If you normally smoke them in briar pipes, anyway.
It's easy to prove: smoke them in a CLAY pipe. (A good quality one that's clean and new, of course)
While there will probably be blends that will taste good to you in a clay, it'll be mostly luck if they are the same ones you like in briar. The difference is that dramatic.
The (sort of) joke, here? Clay pipes have long been considered by blending professionals to offer the most neutral and "pure" presentation of tobacco. Meaning if you don't like Brand X through one, that you're in love with a certain briar + blend COMBINATION, not the tobacco itself. :mrgreen:
Here's an example. I smoke lots of heavy stuff, like Kendal Kentucky, Kendal Dark, and Dark Flake. And I'm completely serious that if smoking those blends in a clay was my only option, I'd quit pipes and take up RC airplanes or something. They all taste ghastly unless "buffered" by wood. Chemical-y and sharp, with a lingering sourness that puts me off smoking for the rest of the day. Truly awful. (Which implies that there are almost certainly blends where the reverse would be true, of course... something that would be awesomely good in a clay but disgusting or muted to the point it had no flavor worth bothering with in a briar... but that's a different question for a different day.)
If you're curious to check this out yourself, clay pipes are quite inexpensive. Just be sure you coat/wrap/etc the end of the stem with wax or some neutral material before smoking the pipe. Fire hardened clay wicks surface moisture so aggressively that your lips instantly stick to it almost like superglue.
It's easy to prove: smoke them in a CLAY pipe. (A good quality one that's clean and new, of course)
While there will probably be blends that will taste good to you in a clay, it'll be mostly luck if they are the same ones you like in briar. The difference is that dramatic.
The (sort of) joke, here? Clay pipes have long been considered by blending professionals to offer the most neutral and "pure" presentation of tobacco. Meaning if you don't like Brand X through one, that you're in love with a certain briar + blend COMBINATION, not the tobacco itself. :mrgreen:
Here's an example. I smoke lots of heavy stuff, like Kendal Kentucky, Kendal Dark, and Dark Flake. And I'm completely serious that if smoking those blends in a clay was my only option, I'd quit pipes and take up RC airplanes or something. They all taste ghastly unless "buffered" by wood. Chemical-y and sharp, with a lingering sourness that puts me off smoking for the rest of the day. Truly awful. (Which implies that there are almost certainly blends where the reverse would be true, of course... something that would be awesomely good in a clay but disgusting or muted to the point it had no flavor worth bothering with in a briar... but that's a different question for a different day.)
If you're curious to check this out yourself, clay pipes are quite inexpensive. Just be sure you coat/wrap/etc the end of the stem with wax or some neutral material before smoking the pipe. Fire hardened clay wicks surface moisture so aggressively that your lips instantly stick to it almost like superglue.
