A Series of Bad Smokes.

[futureman]

I’ve been unable to enjoy my tobaccos over the last few days. I’ve had difficulty keeping my pipes lit, and the flavors haven’t been coming through. I’m fairly meticulous about keeping my pipes clean. Perhaps I’ve gotten lazy with my packing technique?

For example, this evening I was attempting to enjoy a bowl of Capstan Blue. The flavor seemed dull and mildly sour for the first third of the bowl. The sweetness began to peek through for a bit thereafter, but the flavor turned bitter and ashy after the midway point. Lots of relights. Again, this has been a common experience over the last few of days. Very discouraging!

Has anyone here experienced having a stretch of disappointing smokes? Any thoughts on a diagnosis?

 

[woodsroad]

Our senses of taste and smell are not fixed and constant. So many variables influence them. Maybe you have a cold coming on, or a minor sinusitus, or maybe you have some unpaid bills that are nagging at you.

Give the pipe a rest for a few days. When you come back, pick a favorite blend and a favorite pipe. Relax and enjoy.

 

[STP]

Dry the tobacco a little more, and pack a little lighter. I suspect the bitter ashtray taste is from you trying to keep it lit by drawing too much and overheating the bowl.

 

[shanez]

I'd do a very thorough deep clean of your pipe.

The sour description is common with a dirty pipe.

A very overlooked spot is the mortise.

 

[sablebrush52]

Yep. Dry more, pack lighter, and give that pipe a good cleaning. What other blends are you smoking in it?

 

[verporchting]

+1 for all the suggestions above. Any or all of those things could account for what you described.

 

[futureman]

Yep. Dry more, pack lighter, and give that pipe a good cleaning. What other blends are you smoking it?

I smoke only Virginia flakes in that particular pipe.

The pipes in my rotation have all been cleaned, so I’ll pay more attention to my prepping and packing habits. Thanks!

 

[Toast]

& maybe just try smoking something new...? I usually find my favourites taste best when I mix things up a bit.

 

[anotherbob]

I’ve been unable to enjoy my tobaccos over the last few days. I’ve had difficulty keeping my pipes lit, and the flavors haven’t been coming through. I’m fairly meticulous about keeping my pipes clean. Perhaps I’ve gotten lazy with my packing technique?

For example, this evening I was attempting to enjoy a bowl of Capstan Blue. The flavor seemed dull and mildly sour for the first third of the bowl. The sweetness began to peek through for a bit thereafter, but the flavor turned bitter and ashy after the midway point. Lots of relights. Again, this has been a common experience over the last few of days. Very discouraging!

Has anyone here experienced having a stretch of disappointing smokes? Any thoughts on a diagnosis?

Capstan is kind of mild. Also with VA they lose flavor easily and turn ashy easily with smoking too quickly or too hard. Over packing doesn't cause this but certainly makes it easier to happen.
My best suggestion with packing is check the draw before starting. It should draw easily you should feel more resistance then you would if the pipe was empty but it should feel easy and effort free. How to pack it? Well there are lots and lots of people with lots of ways of packing. The thing is they're all good if done right. Try a few. And then all blends pack differently. There is one packing technique called the swirl which I pretty much think is stupid and mostly useless.... Except I really feel like capstan and swirl packing (look it up, it's been described better then I am going to) seem to go together like peanut butter and most things that are good with peanut butter. I bet if you try focusing more on packing and try different ways to see what is most consistently great for you, you'll have a higher percentage of great or good smokes.
Oh how I pack take a pinch drop it into the chamber (make sure it's not too clumpy) repeat until the tobacco is in the top third then pack it down to the where the top third ends and the second third starts. Repeat until it's comfortably just bellow the top of the chamber. And yes check the draw as you go. No packing down the tobacco anywhere except the top third. It's really easy really consistent and also seems to have more wiggle room then most packing methods (works if I pack it really super lightly or if I pack it to the point of feeling like I packed it just too tight). I call it just the tip method because you only pack with the tip of your finger and I am bit of a perv and also strongly believe that such things stick in peoples minds.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Our senses of taste and smell are not fixed and constant. So many variables influence them. Maybe you have a cold coming on, or a minor sinusitus, or maybe you have some unpaid bills that are nagging at you.

Give the pipe a rest for a few days. When you come back, pick a favorite blend and a favorite pipe. Relax and enjoy.

+1, this used to be more of a correct answer for variations in why we don't get the same taste from the same tobacco in the same pipe, time after time. I had an amazing pipe experience while smocking Laurel Heights in a Nording once that was nirvana, of which every bowl of this through that same pipe fell way short of enjoyment.

This latest batch of forum members tends to look for scientific answers to aesthetic problems, which doesn't always pan out. Like, when someone says that they get a cooler smoke from a thicker pipe bowl, everyone turns to some neophyte understanding of physics to answer, but sometimes the answer is mood.

So many other psychological and chemical reasons come into play. Then, sometimes the answer is just unexplainable, like when Chasingembers... you know.

There are many times, when where I am smoking or who is around me affects the way I taste the smoke. We are all not just merely tasting machines. Humans are much more subjective than that. In fact, I'd say that we are more subjective beings than objective... and the ones who say they are objective are really way more subjective than they realize.

 

[futureman]

Appreciate everyone's input. I seemed to have bounced back. I thoroughly enjoyed two bowls of Storm Front this morning with my coffee. Perhaps my clapper was off. Maybe I was packing hastily. I'm also not a very good smoker while preoccupied with other tasks. In any case: packing 'em dry and light is the way forward for me.

 

[bullet08]

Things happen. Take few days off and get back to it.

 

[cigrmaster]

I cannot remember the last time I had a bad smoke. One thing I always do is t clean the piss out of my pipe before I smoke it again and I also make sure to dry the pipe for a couple of days. I also make sure the pipe is filled properly and I do this on a regulars basis and bad smokes never happen. I have a system and it works for me.

 

[reloader]

Appreciate everyone's input. I seemed to have bounced back. I thoroughly enjoyed two bowls of Storm Front this morning with my coffee. Perhaps my clapper was off. Maybe I was packing hastily. I'm also not a very good smoker while preoccupied with other tasks. In any case: packing 'em dry and light is the way forward for me.

Glad to hear you're enjoying the pipe smoking again. I usually pack very light as well and just tamp as needed during the smoke. I used to want to put a lot of tobacco in so the session would last longer, but it did affect the quality of the smoke.

 

[kcghost]

Well at least you got your sense of taste back.