technical points it scores well—it smokes light, and it’s easy to tend the ember. While it gets sharp after a few quick bowls, pacing should be heeded to easily smoke down to the heel without inviting bite. Of the flavor, though, I am left a bit wanting. There are tart and high notes aplenty, but very little of the lemony citrus I would anticipate, as well as scant midtones; they tend more toward the red wine-vinegary and sour. The flavors are muted, also, lacking the sweetness and piquancy of other marques—the small measure of Perique tickles the nose now and again with peppery hints, and there is a smidge of a deeper sweetness to be found in the Cavendish from puff to puff, but overall it lacks some dynamism. The Virginias, to my palate, come off a bit on the dry side, and here they dominate the blend. The aftertaste and mouthfeel are neutral, again evincing more of the dry, woody, tartly tannic end of the spectrum. The blend has plenty of polish, but not enough depth or richness (*yet) to make it a standout. Here, comparisons are inevitable: Luxury Bullseye Flake has more sweetness, both from its Virginia as well as its Cavendish, and a better finish; Davidoff is similar but with a pronounced umami that is absent here; as for Escudo, I haven’t had any fresh tins lately so it would be unfair to compare. While it rates as a solid, fairly mild smoke, particularly to lovers of the genre, it does not surprise with any exceptional flavors. To be fair, all the boxes have been checked for the blend to benefit from some real aging, and it would be worth checking in on this after a couple of years sealed away. I’ve set half my tin aside to sample again in a month or two, in case I’m merely suffering from the lingering effects of parosmia, and will amend this review in that case. Maple Shadows II, on the other hand, made up for the weeks of sniffling and sneezing I’d endured. Offered in a full 8 ounce tin with delightfully spooky Halloween art, it’s (hopefully) enough to last through the season. Somehow I had missed this last year, so it’s a real pleasure to get some in my candy bucket this year. As the chilling winds of autumn draw eerie prattle from contorted, deciduous limbs, we find ourselves possessed by the spirit of the season. Bewitched by a dissonant charm, we’ve created Maple Shadows. In a season that is defined by the unlikely harmony of treats and frights, we’ve joined the enchanting sweetness of maple with the earthy spice of Dark Fired Kentucky for a smoking experience that captures the senses with an otherworldly fusion of flavor. This may be the best aromatic blend Sutliff’s ever made—and they make a ton of them. First off, it’s not overbearing in the least—quite the opposite, it is also one of the more restrained aromatics they’ve ever made, with a clear but very light topping that melds oh-so-well with their choice Kentucky added to the mix. Opening the tin, the sweet maple is up front and center, but so too is the must of fallen leaves, bready pie crusts, and a crackling fire in the hearth—a perfect invocation of Herbstdüfte in a can. Packing best in an open and capacious bowl, the flavoring is subtle, and recedes to the background while puffing. With a sweet coffee or tea to accompany, the aftertaste of the maple is reinvigorated on the palate […]
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 632. Our featured guest on tonight’s show is the host of the Pipe & Tamper Podcast, Mike Murphy. Brian and Mike will have an extended chat revolving around the days before, during and after the Las Vegas International Pipe Show. We will hear about their travels to the show and the anxiety of Hurricane Milton bearing down on Florida at the same time while running a show and not knowing if your house is going to be there when you get home. In the end, the show went great and our homes survived, although many others in Florida were not so lucky. We’ll have clips from the show, and shoutouts to other podcasts and vlogs that were broadcasting from the pipe show.
Vegas Baby The show started out strong on the 14th floor hospitality suites hosted by the Vegas Pipe Show and Smoking Pipes as well as room hopping to carvers, estate sellers, and vendors to pre-game for the festivities. If you’re interested in what that looks like I’ll refer you to last years pipe show round up. I circled with Brian Levine to get the totals in comparison to last year: This year’s show numbers: 108 Exhibitor tables, 445 attendees, 3,250 Raffle Tickets, 100ish dinners, 172 Rooms in the Hotel. Last year, by comparison, 107 exhibitor tables, 425 attendees, 2,200 raffle tickets, 104 dinners, and 175 rooms on Friday and Saturday nights. We were at capacity, basically, when it came to vendor tables and the dinner, so there is no physical room for growth at this point except for attendees. That said, we filled that smoking lounge to the brim. New Carvers Spotlight Garret Woo (Pipes by Woo) How long have you been carving? Garret: I’ve been carving since 2021, and I’m guessing your next question is probably how’d you get started carving? James: Yes. Garret: In 2021 I took a break from my full time job – that included machining and assembly work and I thought maybe it was time I made something that I would like and I started looking at youtube and Instagram and putting together my shop. I did struggle on the stems to start and there was a lot of failure at the beginning. James: How many pipes have you made so far? Garret: I number my pipes, so I just finished up 186. James: What is your favorite shape you’ve been making? Garret: I really dig Canadians and pipes with longer shanks and lovat Canadian blends. I like to play with different shapes of stems on the longer shanked pipes. The billiard would be my go-to shape but I want to learn more techniques on freehanded shapes. I like to put brass and copper adornments on my pipes with my machining background it helps. James: What is the craziest thing you’ve seen at this show? Garret: The first thing that comes to mind is the table over there with C-Pipes with the shapes and the size and petiteness and the intricate details they did. You can check out what Garret is working on by going to his Instagram. Stefan Cashwell James: how long have you been carving? Stefan: about 3 years. James: What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen at the show? Stefan: The Adam Davidson pipe with the clear shape and the bamboo—I don’t know if it’s 3D printed or what, but it’s amazing. James: What’s your favorite shape to do? Stefan: That’s a tough question. I think they’re all the same shape, but what’s fascinating is that Dublin, volcano, and blowfish are all the same depending on how you turn them. Playing with that, with all its variations, is a lot of fun. My favorite accent to use is also horn; it’s finicky, but it’s a great accent on pipes. You can check out Stefan’s work on his Instagram. Science: Meet Pipes I chatted with Chris from the San Diego Pipe Club; he started off doing stem replacements for estate pipes but also improved the airflow. James: How are you doing 3d printing? What is the thought process? Chris: It’s a 3D-printed pipe with a briar insert. The design is a calabash meets a Peterson system meets a metal Falcon/Kirsten radiator style. It is a bottom draft smoking bowl like a radiator like those metal pipes. The inside chamber is a calabash. The stummel and accent rings in the stems are all 3d printed. The insert is briar, olive wood, or I have the potential to use meerschaum as well. This idea came about through the San Diego Pipe Club, wanting to see if we could 3D print a pipe and being curious about the technology; I have a printer and design ability, so here we are. James: What’s the type of plastic you’re using? Chris: It’s all PLA plastic, a renewable potato starch plastic that is food-safe. The stummels are printed with a plastic that has wood in it 40% wood fiber, bamboo, rosewood, ebony, redwood, and walnut are the woods I’m printing. For the accent rings I just got a new material that I’m printing that has 40% copper, so its real metal that you can sand, and polish the same as wood filament. The stems are 3d printed as well. The concept is renewable and cheap from a production standpoint, with the ability to make a very high quality smoking pipe based on the experience. By combining the calabash system pipe and bottom draft hole and using 3d simulations to see airflow, I can see where I’m having eddies and ripples in my current, and see where my moisture and all the particles are dropping back out from a vapor to a liquid. Most people who have tried these say the stems are clean, and they don’t even have to run a pipe cleaner afterward because everything collects at the bottom. Chris has also been experimenting with color-changing plastics so you can see the hotspots. Chris said he was able to use this to slow down his cadence, which, of course, could mean you could get a slow-smoke training pipe to teach yourself to perform better. If you’re interested in learning more or want to check one out, you can contact him on Instagram: Copper Beard Pipe Works The Negative Space The show was buzzing about one specific pipe, which had everyone guessing how it was made. I chatted with Adam Davidson briefly about it. James: How did this idea come to fruition? Adam Davidson: Smokingpipes.com had an expo back in August open to all of the makers they carry. The theme was to make a pipe utilizing bamboo. Given that the last time we had the expo I made a smooth Almond with three bamboo shanks, […]
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 631. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with pipe maker Dan Keller from Good Made Better. Dan is from South Dakota. Growing up working in the family hardware store where he was always finding solutions to fixing things, he ended up always wanting to make things. He now makes elegant handmade pens, pen holders, portable desks, blotters, blotting paper, book carry cases, and of course artisan pipes. At the top of the show we are continuing the virtual tour of Brian’s pipes with his “f#@k you pipes”.
Great article. Being a home coffee roaster, I can relate to the explanation of conveying flavor nuances and similarities between tobacco and coffee in some instances.
Quite right, javaman. Perhaps I’m biased, but coming from the background of coffee and tea buying and retailing, it was a natural lateral move to profiling tobaccos.
For me, this article was both informational and instructive. Most pipe smokers who take the time to enjoy the ritual of smoking a pipe probably follow these steps in an informal way. The article highlights that a pipe smoker needs to give a tobacco several chances to reveal its full flavor. However, as for making notes, mine will have to be mostly mental until I retire!
Thanks for a very insightful and well articulated examination of the tobacco reviewing process. What resonates with me the most is the importance of developing a vocabulary suited to the purpose. Additionally, I think a reviewer should be guided by a checklist to ensure that nothing is overlooked, and that characteristics are covered consistently from one review to another.
I really like the writer’s insistence that almost anybody could write good reviews if they are of a mind to do so. As they involve more discrimination than is usual while I smoke, I find writing them a worthy goal. I feel that anything that I can work toward in pipe smoking produces more benefit than cost.
@momeerphil–Don’t wait that long! A pocket-sized composition notebook is all you need to keep handy, and once you start jotting down notes here and there you’ll be amazed at how easy it becomes to keep going (and if your inclination permits, to expand on those notes).
.
@Cortez–Indeed, I do just that for my personal journal keeping. As can be seen in the photo accompanying the Maple Street review ( http://bit.ly/MapleStreet ) my handwriting is atrocious, and random scribblings are often kept in several notebooks concurrently, but are then collated into my master notebook in much more orderly fashion. In the master notebook I have pre-printed my checklist of points to cover. I’ve been deliberating the notion of making this available to interested parties…any takers?
.
@4nogginsmike–I find myself saying this time and again to friends at the pipe club; it’s nothing that you don’t already do when you smoke, other than making note of your observations. The few who have tried it have been impressed with themselves, I’m pleased to report. “I feel that anything that I can work toward in pipe smoking produces more benefit than cost.” is spot on! Thanks Mike.
Great article!
What pipe is that in the last picture? I love plateau tops and paneled pipes, so I’m completely enamored by it. I’ll need to add it to my PAD list.
That’s a Tim West freehand, algenib. Nickel band, 1/4 bent, and I’d call it a take on a paneled author shape. In general I really don’t go for freehands or plateau tops–this is the only one in my collection–but something about this pipe grabbed me when I saw it, and it’s just a fantastic smoker. The bowl geometry is such that densely complex blends seem to loosen some of their knots, making individual threads of flavor more easily discernible. I’m about to load it up with some Vincent Manil Semois right now, finishing the next review in fact.