Do Longer Stems help Taste?

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Old_Newby

Part of the Furniture Now
Jan 1, 2022
513
1,273
Texas
Title edited. See Rule 9. -jpm

Newby here and was noticing how a key desire is to burn cooler. It made me wonder if a longer stem offered any value by the smoke being a little cooler when reaching the mouth (distance and surface area)? If yes would it help maximize flavor?
 
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Old_Newby

Part of the Furniture Now
Jan 1, 2022
513
1,273
Texas
Ok thanks!!! I guess it makes sense that it would not make a difference. I think it’s the point or moment of combustion and how hot that combustion is that would determine if flavor is present or destroyed with heat. That occurs in the bowl. So my understanding after reading more about it is that if the tobacco is too hot you get ash flavor in the smoke, if it’s cooler burn you get flavors released in the smoke. So whether the smoke travels 5 inches or 10 inches it’s flavor is the same.
 

64alex

Part of the Furniture Now
May 10, 2016
566
339
Cooling the smoke is your friend to get most of the flavor out of the tobacco. As said right level of humidity, correct packing and cadence of smoking are the most important factors to achieve it.
About the pipe anything which is increasing the volume of the chamber where the smoke pass through help cooling and with this regard calabash pipes are the system that can most help in this regard, more than a long stem as they offer a much larger volume for the smoke to cool. You can definitely feel a difference with this regard when using a calabash.
 
Jan 28, 2018
12,953
134,633
66
Sarasota, FL
Just imagine water flushing through a hose. Would the water taste different at the end of a 8' hose vs a 2' house? Assuming the house is neutral, there wouldn't be any difference. I don't even see how there would be a perceptible difference in temperature. We're talking about less than a second from the ember to the mouth, how and why would there be a temperature change?
 

hauntedmyst

Lifer
Feb 1, 2010
4,006
20,750
Chicago
Just imagine water flushing through a hose. Would the water taste different at the end of a 8' hose vs a 2' house? Assuming the house is neutral, there wouldn't be any difference. I don't even see how there would be a perceptible difference in temperature. We're talking about less than a second from the ember to the mouth, how and why would there be a temperature change?

True with the average pipe. Back in 2012, I was working with Intel on new super cooling technology. We were attempting to build a new super computer for the US government that could out perform multiple Cray's. We managed to get pretty close with a cryogenic liquids. I took some of the extra equipment, cooling tubes and a pump system home and connected it to broken pipe and stem to see if it would smoke cooler and it worked fabulously! You can't imagine your favorite VaPer inhaled at right around 36 degrees. I considered selling it as a new type of smoking pipe but with 102 feet of tubing bent down to 36 feet and a cost of $1.8 million per pipe, I didn't think it marketable. Plus, I suck at turning bowls.
 

bullet08

Lifer
Nov 26, 2018
8,932
37,915
RTP, NC. USA
True with the average pipe. Back in 2012, I was working with Intel on new super cooling technology. We were attempting to build a new super computer for the US government that could out perform multiple Cray's. We managed to get pretty close with a cryogenic liquids. I took some of the extra equipment, cooling tubes and a pump system home and connected it to broken pipe and stem to see if it would smoke cooler and it worked fabulously! You can't imagine your favorite VaPer inhaled at right around 36 degrees. I considered selling it as a new type of smoking pipe but with 102 feet of tubing bent down to 36 feet and a cost of $1.8 million per pipe, I didn't think it marketable. Plus, I suck at turning bowls.
Water cooling system is a possibility. Like those WWI water cooled machine guns. But you would need running water at low temperature. And more than likely have to smoke near a faucet. Water pipe with a large water tank might be another idea. Only if they can be miniaturized to 6" pipe... With its own self powered pump... And double as moonshine still..
 

64alex

Part of the Furniture Now
May 10, 2016
566
339
I never tried but there is the hookah which is basically pipe where the smoke is cooled passing through water. Don't know how much is actually cooling the smoke passing through the water.
 

mingc

Lifer
Jun 20, 2019
3,976
11,065
The Big Rock Candy Mountains
True with the average pipe. Back in 2012, I was working with Intel on new super cooling technology. We were attempting to build a new super computer for the US government that could out perform multiple Cray's. We managed to get pretty close with a cryogenic liquids. I took some of the extra equipment, cooling tubes and a pump system home and connected it to broken pipe and stem to see if it would smoke cooler and it worked fabulously! You can't imagine your favorite VaPer inhaled at right around 36 degrees. I considered selling it as a new type of smoking pipe but with 102 feet of tubing bent down to 36 feet and a cost of $1.8 million per pipe, I didn't think it marketable. Plus, I suck at turning bowls.
I just put ice in my bong water. Worked great. For tobacco only, of course.
 

WVOldFart

Lifer
Sep 1, 2021
1,938
4,757
Eastern panhandle, WV
There are those that will swear that the smoke is cooler and the taste is deeper, but I don't see it. For me, it is how dry the tobacco is, how the pipe is packed and the cadence I use. If I do these three things right, I will have a good smoke no matter whether I have a nose burner or a churchwarden.
 
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